OXFORDSHIRE’S biggest country show has been cancelled after organisers lost about £116,000 over the past four years.

The annual Oxfordshire County and Thame Show, which is billed as England’s Greatest Agricultural Show and has a history stretching back 124 years, will not go ahead in July next year.

Organisers also feared ticket sales would be hit by a clash with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the London 2012 Olympics.

Thame mayor David Bretherton, who is a director on the organising committee, said: “It’s partly down to the economy. You can’t guarantee income and we lost an awful lot of money last year.

“It’s a real shame and is not something the show committee did lightly. But the association is a charity and therefore we have to be sure it will not go into debt.”

Martin Hector, show committee chairman, wrote to all association members on November 1 informing them of the decision.

Mr Bretherton said: “We are determined to come back and hopefully we will be back in 2013 with a better show.

“The show itself was a great success. Everybody loved it. All the participants and entrants thought it was a great show. It was just a pity people didn’t come through the gate and we didn’t get the traders in.”

The show, which is held on land off Kingsey Road in Thame, lost £40,000 in 2008 and 2009. Yet it made a profit of £4,000 in 2010 after it was moved to a Saturday in July from its previous Thursday in September date. This year, though, it lost £40,000.