Last updated 05:38, Friday, 25 July 2008

If I’d known as a child there might be mileage in competitive creativity, things could have been very different. Had someone told me county agricultural shows were precisely the places for cultivating imagination and nurturing eagerness to succeed, who knows around which exciting corner life might have turned.

But nobody did – more’s the pity. Unlike Cumbria’s bright spark kids, no-one thought to offer me opportunity to build a tractor from recycled materials, make an edible necklace or decorate a disposable cup to win a prize I could boast about in the playground for the following 12 months and add to my CV 30 years later.

Where I was brought up, agricultural shows weren’t about including children in an entrepreneurial culture of ambition, self-sufficiency and community. Hard pressed to find any livestock, never mind the kind of beasts worthy of their rosettes, the shows I used to know were about selling things – cars, houses, Tarmac drives, hotdogs, beer, more beer and TV reporters acting daft to camera.

Come to think of it, they still are. Kids and competition? The will to win? Well suffice to say, we missed out on all that at Yorkshire’s shows.

Bitter? Me? Well, maybe not severely but you’re never too old to stamp feet in a “not fair!” tantrum – particularly when you think you might have been denied exploitation of unfair advantage.

And what brings on this outburst of unattractive sulk now – many years too late – is the Cumberland Show. On Saturday, savvy youngsters made sure they were missing out on nothing as they put best feet and creative skills forward for coveted prizes of personal glory – be they in handwriting skills, cross-stitching or gift-wrapping.

What better way could there be for a child to learn the vital values of ambition, drive and the need to be a winner in this dog-eat-dog world, than to have to compete against friends for honours in a Pick up and Bring a Straw contest?

I can’t think of many. And though it may be more fashionable these days to teach children a philosophy of taking part being the most valiant of life’s paths, there’s little comfort in the adult world when pride in taking part leaves you languishing as a loser in last place, squinting to catch sight of winners in the far distance... running off with all the booty.

Taking part was certainly high on everyone’s agenda as showtime got underway in Rickerby Park.

In the Shetland Pony Grand National, death-defying motorbike displays, Cumberland wrestling bouts, equestrian events, sheep and cattle shows, falconry challenges, even in the hospitality marquee – actually, particularly there – participation was undertaken with gusto.

But the will to win was as discernible in that damp showground as was the aromatic blue haze hanging over Brampton Live, a few miles up the road.

Excellence is no lover of mere taking-parters and excellence was pivotal to this premier show. Winning was what it was all about. The best of everything Cumbria had to offer was centred there – traditional crafts, celebration of heritage, today’s hard farming graft to achieve the best and tomorrow’s promise of continuing superiority.

So, equal to any farmer’s best in breed pride was young James Martin’s pleasure in winning the decorated match box prize; Grace Rothery’s delight in winning the wooden spoon puppet contest and as for Thomas Irving, who created a creature from fruit and veg, well...

Who can tell what future victories and triumphs might follow on the coat-tails of those successes? Laura Potts, at just 14, has learned early that success has a taste sweeter than vanilla pods in custard. She’s a serial winner – having triumphed as a baker, flower arranger and most lately a bottle gift wrapper. Who’d now dare suggest to Laura, with more trophies than Geoffrey Boycott, that only the taking part matters?

But the most tantalising of all those young winners must be Megan Parker. Megan has a special skill we could all do with sharing a touch of. She came first in the Letter To Teacher Explaining Absence From School contest – not an easy one to pull off, I’m sure you’ll agree. But pull it off she did – and with great aplomb.

Given her obvious talents for, shall we say, creative thinking and persuasive communication, where will her winning future lie? As a defence lawyer, politician, tax accountant, estate agent – or as a headteacher knowing every truancy trick in the book?

Whatever she may choose as her route through life, we wish her luck and achievement of course. But in the meantime a couple of her tips wouldn’t go amiss.

Even in the adult world, a few creatively thought through and persuasively communicated reasons for taking an occasional duvet day could be considered exceptionally useful.

You being a natural winner... any suggestions, Megan?