"This year's Show started and finished in the dark, but in between was very enjoyable for both Exhibitors and Committee.  We aim to be a friendly Club and we like our Show to be the same with a good atmosphere making a good day for everyone.  We had 500 pedigree cats, 9 household pets and 2 cats on exhibition. As always there were plenty of stalls for Exhibitors to browse including our own welfare stall which collected much needed cash to help those unfortunate cats whose owners don't love them as much as all our Exhibitors love theirs!

I had many compliments this year during vetting in. We had the services of 9 Vets  which certainly helped make the task of vetting in go remarkably smoothly and  quickly. All cats were in their pens  shortly after 9.30am. I would like to thank all Vets for their time and Mary Bridge in particular for being our Duty Vet for the day.

Our Exhibition pens were superbly decorated;  Mr L Hooton won the NDDC trophy for the best decorated pen at the Supreme Show with a fabulous cartoon-based pen.  Mrs S Plaw was a very close second with her football mad boy, the wonderful IGRPR Rainsong Stevie Gerrard. Many people admired both the pens and the cats.

This year we did not have rosettes for Miscellaneous Classes but decided to have a lucky prize draw instead. Every 25 pens were eligible for a lucky prize draw of £15. We also had an overall draw with a 1st prize of £200, 2nd prize of £100 and 3rd prize of £50. Most Exhibitors seemed pleased to have the opportunity of winning cash instead of rosettes.  We continued with our tradition of having  NDCC Special Trophy Classes where the winner of each of these classes were given an engraved goblet to keep in perpetuity, which seems to be appreciated by the members.

It was nice to see again this year all the NDCC trophies in their splendour. Our new Cup Secretary, Katie Hewitt, coped very well with her first Show and about 100 trophies were taken home on the day. The hall was very ably managed again by Bill Buxton and all the Committee worked really hard throughout the day. Our Show Managers, Beryl Rawnsley and Judy Walsh, assisted by Mary Uzupa made sure that everything ran smoothly and all problems were soon ironed out.  Beryl, Judy and Mary wish to thank all the Judges, Stewards, Vets, Committee and helpers for all their hard work. I would particularly like to thank Stuart Anderson whose help made the LH &SLH Section run like clockwork. We were all rewarded for our efforts by a splendid lunch. It was unfortunate that we still had work to do in the afternoon!

Harvey Hadden Stadium is an excellent venue for exhibitors as it is all on one level. It also has a very good cafe where the food is not only good but also reasonably priced. There is also plenty of seating; something Exhibitors need during a long day. We sincerely hope that all the Exhibitors enjoyed their day and that we will see you all again at next years show.

A special thankyou to my husband, Pat Hardy, who took some superb photographs on the day. Some are included below. If any of you cats would like a copy of your picture, please ask your owner to contact Mr Hardy and he will do his best to oblige."

Maureen Hardy

NDCC Committee