It has been proposed that enthusiastic Women's Institute members, Mrs Diane Seager and Mrs Maggie Oxley, should perform as "Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men" in this year's half-hour entertainment competition as punishment for taking it upon themselves to landscape the garden of a guest speaker.

Martin Clare visited Llanymynech WI to talk about the construction of his Scandinavian lodge, Talltoppen, and at the end of his speech he happened to mention that while the building was nearly complete, the garden still needed a lot of work doing to it.

Martin returned home and thought no more of it.

However, his famous last words had sown a seed in the minds of two cheeky Llanymynech WI members, who woke up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday, April 1, and planted handfuls of artificial flowers throughout his garden.

Seeing the funny side of the stunt, Mr Clare decided that rather than let the joke lie he would pen a humorous letter of complaint to club president Margo Colles.

"I am upset that two of your members have seen fit to play a practical joke on me under the disguise of April Fool's day," wrote Mr Clare, while trying to wash the smirk off his face.

"I take the garden as a serious matter and do not take kindly to what I can only describe as a 'juvenile prank'. In brief I was greeted on April Fool's day with several bunches of plastic flowers in one of the flowerbeds and a statue in the fishpond also garlanded with flowers.

"Such behaviour should be nipped in the bud (no pun intended) before further transgressions are committed.

"If it had been juveniles and they had been caught then perhaps they would have been issued with ASBOs."

The matter was raised as point number one on the agenda at the club's April meeting.

A spokesperson for Llanymynech WI, said: "Someone did suggest that as penance, the two should enter the WI half-hour entertainment competition as Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men."

Has Martin enjoyed the last laugh or have members of the Women's Institute got more tricks hidden up their sleeves? residents of Llanymynech beware!