Spectator competition winners: ‘O Walkman! O Walkman!’

The most recent challenge, suggested by Paul A. Freeman, asked for an elegy on a piece of obsolete technology. There’s nothing like a blast of nostalgia to usher in the new year. Sinclair C5s, faxes, floppy discs, typewriters; all were eloquently hymned. I admired Hamish Wilson’s elegy on a radiogram and John O’Byrne’s Whitman-esque homage to the Walkman:

O Walkman! O Walkman! our cassette days are       done, My ears have enjoyed every tune, the tapes I       played are worn, The phone has come, the apps are here, the       playlists all inspiring, But Apple killed this mobile thing for designs       sleek and aspiring.

The winners below earn £25 each.

W.J. Webster No mourning when the Olivetti Clacked its final doubtful e, Its drawbacks were, however petty, As irksome as such irks can be. Corrections now just took a jiff, With Tippex obsolete long since, Though ‘word processing’ had a whiff Of manufacturing verbal mince.