THEY had to wait more than two years to get him here but Alan Titchmarsh's visit to Skipton's Hanover International Hotel on Friday was well worth it.

Recently decorated with the MBE for his services to gardening, he was speaking to the new SEGA Gardening Club - an amalgamation of clubs from Skipton, Embsay, Grassington and Addingham.

Amongst the guests were Herald readers Charles and Pat Cole, who won the paper's gardening section competition to meet the guru himself.

"The evening was excellent," said Mrs Cole, who lives not far from Wisley.

The SEGA group got together in October 1998 with the purpose of being able to enable bigger and better events for its members.

Secretary Barbara Bolton said: "Once the group was formed we wrote to Alan to ask if he would come and talk to us. Thankfully he accepted our invitation although January 2000 was the earliest opportunity."

And one of the luckiest women in Craven had to be Helen Garbutt, of Embsay. Because tickets were limited, there seemed little hope she would ever get one.

But a last minute cancellation came up and a quick call to her home from her son, photographer Andy Garbutt, saw her dashing to the hote.

Alan's talk was the first event the club has organised and will take some beating. He spoke of his life from ordinary beginnings in his birthplace of Ilkley, through to his rise to stardom.

"It's always nice to come back home. I can slip back into my Yorkshire accent without having to translate all the time," he said.

And in the audience was his number one fan, his wife, Alison.

She explained she didn't normally accompany him on his talks but they were taking the opportunity to visit Alan's mum and sister who still live in Ilkley.

And she confessed to not having green fingers like her "other half".

"I'm not a gardener but I enjoy cooking with the food and herbs he grows," she said.

Alan's talk was full of humour, anecdotes and revelations and lasted more than 90 minutes with plenty of time during the interval for book signing and chats.

He also plugged his third novel, Animal Instincts, which is due out in October. "I'm up to page 42 at the moment," he groaned.

The second half included questions and answers, most on TV phenomenon Ground Force.

"The programme - which has around 12 million viewers each week - has two main assets, and Charlie Dimmock has both of them!" he quipped.

It's likely to be many years before Craven has the pleasure of Alan's company again although he does visit Ilkley around four times a year.

But the prospect of him buying a second home in the county of the broad acres is not beyond the realms of possibility.

"We've toyed with the idea for a while and have gone as far as looking in estate agents' windows but that's all so far," he said.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.