A TALENTED Ipswich schoolboy proved the force was with him after his Star Wars model won international recognition.Broke Hall pupil Alex Parnell, aged six, entered a world wide Lego contest and beat off stiff competition from people five times his age!The challenge was to design and build a model based on a Star Wars theme and the result was the spaceship creation, Lightspeed.

By Amanda Cresswell

A TALENTED Ipswich schoolboy proved the force was with him after his Star Wars model won international recognition.

Broke Hall pupil Alex Parnell, aged six, entered a world wide Lego contest and beat off stiff competition from people five times his age!

The challenge was to design and build a model based on a Star Wars theme and the result was the spaceship creation, Lightspeed.

Alex's amazing entry is pictured on the Lego internet site alongside four others including a 30-year-old from the United States, a 29-year-old from Canada and two teenagers aged 13 and 14 from Germany.

Proud dad Tim, of Mount Drive, Warren Heath, said: "I think it is fantastic. He has a good eye for symmetry."

Lego fan Alex spotted the competition on the website. He worked on his creation when he came home from school and completed it over four nights, without any adult help.

"I thought nothing of it because it was a world wide competition," said Tim.

"Then I was in the bath when he came running up the stairs shouting "I've won, I've won". He'd logged onto the Internet and found his name and picture on the Lego's global website.

"Sure enough he'd been placed in the five entries they had picked from around the world.

"The funny thing is if you look at all the ages of the other entrants he is the youngest by far and the only one in the UK."

As a prize Alex gets to win more of his favourite toy – Lego.