Dexter Olejarka demonstrates and talks about his cooking at the Alresford Watercress Festival

More than 20,000 people descended on Alresford for the annual Alresford Watercress Festival on Sunday.
The event opened with a cavalcade of musicians, dancers and local children, followed by a horse-drawn carriage carrying the Watercress King and Queen, Jack Bramwell Cheater and Evie Street, who threw bags of freshly harvested watercress into the crowd as they paraded up and down Broad Street.
There were stalls along Broad Street, West Street and Station Road, and a children’s zone in East Street. Just beyond this, in a peaceful field doubling as a car park, there were goats for children to stroke, and owls and kestrels happy to sit on their arm for a photo.
At the top of Broad Street the Cookery Theatre welcomed 14-year-old Four Marks chef Dexter Olejarka and other names from the food and drink world including Pinglestone Estate winemaker Will Perkins and MasterChef: The Professionals contestant Luke Emmess.
There were tours of the Manor Farm watercress farm and music on the main stage throughout the day.
But the big focus was on whether Glenn Walsh from Bishop’s Sutton could again win the World Watercress Eating Championship.
Asked what he thought of the stiff competition attracted by his regular media appearances in the run-up to the contest, Glenn said: “This is the problem, isn’t it? You put yourself out there, people think ‘We’ve got to come and challenge’.”
Looking at celebrity chef Phil Vickery, one of his opponents in the final heat, he added: “We’ve got the legend here, haven’t we? But I’ll give it a go!”
Glenn rose to the occasion, devouring his 100-gram bag of watercress in just 44.2 seconds to win the title.
He sat on a golden throne to be crowned by Phil Vickery, and having received the trophy from Phil he raised it to the Alresford sky for the 18th time.