Billy and mate Tammy, 47, have seven eggs due to hatch in eight to 12 weeks. Their owner Peter Crane, 50, found the eggs buried in six inches of soil in his garden last week after spotting Tammy crawling into a flower bed. Mr Crane, of King's Lynn, Norfolk, said Tammy had rejected Billy's amorous advances on numerous occasions and was regularly chased by him around the garden.

He was given Billy, a spur thigh tortoise, by an 80-year-old relative 15 years ago after he had been cared for by their family since he was born in 1899. ''I didn't realise he had it in him but apparently the older they get the more fertile they become and he's obviously raring to go - he's a very lively tortoise," he said. ''Billy chases Tammy around the garden and they head butt each other as a mating ritual. Tammy even has a dent in the back of her shell where he has given her a nasty bang.''

He was given Tammy, who is almost twice the size of mate Billy at about eight inches long, by his parents when he was just three years old. Mr Crane, a grandfather-of-five, said he had even built the two tortoises their own separate wooden huts in his garden but had recently found the pair cuddled up in the same box. "She's been a difficult one to crack but it shows persistence pays off when your chasing a woman and I can't wait for the offspring to be born."

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