After 400 applications, more than 200 auditions, 25,000 internet votes and five heats, 12 finalists took to the stage for Stoke's Top Talent 2009. John Woodhouse was among the lucky sell-out audience...

"YOU'VE got the best smile I've ever seen," Phil Taylor told Su Annagib at the end of her Stoke's Top Talent winning performance. Quite a line for someone who's played with Bobby George.

Phil's obviously going a bit soft in his old age. In talent shows, there's generally only one winner. When he's on the judging panel, there's two.

The audience, an unruly bunch, with a decibel level inducing nostalgia for Concorde, had been wondering, vocally, why the judges were taking so long to reach a decision. I'm not saying it was a lengthy wait, but by the time they returned Susie Amy had signed up for a new series of Footballers' Grandmas.

Compere Jonathan Wilkes eventually came on stage to explain there'd been something of a contretemps over whether the prize should go to Su or audience favourites Two Fresh Crew – a dance combo so committed to their cause that they'd carried their own bench (on which one half of the act played the part of a hobo) from Northwood to The Regent.

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"You think you've had a show in here tonight," said Jonathan. "We've had another show going on backstage."

The result of that behind the scenes bunfight was that the overall title went to Su. But Phil wasn't going to see the two Abbey lads – finalists a year ago as well – go home empty-handed this time. Jonathan announced that the dartsman, in an act of tungsten-tipped benevolence, had offered to sponsor cousins Aaron and Andrew on the path to dancing school in Cambridge.

Tears were shed. Thanks were issued. And Raymond van Barneveld made a mental note of The Power's Achilles heel for break-dancers. Expect 'Barney' to make his next entrance to Alexandra Palace spinning on his head.

In horse-racing parlance, Su had come up late on the outside. Until she opened her mouth, Aaron and Andrew must have already spent the £1,000 prize money in their minds. But Su stirred something in those who know the value of a pure, yet popular, vocal brilliance. "Baby, this is serious," she sang. It wasn't. It's a talent show, not life or death. But the truth is that in four minutes the teacher and care assistant had effectively changed her life forever. Stop at the petrol station on your way to work, Su. The students who egged you on to enter deserve it.

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The other big winners with the audience were comedy duo Martyn and Cole. A woman in front of me looked like she'd need emergency resuscitation by the time they'd finished a strip routine to You Can Leave Your Hat On. Singer-songwriter Jonathan Sterling, star-to-be Sam Bloor, and Shelley Ann Rivers, with an Italian-tinged rendition of the Titanic theme, tribute perhaps to Hanley's Captain Smith, were also hugely well received. But, then again, so was everyone. With Or Without You singer Chelsie Tyrell, for one, must have felt that fate was with her – her namesakes from Stamford Bridge had already won in Stoke-on-Trent just hours earlier. The judging had taken so long that, against talent show traditions, Su didn't have time to repeat her performance. She walked off The Regent stage, silent... a star. One suspects that to those who work with her, she already is.