A TEENAGER ran off to the toilets in tears after wrongly being announced the winner in an amazing carnival queen contest cock-up.

And the gaffe sparked a right royal rumpus as furious families stormed from the building amid accusations of a "fix."

Proud Beverley Hodson,16, was being presented with a bouquet of flowers after it appeared she had been chosen this year's Adlington Carnival queen in front of a packed village community centre audience on Saturday afternoon.

But judges suddenly realised the mistake and following a quick meeting with organisers the correct result was announced with Beverley Ann Prescott stepping up from 'second' to become queen.

But it was all too much for the the unlucky loser who dashed off sobbing after believing she had followed in the footsteps of her former carnival queen sister Tracey Hodson.

A carnival spokesman blamed the blunder on "human error."

He explained that the two girls had been given numbers ONE (Beverley Hodson) and TWO (Beverley Ann Prescott) for the contest.

A misunderstanding arose over the announcement because instead of the placings the contest numbers were given out.

The spokesman added: "Beverley Hodson was very upset which is understandable really and so were the families. Obviously there were heated words but it only lasted two or three minutes.

"They get very, very political and irate. Quite a few walked out saying 'you can't run a competition like this.'

"It was human error. It was unfortunate how and why it happened when it did."

He said there was no point in re-running the contest because the judges would have returned the same decision anyway.

"There were seven judges, all from outside the village, who were totally independent.

"They knew it was wrong because after the totals are added up the adjudicators have to tell them who the winners are," said the spokesman.

Everything had gone smoothly until the queens event - the final contest of the day - with the princess, rosebud and pageboy selected for this summer's carnival without any hitches.

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