If you are familiar with Crouch Valley Koi Section’s Open Show, you will aware that its is now held at Perrywood Buckhatch Nursery Garden Centre in Rettendon, Essex and we were pleased to continue that relationship this year. At the request of the garden centre, we moved our show date this year in order not to clash with the RHS Garden Show held a couple of miles away. We felt that a later date could well clash with other shows and so took the decision to move to an earlier date in July. Moving the date fortunately did no harm for our footfall with 1850 visitors across the weekend (on par with last year). A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who came along.

Planning for the show started back in January, when the Show Chairman, Alan, called a meeting of his team who dusted off the notes from the debrief held after the previous event and drew up the list of tasks and who was to do what.

We were starting from a strong position:

  • Feedback from the previous year had been positive from all quarters
  • Many exhibitors had expressed an interest in showing again
  • All the dealers had also enquired about returning and we actually already had a waiting list – something that was to prove useful when we had a cancellation
  • Koi Water Barn had already offered to sponsor all our major trophies again and Dave & Kate at Coastal Koi had offered to supply shirts for our show team.

As you may know, our show is free to enter and having run though our projected costs for the show, we established that subject to maintaining the sponsorship we have traditionally received and with a small increase in dealer pitch fees, we would be able to keep our vat fees unchanged.

Vats proved very popular this year with several new names wanting to show with us for the first time and we quickly had all the vats allocated and a waiting list in place. Having a wait list is always goods news. It not only demonstrates the show is increasing in popularity but invariably, for all sorts of reasons, cancellations do happen and it’s good to know there are hobbyists on the list who are hopefully conditioning their koi in anticipation. And this year was no exception and everyone one the list was offered a vat at some point and we also had to fill a couple at short notice from elsewhere.

Monday before the show arrived and several members of the club convened at the garden centre to start the build. Day one followed its usual format – brooms out to sweep the floor to ensure nothing can damage the vats, multiple trips to the lock up to bring all our equipment on site and work with the metal framework supplier who sets up the “centre ring” ready for the show vats (we have always believe this is essential for the protection of the vats albeit a significant hit on the budget).

A small tweak was made to the centre ring layout this year along with some minor adjustments to our dealer layout to give visitors a little more room.

Even with the greenhouse sides rolled up, the heat was beating down, and tea breaks were essential, the team cracked on at pace and with several club members and we were soon running ahead of schedule, with vats laid out, dealer pitches marked out and segregated for bio security, we were soon onto the frills of decorating the greenhouse with koi flags, nobori and newly purchased Crouch Valley bunting! The only decorative failure was the balloons. We had purchased balloons printed with our logo for the show a gift for children but the heat had other ideas and if you were at the show this year would no doubt of heard many loud bangs!

By Wednesday we were ready for water and the reservoirs were filling and by early Thursday vats were filled with dechlorinated water, the air was running and the ammonia binder was in – we do regular water changes at the show and additional changes should the ammonia rise in a vat but also use a binder to protect to exhibitors koi and this has proved a worthwhile investment should, for example a spawning event occur (we had two minor spawnings this year). Some dealers also started their set up on Thursday and water was pumped into their vats ready for fish coming in the next day.

Friday – always a busy day for the team managing the arrival of both dealers and exhibitors; a logistical challenge given our limited access point. Whilst some of the team managed the dealers, the benching team set to work. We have a 4 man team who have worked together for many shows and includes a senior judge, a trainee judge, Rob Whittell and (err) me!

Whilst we (well Rob) use the KSP software, we do not do pre show benching as it has caused us problems in the past. We also think it sets an even playing field having the team measure all the koi with the same bowl. With me on the net, Laurence on the bowl measuring and classifying, Keith double checking and Rob taking the pics on the iPad and updating KSP, we worked our way through 191 koi across 25 vats. Regrettably, 2 or 3 koi had to be disqualified for health issues that the exhibitor had not spotted but this shows the team were on the ball.

It was good to see a good mix across the classes (as usual Bekko and Hikari Utsuri being low) and 9 koi in size 7+ (we merge size 7 and 8) including a 95cm Mukashi Ogon which we awarded Jumbo Champion as the biggest koi entered.

A lesson learned from last year was we got to the end of Friday we had 25 vats to cover with jump nets so this year we formed a small team whose job it was to cover the vats as they were benched and this certainly helped us get done at a sensible hour.

