Mud proves to be show stopper as county’s big day washed out

Until Saturday night, the show committee was still planning to go ahead with the light horse competitions, in a field a little higher than the sodden main showground.

But a final couple of downpours put paid to even that and the organisers spent yesterday turning disappointed visitors away from the venue, at Otterington Hall, between Northallerton and Thirsk, and helping traders who had pitched early to extricate themselves from the mud.

Yesterday afternoon, show secretary Alan Andrew was busy shovelling up mud which had been dragged out onto the A167.

He took a break to say: “Even now, with the sun shining down on us, there is nobody who thinks we made a wrong decision.

“After this last happened, in 1997, we stoned the main gateway. And on Friday night, we were still fairly optimistic, if everything started to dry out. But by Saturday morning, the stoned entrance was the only bit of ground it was not too soft to drive over and the committee was unanimous that we had to cancel.

“There were all sorts of considerations but for one thing, with modern cars, you can’t even easily give them a tow, because there is nothing to get hold of, so there was a prospect of traffic backed up on and off the road.

“As it is, we are seeing four-wheel-drives coming to the rescue of vehicles which are already stuck and getting stuck themselves and having to be pulled out by tractor.

“Although the landowners, Mr and Mrs Andrew Preston, did not ask us to consider it, we were aware that this is a working field and there will be a tenant wanting to get sheep onto it in a couple of weeks. We would have cut it to ribbons if we had gone ahead. It is bad enough as it is.

“Through most of Saturday we were still hoping to go ahead with the light horses, for which we had a record entry. But then the rains came again and obliterated all the work that had been done and we reluctantly had to pull the plug on that too.

“We have been dealing with a lot of disappointed people and a few angry ones. One lady had come from Essex and others from the south coast.

“Some had stayed in Harrogate overnight because they wanted to see a traditional Yorkshire agricultural show. But on the whole, the reactions have been good for your belief in people.

“It is not just us. The man with the sweet stall franchise told us this was the third show in a row he had had cancelled and he was heading for Newcastle next without a lot of optimism.”

Mr Andrew, a surveyor recently retired from Middlesbrough Council, said the cancellation must have cost close to £20,000, including the cost of hiring 17 marquee tents. And insurance through the Yorkshire Federation of Show Societies would return only a fraction of that.

But he said: “We have money in the bank and we will just have to wear it. There is no question of anyone not getting paid and no question we will not be back next year. One small consolation is that we had some good acts booked and we should be able to simply rebook them for next time.”

He said people who had booked tickets online would get their money back automatically. Anyone else who had paid for advance tickets could get a refund by sending them back to him. The address is on the show website at www.northyorkshireshow.co.uk/

He said: “It might be a couple of weeks before they get a cheque but they will get a cheque.”

Arrangements were being made to judge local schoolchildren’s entries in the junior arts and crafts competitions in a local hall and distribute the prizes later. But the money and silverware for the livestock competitions at the heart of the show will be put in cold storage for next year.

Two smaller Yorkshire shows, at Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and Eastrington, East Yorkshire, went ahead on Saturday, with some sections cancelled. Yesterday’s would have been the 34th North Yorkshire County Show but it was previously Northallerton Show, which dates back to 1840.