Lynne Mowbray | The running of this year’s Grafton Show, was held under fine conditions, despite heavy showers on the coast. Grafton Show president Rex Green said that the only dampener to this year’s event however came from the drop in crowd numbers. “Our gate takings on Saturday were down $10,000, which I believe was due to other big events being run in Grafton on the same day,” Mr Green said. “The gate takings will usually fluctuate due to floods or wet weather and are usually up during school holidays, but this year there has been a major drop,” he said. During Saturday’s official ceremony, Honorary Life Membership was given to Betty Wilcox who has been a long term exhibitor and steward at the show. “Her main exhibits have been preserves in the pavilion; she has been exhibiting since the early 1960’s. Betty also exhibited poultry for a number of years at Grafton Show,” Mr Green said. “Her preserves were so good that I think she exhibited at the Sydney Royal Easter Show for 50 years. The highlight of her life with the preserves was when she sent 36 jars of preserves to Canada with the Bi-Centennial Exhibition in 1988. So that was a pretty great achievement. “We also gave Carol McDonald life membership for her outstanding contribution to the show over the last several years helping out in the office and taking on both the treasurer’s job as well as secretary’s job in a voluntary capacity. “We also gave Eddie Smith a Certificate of Appreciation [he’s already a life member]. He’s given over 50 year’s service to the show society. He started out in wood chopping and then he moved on to be chief steward of the dairy cattle section and then he moved on to be chief steward of the trotting section until recently,” he said. During the official opening ceremony the Grafton Showgirls were also announced. Elly Shipman of Glenreagh was named Grafton Showgirl for 2018 with runner-up Katelyn Hebbard and Junior Grafton Showgirl was Siobhan Hoy with runner-up Ashleigh Tibbett.