A CHOIR of 140 people will be entering the choral competition at the National Eisteddfod in Abergavenny next month.

The Singing Club, made up of members of Chepstow and Usk Community Choirs are undergoing their final preparations ahead of the event.

The club will be one of 10 choirs from across the country taking part in the competition at the Main Pavilion on Sunday July 31.

The group's female voice chamber choir, The Chepstow Chatelaines will be competing in the ladies Choir section on Thursday August 4.

Karl Daymond, the choir's music director and founder, found the opportunity to compete as something too good to resist.

He said: "We have helped raise a good few thousand pounds toward the Eisteddfod this last year and as the event is here in our wonderful county of Monmouthshire we thought we would also support it by entering the competitions too.

"We really wanted to support this amazing festival of language, music and culture, one of the biggest in Europe."

Members will be joined by The Old Bangers and Monmouthshire-based sign language interpreter, Fiona Nicholson, who has taught the singers to use British Sign Language for one of their songs.

They have also had to learn 12 minutes worth of music in Welsh, a challenge that Mr Daymond believes the choir have taken to well.

“It's an enormous challenge but everyone has worked so hard to get to this stage," said Mr Daymond.

"We just want to be good enough to be able to take part. We're up against nine of the best choirs in Wales - not bad for a local community choir who meet once a week in the pub!"

For more information on The Singing Club, visit singingclubber.co.uk