FLUSHED with success - that's how organisers described the first day of this year's New Forest Show.

After rain put a damper on last year's event, it was water problems of a different sort that threatened to put a spanner in the works this time.

It was all hands to the pump as show staff and Southern Water workers laboured through the night to cure a fault in the mains supply to the New Park showground.

But yesterday the only things pouring into the venue were thousands of visitors as the early morning trickle turned in to a midday flood.

Even more are expected today and tomorrow as organisers bank on a 100 per cent increase in advance ticket sales to see total attendance top the magic 100,000 mark and cover the estimated £1.2 million cost of staging the three-day spectacle of the best of town and country.

Animal entries were also up on last year with livestock classes swelling to previous levels after being decimated in previous years by the foot and mouth crisis and its aftermath of restrictive hygiene controls.

While dairy cattle and hunter horses were putting the first hoof prints on the newly-levelled show rings, growers and showers were vying behind closed tent flaps for points and prizes in horticulture, honey, fruit, flowers, floral art, vegetables, wine and Women's Institute competitions.

The mini-mounts of the Shetland Grand National were not the only animals racing around the showground - ferrets, terriers and even sheep kept punters on their toes - while the martial marching music of the Royal Marines set feet tapping and made the New Forest - Hampshire's own heart of oaks - swell with pride.