HE’S a record breaker.

Glenn Walsh celebrated reclaiming both his title and beating the current fastest watercress eating record by downing a bag of the leaves in less than a minute to impressed spectators at this year’s Watercress Festival in Alresford.

The eye-watering contest was the culmination of a day of family fun in the town which saw thousands of people from Hampshire and beyond on the streets enjoying the sunshine and party atmosphere.

And organisers said it was the biggest event yet in the festival’s history with an estimated 15,000 people and 140 stalls.

There was live music, morris dancing, face painting, fairground rides, cookery demonstrations and a whole host of stalls offering a wide range of locally produced food and drink as well as art and craft.

Stallholders had done their best to come up with new ways to feature watercress in their products, with the most unusual offerings being watercress fudge, watercress soap, watercress wine and watercress beer.

Crowds browsed the stalls but hundreds of people gathered round for the World Watercress Eating Championships, which included a number of chefs from the village.

But it was 37-seven-year-old Alresford resident Glenn who triumphed over his rivals smashing the world record.

He finished his bag of watercress in a time of 46.59 seconds – knocking several seconds off the current record of 49 seconds held by last year’s winner and fellow local rugby player Sam Batho, from Alresford.

Glenn has won the title five times.

“I’m usually a meat eater so it’s a real proud moment,” joked the father-of-four, of Ashburton, who works as a fencer.

“It’s great to be a world record holder – it all started off a little bit of fun but being rugby boys we love a bit of competition. I just love it.

“I used to love watercress but when you have it in one go it’s very peppery.”

Festival organiser Clive Burgess said: “It’s been superb, I think people have thoroughly enjoyed themselves ad people keep saying they’ll be back next year.

“It’s been far busier than previous years.

“People have got behind the idea of watercress and it’s increasingly becoming a watercress focused festival. It hasn’t always been but everyone really pulled the stops out and went for it.”

Regular visitor Alison Richards, from Winchester, who had brought her four children down, said: “All the local produce makes it special and the range of stalls and activities.

“There’s a few products that they sell that you wouldn’t get anywhere else and it’s a nice community family feel.”