THE winners of this year’s scarecrow competition in a New Forest village have been revealed.

Despite a number of the scarecrows being vandalised and taken on several occasions, Sandleheath residents were still keen to push ahead with the annual competition, which marked its tenth year and is running by Sandleheath Community Association.

Incidents of vandalism were previously reported on Tuesday, May 18 and Saturday, May 23. During the first incident a scarecrow of Prime Minister Boris Johnson holding a baby was taken and found discarded near Rockbourne, while two more were found near Damerham and Alderholt. Rope was found around one of the scarecrows - the delivery man scarecrow -which is believed to have been dragged behind a car.

There were 23 entries this year. The winner was Family Gathering 2020 with Game Changers Straw Style and Burger Boy in joint second. Third place went to Hotel Transylvania ‘My Name Is Dracula and I Go Blah Blah Blah’.

Abbey Simmons, the chairman of Sandleheath Community Association, speaking about the success of this year’s event despite the vandalism, said: “It was probably one of the best ever. Lots of the key workers or people who were still working all kept commenting because they were driving through the village and were really enjoying seeing all these scarecrows go up.”

The competition was brought forward as normally it is held two weeks before the village’s summer fete in June.

“We brought it forward so they were up for longer and more people could get involved during the lockdown period,” said Abbey.

“It went really well. We had more entries than we’ve had before. After the first vandalism we had a real surge of entries. It didn’t put people off at all,”

The Burger Boy entry, which came joint second, was stolen last Friday. But was later found in a church car park in a neighbouring village with two others. And Dracula, the third place winner, was also targeted by vandals.

“They came back every weekend,” said Abbey, who says the incidents “haven’t dampened the spirit of the competition”.

“Next year will be a lot different. We will make sure everyone makes them so that they can take them in. Everyone will be pointing CCTV cameras at them.”

The incidents have been reported to Hampshire Constabulary.

Abbey thanked everyone who entered, voted and supported the competition and those who ran it. A fundraising page has raised £351 for The Trussell Trust. To donate go to justgiving.com/fundraising/sandleheathscarecrows