The Show will go on

BATTERED: Ray Beale surveys just part of the enormous damage caused to trees surrounding the picturesque Clareville Showgrounds in this week's gale force winds. PHOTOS/LYNDA FERINGA

Mother Nature has dealt a cruel blow to Clareville Showgrounds in the lead-up to the Wairarapa A&P show but show staff, members and volunteers have banded together to clean up an incredible mess left behind from gales earlier this week.

Dozens of mature lawsoniana, gums, silver birch and a specimen liquid amber were wrenched from the ground when the ferocious winds cut a swathe through the showgrounds on Monday.

Showgrounds manager Ray Beale said the showgrounds had been "looking a picture" and everything was on target for the annual three-day show which starts on November 1 with the night show.

He said damage was far greater than in early September when gales lashed Wairarapa in what many people said then was the worst storm since Wahine Day, April 10, 1968.

Not only were trees toppled and fences blown over but power was lost (only restored at midday yesterday) and phones cut.

Yesterday staff had to catch up on 64 answer phone calls.

But, for all the disruption, the show will go on, thanks to the efforts of staff, members and volunteers who quickly responded. Gray's Contractors of Carterton dispatched volunteer staff and equipment to the showgrounds and have been beavering away, moving mountains of debris and generally cleaning up the site, and members arrived with chain saws to help out.

Trees that had been standing unmolested along the driveway for 40 years had been wrenched from the soil, toppled and scattered like nine pins on the grassed areas.

Show supporters have given replacement young trees too, but Mr Beale said it was not likely they would be planted out until next autumn, to give them the best growth possibilities.

Meanwhile entries for the show are being solicited, despite Mr Beale saying that being without a working computer for a couple of days had been like losing his right arm.

"Entries are now coming in and it is shaping up to be a really good show."

He said the only "positive" to come from the storm was that it hadn't struck on show day.