Wondered how bad the ground conditions are at Driffield?

I'd like to know too - going tomorrow!

it was pretty muddy yesterday by the end of the day....After today's rain and foot traffic I would have thought it to be even worse :o(

Was there today, was muddy but not too bad. Suspect wellies may be required by tomorrow though!

A friend just sent me photos of the ground after watching the group today.  Bring wellies and full water proofs!

Thanks All- Will pack wet gear

Rain today ranged from determined to torrential; the wind was flapping the marquee a bit which put my dog off a bit. Bring wellies (I was late and had to leg it, so left mine in the car...*sigh*)

The local weather forecast for tomorrow is supposed to be quite good but obviously the ground will still be very wet and no doubt muddy - great :-)

I was disgusted today at Driffield. I accept that they can't do a thing about the weather but the inside rings are too tiny to show rabbits in let alone a long legged gundog breed as I tried to do today. Having said that, a short legged breed was showing in the next ring to us and it was almost twice the size of ours.Not a lot of planning there then!

First time I've been at the showground and may be the last.  If you are showing in the stakes or best in show tent, take wellies and be prepared to carry your dog!  There I was carrying Calida on my shoulders who is a fair sized Spanish today LOL!

Yep most show ring layouts are done by people who have never owned, let alone shown a dog in their life.  Southern Counties is always a good example, as is SKC, and Leeds too - GIANT rings for the little ones, and teeny tiny rings with lots of potholes and often a tent post strategically placed to run into for anything lab sized upwards.  We have a large breed and many a time we are in a ring about 20 x 20 while a ring double or triple that size goes unused next to our designated one!

Well I'm now regretting coming as the ground is like a quagmire and alot of the cars are having to be pulled out the mud by tractors. It hadn't stopped raining all day.

So glad i stayed away, especially after i woke up to torrential rain.  It started to flood this end.

I've saved my money for once, not so blonde now lol.

We were there on Saturday and it was very muddy - I was quite glad we had Teasel with us and not Bramble as staggering through 'gloop' whilst carrying an 8 stone bernese would not make for a fun day, much easier carrying a petit.

We were fortunate as it was a lovely day so we were outside in the ring but the entrances to benching tents were in very poor condition. I'd forgotten the 'pleasures' of dog showing in the UK.

It took 4 hours to get out the car park, they were having to let the cars up the hill out one by one as they were getting stuck and having to get the tractors to them. Won't be going next year if there's any rain.

We definately wont be returning to Driffield at that venue.

The rain and mud i could cope with, its unavoidable you have to accept you'll be in a tent in a cramped ring.  But the undercover rings were useless, I was showing dogs in two different tents, but both rings were flooded at one end which made it very difficult for the small toy breeds to move as it was so muddy, and the long grass didnt help with showing the chihuahua!!!

The final straw was having to queue 3 hours just to get out of the car park, not fun before a 3hr+ drive home.  We didnt get home til nearly 9pm which is absolutely ridiculous when were packed up and ready to leave by 3pm.  The whole thing was a shambles, ONE entrance for all the cars/caravans/trade stand vans etc to get out of the show ground was just stupid and poor planning.

The bad weather was forecast well in advance, the organisers should have prepared for it and ensured there were better exits arranged as there IS another gate on and off the racecourse, they just werent using it.

Gosh must have been much worse on Sunday than Friday. I dread to think what it was like getting out of that one gate in the mud
We were showing in such a cramped ring I don't think I'll bother again

We must have been lucky as only had to queue 2 hours to get out!  I  think the whole car park thing was made worse because most of the trade stands decided to pack up and get going at about 2pm, as no one at all was going to get soaked to the skin to just have a wander around the stands!  Normally they would not be packing up till groups/BIS were on, but they added to the horrendous problems getting out, and some, towing caravans, were among the first to get stuck on the mushy bank up to the exit gate.  I could not understand why the show field tractors, instead of concentrating on getting the traffic moving, were concentrating on helping the traders with vans/caravans/trailers, get off their pitches, as they were simply joining the queue of standing traffic - it would have made much more sense to politely ask them to remain till their usual time, and get the standing traffic moving first with the aid of the tractors, rather that just having them being pushed!  Organisation was sadly lacking.  I think this fiasco must surely make it clear to the committee that October in Yorkshire is never going to be safe to have an outdoor show on grass parking!  When they were at Doncaster at lease the car parks had hard standing (and multi exits).  If Doncaster Racecourse will not allow the show back after the rebuild, there must be another venue in Yorkshire which could be  used - the Great Yorkshire showground comes to mind as a possibility, but there has to be others.

I must have been really lucky on Sunday I got in the car and straight up the hill no waiting at all. There were men raking it over though and friends who left minutes after me had a one hour wait to get out. The tents leaked though and puddles in ring

Apparently there was a punch up and police had to be bought in which added to the delay, don't know how true that is as I was at the back of the car park.

We were there with the caravan for a week and watched all the kerfuffle on Sunday between 4 and 6 pm whilst walking our dogs.  We saw the police, he stayed about 2 mins, didn't hear of any scuffles, I think the policeman we saw was more concerned with the traffic, mess on road etc, the air stank of burning clutches for ages, the smell was just dreadful.

Have to say we were caught up in it and spent hr and half waiting in carpark for our turn to go up the hill and we sat and giggled the whole time watching folk getting irate!  Whats the point it wasn't going to help.   Though when it was my turn to get my 'pep talk' at the bottom of hill on how to get up it I was s******g myself!!!!  The blokes helping deserve a medal and must have been absolutely shattered by the end of the day.

Yes they do deserve a medal and were probably volunteers. They did a great job and bet they got little thanks

When we were at the back of the very long queue I walked one of the dogs to the front to see what the problem was (we were thinking there'd been an accident or something), thought it would pass the time and get the dog a nice walk anyway!

There were a lot of irate people at the front of the queue who had been waiting 2hrs.  They were getting angry, quite rightly IMO, because whilst the majority of people waited in line patiently, a minority in their 4x4's were just driving through the muddy car parks and pushing through to the front of the line and being allowed to go before those who had queued.  I saw 6 or 7 do this in the time i was hanging around (about 10 mins), and not a single car from any of the "proper" lines were allowed to go because these rude people had pushed in and weren't waiting.  I can understand people being angry, i would have been.  They should have gone to the back of the queue like everyone else, we saw them driving from the back car park straight to the front.. not on really.