PENSIONER Ernest Yeatman (pictured) sang the praises of his son's girlfriend after picking up trophies at the 2002 Salisbury Allotment competition presentation night last week.

Ernest (89) took first place in the Wiltshire Road allotments section of the event and was also acclaimed senior winner of the competition.

"I still scratch around and plant everything but these days I have to rely on my son Jeffery's lady friend, Jenny Dray, to do the heavy digging for me.

"She's very good and, as long as she helps me out, I'll go on tending the plot.

"I love gardening and aim to go on as long as I can," said Ernest, who will be 90 in April.

His plot is a short distance from the back door of his home in Wiltshire Road, Harnham, and he has been tending it for 55 years.

"I grow vegetables and a few flowers and have won second prizes in the allotment competition before - but this is the first time I've come first," he said.

Widow Ann Kinsey (66), who has been an allotment holder just four years, won the ladies' cup for a second time.

"I first won it in 2000 but missed out last year," she said.

Mrs Kinsey, who lives at Olivier Close, Bemerton Heath, has an allotment in Coldharbour Lane, where she grows her favourite vegetables and flowers for cutting.