THIS year's Royal Three Counties Show proved to be a winner in the summer sunshine. More than 97,000 visitors attended the three day event on the showground at Malvern, about 1,000 above the organiser's hoped-for figure and considerably better than the last two years, which were dogged by rain.

Show communications officer Sharon Gilbert said: "We were delighted with how the Royal Three Counties turned out. The show is clearly going from strength to strength and this year’s event was a real success. Livestock entries were at an all-time record high with almost 1,000 cattle alone on site.

"Undoubtedly the fine weather helped, but we have now established the show as one of the major attractions in the agricultural year. For example this year we hosted the Burke Trophy, the FA Cup of the beef cattle world, for the first time, but we have managed that without losing our appeal to families and the general public, which is very important for footfall figures."