With the best ever Irish Game Fair planned for Shanes Castle, the organisers had hoped that the weather forecasters with their warnings of high winds and torrential rain could, on this occasion, had got it wrong.

However, not only did the show face the sort of weather that organisers fear most – high winds and driving rain - but they also had to face the fact that dire weather conditions would stop potential visitors attending and make ground conditions too difficult for displays.

However,the team from Country Lifestyle Exhibitions have faced similar conditions in their 30 years experience of organising outdoor events and emergency plans were put into operation.

As Director Albert Titterington said: "We are fortunate that because of the experience of our team and the extremely practical nature of the Shane's Castle site, we felt the show should go ahead and I was confident that we could handle the worst that the weather could throw at us."

Although the skies remained grey, water filled and murky over the complete weekend with heavy showers throughout and sometimes near arctic conditions, Albert's comments proved to be accurate and the show went ahead and was completed very successfully.

Albert paid tribute to the main arena team who kept up a series of events all day (although some had to be truncated for safety reasons); the exhibitors who kept faith and were prepared to keep trading in difficult conditions; the competitors who kept the concept of the All Ireland Game Fair Championships alive (clay shooting was still going on until 9pm on Sunday evening in very heavy rain); the medieval re-enactors who were in the 'eye of the storm' in 13th century type tents on the shores of Lough Neagh and most of all the general public who turned out in their thousands to create a viable event.

Yes attendance was down from the usual 25,000 plus (and the hoped for 30,000 plus) but still reached a very creditable figure just short of 18,000.

This was obviously down to the resilience of the country audience who simply donned their waterproofs and stout footwear to enjoy their traditional day out at Northern Ireland's largest Game Fair.

Most exhibitors did good business at the show as Newtownards Firearms Retailer David Robinson stated: "It was a smaller audience than usual but one that had come to buy and I was delighted to see that many of my customers at the Fair were from Southern Ireland."

The ladies from Mid Ireland Tourism (home of the Fair's partner event in Birr, County Offaly) were delighted with the response of the crowd to their initiative in bringing up a stand that feature a wide range of fine food, drinks, crafts and tourism products.

As Jaqui Jordan–Collins said: "All our members had an absolute ball. We did great business and had masses of enquiries for accommodation at Birr for the other Great Game Fair at the end of August."

Her colleague Yvonne Mullaly, marketing manager for Mid Ireland Tourism added that they were so pleased with the success of their initiative that they would not only be back in 2009 but back in an even bigger fashion.

These sentiments were echoed by most of the other traders and fully justified the organisers' determination to make sure the show did go on.