THE winners of the Mobberley Scarecrow Festival competition came down to the odd vote as the event returned for 2017 following a break.

The village Girl Guides were chosen as judges of this year’s festival, which saw scarecrows line the streets once more.

An enjoyable but difficult job, the girls set out on a tour of the village to assess the entries before casting their votes in the family and business competitions.

Dougal, by Julie Hulme, took top spot in the family category, followed closely by Cat in the Hat, by the Tymms Family of Summerfield Road, and Seeker Crow, by the Martin-Bird family of Springfield Road.

The winner of the business entries was Potter 101, at Dairy Farm in Church Lane, with Farmer Jim, at Greenbank Farm in Hobcroft Lane, and Wuzzle, at Mobberley Pre-School in Town Lane, finishing second and third, respectively.

Helen Kynnersley, who runs the Girl Guides in the village, said the vote count was a close call with the panel split.

She said: “It was an incredibly close competition with the winners in the family category having only one or two votes between 1st and 3rd place.

“The Girl Guides have really enjoyed being involved and found it very difficult to pick an overall winner. All of the entries this year have been amazing and we'd like to thank resident Julie Collins, who reinstated the competition after a year’s break, for asking us to be the judges.

“We'd also like to thank the Quirkee Café for acting as scarecrow headquarters during the festival.”

The festival has been welcomed back with open arms in the village, with proceeds going towards the harvest festival.

Helen said: “We hope that the harvest gifts that we have been able to buy from the proceeds of the festival and which will be presented to some of the senior citizens in the community as tokens of friendship, will be welcomed and enjoyed.

“Thank you to everyone who took part for allowing us to make this gesture possible.

“We look forward to hopefully being involved in next year's festival. “