of the 57th Agricultural Exhibition.

Show treasurer Mrs. Diane Saunders said she was amazed at the number of people who attended in the awful conditions.

Saturday's turn-out meant the overall attendance at the three-day exhibition was only down by 1,500 on last year's figure.

A total of 14,300 attended between Thursday and Saturday, with the highest number, 7,337, attending on Friday.

Mrs. Saunders said: "We were about 700 up on last year over the first two days which had glorious weather. We were expecting a real bumper show on Saturday.

"In the morning I definitely thought they would be thinking about cancelling the show, but the weather improved at lunchtime and then it started to rain again.

"Our wet and bedraggled volunteers did sterling work. They were at the gates from 8 a.m. in torrential rain and stayed there until the end of the day.

"I could not believe I was counting these sopping wet tickets but it was amazing the numbers that came in.'' Only two events were cancelled, both in the show jumping section, because the slippery ground was thought to be too dangerous.

But everything else went ahead, including performances by the Bermuda Regiment Band and the Chinese Acrobats, who found their wet stage a little treacherous at times.

The acrobats were praised for continuing their act by Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Parks, Mr. John Barnes.