Our prophecy last year that we would soon reach the far end of the field came true in 2011 as the addition of a fence across part of the field splitting it effectively 60:40 meant that we were forced into moving the show up field. With there being only one vehicle access into the far end of the field, it was considered too risky to have vehicles moving between both parts of the field throughout the weekend. This decision was borne out by the heavy rain on Saturday, which saw a few day exhibitors in need of a tow out of the field.

Last year’s layout was tweaked a little to fit the new area with the main change being the commercials started off near the exhibitors entrance and ran across the far end of the field, and the theme, this year a little bit of everything relating to the early 1960s, was redeployed close to the classic cars so the steward could look after both sections simultaneously.

One aspect I did think worked well was the tractors aligned at a slight angle to each other in their rows. As remarked at Belvoir when talking of the commercials, this does give a slightly different aspect and aids photography a little. I think the standard of entries was better this year with a good variety of makes and models, and less off-farm condition entries. The Holbeach Marsh Machinery Club ran their own little theme of 1960s potato planters and tractors.

The horticultural section was very well supported with a vast variety of machinery from Anzani to Yanmar, not quite the A-Z but close. With examples of Lanz, David Brown, Gunsmith, Ransomes, Trusty, Trojan, Wrigley, Garner, Clifford, various lawnmowers as well as several different sets of hand tools, Wrights of Holbeach push-hoes and seed drills, this was an excellent display.

The stationary engines were also well attended with several new faces this year. The welcome addition of a Lincolnshire-built Blackstone was much appreciated, as were several open-crank Rustons and the rare Waugh & Josephson, an Australian-built copy of a Fuller & Johnson. We supplied another rare but perhaps less desirable air-cooled engine for the 1960s display, a Browett & Lindley, these being later versions of Coburn engines after the company was taken over by B&L. Elsewhere Lister A, B, D & L, Petter A, M & W1H, Wolseley WDII and Ruston PB & PT made up the remainder of the line.

Jim judged his lorry space to perfection this year, with a constant of run of vehicles made up of AEC, Atkinson, Leyland, Volvo, Bedford, Ford, Seddon Atkinson, Austin, Morris, ERF, Dodge and Dennis, plus Humber & Willys military vehicles. The classic camper section included Bedford, Volkswagon, Toyota, Rangerover and Ford. Cars included Ford, MG, Rover, Standard, Austin, Morris, Jaguar, Lotus, Vauxhall, Wolseley, Riley, Triumph, Sunbeam, Daimler, Hillman, Mercedes-Benz, Humber, Alvis and two types of London taxicab.

The steam section saw two full-size and 4-5 miniature steam attend over the weekend. The motorcycle compound was also just about big enough for all those that turned up, and the classic caravans were joined by Gordon Boswell’s horse-drawn gypsy caravan on Sunday. Ring entertainment included a dog agility display and the Spalding Ambassadors Marching Band who I personally think are good value, but the corn harvesting demo of International binder alongside the brand new state-of-the-art John Deere combine unfortunately couldn’t happen on the day. The Kingfisher Model Boat Club were joined by a number of other model exhibitors. Thanks go to AJ King for the continued use of the show-field and we hope to see you all back again.