The first day of a newspaper competition to win family tickets to the Devon County Show has proved a phenomenal success with readers.

It saw more than 250 entries, with hundreds more coming in on subsequent days. So far, in ten days, the paper has received more than 1,200 texts from more than 600 different mobile phones.

The Express & Echo’s text competition uses the Messageflow system to create various content categories such as football, competition, and baby of the year, for readers either to enter contests or simply request further information at a later date.

Echo assistant editor Andrew Howard said: "We decided to keep the latest competition simple, all people had to do was text in the word ‘show’ followed by their name and address, and we’ve picked one winner at random every day.

"We’d trailed the competition for a few days beforehand. The first entry came in at 7.44am on the Monday – and they haven’t stopped since. One woman was so keen to win she entered 14 times in five minutes, and left a little kiss at the end of each message!

"We’ve been delighted by the number of entries. The family ticket prizes to the show are worth about £33 each, and we’ve clearly hit the right note with readers.

"The previous best text competition total was 175 to win a match ball signed by retiring Exeter City striker Steve Flack.

"But now we’ve got a hi-tech connection with hundreds of readers, allowing us to keep them informed about the paper’s show offers and coverage as the event progresses.

"We don’t charge people to send or receive texts, we want to build a longer-term relationship as their prime local information provider."