The planning for this years event, started in early January, when five members of the Cats Protection sub committee met, over a cup of coffee, and decided to go ahead with this years event, hoping that it would be bigger and better than last year. There was an awful lot of work to do. The date was set for Saturday May 14th, the same weekend as last year, cup final day.

    There was a whole lot of animal related charities, in the South West, to invite, in the hope that they would attend, plus seeking help from local company's. in the way of sponsorship, and assistance with equipment, some of which, showed great generosity, in suppling quality prizes for our raffle, and equipment, that was desperately needed.
 
    The last week, before the event, arrived to quickly, with still an awful amount to do,there was road signs to put up, leaflets to deliver, people to visit, it was all a bit of a rush, but somehow it got done. The Friday, previous to the event, the area at Par recreational ground had to be prepared, the stall areas had to be marked out and numbered, also last minute negotiations with the local A T C group, who were this year responsible for the parking etc. It was remarked later, that they had done an excellent job, and were very polite, and looked very smart, and therefore a credit to themselves, and for all the young people who attend the cadet corp.

   Saturday morning, duly arrived, it was an early start for some of us, numbering pitches, setting up the display ring, and many gazebo's, were needed to be erected, no mean feat, in the strong wind. Many thanks are required to Par Community Ass., Mike Freemantle, and others for the loan of some of the gazebo's.

    The mini fun fair arrived, and started to set themselves up, there was a little disappointment here as they had seem to have had a few breakdowns etc., and therefore unable to supply the number of rides and slides, that we would have liked, to keep the children occupied.The catering vans also arrived, and set up, bless, at least we could get a cup of tea. Best of all, a good number of animal charaties were turning up, and busy setting up their stalls. By around 11.30 am, it was declared, that we were as ready as we were ever going to be. Just before 12 midday the first members of the public started to arrive, and at 12 noon, Peter Hepburn, Chief Excutive of Cats Protection, officially opened the show, and proceedings got under way.

  There was a dog show, which is always a big attraction, that was running throughout the afternoon, in the display ring, interjected with superb displays from 1225 Sqn. St Austell & District ATC, Corp of Drums, the amazing Dr Juggle and Mr Hyde, who gave us a display of juggling with balls and knives, then proceeded onto fire eating, a spectacular performance that all seemed to enjoy, then there was the Falconer, who returned again this year by public demand, to enthral us with his superb flying displays, of falcons, plus hands on demonstrations involving falcons and a beutiful owl.

    Along with the Cats Protection stalls, of the usual tombola, games, home made cakes, preserves, bric-a-brac, plants, and books etc., there was a cat in a basket, on display, causing a few people to jump, and a large cat and kitten, walking around, with a collection bucket, ready to pose for pictures with various members of the public, and some very fascinated chilcren.

    Along with the CP stalls, there were stalls representing, the PDSA, the RSPCA, the British Hen Welfare Trust, the Labrador Trust, Maria's Animal Shelter, the Greyhound Trust, the South West Equine Trust, Waifs and Strays Animal Sanctuary, the Monkey Sanctuary, Whit River Cats, Cliff Penrose, with his lovely collection of Rabbits, plus many more supporting stalls.

    The afternoon went like clockwork, the sun managed to keep shining, but we had a fair wind blowing across the field, but we seem to soldier on regardless, even Brenda, our branch co-ordinator sat firm, selling raffle tickets, and still managed to keep smiling, even though her gazebo had collapsed around her due to the strong winds.

    As it aproached 5pm, the afternoon started to slow up, as people started to drift away. It was time to start the big pack away. as always, the tidy up seem to go smoothly and quickly, and in 30 minutes most of the stalls had already disappeared.

    On a quick calculation, it appeared that we were down on numbers this year, which seemed a bit of a shame seeing the amount of work that was involved in the setting up and running of the event. The reason for this, we are not sure at the moment, but it could be due to the present financial climate, or the fact that there were other events running that day, that were only a few miles away. It was also Cup Final day, but that was the same as last year, but never mind, we must be positive about what we had achieved.

    Will we run it again next year? I don't know, we will have to wait and see, maybe there are some more younger people out there, that are willing to take it on.

                 Colin Gibbs (One member of the Fund Raising team, St Austell CP.)