THE current heatwave is both a blessing and curse to agricultural shows in competition with silage fields and the beach. Compared to last year’s horizontal rain and windy conditions, the weather at West Clare Show was tropical with a welcome Wild Atlantic Way breeze keeping temperatures down.

Held a couple of miles from Kilrush town, the show field is beside a lake now dubbed MHS Going Global’s ‘swimming pool’, where as a young horse, Greg Broderick’s future Rio Olympics mount went for an unscheduled dip.