Friday is officially the first day of the show but the competition day is Saturday. So on Friday the vats contained some display koi, kindly provided this year by George Simmon's. The HLO's (Health Liaison Officers), John Botha and George Badanach, arrived on Friday morning and stayed with us for the whole weekend to ensure the best possible care was taken of our precious nishikigoi. As it turned out they were both from our neighbouring club, the Essex Section. The major job for our 'water team' throughout the show period is to maintain the best possible water quality. To do this the water parameters in the vats are monitored regularly and the water is changed every four hours. At the end of the show the HLOs presented the club with a glowing report on our health care practices. The garden show was busy and there was a lot of interest in the stand from the visitors, who were keen to find out about the koi and the activities of the club. As soon as the garden show closed at 5pm the vat team went swiftly into action preparing the vats for the stars of the show to start arriving. By 7pm most of the vats had tenants and there was time to relax a little and weigh up the 'opposition'. Arthur and Darren were on overnight watch, maintaining water quality throughout the night and providing additional security - it's good to have your own officer from the 'Met' on hand! By 8 o'clock we were able to settle down to an enormous fish and chip supper.
Saturday is always an early start for the benching team, George, Chris, Linda and Jean. All the koi are photographed, measured for size and category, vat labels are created and attached to the side of the vats for the judging. This year our two judges were coming from afar. Louis Vanreusel travelled from Belgium and John Andrews flew down from Scotland. John had been one of our judges two years ago and everyone was pleased to see him again. The judging began at 11pm and continued until mid-afternoon with a short break for lunch. Always a nervous time for koi keepers - how will my koi do in the competition? This is always at a high level at Crouch Valley. During the afternoon many members took the opportunity to rummage around the garden show, bartering with the other stall holders for bargains. Ian and Darren, needless to say, were at the forefront of these activities. Brenda and her team were busy selling raffle tickets and the draw took place about 4pm.
By mid afternoon the competition was decided and we had a new Grand Champion for the year - but who? Louis had brought with him a Klan trophy from the ZNA German Chapter to present to the club, with the request that it went to the best novice vat. As well as being a BKKS judge, Louis is also a ZNA Certified Local Judge (German Chapter). Before leaving for the ferry home Louis presented Tony Thompson with the Klan award. Tony also won the prize for best vat. The benching team spent the rest of the afternoon recording on the vat labels the results of the competition. Now it was time to see who had won what. Well done to Ray Nicholls for Grand Champion, Fred Phillips for Mature and Adult Champions and Graham Hall for Baby Champion. To see the full results click on the link below the title.
The garden show closed at 5pm and Crouch Valley members gathered for the evening BBQ, a thank you to everyone for their help and participation. The evening was warm and sunny and there was a great atmosphere around our stand as everyone got into 'party' mood. We were pleased that John was able to stay with us for the BBQ - Andy was running him to Stansted for a flight back to Scotland later in the evening. It certainly beats sitting in the departure lounge. An impromptu game of rounders took place in front of the stand, using plastic bottles for the base posts, a frying pan for the bat (sorry Kerry!) and a rubber band ball made by Graham. Now we know where all the rubber bands go! Crouch Valley is a great family club and the BBQ was great family event. Lee took charge of the cooking as usual, Kerry's band of helpers organised the food and a good evening was had by all. By about 8pm most members were getting ready to go home at the end of a glorious summer day and evening. However, some were preparing for the night shift. Alan, Andy and Tony where the nightwatch team, Linda had offered to stay as well so Alan did not have to drive her home and come back, so Elaine volunteered to keep her company (and Tony). A first ladies, I suspect not the last!
