A YORK teenager who sends up to 50 text messages a day is heading to London to put his skills to the speed test.

Andrew Hornsby, 17, from Moor Lane, Woodthorpe, is one of ten finalists in a nationwide text messaging competition, run by wireless services company iobox, and is set to win a range of impressive prizes.

Andrew, an information technology student at York College, said he regularly sends text messages to his girlfriend Gemma Routledge, 17, who lives in County Durham.

He said: "I've had a mobile phone since September 2000 and I use it mostly for texting my girlfriend.

"She lives in the North East and I've got free text messaging so it's cheaper.

"I usually send around 20 to 50 text messages a day."

Andrew spotted the competition when he was on the iobox website and managed to send a 160-character message in under two minutes.

Now he will repeat the exercise in London on Sunday along with nine other finalists each competing for a Nokia WAP phone, £300 and an iobox goody bag.

Andrew said: "I've got a little bit faster, I've been practising for about ten minutes a day, but I've got my work to do."

The competition was launched earlier this year and the winner will be decided by a panel of independent judges and Channel 5's 'The Core' presenter Kate McIntyre.

Contestants will be asked to send the 160-character text to a central phone. The winner will be the first person to send the correct message.

The text message is:

iobox sayz:IM the UKs fastst,funkyst,speediest,gr8st@txtin!A*!a2nd2nun wndr txter-NO1s qickr thn me!Adctd2txt IM so fst its mgic!!Ha I no ur v.jlus of me!!so:-P

Updated: 08:21 Tuesday, November 20, 2001