AFTER the hullabaloo of Tom Jones and his travelling band of troubadours, the circus came to town at Cartmel.

On a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon, with a hint of summer in the air as blue skies and sunshine flirted with punters and horses on the South Lakes track, the on-track action was complemented by thrills off it.

The crowd may have been several thousand down on the bumper attendance on Friday, but those present found the perfect way to end their weekends.

From early in the morning until just before the racing began in mid-afternoon, they arrived to lay out their picnic blankets, chairs and windbreaks – the latter a necessity as a cooling breeze swept across the track.

The familiar crackling aroma around the dodgems mixed with wafts of sizzling meat from barbeques around the usual fairground, while less usual sights were on offer among the crowds.

Amid the sticky toffee puddings, the Cumbrian gin and the wild boar burgers strode circus performers entertaining children and grown-ups alike.

They may have been without their big-top, but the strongmen, acrobats and jugglers were perfectly at home with an audience thrilled and enraptured by their antics, often accompanied by the traditional sounds of the band between the hospitality tents.

The Acro Chaps – a three-man team of strongmen – challenged children to match their displays on the grass of the paddock, with the gymnastics skills and balance impossible to replicate, Not that that stopped the excited youngsters from trying.

Elsewhere on the course, Jesse Ward was producing bubbles big enough to swallow horses whole, which were chased for hundreds of yards by young race-goers – and which often caught others unaware as they wrapped around their bodies before bursting.

Andrew Procter made the trip over to Cartmel from Oswaldtwistle, in Lancashire, with his family, including three-year-old daughter Harriet.

She was delightedly leaping into the air and being lifted to catch the bubbles, and dad said: “We’ve been here a couple of times, and we always bring the kids.

“The performers are good entertainment for them and they are really into the horses as well.”

The Procters and the thousands of other spectators did not have long to wait for the action to start, with extra drama in the opening race as Pads fell at the first and spent the next few minutes running up and down the home straight before finally being brought under control in time to allow Brian Hughes on Oh So Gigolo to triumph.