Port Fairy laps up the weather and some showtime fun

THE heat was on but the wool was off at the Port Fairy Agricultural Show on Saturday.Sheep ditched their winter coats during the show's shearing competition while youngsters got up close to the less-than-agricultural snakes in the interactive reptile enclosure. Port Fairy Agricultural, Pastoral and Horticultural Society secretary Pauline Sherrifs said show attendance figures were down on last year's record gate-takings but crowd numbers were far stronger than they were earlier in the decade."What we have found is that crowd numbers are always quite strong if the show falls on the Saturday before the Melbourne Cup on a Tuesday, which didn't happen this year," Mrs Sherrifs told The Standard yesterday."That is because you get a lot of people coming down to Port Fairy for a four-day weekend and last year we had a lot of city people at the showgrounds interested in having a look."From what I could see, and by all reports from others, there were a lot of local people from the town and surrounding district supporting the show this year."The mercury peaked at 32 degrees on show day, replicating the perfect conditions experienced at last year's Port Fairy Show. In 2007, the show was washed out when unseasonal stormy weather forced the cancellation of many show events."The weather was absolutely perfect," Mrs Sherrifs said. "I did see some people get sunburnt, but it was that great November weather you'd expect at the Port Fairy Show."Self-titled "chainsaw chick" Angela Polgaze wowed show-goers with her unique artistic flair. She crafted a pelican out of timber as well as a perched owl. Broadwater farmers Terry and Luke Rowbottom demonstrated various shearing techniques and a miniature goat display kept the show's agricultural focus strong, while support from district farmers ensured entries in the poultry, cattle and sheep displays remained strong.She said entries in cookery and home crafts were also of a high standard."We had one gentlemen from Castlemaine mail his preserves to us to enter in the show," she said."People take their particular show interests very seriously and work hard all year to get the best out of what they have."