MAKING a comeback to the Great Yorkshire Show is that mainstay of the British dining table - cheese.

For the first time for more than 40 years the agricultural extravaganza in Harrogate will include a cheese show, which is expected to attract entries from master cheesemakers across Britain.

The show runs from Tuesday July 9 to Thursday July 11 at the Great Yorkshire Showground.

The cheese show is being sponsored by Morrisons supermarkets, and has some 20 classes for hard and soft cheeses, yoghurt, cream and butter.

Morrisons trading director and cheese show judge, Brian Murrell, said: "It's been 40 years since the last Great Yorkshire Cheese Show and I've spent them all buying and selling cheese.

"During this time there has been a tremendous growth in choice. Mild, mature, crumbly or hard pressed, red, white or blue, or mixed with fruit, there really is a cheese to suit all tastes.

"The reintroduction of this show gives cheesemakers the opportunity to exhibit their expertise and display the great variety of cheese they produce for us all to enjoy."

Show director Christopher Hall said: "The cheese show is a marvellous addition to our event and I am sure will be a great success. Food production is important not only because it is the end product of farming, but because it is a vital part of all our lives. The cheese show and the dozens of stands in the Food Hall provide our visitors with the final piece in the food chain jigsaw."

There are special prizes for the Supreme Champion, and also the Best Yorkshire Dairy Product, which is sponsored by Wensleydale Dairy Products - the company which shot to fame with the television characters Wallace and Gromet. Staff from the Hawes-based creamery are helping to organise the Cheese Show.

Updated: 09:43 Thursday, June 20, 2002