TWO bright young pupils from Bressingham Primary School have proved themselves to be budding engineers.Elliot Sheppard and Thomas Dowden are Norfolk winners of the Junior Engineers K'nex Challenge and will go forward to the Eastern Regional final in Chelmsford on July 3.

TWO bright young pupils from Bressingham Primary School have proved themselves to be budding engineers.

Elliot Sheppard and Thomas Dowden are Norfolk winners of the Junior Engineers K'nex Challenge and will go forward to the Eastern Regional final in Chelmsford on July 3.

The youngsters had to design and build a vehicle or structure that could be used to locate and retrieve a 1,000lb second world war bomb from off the coast.

To add to the complicated nature of the task, the structure had to be able to accommodate six Royal Navy personnel who could be at sea for several days and must be stable enough to avoid any risk to Navy personnel and marine life.

Teams of schoolchildren from across the county aged between seven and 11 were given just one hour to use their skill and dexterity to create a host of imaginative designs.

The 16 teams, working in pairs, had won through from a series of knockout heats to take their place in the final round held at the Hethel Engineering Centre.

Tom O'Connor, chief executive of The Exchange (Norfolk Education Business Partnership) which runs the county round of the competition, said the aim was to get youngsters involved in engineering at an early age.

“The whole competition is aimed at introducing them to engineering and giving them an idea of what engineering is about,” he said. “Hopefully this will inspire them to be engineers in the future.”

The runners-up were Tommy Paine and Thomas Hassey of Caston Primary School.