This Is Guernsey

By Simon Tostevin

Brenda Sweet with great-niece Ashley, 11, and great-nephew Olliver Brehaut, 6. The pair are following in the footsteps of Ms Sweet who has been competing in the North Show for more than 40 years. (Picture by Frankland, 0623699)

NORTH SHOW regular Brenda Sweet is hoping for more success with her fruit, cake and flower entries at this year’s event.She has been taking part in the show’s competitions for more than 40 years and used to put in a host of entries with her late mother and father Marie and Owen.

The number of entries she now manages is about 30 a year, but at one time along with her mother, the pair would put in about 130.

But this time around she is spending much of her time encouraging her great-niece Ashley Brehaut, 11, and great-nephew Olliver Brehaut, 6, to take part.

Between them they have about 20 entries in the competitions at the show, which begins on Wednesday.

‘Hopefully, the pair will carry on putting entries in after this year.

‘Ashley did some last year but this is Olliver’s first time.

‘The trouble is that when they get to teenage years, they don’t carry on for one reason or another.’

Ms Sweet said she never saw a reason to stop, apart from a short while when she was living in the Isle of Man.

‘There is the satisfaction of winning something and I just enjoy the competition.

‘When it’s show time, I always say I won’t do as much because it takes up so much time but I will probably end up doing more because you get excited when you have been doing it for so many years. It’s just a way of life.’

But she does admit to some fears about the future of the North Show and other events like it.

‘I think everyone wants the shows to continue but they have to realise that these events need the public to participate and set them all up.

‘It’s a big commitment if you are on these committees and I don’t know who is going to carry them on in a few years’ time.’

But on a positive note, she did see the number of entries pick up last year after a steady decline since the turn of the century.

Ashley was looking forward to Wednesday and finding out how her entries, which include flowers, poetry and story writing, will get on.

‘I think I have the best chance of winning for my flower arrangement and my poem.’

Article posted on 18th August, 2008 - 2.29pm