Winter wonderland

Last week, thousands of visitors joined the sunshine and came out in force to enjoy yet another unforgettable Royal Welsh Winter Fair at Builth Wells.

The frosty mornings followed by beautiful, cold and bright winter days added to the seasonal good cheer that flowed through the crowds as they enjoyed what has become over the past 27 years, one of the very finest fatstock shows in Europe.

As always, livestock played centre stage again with strong entries in all sections from across the UK. With the opportunity to get a share of the £25,000+ total prize money on offer and a coveted Winter Fair prize title, the standard of all the exhibits was once gain exceptionally high. The event continues to go from strength to strength and evidence of this year’s growth was the increased number of cattle and pigs, a larger carcass hall to accommodate more competitions and record lamb carcass entries and larger equine marquee.

One of the most prestigious titles to be won, the supreme cattle championship, went to the March 2015 born Tip Top, a Limousin x Charolais steer weighing 640kg, exhibited jointly by Blair Duffton and Rebecca Stuart from Aberdeenshire.

Tip Top was bred in Herefordshire by Colin Phillips and sold to the current owners by McCartneys in their show potential sale in Brecon last year. The steer was later sold for £4,000 to B. & T. Kitson Ltd from North Yorkshire.

Along with the usual packed schedule of competitions, classes and exhibitions the lights, trees, carols and other Christmas celebrations ensured that the two-day fair started the festive season perfectly. The late night shopping evening again saw thousands of visitors browsing and indulging in some Christmas shopping and enjoying the cheerful atmosphere and spectacular firework display. All traders reported an excellent level of sales - some even did such a brisk trade they reported selling out of some products in record time!

Winter Fair honorary director, Will Hanks, remarked: “It makes me extremely proud to see the very best of British livestock, thousands of happy visitors and hundreds of contented traders all together here at Builth. The accomplishment of such a great event is entirely down to a huge team effort.”

Other main championship results:

Baby Beef - Brutus Cheeky Girl, a Limousin cross, bred and exhibited by D. S. and D. A. Brute, Brecon, Powys. Sold for £4,000.

Sheep, pair - a pair of Dutch Texel, bred and exhibited by Robin Slade, Hereford. Sold for £600 per head; carcase, single - a Beltex, exhibited by Mr. Dafydd Lewis, of Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire. Sold for £580; pair - a pair of Beltex, bred and exhibited by Blandford and Sons, Herefordshire.

Pig, single - a Welsh pig, bred and exhibited by D. B. M. and R. C. M. Davies, Lampeter. Sold for £220; pair - a pair Welsh pigs, bred and exhibited by H. D. & E. M. Roberts, Pwllheli. Sold for £400 per head.

Horses, Welsh Cob (Section D) and supreme - John and Beverly Batt, Abergavenny; Welsh Pony Cob type (Section C) - Jones family, Llanarth; Welsh Mountain Pony (Section A) - C. D. Cobley, Pontypool., Welsh Pony (Section B) and reserve supreme- S. Anderson, Bala; Welsh part-bred - Geraint and Jess Hughes, Llangurig; sport horse - Eurig Eynon, Abergavenny.

Memories, just memories

Does anyone, like me, still have that childhood urge to pick up the beautiful horse chestnuts that adorn the country lanes and meadows about now? Going back to school after the long summer holidays in the autumn always heralded feverish scrambling to collect the dark brown gems at the roadside.

I remember it being all very competitive with us boys walking and cycling for miles in the local countryside in the hope of finding a Horse Chestnut tree that the other kids didn’t know about.

We’d stuff our trouser pockets full of them and hurry home to string them up in endless games. A particularly heavy find would sometimes mean carrying them in the upturned front of your jumper with any luck.

Upon finding a tree the ground inspection would begin, after this the large sticks would get thrown up at the branches of the tree in order to dislodge as many more as possible. If possible, one of us would shin up the tree and give the large bows a good shake whereupon the conkers would rain down on us avaricious collectors.

I’m not 10-years-old any more, but I can still hardly resist peeling a couple of conkers from their shells and shining them up. They really are such attractive looking fruits of nature. For this reason, it doesn’t surprise me at all when I hear about ‘conker world championships’ and the like, played by adults. All of us have to remember the child inside ourselves now and again.

Used bootlaces, if you had them, were the order of the day for stringing ‘em up or failing that a poor second of garden twine or household string. We used a screwdriver or a makeshift bradawl of some kind to carefully bore a hole in them before securing them with a double knot. Of course the game was open to skullduggery - ‘Laggies’ as we called them - conkers that were kept from the previous season were almost impossible to break. They were pretty obviously laggies by their wizened and shrunken appearance though so there were usually few takers to play you if you owned one.

More surreptitious was the baking of the conkers in the oven which toughened them up no end and was a treatment difficult to detect by an opponent. Less effective was pickling them in vinegar (are you beginning to understand what a serious business this was?) which toughened the conker, but smelt like a chip shop therefore making detection a real possibility. In actual fact, all these tactics took a lot of fun out of the game and few actually bothered going to those lengths. It was always a game best played with a fresh crop.

Bringing the past to life

In outlining his vision to build on the success of the Year of Adventure 2016 with 2017 focusing on Living Legends, Wales Economy Secretary, Ken Skates, considers: “2017 is about bringing our culture and heritage to the centre of our nation brand and it certainly isn’t about looking backwards!

He says: “The Year of Legends is about bringing the past to life like never before, with cutting-edge innovation. It’s about creating and celebrating new Welsh legends - modern- day personalities, products and events that are made in Wales, or enriched by coming here.

“Our cultural assets will be injected with just as much creativity as we have seen igniting the Adventure sector: with activities that are unmistakably Wales, and internationally outstanding.”

“The Year of Adventure has had a big impact in Wales, and has had the full backing of the tourist industry. As the year comes to a close, North Wales was named by the Lonely Planet as one of the top ten places in the world to visit in 2017 - testimony to the commitment and partnership working between public and private sector to deliver a world class visitor experience.

“In June, Wales will welcome the UEFA Champions League Final to Cardiff - the biggest sporting occasion in the world next year. To maximise this opportunity there will be multi-lingual digital campaigns; experiential installations; and global media coverage, as the scene is set for the other legendary sporting events such as cricketing’s Champions Trophy and golf’s Seniors Open.

“This major, multi-channel, multi-market campaign has already started at last week’s World Travel Market, where it was clear that Wales’s distinct and diverse cultural offer has real potential = combined with Adventure - to take our brand and performance to a new level. Next year, the additional budget of £5m secured for Visit Wales means that funding will be available for international-quality and brand-defining experiences and events.

“A local theme for all locations will be promoted, with activities including meals of local produce prepared by the best chefs of the area, entertainment by Welsh artists, taste of mythology of the area and visits to some of the special attractions and landmarks will be included in the three night stay.”

Living

Your children only get one childhood. Make it memorable.

If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

Envy is a waste of time, You already have all you need.

Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.