A PAIR of students from Otley College came equal first in a national landscape gardening competition.The news means that they could now travel to Canada to represent the UK in the WorldSkills event.

A PAIR of students from Otley College came joint first in a national landscape gardening competition.

The news means that they could now travel to Canada to represent the UK in the WorldSkills event.

Simon Ginger and William Gadd travelled to Windsor racecourse earlier this month, where they competed in a three-day garden design competition.

To reach Windsor, they had already won a regional heat that saw them compete against colleges from the eastern region where they worked for 22 hours over three days to wow the judges with their expertise.

Along with Chichester College who they were joint winners with, they will now go on to take part in a landscaping 'boot camp' which will prepare them to compete against other landscape gardeners from across the globe at the WorldSkills competition in Calgary, Canada in 2009.

Simon, who also recently received an award at Otley College's annual prize giving ceremony, said: “We were delighted to win our regional heat, so to scoop top honours in the national competition is incredibly satisfying.

“It was a really challenging design for us, incorporating water and an overhanging deck so we are pleased to have won.”