THE COLL SHOW

The second big ritual of Coll society is the annual Agricultural and Horticultural Show, now well into its seventy-fourth year, so with a tradition of its own.

In the morning the competitors went down to the Hall to make their entries, whether it be pets, sheep, baking, vegetables, pictures, knitting, jam and this year pottery has been added.

The centre table was indeed piled with the most wonderful goodies. Tammie's pots were lovely. The Coll children had done some most artistic collages in coloured spaghetti. The pictures reflected the adopted island culture, birds, birds and more birds, corncrakes on their nests galore.

The vegetable table was also a sight! There was a cabbage the size of a pumpkin! The mixture of seaweed feed, slurry and rich soil produces fantastic results.

Susan has entered wild flowers, a sponge cake and of course The Yorkies, now both almost geriatric and complete outsiders in the pet section.

In the line up for the 'best kept pet' there was a complete assortment of entries - two ponies, (Lavinia's white one had a plaited tail ), a cockerel, lots of dogs and a hedgehog! Predictably, the Yorkshire terriers got nowhere.

The Mother's Commitee ran a side stall. It was for throwing bean bags through the mouth of a clown 15 yards away. I felt persuaded to buy one pound's worth of bean bags to support the children and got ten bags through the mouth, graduating as the Coll Bean Bag Champion of the afternoon!

The BBC cameras were at the Show covering Coll as Corncrake Island and took miles of video. I dread them showing the beanbag champion in the final programme. They had yards of the hedgehog pet even though it didn't win a prize.

Convener Angus MacFarlane and Secretary Alison Fraser were both away, but the show still went on. Alan Brodie stood in as Convener and his wife Catriona gave the prizes. She won the two key cups herself. Alexander Bristol won the running cup.

The Show has a fantastic momentum all of its own. There was a record number of entries. An accordionist played stirring music all afternoon. There was a tent and bar open, good weather and lots of Japanese visitors on a course from the Hebridean Centre. One told me he had a British computer.

That evening there was the traditional football match against Tiree, which Coll won 3 - 0 despite a shipload of Tiree supporters.

That night we had the Show Dance which went on 'til 1.30 am. We took home 3 Tiree refugees, a farming family, supporters to the match but with no digs in Coll. We had to get them back on to the pier for 9.00am sharp on Saturday morning.

COLL SHOW RESULTS 1994

HANDICRAFT CUP - Mrs Chrissie MacKinnon.
HORTICULTURE CUP - Catriona Brodie
INDUSTRIAL CHALLENGE CUP (Most Firsts) - Mrs Colleen Stove
INDUSTRIAL CHALLENGE CUP (Most points) - Mrs Colleen Stove
SCONES AND PANCAKES CUP - Mrs Brodie
FIONA CUP (Best Blackface Sheep) - Colin Kennedy
KENNETH CUP (Most points Blackface) - Colin Kennedy
SAME TANKARD (Best Cross -Bred sheep) - Allan Brodie.
BINNIE TROPHY (Best Tup Lamb) - Neil Kennedy.
ROAD RACE - Alexander Bristol
BEST KEPT PET SHIELD - Jessica Bell
BEST COLLIE SHIELD - Beth.
COLL CHILDREN'S TROPHY - Ruth Mackie
VISITING CHILDREN'S SHIELD - David Stevenson
CHILDREN'S SPORTS TROPHY - Lawrie Neil Porrelli