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MKA Show Report

Sunday the 20th of September will go down in history as the first time the Midland Koi Association held a closed show, open to the public, for 16 years. Our last Show was at Baginton, Coventry in 1993. Then we had a membership of 60, plus family members, half of which were enthusiastic Koi keepers, now our membership is only 29, but they are all dedicated Koi keepers.  (Although Glyn Marley and his team managed to sign up 10 new members at the Show). 

Midlands Koi Association

Our Show took place at the excellent and outstanding Garden Organic site at Ryton near Coventry.   Garden Organic (www.gardenorganic.org.uk) is the leading charity for the promotion of organic growing in the UK.

9.00 am on the morning of Wednesday the 16th of September saw a group of MKA members, plus a large van, descend upon Garden Organic.   From then on, any of you who been to shows, or put up shows, will know what’s involved.   By Thursday night all the vats were filled with water and the air blower was running and by Friday night everything was completed ready for the fish to arrive on Saturday the 19th for the benching process.

Considering this was the first time the MKA has put up a Show site open to the general public for 16 years, everything went extremely smoothly apart from the odd, “Where did you say the marquee poles were?”, “Who’s let the tea urn run empty?” and “Where is the B..... gaffer tape?”   Fortunately, the weather was very kind to us and we had three sunny/cloudy set up days with very light winds. 

Fish started to arrive mid morning on Saturday with benching beginning around 1.30 pm, and being completed by 5.30 pm.  Altogether, a total of 128 fish were benched into 17 vats ready for the Show. By 7.00 pm everyone, except the night team, had gone home looking forward to the following day.

Sunday morning saw the main Show team turn up around 9.00 am.  By this time the overnight team had already taken water samples and a standard 25% water change was under way.  Brian McGivern and John Botha, who were our HSC’s, helped us throughout the day with Brian being involved on the previous day with the benching process.

10.00 am saw the doors open to the general public and by 11.30 am our BKKS judge Dave Pope and his assistant Allan Tait, began the judging process.  By 3.15 pm the judges had completed their work with presentations beginning at 4.30pm.

We were honoured to have Peter Robbins the BKKS Chairman in attendance and he kindly agreed to present the awards.   

Grand Champion

Grand Champion went to Sandra & Ken Brown for a size 6 Sanke and they also took the Mature award for a size 6 Kohaku.   The Adult champion went to Val & Terry Dillon for a size 5 Sanke.   Bob & Sandra Jacobs took the Young Champion award with a size 3 Shiro Utsuri, with Baby Champion going to Carl & Tina Crathorne; Carl incidentally, is the MKA Chairman.

As many of you will know, earlier this year John Thomas a long standing member of the MKA and koi keeper passed away, and as a tribute to him and his family, the John Thomas Award was created, which would be awarded to the best Vat, as decided by the Judges.   For all of you who were at the Show, you will know that this went to Glyn Marley who joined the MKA this year. So, it’s fitting for an award, initiated by an experienced and show winning koi keeper, to go to someone who is enthusiastic and very new to the hobby.

At the end of the main presentations, Bob Heppell was presented with a JSC Merit Award for a size 2 Yamatonishki. A JSC Merit Award is apparently like ‘hens teeth!!’ so Bob is to be commended on his choice of fish.

And finally, this year the club ran a Show & Grow competition with Ikarashi Kazuto Showa’s provided by Malcolm Green of Koi Water Garden Ltd, who did us proud with some very high quality stock. Malcolm was also kind enough to donate the prize for the winner of the Show & Grow competition. The result was a well deserved win for our Show Chairman Wayne Eady.

 

For most of our members, this was the first time they have ever shown their fish, and from the initial feedback, it’s not going to be the last!!   Garden Organic are hoping to be able to provide us with a larger site next year, so keep the weekend of around the 20th September free in your diary as we could well be back with a bigger Show!! 

This is where, as Show Secretary I need to say some very Big Thank Yous’.   Firstly, our Main Sponsor, The Koi Collection, Coventry ( www.thekoicollection.co.uk )   Ken is our local dealer and he gave us tremendous help and support for our Show. He provided Koi food for all exhibitors, as well as the main awards, plus the donation of an EA Easypod for the Members’ Only raffle, plus many other contributions too numerous to mention.  Our other sponsors included, Koi Water Garden Ltd, A Splash of Ink, Rollasons Solicitors, BNI, Wilsons Solicitors and Richard Sumner.  Without their support we would not have been able to hold the Show, so a very big thank you to them all.

Secondly, our BKKS judges Dave Pope & Allan Tait, our HSC’s Brian McGivern and his wife Jennie and John Botha and his wife Jackie.   A special thank you to Jennie & Jackie for their help and assistance in the admissions tent; they were highly successful in relieving people of their money.

Finally, the Show team.  We are very fortunate to have Wayne Eady as a member of the MKA.  He is a former BKKS Judge, and BKKS committee member and a long standing koi keeper and he did a fantastic job as Show Chairman.   His team included, Graham Bailey (Vice Show Chairman) “Is the tea ready yet?”  Paul & Bob Brown, “What needs painting next?”  Jimmy Morris “Where did you say you want the water?”  Simon & Karen Hindmarch “That’s the results done and do you want it laminating?” Carl Crathorne  “What!! You want another photograph!!”.   Terry and Val Dillon “Where did you put the test kit?”  Bill Jones “I’ve got the van!!”  Gez & Paula “Anything required?” and “I’ll write it down!!”  

Glyn and Laura Marley and the kids, “Wouldn’t you like to join the MKA?” and “It’s only a £1.00”  Linda Eady and Doreen, “Would you like a raffle ticket”  Sandra Jacobs, “It’s only a £1.00 a strip” and finally Hilary Jones for press ganging everyone for raffle prizes, tombola prizes, plus anything else she could get hold of  (don’t stand still too long!!) to make money for the Club.   Oh!  And that leaves me, Bob Jacobs, Show Secretary, general organiser by direction. “Make a note of that!”, and “If it’s broken, lets gaffer tape it!!”.

Thanks to all you MKA members for your impressive support, contributions and help in making our first Show for 16 years an outstanding success.

Bob Jacobs, Show Secretary