Veteran’s return to the show

Having completed 40 years in the role, last year he duly handed over the baton for a new and younger man to take charge, as he was when, as a fresh-faced young man of 33 back in 1970, he took on the job. But a change in employment for the man due to take over led to Peter’s decision to return.

“The show has grown so much over the years and when Alan Tait-Smith moved from Cundalls to the NFU, I felt that it would be better if I stepped back in.”

Cundalls, in Malton, have traditionally provided the manpower for much of the show’s administration.

This doesn’t mean that Peter believes no-one else can run the show. He has delegated over the years to secretaries in each of a dozen different areas. The show now attracts more than 15,000 and is one of Yorkshire’s biggest.

How has the job changed since he took up the reins?

“I had started auctioneering in Kirkbymoorside livestock market in 1968. Alfred Teasdale, a farmer from Beadlam, asked if I’d be interested in becoming the show secretary of Ryedale Show and I said I’d never attended it.

“Then I received a telephone call from another farmer, Arthur Cussons, asking me to a meeting at Low Hagg Farm, Kirkbymoorside. All the committee was there, including some very influential people such as Syd Fairburn, father of Frederick, who is on the show committee today.

“I decided to accept. The show was very small and the main road ran over the bridge that you now cross just to come into the showground. There wasn’t the A170 as it is today. You could get in quite easily with your car. Everything was either hand-written or dealt with over the telephone. Prize money was around a couple of thousand pounds. Today it is up around £30,000.”

One of the biggest changes has been the increased bureaucracy and insurance costs. Every animal must now have paperwork. This has grown so much that other agricultural shows have despaired. Peter reckons the old ways were just as effective.

“You didn’t worry about things like health and safety. You just carried on with what you were doing so long as you applied common sense.

“If you thought something was a bit risky, you made it a bit safer.

“We credited the public with having brains.

“For example, it’s fairly obvious that you shouldn’t walk up to the back of an animal because there is a risk you might get kicked. We haven’t had a problem in all the 40 years I’ve been involved and none of that has been down to legislation, it’s still common sense.”

When health and safety started becoming a priority Ryedale Show grabbed a copy of another show’s rules and applied it to theirs. Peter has a degree of disdain for its contents even now.

“One of the things you’re meant to put into your own rules is to say what you would do if some event occurs. And one of the daftest things is where you have to put what you would do if a tree was struck by lightning.

“The person who gave us their show’s health and safety rules just wrote ‘PRAY’. We put exactly the same in ours and no-one has ever queried it. There’s not a lot you can do if it happens apart from hope that you’re not under it at the time.”

Insurance costs were negligible years ago. Now they stand at around £700. The show has always received some form of cover through the horses, as the British Show Jumping Association automatically insures the show each year.

Ryedale Show is heading for another bumper year of entries in cattle, sheep and horses with more than 200 cattle entries, more than 1,000 sheep and 1,200 horse entries.

“This area is no longer the dairy farming area it once was, so we’re lucky to get whatever we get in the dairy section, but there has been a renaissance on breeds such as the Beef Shorthorn in recent times.

“We have always been a strong sheep show and we also have 35 pigs this year. The horses would take over the whole showground if you let them. I’ve told them that if they want any more sections they will have to lose one rather than adding more on top. We’re bursting at the seams.”

Years ago, show-jumping personalities such as Harvey Smith, the Fletchers of Thirsk and the Whitakers would regularly attend the show and compete.

That’s one aspect of the show which has now gone. Peter didn’t give them any more preferential treatment than any other competitor though.

“They all wanted it. They would try to get in after the deadline but I would tell them that it didn’t matter what their name was or who they were, if they were not in the catalogue, they couldn’t come.”

The strength of the show is still in the community spirit. “The show has changed in the past 40 years but not as much as you might think.

“We still have people turning up to help knock in stakes and whatever else needs doing. Frank Flintoft, who everyone knew as Uncle Frank, passed away last year in his 90s, and he was still helping.”

The new man at the helm of Cundalls, Tom Watson, has volunteered to be secretary for 2012. Peter says he’ll still be here.

Ryedale Show at Welburn Hall, a mile east of Kirkbymoorside, Tuesday July 26. www.ryedaleshow.org.uk