144th Maberly Fair
The sun shone on the Maberly Fair, which is not that unusual an occurrence over the 144 -year history of the fair, but in the wet end of a wet summer, it seemed like Saturday was the only rain free day in several weeks.
“We call ourselves the best little one-day fair and that was proven to be true,“ Fair Secretary Vietta McCinnis in her annual post fair media release. “Our Light Horse Show had an overwhelming number of entries at 19 and we wondered where we would put them. The ring was always full. Our horse draw had 24 teams hitch up, and our sheep show and auction at 4 pm drew huge crowds.”
The Zuchinni races, which were a novelty event when it started in 2009, is now a main event in its 18th season. It now starts in early in the fair at the zuchinni vehicle construction table, which turns into a pit stop/ emergency repair centre once the races get underway, and by the time the races begin at 1:30, the contestants are more the ready to roll. Each zuchinni races at least twice, before the time trials, hence the need for repairs. This year the time trial produced a tie, at 2.16 seconds, so a showdown between the two fastest squashes settled the matter. The winner, Danny, beat Walter (who looked a lot like Bill Avery) took home the $25 jackpot. Next year – chip timing!
A shout out is due for the musicians who graced the fair stage throughout most of the day
See below for Vietta Mcinnis list of winners in various fair categories
The overall winner of our sheep show was Emma McEllan. For the 2nd year in a row, we had an antique car show and had a record number of vehicles show up. Our poultry barn was full with the overall winner being Sarah Snider. Of course, our famous zucchini race was a run-away success. Marlene Ambler took overall points for all her exhibits entered. Linda Lake was the winner of the machine quilt and will now go on to compete at District Level.
As well Gordon Patterson for syrup and Annelle Lalonde with her honey will compete at District level. Greg Hickey from Almonte took home the Carl Ferguson trophy for overall points in hay, grain and vegetables.
Kassidy Hutt took home the Dave & Carmel Parks award for overall youth achievement.
Winners in other categories were: Flowers Sandra Hannah, Cattle Brooklyn James, Hay and Grains Eric Duncan, Photography Amber Rabaca, Fruit Janet McCullock, Junior Gardener Poppy Adams, Antiques Elva Patterson-Rutters and Baking Robyn Crawford.
Our furthest travelled came from Vancouver and we had from age 97 to 2 months attend the fair. The District presented a volunteer youth award in honour of a young person who excels at volunteering and this year it was won by Ayden Peterson. Congratulations to all our winners.
A huge thank you goes out to all our volunteers as we could not do this without you. Thank you to everyone for attending and participating. Thank you, thank you, thank you
