ROSS PARRY SYNDICATION: A village whose hopes of victory in a prestigious national flower competition wilted when their prize posies were mysteriously attacked have hired a security firm to guard the flower beds until judging time.

The drastic measures follow a bizarre spate of attacks with a banned weedkiller on 30 floral beds in May - which convinced the green-fingered hopefuls that somebody was out to sabotage their chances in the Britain-in-Bloom contest.

Over the years the village's flowers beds and baskets have won numerous awards and when the displays were killed off analysis tests showed that banned sodium chlorate had been used.

But now the village of Cayton, near Scarborough, North Yorks., have brought out the big guns in the shape of uniformed security officers at a private firm, who have been hired to protect the displays for the Britain-in-Bloom judging on August 11.

Concerned sponsors including Scarborough-in-Bloom have paid for security guards to patrol the village at intervals throughout the day at a reasonable cost.