CIDER and perry was tasted in the heat of the sun at the weekend when crowds of people turned out for the Big Apple event in Marcle Ridge.

The festival promotes the vast array of apple and pear drinks produced by farms throughout the villages around Much Marcle and encourages villagers to try out the different flavours.

Chairman of the popular annual festival, Janet Mackay, said every year the judges find it more and more difficult to judge the cider and perry classes.

"We had 77 entries and the judges said the standard was very high and it's definitely going up," she said.

"It's rare to taste a dodgy cider now. I think people were grateful to have somewhere to go during the weekend, because the weather was so nice and there were a lot of people there taking an interest."

Cider competition winners were:

Dry cider class: 1, John George; 2, Mike Henney; 3, Robert Cook.

Medium cider class: 1, Robert Cook; 2, Westons Cider; 3, Hindlip College. Sweet cider class: 1, Hindlip College; 2, Westons Cider; 3, Gwatkin.

Overall champion: John George, from Ledbury, who has been producing the drink for many years.

Dry perry class: 1, Broome Farm Perry; 2, Broome Farm Perry; 3, James Marsden. Medium/sweet class: 1, James Marsden; 2, Tom Oliver; 3, Minchews' Perry. Overall Champion: James Marsden.

Bottled cider class: 1, Robert Cook; 2, Gwatkin Cider; 3, Minchews' Cider. Bottled perry class: 1, Robert Cook; 2, James Marsden; 3, Gwatkin Perry.