THERE was a familiar name at the top of the leaderboard as the Allostock Gooseberry Society met on Saturday.

With a smaller turnout than usual due to the pandemic, 13 members attended, with 12 showing berries.

The headlines belonged to Jim Hart once again, as the veteran grower won the Wilfred Lea Cup for Heaviest Premier Berry for the eight consecutive year.

He reigned supreme thanks to a millennium berry weighing in at an impressive 33 pennyweights and eight grains.

It was not enough to topple the society record though – a 36.19-pennyweight Woodpecker berry shown by Doug Carter in 1988.

David Lake, from the society, said: “We had very successful meeting given the challenges around social distancing and not having a full complement of members due to those shielding at home.”

Jim racked up 28 points from seven categories on the day – 21 more than his nearest competitor, Peter Buckles – leading to him picking up the Whitbread Trophy as well as the Ken Healey Cup for the most points gained in colour, for 15 points.

He also picked up the Jim Lander Cup for the championship show plate, the Jim Whitehurst Cup for the heaviest twins and the Jim Whitehurst Cup for the heaviest Lord Derby plate.

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Peter had the heaviest green berry on display, with his Bank View weighing 23 pennyweights.

Stewart Waine had the only triplets on show, as his seedlings weighed a total 4.13 pennyweights.