JUDGES had a prickly decision to choose the winners out of hundreds of cacti of all shapes and sizes.

Cactus enthusiasts came from across the country to showcase their plants at the annual British Cactus and Succulent Society Oxford Branch Show last Saturday.

Four long tables were filled with a host of different cacti from across the globe, including the large and pale cereus, furry-looking copiapoas, prickly echinocactus and thorny but flowering gymnolcalycium.

This year one of the tables, in The Old Mill Hall, in Grove, was filled with more than 200 haworthias – a genus of succulent plants native to southern Africa – for the Haworthia Society’s show.

Judge Barry Tibbets was impressed by the entries.

The trustee of the British Cactus and Succulent Society said: “The classes with the most entries were very difficult to judge.”

Dr Gillian Evison won the Ron Ginns medal and Marwood Cup as the grower with the most points across all the categories.

The winner of the Haworthia section was Stirling Baker, while Best Plant in the section went to John Watmo-ugh’s gasteria armstrongii.