Our team of writers give their verdicts on whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump triumphed in the first presidential TV debate:

Ruth Sherlock

HILLARY CLINTON

After weeks of bad headlines, Hillary Clinton and her team will be celebrating tonight. She was poised, on point and even witty. She didn't miss an opportunity to use the attacks that she has spent so long preparing. By any normal standards, this would be called as a victory for Clinton. Donald Trump by contrast was ranting, and prone to making sweeping claims that, as the fact checkers show, were loose with the truth. But this is no normal election. It is a race for the presidency where charisma, personality and gut instinct judgments are taking precedence over serious policy discussion. Donald Trump's supporters like him for his flare and his taste for controversy. His apparent inability to ground claims in fact has not harmed him in the past. It remains to be seen whom the voters will deem tonight's victor.

Tim Stanley

DONALD TRUMP

Do not assume that America is a country where politicians battle over ideas in a neutral marketplace with an objective, largely centrist audience choosing between them. The well has been poisoned by TV. Increased partisanship means people are tuning in to see characters they already hate get eviscerated, not arguments well made. Trump was a serious presidential candidate in large part because he starred in The Apprentice – because he played a boss on television and so could, in theory, do it in real life. He might be an unexpected politician but this was a role he was born to play.