THIS year’s ‘King Pumpkin’ has been crowned at the annual Pirton Pumpkin Show, with the winning entry weighing in at a hefty 140.4kg.

Green-fingered Pirton Pumpkin Club member Fred West was the owner of the heaviest pumpkin at the event, held in Pirton Village Hall on Saturday, and also registered the heaviest onion and marrow, as well as the longest carrot and green bean.

Fred’s prized possession will now be on show at Waitrose in Hitchin for the next two weeks, before being chopped up by the Shillington resident and chairman of Pirton Pumpkin Club, Julie Holland.

The 46th show also saw Brian Frost emerge victorious in the open championship competition available for non-members, with a pumpkin of 60.5kg, and Samuel Germann was crowned prince of the show with his 28.8kg pumpkin.

Other categories included oddest shaped vegetable, best decorated pumpkins, biggest cheat and, new for this year, most topical - with the Shaw family winning with their ‘mine shaft’ pumpkin entry, based on the miners who have been trapped in a Chilean mine shaft.

Chairman Julie Holland said: “I would like to thank Hitchin town centre manager Keith Hoskins for opening the show, and chief roller John Souster for calling out the weights.”

Regarding the biggest cheat category, in which entrants can use anything to masquerade as a pumpkin, Julie added: “Although we encourage bribery to members no one has taken us up on the offer yet!”

Next year’s show will return with another new category, the best overall children’s pumpkin, so there’s never been a better time to get your green-fingers growing.