April 30th, 2024Agricultural show winners shine at Daylesford
A total of 84 regional show winners displayed their winning pavilion entries from the regional shows of 2023 at the Daylesford Bulldogs Pavilion at Victoria Park Showgrounds on Friday, March 22.
Over 80 guests representing Ballarat, Beaufort, Castlemaine, Clunes, Daylesford, Kingston and Maldon shows gathered with their winning entries from last year, or copies in most of the cooking sections, to compete at inter-show level.
There were only four entrants in the Rural Ambassadors and Junior Show Ambassadors this year, and no Daylesford entrant, but Caitlin Grieve, Matilda Smith, Haileigh Buttigieg and Sienna Grant representing Ballarat and Beaufort show societies impressed the audience with their ability to present themselves in public and speak favourably about the benefits of agricultural shows in country communities.
Special thanks to judges Tim Bach and Margaret Hodge for their help and expertise on the afternoon and evening.
We were very pleased to have three Daylesford winners at this level – Ruth Little in Knitting, Trish Barron in Embroidery and Pam Sheean in Photography – and these exhibits have qualified to be shown and compete at the Melbourne Royal Show in September.
At Midlands Group level, but not going on, we had one winner, Susie Wyatt for her best five Plain Scones, with second places to Janet MacDonald in Photography, Jeff Stewart in the Men’s Chocolate Cake and Zac Olifant in the Decorated Cup Cakes 10-16 age group.
Although Daylesford was not represented in the Fleece sections this year there were a total of 10 Merino fleeces shown and special thanks go to Zoetis, who provided the generous prizes in these sections and the Ram and Ewe of the Year winners.
As well as the Junior Ambassadors those present were able to hear an excellent presentation from our own Daylesford Committee member Janet MacDonald of Fairburn Stud in Porcupine Ridge on the 150-year history of the Daylesford and District Agricultural Society as it prepares to present the 150th Annual Daylesford and District Agricultural Show on Saturday, November 23 this year.
Daylesford president Don Harvey spoke very briefly on the joys of competing at agricultural shows while Group president, Peter Clarke of Clunes, thanked everybody for their attendance and for bringing their winning entries to the Group Level to compete again. Master of Ceremonies on the evening was another Daylesford committee member, Donna O’Mara of Glenlyon.
Mr Harvey said he would like to thank everybody who worked so long and hard to make the evening a success.
“Every member of the committee put many hours of work into making the evening a great success. There were a number of sponsors on the evening who gave generous assistance, but we must acknowledge the generous contribution of Gary Thomas of Spade To Blade whose food gained universal acclaim.”
Words & image: Contributed
