BRIGHT and beautiful sunshine attracted around 100,000 people to this year's three-day Kent County Show at Detling, near Maidstone.

Ray Vale, the show's press officer, said: "The weather was exceedingly kind to us and, all in all, it has been a highly successful event."

One weekend visitor, Kent MP Hugh Robertson, urged the public to support the fruit industry and safeguard the Kent landscape for future generations. Mr Robertson, MP for Faversham and Mid-Kent, is the secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Fruit Group.

He was particularly impressed with the standard of the exhibits in the NFU Cherry and Soft Fruit Show despite the adverse wet weather this year.

Mr Robertson said: "It has been a very difficult year for soft fruit growers but the standard in the tent is amazingly high. After some very difficult years it was encouraging to see Marks & Spencer launching the new Jubilee Strawberry. It is entirely British grown. It is a marvellous, sweet tasting strawberry."

The MP said a number of things had made it difficult for soft fruit production over the last few years. These included the strength of the pound, the action of supermarkets in keeping down the price they were prepared to pay growers, and the increased burden of regulations coming from central Government and Brussels.

Yalding farmer Doug Worley won the Champion Basket Challenge Cup in NFU's Cherry and Soft Fruit Show, a show within a show. Mr Worley, 59, of Court Lodge Farm took the prize for his tip-top cherries from last year's winner Brian Piper, of Filmers Farm, Loose, near Maidstone.

In keeping with tradition, Mr Worley's cherries will now be delivered to the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

A trio of workers from the same farming estate in rural Ashford received special awards for their exceptional long service.

Between them the three have 120 years of work stretching back over the decades. to when working the land was one of the toughest tasks imaginable, to Sternberg Farms based at Frenchay Farm, Tenterden.

John Green, 63, with 43 years service, George Harris, 66, with 41, and Bryan Ballard, 62, with 36 years stepped into the main show ring for presentations from show President Lord Kingsdown.

A fourth worker to receive the Kent County Agricultural Society long service award was 64 year-old William Moore, from Burmarsh.

Some early visitors on their way to the event on the first day of the show, on Friday, were held up after a bus and an articulated lorry were in collision on the A249 just outside the showground. The driver of a bus was taken to Maidstone Hospital.

Firefighters were called to sand the road because of diesel spillage. But police said the road was cleared fairly quickly and traffic wasn't badly affected.