AN 81-year-old woman who scooped top place in a scarecrow competition with a nude woman posing as one of the famous Yorkshire Women's Institute calendar girls admitted afterwards: "I wish I'd done the Queen Mum instead."

Janet Asquith's entry proved a showstopper in the village of Sawley, near Ripon, where the public were invited to vote for their favourite people of straw.

Mrs Asquith's entry came out on top after visitors flocked to see it, turning the front garden of her normally peaceful home into "something like Blackpool Prom".

Mrs Asquith, who entered the Rylstone Women's Institute January calendar girl jointly with her 50-year-old daughter Kathryn Stefanuti, from Queensbury, Bradford, said they had been puzzled what to make for the contest.

"But when we had finished our entry and the others went on display, I suddenly realised no one had created the Queen Mother and I thought that was an oversight.

"On reflection, I only wish I had made the Queen Mum because I think someone should have recognised the fact that it's soon her 100th birthday," said Mrs Asquith, who had entered the contest for several years without success.

Mrs Asquith, herself a former WI member, finished off the entry to match the January picture in the Yorkshire calendar that has won fame for the organisation around the world.

Much to Mrs Asquith's surprise hundreds of visitors captured the revealing WI member on video and camera as the Rylstone lady relaxed in a garden chair with nothing more than a pair of glasses, a hat and string of beads, but proudly displaying an outsize bust.