AN INWARDLEIGH couple have beat off strong competition to take the ?Best Eggs in the West? title for the second year running.

Tim and Janet White?s tray of 30 free range eggs were again deemed worthy of the NFU?s ?The Late David Deacon Award? after 210 entries were judged.

For the couple, who swapped the high flying world of commerce for life on the farm five years ago, it is the icing on the cake.

?We are absolutely chuffed to bits,? said Janet. ?Winning this award last year was a great boost for us and we did get extra business from it ? getting it again confirms the quality of our product.?

Regular stallholders at Okehampton Farmers? Market, the Whites keep 10,000 chickens on their 33-acre Brook Farm.

They sell direct to the public from their farm shop and supply Freshlays at Holsworthy where they are part of the top of the range ?Granary Egg? scheme.

They have been registered with the RSPCA?s Freedom Food organisation for their rigorous welfare conditions and put the secret of their success down to ?happy chickens?.

The eggs are judged for their internal quality such as richness of yolk and condition and clarity of white, but judges also look at shell colour and oval evenness.

The award, named after the late David Deacon, a Government egg inspector who used to check farms around the South West, is in the shape of a china cockerel which the couple will keep if they win it again in 2003.

Regional spokesman for the NFU Paul Cooper said Janet and Tim had worked very hard to build up the business and they really deserved the award.

?It is a credit to them because they came out of the commerce industry to work 365 days a year on the farm,? he said.

?To win a prestigious award like this just proves they are a force to be reckoned with.?