Mountaineering club heads into battle – with flowers
Guernsey Mountaineering Club is venturing into a new place on Thursday – the Battle of Flowers arena.
The two-day North Show gets under way today and will culminate in the Battle of Flowers and fireworks tomorrow.
For the first time the club has made a float to enter into this year’s competition, although, said social secretary Stephanie Porter, it was quite a modest first attempt being built by seven members.
‘It’s only a small float because we’re just finding our feet,’ she said.
The club is entering into the recycling class and is making use of cardboard coffee cup holders to simulate a rock face.
‘It’s called “Chaos on the Cliffs”,’ said Mrs Porter.
‘Because we’re in the green class it’s going to be a pull-along float. It will have paper flowers, but there won’t be a huge amount.’
She said that the club had secured some sponsorship at the start of the year from the Skipton Community Fund to keep its junior section running and the battle entry was part of a move to raise the group's profile.
‘The children will be helping on the day and they’ll be kitted out in climbing gear.’
North Show manager Josh Cottan-Gabriel said that the total number of floats entered this year had fallen a bit on the previous year.
‘There’s a few less than previous years which is a general trend we’ve been noticing over the last 10 years, which is because of the cost of materials,’ he said.
Northern Agricultural & Horticultural Society president Emma Sarre said that sometimes families who had put in a float several years in succession would take a year off, which affected the numbers.
‘But we still have a good lot of entries,’ she added.
The show has plenty of things for families to see and get involved in, aside from seeing the vast array of produce and livestock on display.
There are free bouncy castles for the youngsters and there will also be a vintage chair-o-plane and a monster climbing wall.
Arena events feature a motorcycle stunt team, a BMX stunt team and a display of falconry.
Music will feature in the evenings in the beer tent on both days.
The North Show gets under way at Saumarez Park today, opening at 10am with the horse and livestock classes in the arena.
There will then be entertainment throughout the afternoon.
The show tomorrow will also open at 10am and the Battle of Flowers starts at 2.15pm.
n Admission is £7 for adults and £5 for 12-18-year-olds today, £9 and £6 tomorrow, or £10 for adults and £7 for OAPs and the 12-18s for a two-day ticket.
