Hi Ingrid,
I'm dead against the show being moved any further north.
Living in Devon it's a real struggle as it is for me to get to shows and the shortest distance I have at the moment is over 1½ hours!
Most of the shows (both Tica and GCCF) are already up north.
Surely along the line of the M4 IS already central enough?
This showing season, (from June 08 till May 09), out of the GCCF All Breed Championship Shows, including the Bengal breed shows, there are at present: -
23 north of the M4 (and 12 of these are along a very rough line between Liverpool and Birmingham)
7 south of the M4
9 just off the M4 (Swindon, Newbury, Reading, Bracknell, Thornbury)
7 north of the M4 in the East of England
3 south of the M4 in the South East (around Kent)
This is just a rough totting up of the GCCF shows but it seems quite clear where most of the shows are already and even the BCCGB have moved one of their shows to Telford!
I haven't seen this years BCC catalogue yet but I note from last years that most of the entrants were from the south of Birmingham, although I'm quite aware that is might have been because of the proximity of the show! I can't see that moving the show is going to increase the number of entrants as it will just be a case of swings and roundabouts - loosing some southern entries and gaining some northern entries. And of course there is also competition of the Gwynedd and the Chester & N Wales shows clashing. OR, are we talking about moving the date as well??
I think a postal vote amongst members would be the fairest way to decide - one vote per household.
Personally, I’d like the show to be moved to Barnstaple - no chance of that I suppose???!!!
Annie