IT WAS show time once again for the Dorset County Show.

Organisers believe the annual celebration of the county’s agriculture at the weekend has set another record with more than 56,000 people pouring through the entrance gates.

One of the show highlights this year saw the Bolddog Lings motorcycle display team take to the main ring to perform high-flying stunts 35 feet in the air.

Lead rider Dan Whitby said: “We’ve got three of the best riders in the UK and hopefully the crowd enjoyed it.”

Titan the 8ft tall dancing robot also attracted excited youngsters as he carried out his routine around the showground.

Crowds also flocked to Stuart Barnes’s The Sheep Show to see the sheep do a dance step or two.

Mr Barnes, who also performed the Dog and Duck Show, said: “I do a lot of shows but this one is one of my favourites.”

Children were also queuing up to sit in Dorset Police’s new tractor, which is being used to promote the Operation Countryside rural crime initiative.

Inspector Les Fry of Dorchester Police said: “We are trying to draw attention to what is going on in the countryside and in our towns and trying to get people to take all possible preventative measures.”

A new introduction to this year’s show was the poultry tent and back by popular demand was the ‘wolf man’ Shaun Ellis.

There was stiff competition in the livestock classes as 6,000 of the finest farm animals from Dorset and the surrounding counties went all out for prizes.

Ian Andrews, who owns Cattistock Texels with his wife Fiona, was delighted as they scooped an impressive 12 prizes in the sheep tent including the reserve champion title in the shearling lamb category.

In the pig tent 11-year-old Nouska Smith from Hazelbury Bryan near Sturminster Newton wanted pigs ever since she visited last year’s county show and this year won the Champion Kune Kune.

There were nearly 2,000 entries on show in the homecraft tent - from photography to floral displays to scarecrows.

This year’s men’s cooking competition also saw 30 people try their hands at an Anzac cookie recipe.

Show secretary Sam Makenzie-Green said: “It looks like we have had more people here this year than ever before.

“I’m really delighted with how it has all gone.

“We’re just looking forward to next year now.”

Dorset Police, Dorset Fire and Rescue Service and St John Ambulance Service said the show had run smoothly.