Sutton's horticultural miracle worker, Chris Dudman, was in fine form on Sunday, winning a clutch of prizes at the summer show hosted by Sutton and District Horticultural Society.
Mr Dudman went home with no less than nine trophies – his best haul for several years.
Before the serious stuff, however, the show started with a fun competition for growing potatoes in a bucket. The seed potatoes had been distributed at the socie
ty's spring show.
There was much fun and hilarity as each bucket was tipped out and its contents weighed. The winner, with 10.4lbs of potatoes, was Kate Murray with Judy Seers and Anne Collis joint second.
The show itself attracted 274 entries and plenty of visitors from the village and beyond.
Sue Dudman, from the horticultural society, said the standard was again very high, with many more children's entries.
"Once again there were monsters, decorated flower pots, decorated cakes, paintings and crafts – in fact lots to keep them busy in the holidays," Mrs Dudman added.
Another fun competition, to grow a fuchsia from a plug plant, resulted in many shapes and sizes. The winner, with a well-shaped and evenly-flowering plant, was Brenda Phillips.
After tea and cake, a raffle, and an auction of vegetables, the prizegiving followed.
The Perpetual Challenge Cup, for the highest number of points in the vegetable classes, went to Chris Dudman with Brian Verrall runner-up.
Mr Dudman also took the Lady Mersey Challenge Cup for the highest number of points in the flower classes, with Toni Green second. His wins across the range of vegetable and flowers also earned him the GK Neale Memorial Challenge Cup.
His individual trophies were the Snipe Dix Trophy for the best decorative dahlia, the Daisy Francis Memorial Trophy for the most points in the dahlia section, the Burrell Cup for the best cactus dahlia, the Holland Challenge Cup for the best flower exhibit and the Ray Challenge Cup for the best vegetable.
Toni Green had her fair share of the cups, taking the Henry Tupper Tankard for the best rose exhibit, the Priscilla Burfield Cup for the best cake and the Les Harland Memorial Trophy for the runner-up in the
cookery classes.
The Symmons Challenge Bowl, for the highest number of points in the cookery classes, was awarded to Joan Verrall.
The J B Nevitt Memorial Trophy for the highest number of points in the floral art classes was won by Margaret Eatock with runner-up Anne Collis. The latter also won the Ackner Trophy for the best exhibit in floral art.
The Howden Hume Challenge Cup for the most outstanding child's exhibit was won by Harry Patrick with the Bignor Park Prize for the runner-up going to Tobias Gillot. The prize for outstanding effort from a child went to George Williams.
The Lady Harding Davies Salver for the collection of vegetables in the master gardener competition went to Chris Dudman, again beating his close rival Brian Verrall into second place.
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