An attempt to break the Guinness world record for the number of dogs sitting and staying had to be abandoned at the Collingbourne K9 Festival on Saturday because traffic problems across the county prevented many people getting there.

Show organiser Claire Lingard hoped to break the current record of 627 dogs but many people abandoned attempts to get to the show because of chaos caused by the closure of the M4.

With the motorway closed for almost ten hours until 11.30am on Saturday following an accident in which a motorcyclist died, many drivers headed south through Marlborough, Burbage and the Collingbournes to use the A303 to reach London instead. Mrs Lingard said: “We had a lot of people ring us to say they had been in their cars for two hours and more and could not get through to Collingbourne Kingston and were going home instead.”

However the show went on and 269 dogs turned up which, Mrs Lingard said, was still a massive entry for a show held for the first time.

The sit and stay went ahead as a practice for next year’s show record attempt.

The best in show was a rottweiller called Echo owned by Jo Tuttle from Mildenhall. The obedience trophy went to Molly owned by Daisy Coleman from Shrewton.