Go to the the Crouch Valley Koi Section web site and we list the benefits of belonging to a koi club but what exactly do you get for you money. I thought I would share what activities CVKS put on in 2022 to give you a feel of what it is like to belong to a small but active section of the BKKS.
As always, on a cold night in January, we met for our AGM. Never an exciting affair but a key event none the less. A chance to reflect on the year gone by and how we had kept the club active despite Covid still hanging over us and to look forward to an exciting new year and a calendar of events that had already started to come together under the existing committee. Formalities done, a new committee elected, including a new chairman to give the long standing incumbent a break, we were up and running. Whats more, the membership secretary confirmed, the cost of a family membership would remain at just £25 for the year.
By the time we met the following month for a presentation by Sid Mitchell of water quality fame, the new committee had already had its first meeting also and was able to confirm we had a full calendar of activities for the year. Sid (or Manky Sanke as he is known) provided lots of information during an interactive section and kindly took away water samples from our ponds for subsequent analysis. We also had our first prospective new member of the year at the meeting – note Crouch have a policy of “try before you buy” – come along for a couple of meetings and see if you like what’s on offer before committing to a membership.
By February, our Show Committee was already planning in earnest for our Open Show
Our March meeting saw a visit from Dave at HeatPumps4Pools. Dave is a wealth of knowledge on heatpumps and not only compared heating using heatpumps v other means but also shared the differences between various types of heat pumps available, especially the new style invertor heat pumps v those available previously.
April and the year is starting to warm up.
Our guest presenter in April was Craig from Akahana Koi, a friend and supporter of the club whose presentation on pond building was a precursor to an event he had planned for us to visit a couple of the builds and his premises.
April also saw the club have an exclusive visit to Byer Koi Farm where Adam and Amanda hosted us and (of course) purchases were made.
May was a particularly busy month. It started with the Young Koi Show held by the South East Koi Club and was a successful event for several members of the CVKS who were competing.
Our club meeting was a presentation by one of our experienced koi keepers on the identification of the common parasites we come across and treatment options – a useful session for our members, new and old, ahead of a “beginners day”, held at out Chairman’s pond the following weekend. This was an opportunity to learn and ask questions about safely netting, bowling, sedating and treating your koi.
This month also saw us visit two of the pond builds Craig had shown us during his talk in April including a pond of circa 16,000 gallons alongside a natural swimming pool, The latter being resident to a single koi that had jumped the partition wall!.
June was a little quieter in terms of formal club events with lots going on behind the scenes for our show committee. With the sun out, we try to get away from the meeting hall for some meetings in the summer and this month, our Chairman, Tony, kindly hosted the “return of the grow and show”. CVKS holds a G&S each year with members bringing back their fish in competition for two prizes – biggest and best! Biggest is simply a tale of the tape and best is the fish gaining the most votes on the night. All the fish had been supplied by Steve and Pam at Avenue Fisheries who also kindly donated gift vouchers for the winners,
The first weekend of July was of course the National Show and as a BKKS Section, Crouch Valley members set off to support the event.
Our July meeting was again away from our meeting hall and we were blessed with great weather and the hospitality of Paul at Chosen Koi, another dealer who supports CVKS. As you can see, this was a well attended evening with Paul kindly bowling lots of koi to be critiqued and (you guessed it) some members taking home purchases.
Another regular feature of our events calendar is an “exchange visit” and this year saw a group from the Northants Section visit CVKS and take in 6 ponds with breakfast, lunch and BBQ in July and then host us in August, Pics from their visit to CVKS below.
The focus for August was our Open Show. A huge amount of effort goes into putting on a koi show and a full report can be found here: http://www.crouchvalleykoi.co.uk/CVKS/?page_id=1208
On the Wednesday & Thursday, club members came together to build the show reading for benching on the Friday and across the weekend we were supported by hobbyists from other sections – part of what this hobby is truly about. We appreciate their help and the support of the dealers who attended and/or provided sponsorship.
August also saw CVKS members heading up to Newark to support the Great British Koi Show
August also saw us enjoy the hospitality of the North Hants Section on our return visit
September and the events to continued to flow.
CVKS is fortunate to have a senior BKKS Judge amongst its members and at our September meeting he led a discussion reviewing the koi that took prizes at our Open Show. Such sessions are a great opportunity for members to learn more about the finer points of koi and small things that make a difference when showing. The pictures to the right are courtesy of Liam Bess at https://www.worldofnishikigoi.com/
Another key event in the CVKS calendar is our annual auction. This is an event organised by the club to facilitate members “moving on” surplus koi. Every pond becomes overstocked at some point and our auction allows the public to purchase koi in an environment where they have been checked for any signs of damage or infection and bagged with oxygen for transport.
Finally. September sees one of the largest koi shows in the country hosted by the South East Koi Club and not only is this an event always well attended by our members, several were successful in taking awards at the show.
October saw us joined by Mark Davis of Cuttlebrook Koi Farm.
Mark is a frequent and very welcome speaker who covers a broad range of topics and is always very willing to share the knowledge and expertise gained over many years in the koi business both in the UK and in Japan – something appreciate by both our new and experienced members.
In addition to an update on the latest projects at the farm, Mark gave a very interesting presentation on the origin of koi and lineages
For many years, the Crouch has run an annual photographic competition with our resident judge assessing 6 koi entered by the members that wish to compete – an interesting event to fill a winter’s evening. Judging photo’s is always a challenge and taking a good photo similarly difficult. therefore last year, with the support of a small group, we upgraded this event to a “garden show” i.e. the judge, bencher and photographer visit members gardens /ponds to bench, judge, photo and video the koi. More on this in the December section
At our November meeting we were delighted to be joined by Adam and Amanda Byer. For our newer members, Adam gave some history to their journey in building up the farm including how they originally focussed on breeding Kohaku (which will always be at their heart) before moving into other varieties to satisfy the needs of their clients and to keep the business viable. Of particular interest to several of our members was Adam discussing the development of their Showa lines as some owned koi in the farm grow and show event.
So to December, our finally meeting of the year and one that is becoming a firm favourite in the calendar. As mentioned above, in October, a three man team visited our members ponds to judge, photograph and video koi entered into our “Garden Show”. A full report of the event can be found here http://www.crouchvalleykoi.co.uk/CVKS/?page_id=1284
The well attended meeting saw our, resident senior koi judge, Keith run through a presentation of the 108 fish entered into the competition.
Awards were then made for the best in size Go Sanke and Non Go Sanke, the best koi in each of the 13 BKKS varieties and the usual major koi show awards of: Grand Champion, Best Non Go Sanke, Mature, Adult, Young and Baby.
The picture shows some of our winners with their vouchers from Chosen Koi; Crouch is very grateful to Paul from Chosen for this very kind and generous support.
Well, that’s it! That’s what a year in the Crouch can bring you! Interesting and enjoyable meetings, visits to Koi dealers and other hobbyists, an Open Koi Show, a virtual Closed Koi Show (the Garden Show) and lots of advice, support camaraderie and friendship.
Our Social Secretary and Committee are already working on activities for 2023 and our Show Committee are already starting the plans for next years show.
If you are are interested in joining us, please do come along and see us. We invite prospective members to come along for a couple of meetings before making a commitment to join. We meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Wick Community Centre, Wickford, SS12 9NR, starting at 8pm and you can contact our membership secretary, Darren Hepple on 07754124966 or email him at darrenhepple1@aol.com