For nearly 50 years the CLA have put on an annual outdoor exhibition celebrating the countryside and its pursuits including the core sports of shooting and fishing.

There are imitators of course and Gamefairs are now held all over the country but as far as the press is concerned the CLA GameFair is the event of the year, similar to Henley, Badmington or The Royal.

First time visitors are simply amazed at the scale and organisation of it, there are 800 exhibitors and over 130,000 visitors to the show over its 3 days.

The show is organised and run by a full time staff of 4, added to that there are a number of partime but permanent staff working on PR, Traffic, safety, as well as a site team of around 20 at the height of the show who prepare the grounds and clear away afterwards.

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Marilyn - a Basingstoke ex mayor is just one of the 4 permanent staff, in our very nice country office outside Basingstoke.

It keeps me busy every day from 8am from the beginning of February when all the exhibitor applications arrive, right through to october when the application packs to exhibitors are made ready for sending out from the office in November.

I then have unpaid leave during November, December and January for GTS development work in Gambia.
Because of the website many people imagine that GTS is a massive organisation, but the website is a single handed project, I need much more time on it, updating and refining but the time when I am available Nov-Jan I can do little on the site as Ihave had no way of uploading files to my current ISP.

The GF has become a bit of a family affair with 3 of my children providing some of the part time work on the site or in the offices and this year helen my wife wandering the site taking photographs.

Adam now spends from May to October working in the UK to earn the money to work voluntarily for GTS as the Bar and Restaurant Manager from late October to early May.

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