FIGHTING cats came within a whisker of ruining Susan Cummins’s chance of winning a top gardening award.

Mrs Cummins, 54, of Cumberland Road, East Oxford, keeps eight feral cats in her back garden – which was awarded a gold award by judges in this year’s Oxford in Bloom competition, But the day after they visited to judge the Best Kept Small Back Garden category, Mrs Cummins’s cats had a fight and ruined all her hard work.

She said: “It was very lucky the judges came when they did because the next day the feral cats had a fight in my fuchsias and completely wrecked them.

“They must have been having a right go at each other because they also smashed a pane of glass in one of my greenhouses.”

She added: “I have taken the wire out of a rabbit hutch in the garden and I feed the feral cats there.

“Some of them have been abandoned and I look after them until the Cats Protection League is ready to take them.”

Mrs Cummins, a finance cashier at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, said she was delighted to win the gold award because her husband Joe, 61, had been ill.

She added: “Joe couldn’t carry any of the compost bags because he has been so ill.

“He is better than he was but unfortunately he wasn’t able to come to the awards ceremony.

“My two daughters, Sophie, 21, and Louise, 15, came along with me.

“I’m looking forward next year to defending my title in this category; last year I got bronze.

“The garden is about 60ft long and 18ft wide and has two greenhouses, a little chalet and a pond.”

Pensioners Harold and Barbara Chilvers, of Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford won the Best Kept Large Back Garden category.

Mr Chilvers, 87, and Mrs Chilvers, 81, have been competing in Oxford in Bloom for 10 years. They have been living at the house since 1976.

Mother-of-three Mrs Chilvers said: “We are delighted to win this award.

“Our lawn is surrounded by a big flower border and we also have a fish pond, a fruit cage, two greenhouses and a vegetable patch.

“When all the flowers are out, it’s very colourful. Another special feature is the air-raid shelter.

“We store some of our vegetables in there over the winter because it’s cool and dry.

“We have got seven grandchildren who all really enjoy the garden.”