The East of England Agricultural Society in the United Kingdom is the organiser of the East of England Show held each year at the 250 acre (101 ha) East of England Showground, five miles (8 km) west of the city of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.[1][2]
The Society was formed by the merger of the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely (established 1863), Huntingdonshire (established 1837) and Peterborough (established 1797) agricultural societies in 1970. It was joined by the Bedfordshire Agricultural Society (1801) in 1971 and the Northamptonshire Agricultural Society (1848) in 1972. The Long Sutton Agricultural Society (1837) in neighbouring Lincolnshire remains independent and is affiliated for show purposes only.
The Showground is also the home of the Peterborough Panthers Motorcycle speedway team who race in the Elite League, the highest level of Speedway in the United Kingdom. The track is 336m long and has a 2,200 capacity grandstand along with grass banking on the back straight. The track record of 58.4 seconds for a 4 lap clutch start race was set on 20 September 2010 by visiting Coventry Bees rider Krzysztof Kasprzak of Poland.[3]
The Peterborough track was also the host of the 2002 Speedway World Cup Final which took place on 10 August. Australia, led by Leigh Adams and Peterborough rider Ryan Sullivan, won their second consecutive Speedway World Cup defeating Denmark, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic.