Again a very enjoyable occasion, packed with great excitement for all the family. 

As in previous years the success of the 2005 show is credited to many people, this year we greatly missed the tenacity of our Chief Executive Mr Nicholas Wood-Dow who took a year out to focus on other commitments; so filling in for him raising the required sponsorship was an a very tough act to follow, these vital funds make it possible to finance the event each year. Thrifty control of the budget was once again applied to maximise our profit potential.  We welcome Nick back onboard with warm enthusiasm all round for 2006. Thanks to John Bonnett our Show Manger and Treasurer who continued working long hours and very hard planning and setting up the show ground, John is the lynch pin of the show.

Each show takes months of planning; this was achieved by section organisers and volunteers sacrificing much free time to insure its continued success. To all the committee and volunteers, both individual and collective, my sincere thanks for continued dedication and support.  Special thanks must go to the Surrey Scout radio team for their work in the car park.

Most importantly our gratitude to all Egham Royal Shows sponsors, especially Procter & Gamble, Brian Perry and his team again provided financial support but also provided us with many invaluable facilities from their adjacent Whitehall Lane headquarters. Many thanks to all our other sponsors: Royal Holloway College, The Runnymede Hotel & Spa, Group, Gartner,  Nevin & Wright Estate Agents, Wentworth Club, Mr & Mrs Dennis, and many more.

The Egham Royal Show would like to thank Runnymede Borough Council for allowing us the use of Caddey’s Field again in 2005 and for continuing to be extremely supportive.

On behalf of the Show we thank local residents for their cooperation, patience and understanding in light of any inconvenienced caused during the staging of the 2005 show.

Once again the show was full of exciting attractions and activities.  A great variety of rural back to basic roots entertainment including the long awaited return of the pigs and cattle complimenting the sheep and poultry, birds of prey, gun dog trials and sheep dog display with the last minute withdrawal of the Bournemouth carnival Band I thank Paul Turney for pulling off booking the strong man act at 4.30pm the day before the show.  The motor bike and displays were very popular as was to our delight other attractions included; Horticulture, Egham Floral Guild, cage birds, fur & feather, crafts, kids tent, children’s rides, a wealth of trade stands, vintage and classic vehicles and a super traction engine & model section.  

The spirit of the community tent idea worked well again, our special thanks to Mr and Mrs Dennis life time supporters of the show who kindly sponsored all the official show badges, President Mr Alan Hassan welcomed amongst the diners at his lunch the Mayor of Runnymede and other special guests.

We have continued to develop our website filling it with show information; www.eghamroyalshow.org.uk. Members of the organisation team can be contacted through this site.  Andy Marlow deserves a massive pat in the back for maintaining the site, all information can be emailed to him via the site, Oh and Andy thanks for rigging and engineering the PA during the show too, an excellent job.

Plans for the 2006 show are now well under way, we are working hard to finance and improve the show year on year.  We rely on volunteers so we welcome any help and support in this respect.  New sponsors are also welcomed how ever small.  To volunteer or sponsor the show please contact the committee 01784 740979.

Moving forward into the 21st Century as discussed last year we plan to introduce an alternative idea to raise money and the opportunity for association to our great show both on an individual and corporate level in the form of a stake holder scheme, further details of this very exciting and innovative please call 01784 740979.

Thank you to my the Vice Chairman Paul Turney for his dedicate organising and running of the main ring with his loyal team, Tom Richardson for negotiating free radio communication, public address equipment, and fire safety equipment.  Thanks goes out to our President Alan Hassan for his continued support as safety officer and for all his work as President.  Claire Bonnet deserves a big thank you for tirelessly collecting quality raffle prize for the grand raffle held at the show, which was very profitable.

Egham Residents Associations teamed up with us for the fourth very enjoyable and well-attended Barn dance on the Saturday night, an attraction due to its popularity now a permanent feature.

Looking forward to a great 2006 event, we are looking forward to the 150th year of the association too and how we may wish to celebrate this, we are looking at the feasibility of returning to Runnymede this will also be influenced by gravel raising in Whitehall Lane, this year we must again thank Proctor & Gamble for allowing us use of their car park at the eleventh hour as remedial work to prevent further gypsy invasion of our usual car park field had made this unviable to use this year. We are also investigating the possibility of inviting our Patron HRH the Duke of Edinburgh to a special event next year.

This year I hope to hand the chair over to my Vice Chairman Paul Turney so thank you all for your support whilst Chairman.

James C.G.Doran

Chairman
November 2005