Crowded cattle parade

Press, 13 November 1981, Page 8

Crowded cattle parade

Addington Show Grounds looked like the Auckland Harbour Bridge at rush hour during the cattle parade yesterday. Lanes of animals paraded up and down, usually in orderly fashion, with C. H. Green -and sons’ Glenmore Alberta leading the Ayrshire section and Mrs G. M. Burrows’ Beechwood Quite Able, winner of the Meat and Wool Cup for the best registered purebred beef animal, at the head of the Herefords. The only animal to misbehave was a calf which broke away from its young pig-tailed handler' and refused to return despite the urgings of its distraught owner. Before and after the main parade the St Andrew’s College Pipe Band gave a polished performance to an appreciative audience. Chris King, a stuntman for television and films, very

nearly had his finale ruined when the flaming obstacle he was to ride his motor-cycle through started to die. A pail of petrol thrown by one of the attendants when the cycle was 20 metres from the ramp made sure the stuntman was heading for an inferno. For the first time north of the Waitaki River, Mr George Innes showed the prowess of his two dogs in rounding up and guiding three turkeys through a series of obstacles. The polo match, which was played later in the afternoon, was upstaged somewhat by Patrick, a five-year-old donkey with an obvious ambition to be a polo pony. During a display organised by the Donkey Breeds Society, Patrick came trotting on to the paddock with a polo player in uniform on his back. If it were not for stirrups the rider could have put his feet on the ground.