THREE businesses from Launceston and one from Port Isaac have won top prizes at a recent awards ceremony, writes David Sillifant.

Banbury’s Beauty Spa, Craig Chapman Hair Design and Matt Luxton’s Blast Fitness all won their respective categories to claim the Muddy Stiletto Cornwall 2016 awards.

Initially members of the public were asked to nominate businesses in each category before a final shortlist of five was drawn up.

Live voting was then carried out, by the general public with people being able to follow who was winning.

The initial deadline was set for midnight on Tuesday, June 14, but with the number of voters being so high, the website crashed for 20 minutes, meaning an extra 20 minutes were added to make up for the website error.

Of the three Launceston winners, Craig Chapman Hair Design won the Best Hair Salon category by the clearest margin, achieving 34.9% of the vote, 5.7% more than Hunter and Walsh of Penzance.

Salon manager, Di Shute, said: “We were very excited when we found out that we’d won the award. We’ve won national awards but to be recognised by the local media as well is brilliant.”

When quizzed on the key to their success, Ms Shute said: “We’re always updating ourselves and training to the best of our ability. Not only that, we always try and maintain good links with the locals while maintaining our own high standards.”

Matt Luxton’s Blast Fitness was also another winner, just ousting Tracy Waite Personal Training by 1.5% of the vote to take the Best Fitness Instructor title.

The personal trainer who is currently building his own training facility in Lifton was equally as proud.

Matt said: “It’s all part of the journey for me and it’s brilliant to be recognised, especially by your family, friends and clients.

“At the end of the day my job is to help people get better results and provide a service to people so that if they want to get fit they can.”

Banbury’s Beauty Spa, situated in Madford Lane, was Launceston’s third and final victor, winning the Best Beauty Salon category, a tight squeeze ahead of Afina who finished just 1.4% of the vote behind.

A special mention must also go to the Little Bakehouse in Launceston.

Despite being open just 18 months, they managed to finish second only to Baker Tom’s of Truro who romped to victory with a winning score of 36.3%.

Editor of the Muddy Stiletto Cornwall Awards, Lou Whelan, was extremely impressed with the staging of the event and is now looking forward to sampling these businesses herself.

Lou said: “Lots of the businesses nominated were completely new to me. I live outside of Launceston between there and Liskeard and I’d never actually heard of Matt Luxton Blast Fitness.

“As a result I’ve now agreed to carry out a session with Matt to see first hand what his methods are like.

“The awards were a resounding success with many of the categories being neck-and-neck throughout the process and with the live voting going on it was brilliant to see the twists and turns of who was going to win.”

Port Isaac-based Ruby Tuesday’s Café was voted the ‘Best Café’ in Cornwall at the awards.

Currently in just its third season, Ruby Tuesday’s Café romped to victory, finishing on 35.7%, 8.1% ahead of The Front Room, leaving owner Ann Coles absolutely delighted that her and her staff’s work was recognised so quickly.

Ann said: “I’m absolutely delighted with the award, considering we’re a new business to be recognised like we have is brilliant especially as it’s an award voted for by the public which to me is even more satisfying than by your peers.”

One of the keys’ to their success has been their simplicity. Delivering a small yet varied menu, they primarily use local Cornish produce to provide fresh, tasty food to their customers.

Ann has a simple plan to keep going with her approach of keeping things local.

She said: “I want the business just to keep moving in the direction it is. I think the fact that we use Cornish produce is paramount and the fact that we now make about 90% of our cakes and scones in the café means people know that what we make is going to be of a good quality.”