AT THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY: Show's few problems due to success.

Byline: andrew FORGRAVE

EXT week the Royal Welsh will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Unsurprisingly, interest in this particular show has been at an all time high. It seems that everyone who has ever kept livestock in Wales -- and beyond -- wants a piece of centenary history: not least the one-off commemorative gold centred rosettes that will be handed out to 2004 winners.

Entries have broken records set at the 2000 show, when millennium fever had a similar effect on exhibitors.

But not everyone is happy. At an early stage the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society realised that compromises would have to be made if the maximum number of exhibitors were to be accommodated.

The society has pulled out all the stops but space at the Llanelwedd show ground is finite and many regular exhibitors -- especially in the sheep classes -- have been told to trim entry numbers.

It's a similar story with the Welsh ponies and cobs. There was simply not enough stabling for everyone who wanted to accommodate their horses at the showground. A lottery system was put into place but there have been one or two grumblings about its fairness.

To borrow a football cliche, it's a nice problem to have. The Royal Welsh has -- for this year at least -- become a victim of its own success: it heads the premiership of agricultural shows, but not so long ago it was languishing in the Beazer Homes League.

In the 1960s, when the Royal Welsh was established at its permanent venue in Builth Wells, the show went through a financially ruinous period that, with less determined stewardship, might have led to its closure.

Crowds were poor, membership levels low and each year the show made a loss. But the fathers of the modern show kept the faith and were rewarded with an event that ranks as one of the best in Europe.

There were several factors for this turnaround. The advent of greater car ownership helped, and the establishment of caravan facilities enabled families from North Wales to stay the week of the show.

Another crucial factor was the setting up of the show's feature county system, ostensibly to involve remoter regions of Wales. Year after year the featured counties have responded magnificently, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for Royal Welsh coffers.

I have a slight problem with the system, in that it syphons money from smaller Welsh agricultural shows.

County shows like Anglesey and Meirionnydd were once bigger than the Royal Welsh but are now its poor relations. They are big enough to survive on their own merits but the grass roots shows have struggled in recent years. The Royal Welsh boasts of a paternalistic approach to the smaller shows in its family, but evidence for this is not always obvious.

However this is only a minor quibble. As it approaches its 100th birthday, the Royal Welsh has become an event that everyone in Wales can feel proud of. This is our Wimbledon, our FA Cup final, our Henley, our Derby. It is something that Wales does better than anyone else.

Happy birthday Royal Welsh, and here's to another century of top notch competition and entertainment.