I mentioned earlier balloons going bang but the biggest bang of all came as we were benching late on Friday. We had been advised about a fire nearby that had closed a road some of us use but little were we to know that shortly after a HUGE explosion would occur which literally shook everything – including us! Some of you may be familiar with the incident from the national news of a fire at an industrial estate in Essex that lead to fertiliser being stored exploding, causing a great deal of damage, putting 20 fireman in hospital and destroying 3 fire engines, 2 other fire vehicles and multiple vehicles, buildings, homes etc. nearby. Next thing we knew, a big cloud of smoke was overhead and debris falling from the sky. This caused no issues inside the greenhouse but all our freshly filled water reservoirs outside now had ash and debris in them and so, we had no choice than to dump the water and clean the pools – we simply could not risk using it! This led to next challenge – with the fire brigade using all the hydrants locally, including immediately outside the garden centre, the water pressure was gone. The solution – a 5.00am start for the water team. Luckily, given how close we were, we did not use power.

We had one late arrival after we had finished benching and decided to get that done rather than wait until the following morning so that the vat sheets could be printed and posted on the boards early the next day before we opened to the public. And so it was we left the site in the safe hands of the overnight team.

We were back early the next morning (some as I mentioned at 5.00am) to uncover the vats, check the koi and do the first water change. Overnight, one vat (in fact the late arrival) had clearly been a little frisky and a small number of eggs were on the bottom being eaten by the koi. The vat got a larger water change than standard and was then tested and monitored.

The details of the koi in each vat were posted so visitors could tell what varieties and sizes they were seeing.

Importantly, a key member of the Crouch team was preparing sausage rolls for the show team and dealers and the tea urn was fired up! Mmm, I wonder if it’s the great food that has the dealers wanting to come back 😊

It was not long before visitors were arriving but there was a short delay in opening as the garden centre swept up some of the debris from the night before. Taking in the display of bonsai the garden centre had especially brought in and set up for sale everyone was eagerly awaiting their wrist band so they could enter the greenhouse. You may ask why we need wrist bands at a free to enter event but we introduced this last year having been constantly asked what our footfall was. The exercise was very useful this year because, as I have mentioned already, we moved our date and despite there not being an RHS event and with the disruption caused by the fire, we maintained our footfall. This bodes well for our show and hopefully cementing our relationship with the garden centre.

On entering everyone was greeted with a great display of koi and a range of dealers selling koi and associated goods. At the show were:

Aqua Aeration

Burtons Aquatics

Nutramare

CarpCo

Clearwater Koi

CN-Koi

Koi Water Barn

Norfine Nets

Only Jap Koi

OiOi Koi

Ultra Pond Detox

World of Nishikigoi

Yasu Koi

Also in attendance was Paul Mason from Pedigree Wholesale with a stand displaying Hikari Koi Food – Pedigree had kindly, again this year, supplied food prizes for our winners. We are extremely grateful for their generous support.

Just inside the entrance sat our raffle prizes mostly donated by our sponsors and dealers and there was a good selection including the opportunity to win a t-shirt from Yasu Koi that Carly had specifically designed for the show. Star prize though grabbing everyone’s attention was a 48” Big Blue with carbon kindly donated by Dave and Kate at Coastal koi (very generous given they had already supplied the show team’s shirts) and this had people snapping up tickets. As a free to enter show, the raffle and the auction of donated koi is essential to us, as, along with all the other great sponsorship we receive, it is key to making the numbers work for the club and so we are very grateful for all the prizes given to us.

Talking of sponsors, let’s give them a shout (in no particular order):

  • Koi Water Barn who sponsored all the major trophies again this year enabling us to have our individually painted wooden plaques again from Donnas Koi Art
  • Pedigree Wholesale who as mentioned provided Saki Hikari food prizes for our winners
  • Matt at Clearwater who once again provided our ammonia binder and sponsored the Keith Holmes and Mark Gardner trophies
  • Coastal Koi who as I have said provided all our shirts and a major raffle prize
  • Shosha Koi who sponsored all 25 vats
  • CN-Koi who sponsored our club awards and the winner’s rosettes
  • Selective Koi Sales for numerous raffle prizes
  • Select Nishikigoi for an auction koi
  • Kusuri for raffle prizes
  • Avenue Fisheries for sponsorship and a voucher
  • Niwa Nishikigoi for sponsorship

Hopefully I have remembered everyone and if I have missed you, apologies and thank you.

