Friday, March 11, 1966

MORE than 200 top dogs were on parade in Radcliffe Civic Hall on Saturday afternoon as the Heywood and Radcliffe Canine Society held its annual members' show.

Attendance at the show was described as "very good", with a total of 220 entries from all over Lancashire.

Local residents picked up twelve of the prizes on offer, with the top performing Radcliffe pooches being Persimmon's Pride, a great dane owned by Mr R Benyon on Bolton Road, and Halldoors Chopin, a boxer who by Mrs Scholes-Hall, of 251 Ainsworth Road. Both dogs carried off three separate awards.

Other prize-winning local entries included: Ally's Girl, a poodle owned by Mrs S Cartwright of Firwood Crescent; Artful Boy, a poodle owned by Mrs B Lee of Byron Avenue; Borellen Tanja, an elkhound owned by Mr E Mallon of Unsworth; and Wyesarge, a boxer owned by Mrs S Coppage, of Bury.

The afternoon marked the culmination of a highly entertaining weekend at the Civic Hall, which had played host to the town's most successful civic ball for many years the night before.

The £85 proceeds from the event, largely raised from a lucky dip that included prizes ranging from a trip to Pontin's to a bag of potatoes, will be given to eight local swimmers attempting to break the world record for swimming the channel.

The leaders of 12 local authorities were present and many praised a beautiful floral display that had been mounted on the stage by the Radcliffe Parks Department, while the introduction for the first-time of non-stop dancing throughout the night proved a big hit.

Among the highlights of the event was the warm welcome given to carnival queen Susan Diane Hilton, who was making her first public appearance following a recent car accident, and the applause when the band struck up to celebrate her 18th birthday.

There was also spontaneous applause when, during the playing of the 'March of the Mods', the mayor and mayoress joined in with their two sons, daughter, and son-in-law.

Alderman Richard Fletcher, the mayor of Radcliffe, said: "The people were absolutely magnificent, many of them must have raised really sizeable contributions for us to have raised such a wonderful amount."