East of England Agricultural Society

Grimme GZ 1700 DL 1 potato harvester on display at the East of England Show, 2010

The East of England Agricultural Society is an agricultural society in the United Kingdom. Until 2012,[1] it was the organiser of the East of England Show held each year at the 250 acre (101 ha) East of England Showground at Alwalton, five miles (8 km) west of the city of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.[2][3]

History

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.

East of England Showground

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 336 metres (367 yards) 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.[4]

The Peterborough track was also the host of the 2002 Speedway World Cup Final which took place on 10 August. Australia, with Jason Crump, Leigh Adams, Todd Wiltshire, and Peterborough Panthers riders Ryan Sullivan and Jason Lyons, won their second consecutive Speedway World Cup defeating Denmark, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Showground also hosted the 2001 Under-21 World Championship Final won by Poland's Dawid Kujawa

Speedway World Finals

World Cup

Individual Under-21 World Championship

52°32′45″N 0°19′6″W / 52.54583°N 0.31833°W

References

  1. "East of England Show ends after 200 years" BBC News 24 May 2013
  2. East of England Show preview Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 12 June 2008
  3. Preview: East of England Show 2009 Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 19 June 2009
  4. http://www.peterboroughpanthers.co/clubdetails.php

External links