HUNDREDS of visitors took advantage of the weather at the weekend during a town's annual show.

The Great Aycliffe Show, organised by Great Aycliffe Town Council, took place at School Aycliffe Lane, on Saturday and Sunday.

Marie Robinson, from the council, said the event had once again been a great success.

"We normally use the car park takings from year to year as a guide," she said.

"Indications are that this year's visitors have exceeded previous years, particularly Saturday which seems to have been the busier of the two days."

The event played host to the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service's extraction competition.

The scene of a road traffic collision between two vehicles was created with a live casualty trapped inside one of the vehicles.

Teams from different stations competed to extract the casualty and Newton Aycliffe station itself came out on top.

Andy Whitehead, the fire service's assistant district manager for the Sedgefield area, said it was a great coup for the home team.

"It was great for them but the judges from the UK Rescue Organisation were very complimentary about the overall standard of entries which bodes well for the whole county," he said.

New for this year was the Junior Neighbourhood Watch Group's bright red London bus.

The first floor, which has had some seats removed to make way for a snooker and football table, was being used by spectators to the main arena show In the football tournament 140 children took part over both days.

Under eights played on Saturday and under nines played on Sunday.

All of the children were presented with medals for their efforts.

In the Playhouse Marquee there were live rock bands, solo singers, dancers and gymnastics.

"There really was something for everyone and it was just about full on both days all day," said Mrs Robinson.

Handcraft and horticulture entries were up from 762 in 2006 to 846 this year.