Cups and awards included one from Our Denis

The awards ceremony is one of the highlights of the prestigious two-day show and a popular curtain-raiser.

Show chairman Marie Lowe and gardening guru John Stirland conducted the ceremony, assisted by civic guests.

A new trophy was a salver donated by Dispatch chief reporter Denis Robinson in memory of his mother, the late Kathleen Robinson, who was an enthusiastic fan of the show.

The award was for the best display of cut flowers and the winner was Dorothy Allsop, of Smalley in Derbyshire.

Among the other top award-winners were Fred Bailey, Reg Newton, David Hodgkinson, Howard Kilbourn and Jo Young. Winners in the children’s classes included six-year-old Alfie Parrett, of Yorke Street, Hucknall.

Special praise was earned by Hucknall keyboard entertainer Clive Allen, alias Clive Bumstead, a former head teacher of the town’s Annie Holgate Junior School.

Clive (62), of Watnall Road, fulfilled an engagement to play at the ceremony – only four days after he underwent a thyroid operation in Nottingham City Hospital.