Sweet pea champion Alec Cave has proven his green-fingered worth once again by winning six prizes at a national contest. Mr Cave, a former nursery manager with Derby City Council, took two first places, three seconds and one third in categories at the National Sweet Pea Society competition earlier this month. He is pictured here with hundreds of his plants ahead of the contest at the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Harlow Carr, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. He said: "I got a prize for everything I showed and that's quite an achievement." Mr Cave, 80, who grows the sweet peas in his garden in Markeaton Park, had already won the Daily Mail Cup – the highest prize at the national show – five times. He did not enter his blooms in that contest this year for logistical reasons.
