Tracks, hounds, and models among new attractions

Press, 26 October 1984, Page 25

Tracks, hounds, and models among new attractions

Trucks, hounds and models are among the new attractions introduced for the 107th Ashburton Agricultural and Pastoral Association Show. Three of Ashburton’s rural transport firms — Burnetts, Lyttles and McCormicks — will be vying for a trophy at 3.50 p.m. on Saturday in the main ring. Each team will comprise two drivers who will display for the judges, and the public, their skills in manoeuvering an articulated truck. Visitors this year may be able to detect the bay of hounds among the usual show-time noises. Some hounds used by the Christchurch Hunt will be on show near the ring, and tomorrow, as time and space in. the programme permits, they will be run as a pack in the ring. Today, garments in a new section, the “Make and Model,” will be judged, and

tomorrow, at about 3 p.m., the garments will be modelled before the grandstand for the final judging. If the trade exhibits look even more spruced up than usual this year, it is because entrants there are vying for a new trophy. The trophy has been given by this year’s committee and it is to be judged by two immediate past presidents. The winner is to be announced tomorrow afternoon, and it is planned that it become an annual event.

The grand parade tomorrow is scheduled for 2.30 p.m., and following that will be the Prince Philip Games for the ponies, and the dog trials. A feature among the usual horse events this year is the Royal Agricultural Society’s silver medal, which is to be presented for the supreme champion hack. About every five years, associations are given the medal by the society and it is up to the society to

decide in which field it will be presented. For equestrian enthusiasts, the place to be tomorrow afternoon will be the grandstand, from where the Ashburton Licensing Trust jumping competition can be viewed in the main ring.

The trust has given $5OO towards this A grade jumping competition, in which points can be earned in the New Zealand Horse Society prix-points prize circuit. Another interesting display is expected again this year beneath the older grandstand, which has become the site for craft displays.

Exhibits or exhibitors there this year are the Foundation for the Blind, canework by the 1.H.C., leather painting, corn dollies, ornamental horn work, the Black and White Sheep Society, wool felting, pottery, spinning and weaving.