A National History

This article charts the history of the BKKS national including information about the winning koi and any other useful information surrounding the shows. Please excuse the poor quality of many of the pictures but hopefully they will still show the events and koi well.

The first ever koi show in the UK was held in Peter Waddington’s back garden in Bury, Lancashire on 11th May 1975 and attracted 42 entries. The vats were made up of plastic fencing in a circle and then a polythene insert was added to make them water proof. Judging took over 3 hours. People travelled from as far away as Illford, Truro and Amersham. Although in these early days people moved koi long distances none apparently had any mishaps.

The show was so successful that four months later the Northern section held a second show at Jean and Jack Copelands house in Poynton, Cheshire on the 21st September. Phil Searle took 1st and 2nd best in show.

Phil Searle was a builder by trade and had already travelled to Japan by time he won the 2nd Northern section show – The third show was held at his house on the 6th June 1976. It was these three shows that led to what we now know as the “National”.

On the 19th September 1976 the first National Open show was held in Ron and Lee Hodgson’s garden in Edgbaston. Colin Roe (Original Shirley Aquatics and first Koi Importer) and Anthony Evans (Editor of Petfish Monthly) were asked to judge and present the prizes. Some 500 visitors attended the show to see the 194 koi exhibited by 37 competitors – Grand Champion was a size 5 Sanke owned by Ray Hanson of the Northern section and was supplied by Shirley Aquatics.

 

The 2nd National was held just under a year later on the 4th September 1977 at the Botanical Gardens, Edgbaston in Birmingham. The show was hosted by the Birmingham & District section and some 3500 visitors attended the show to see the 523 (110 fry) that the 66 exhibitors had entered.

Grand Champion was a 21” Sanke owned by Malcolm Hardy of London based Aquatic Nurseries. (see pic) Interestingly this was the first dispute about dealers entering koi into hobbyist classes. They had imported 3 koi from Kamihata in order to win best Kohaku, Sanke and Showa. Subsequently using them for advertising purposes and a rule was bought in to ban dealers from entering koi into any other class than a special dealer class.

On the 10th September 1978 the National was held at Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire and this was the first time a koi show would be held at the venue that was to become the long term home of the Northern section show. 42 exhibitors entered 344 Koi and around 2600 people came through the gates to see the show. Peter Waddington was show chairman with Liz Donlan acting as show secretary. Grand Champion was won with a Kohaku owned by Ron Hodgson of the Birmingham section who had held the very first National in his back garden.

In 1979 the 4th National was again held at Tatton park and hosted by the Northern section with 359 koi shown by 42 competitors. The grand Champion prize was taken by George Woodward of the northern section with a Sanke.

 

Koi ’80 was hosted by the East Anglia section at Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk on the 14th September. Another Sanke took Grand champion and it was owned by Peter Reynolds of the Northern section.

In 1981 the East Anglia section hosted the 6TH National show at the same venue as the previous year and Mick Barber won Grand Champion with a Kohaku.

By 1982 it was pretty much standard practice for the hosting section to hold the show for 2 years. With the theory being that they would break even in year one and with more experience they could make a profit in year 2.

However in 1982 the only section that volunteered to host the National was the Northants section. Despite being extremely enthusiastic they had no previous experience of holding a major koi show, this was not to hold them back!

Once again the Northern section came to the aid of the National by hosting Koi ’82 and members of the Northants section being allowed to sit in on show meetings to gain experience with the view to hosting koi ’83 and ’84.

So once again Tatton park was the venue for the national and a member who was to become a multiple winner would take grand champion. Joe Wilmington of the northern section brought along his Infiltration supplied size 5 Yamabuki Ogon which took Best size 5, best Ogon and the GC. (see pic). Who would have thought at this time that Infiltration would become so synonymous with winning the National.