CHRISTMAS came early for the Malvern-based Three Counties Agricultural Society at the weekend, when the third of its annual seasonal shows notched up a record attendance.

There were more than 64,000 visitors to the two-day Autumn Garden and Country Show on the Society's showground at Blackmore, compared with 48,000 last year, which had been the previous best.

This success crowned a superb summer for the TCAS.

In May, the Spring Gardening Show - which it runs in conjunction with the Royal Horticultural Society - attracted best ever crowds of 93,000.

While under cloudless skies in June, the traditional Three Counties Countryside Show got back on track with an attendance of more than 100,000, after a couple of "down" years due to foot-and-mouth.

"It has been a fantastic year for the Society," said press officer Sharon Gilbert.

"No doubt we have been lucky with the weather for all our major shows, but there was a conscious decision to raise their profile throughout the country and it has paid off. People have been travelling from all over the place to come to Malvern."

At the opening of the Autumn Show, TCAS chief executive Gareth Smith said advance ticket sales were 30 per cent up on last year and there was a massive 48 per cent increase in the number of coaches bringing visitors.

"We want the showground to be successful and Malvern to be successful," he added, "because these visitors will help the town's economy."

Stephen Bennett, shows director of the Royal Horticultural Society, which staged the last of its major flower shows as part of the Autumn Show, said this year had brought quality as well as quantity.

RHS judges awarded 17 gold medals and 11 silver-gilt medals to exhibitors, equal to 1999, the precious best.

"It has been a horrendous summer for the nurseries, so hot and dry," he added, "but they have come up trumps."

In the giant vegetable classes, the only Worcestershire exhibitor, Mike Elston, an electronics design engineer, from St Andrew's Road, Malvern, won two second prizes - in the Longest Parsnip with a 102-inch entry and in the Longest Carrot with a 70-inch specimen.