Martin’s New Year resolution is to get his ageing physique back to the glory days of his six-pack Pat Cash look when he was able to run up mountains like Cotapxi in Ecuador and back down the other side again before lunch. The task shouldn’t be too difficult. He is a natural athlete, having played county standard sports in Cricket, Badmington and Table Tennis in a former decade of his life. When not embroiled in the day job he can be found pounding the lanes of the local swimming pool or running up and down the touchlines cheering the minor Adams boys onto sporting victory.

His penchant for the outdoor life in fact led him to where he is today – the co-owner of Oxford Lawns and Gardens and sister company Oxford Planters. The son of a Welsh vet, he turned his back on the place he had secured at Leicester University to study History, Art and Design and quite literally went underground. Underground that is working for local reservoir companies including the post of Fat Controller at Thames Water and gravedigger where he narrowly escaped death being on one occasion buried alive. After surviving the scariest moment of his life to date he signed up for a course at Portsmouth Business School and fulfilled a lifelong dream of gaining a formal Horticulture qualification at Brooksby College.