Littlehampton Town Show still blooms despite dip in numbers

Thankfully, the infamous invader from Doctor Who didn’t exterminate the show’s ability to pull in competitors, with the event recording one of its best turn-outs in its 23-year history.

This year, a total of 651 entries, from 128 exhibitors joined the action, at Rosemead Open Space, with 38 entries coming from children and 26 exhibitors being new additions to the event.

And although slightly down from 2013’s numbers, It was something that certainly didn’t worry the show’s manager, Alan Humphrey on the day.

He said: “Last year, we had more than 760 entries, which was an absolute all-time record. So we are certainly not disappointed with the numbers this year. It has returned to normal levels.

“The quality of entries was a really high standard and we were very impressed.”

A selection of floral classes saw an boost in numbers.

However, vegetable entries dipped this year, with Alan saying that this could have been due to produce maturing earlier this season.

Despite this, fruit entries were similar to last year, as were the number of handicraft displays.

Children’s classes showed a significant fall, along with a decline in domestic results.

Alan added that community entries continued to struggle, but stressed that the committee would be working on ways of changing this.

“The purpose of this category is for any club or society, regardless of age, to work together to produce exhibits,” he said.

For the full results, see this week’s Gazette (Thursday, September 18).