Alresford marked its busiest ever Watercress Festival yesterday.

Thousands of visitors flocked to the market town for its 13th annual festival.

Attractions included Hampshire Farmers Market, food and drink stalls, trad jazz, four morris dance groups, cooking demonstrations, craft stalls, an inflated slide, and plenty of watercress.

But the highlight of the event was the watercress eating competition where contestants had to eat two 80g bags of fresh watercress as quickly as possible.

The world record holder Glenn Walsh from Alresford took part and was victorious again but didn’t beat his record of 32 seconds. This time Glenn managed to eat his watercress in 37.6 seconds and his nearest rival Rob Masterton from Bramdean managed 39.4 seconds.

Glenn said: “It was fairly easy. It wasn’t my fastest. It all depends on the leaves. If you get a stalk it sticks in your throat.”

Event manager Clive Burgess said: “Today it’s the busiest year ever. There must be at least 15, 000 people here. All our car parks are full. It’s been incredible. We’ve been lucky with the weather too.”