A day for wellies...even if you’re the bride

The wettest ever June, followed by several days of very heavy rain in the run-up to the show, meant that this year’s farming showcase was always going to be a struggle.

Park and ride services to and from the show were crammed after fields usually used for car parking became quagmires and those that were still passable filled up by mid-morning.

Motorists who had been queuing in traffic in the hope of parking on site had to be diverted away and ferried back in on buses.

Those queuing in the rain to be taken back to their cars at the end of the day were largely sympathetic, however.

Jean Holder, from Scunthorpe, said organisers had done well to avoid the chaos caused by waterlogged car parks at Silverstone at the weekend.

“I think they’ve made the best of a bad job,” she said.

Hilary Hicks, who said it had taken her two-and-a-half hours to get to the show ground from Wakefield, said: “It wasn’t their fault. They did what they could.”

However, as visitors began to arrive on site and the ground quickly became churned up it became obvious very quickly that the show would be in doubt.

But, this being Yorkshire, visitors were not prepared to let a little rain and mud spoil their fun.

For one couple the opening day of the 2012 Yorkshire Show is one they will never forget as the show celebrated its first wedding.

Sheep handlers Anne Duckworth, 47, and Kevin Robinson, 50, tied the knot at the show ground six years after they met there.

The couple married at Pavilions of Harrogate before enjoying a champagne toast on the President’s Lawn.

They met in 2006 when he judged her sheep and have a daughter, Ellie, who celebrates her first birthday next month.

The new Mrs Robinson, from Dewsbury, said: “Because it was the place we first met and I’m a fiercely Yorkshire woman it was something that meant something to us.

“I am passionate about my county so we decided to try and incorporate all the things that mean so much to us on our wedding day – sheep, showing and Yorkshire.”

The newlyweds and their guests even celebrated with a sheep-shaped wedding cake.

After a quick change out of their finery, the couple then dashed across the showground in time for the Zwartbles sheep class, where four of their flock were being judged.

“I’m not wearing my dress – I think I’ll sink in my heels,” said Mrs Robinson.

“We’re hoping now to round off the day with some form of rosette.”

The show witnessed another grand romantic gesture as a plane flew overhead trailing a banner which read: “Sarah Jenkins marry me. Love Simon.”

A more sombre note was struck later in the day when hundreds of spectators rose to their feet, applauded and cheered as 185 soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment marched around the main ring in a homecoming parade.

Members of the 1st Battalion were led by the Band of the King’s Division as they exercised the Freedom of Harrogate – the first time it has done so at an organised event.

A hush then fell over the grandstand as a silence was observed to mark the regiment’s recent losses in Afghanistan.

Spectator Trish Stephenson, from Harrogate, whose son Jonathan returned from serving with the 1st Battalion in the war zone in May and is now in Germany, said the display had been emotional.

“It always is every time I see them march. It’s been absolutely superb,” she said.

“That’s why we’ve come on the first day, to support them.

“It’s a shame they’ve had to march in this mud but they are used to it.”

The show progressed as best as it could until a dramatic downpour around 3pm – which ultimately put paid to the 2012 event.

Beef judging had to take place on the concrete avenues after the rings became sodden and unsafe.

Soon afterwards the equine classes had to be called off for similar reasons.

In the end, the organisers took the reluctant but brave decision to make opening day the last one of the entire show but the Yorkshire Post could find no sign of rancour among those leaving the showground.