A VILLAGE songwriter is celebrating after overcoming severe illness to notch several awards in a national competition.

After spending a year in and out of hospital with heart problems, Clayton West’s Phil Maybury has regained his rhythm and capped it with nine successful songs in the UK Songwriting Contest 2012.

Two of this year’s entries were semi-finalists and seven more were commended.

Phil has been entering his songs for the competition for the past four years, and this brings his total number of semi-finalists to 17 and commended entries to 32.

The 57-year-old was admitted into hospital in December 2011 with an uncontrollable, irregular and very fast heart rate, and it has taken several months and two procedures lasting several hours at Leeds General Infirmary to bring it back under control.

But it’s been ticking over nicely since the latest procedure in August, and as a result Phil was still able to enter this year’s contest.

Speaking of the events of the past year, Phil said: “I'm disappointed not to have been well enough to enter more songs into this year’s contest, but I’m thrilled that yet again all my songs have been judged as semi-finalists or appropriate for a commendation.

“But even these successes would not have been possible without the dedicated work of Dr Pepper and his colleagues at the Yorkshire Heart Centre based at Leeds General Infirmary.

“I am indebted to them for their skilfulness which has now almost returned me to normal everyday life.

“In the meantime I’ve entered a number of other songwriting competitions based across the Atlantic, and I hope I will be just as successful in these as I have been over the past four years in the UKSC.”

One of his newest country songs, Workhorse Life, was a semi-finalist in the lyrics category, and commended in the country music category.

The song was based on a news report about two Clydesdale heavy horses at Bradford's Industrial Museum.

The Horses At Work unit had to be closed to save £126,000 for the museum, and a campaign started to find Murdoch and Darcy a new home.

They are now safe in their retirement at Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary in Norfolk.

The song expands their experiences to echo the difficulties even human beings face when their demanding working life is suddenly brought to an end.

This year Phil entered a new song called the Pudding Song which takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the significant role that the Yorkshire Pudding has had in the history of the county of Yorkshire.

The final double-entry this year was the Celtic flavoured Sweet Mary Barr, which was a success in last year’s Instrumental category, and with the addition of lyrics this year, the song received two commendations, in the Acoustic and Singer Songwriter categories.

Phil began writing songs as a teenager, but it is only in recent years that he has submitted to any competitions.

In the 2009 UK Songwriting Contest his first three entries were all semi-finalists. In 2010 he achieved four semi-finalists and nine commended entries and in 2011 he secured eight semi-finalists and 16 commendations.

Although his musical niche is as a folk rock/country pop crossover artist, he has now expanded the genres he covers to include folk, country, rock, pop, blues and comedy.

Extracts from various songs, including Workhorse Life, along with full lyrics can be found in the music section of Phil’s website at www.philmaybury.com