Judging took place on Saturday with 3 judges and 2 trainees joining us and by close of play, the admin team had collated the results and had everything ready to be posted on the boards and vat overnight – we a traditionalists at the Crouch and love the anticipation it creates of exhibitors arriving on the Sunday morning eager to see if the is a winning banner on their vat and how many first second and third stickers are on their vat board.

This year’s awards were as follows:

  • Grand Champion: Dean Whall with an 84cm Sanke
  • Superior: Tom Alderton with a 76cm Kohaku
  • Best Non Go-Sanke: Tom Alderton with a 78cm Benigoi
  • Mature: Tom Alderton with a 74cm Sanke
  • Adult: Matt Stevens with a 65cm Kohaku
  • Young: Michael Thompson with a 49cm Ginrin Shiro Utsuri
  • Baby: Mark Lester with a 35cm Kohaku
  • Jumbo: David Gardner with a 95cm Mukashi
  • Best Doitsu: Laurence Harvey with a 65cm D Sanke
  • Keith Holmes Award: Barrie and Keith Burkin with a 33cm Ochiba Shigure
  • Mark Garder Award: Lewis Neave with a Showa

Special congratulations must go to Dean for winning GC at his first time showing, Tom for “sweeping the board” and Lewis Neave, again picking up a trophy at his first attempt at showing.

Crouch Valley Koi Section awards:

  • Best Unique: Andy Patten
  • Best Vat: Tom Alderton
  • Best Newcomer: Dean Whall

Best in Size:

  • Size 1: Tony Gaskin
  • Size 2: Mark Lester
  • Size 3: Kim Raven
  • Size 4: Michael Thompson
  • Size 5: Matt Stevens
  • Size 6: Tom Alderton
  • Size 7: Tom Alderton

Overall Best in Class:

  • Kohaku: Tom Alderton
  • Sanke: Tom Alderton
  • Showa: Lewis Neave
  • Tancho: Matt Stevens
  • KinGinRin: Alan Reeves
  • Utsurimono: Michael Thompson
  • Asagi/Shusui: Alan Reeves
  • Koromo: Ian Dunk
  • Bekko: Kim Raven
  • Kawarimono: Barrie and Keith Burkin
  • Hikari Moyo: Ella Hornshaw
  • Hikari Muji: David Gardner
  • Hikari Utsuri: Daran Wood

Well done to all the winners!

Both days saw lots of activity with the dealers and the garden centre reporting a good level of trade – indeed, one dealer stated he did more trade than at the National which given the comparative levels of footfall was interesting!

But it was soon Sunday afternoon and time for the auction, raffle and of course the prize giving. It was great to see that again this year, not a single vat “blanked” with everyone placing at least once and in addition to their certificates, rosettes and trophies every exhibitor went home with a commemorative mug (issued only to exhibitors).

Then in a managed fashion dealers and exhibitors went on their way and the Crouch team sprung back into action ensuring by the time we left, all the vats were empty and drying and a significant part of the crash down was underway. Indeed, some equipment even made its way back to our container.

On Monday (yes, those on shows team will know the work continues), a good number of us returned to finished drying the vats, dismantling everything, and returning it all to storage. By late afternoon, only the steel framework remained, ready to be taken down the next day.

And that’s it for another year! As I write this, it is the day after our show team have had their debrief and feedback has been positive from all quarters with interest already being shown in next year’s show. We have a few ideas in mind to keep improving and hope to confirm formally with the garden centre that we will be back next year and plan on that being, once again, the last weekend in July – so watch this space!

Finally, a big thank you to all our exhibitors, dealers, sponsors, Perrywood’s owners and staff, our show team, Rob and Liam, and the members who helped with the build and running of the show. Plus, and not least, thank you to the 1850 visitors who made this such a successful weekend.

If you would like to view the winning koi, please take a look at the blog posted by Liam Bess in World of Nishikigoi here: https://www.worldofnishikigoi.com/post/award-winners-crouch-valley-koi-show-2026

One of the Crouch team also took lots of pics from the event and of the presentation and they are available to view online at: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMAfwU-cOg7NV3lw16cd7h6J6pXP3CNDbu84wMw-e_vg4kuPMbEgYvOfEN1Y6G67Q?key=ZUw0Q1NRRy1oVWg3cktJal90QUJfT3VOSmlrRW9B