A National History - Off to Newark
2001 - Show that never was – abandoned on the Saturday due to the loss of ‘some’ koi. As far as I know all koi were removed from vats and taken home. Peterborough venue held in an old cattle shed the Fire department was filling vat's and Chlorine was the main problem. One competitor dosing his vat with de-chlorinator, his Koi were fine.
2002 – We have very little info for this year and could really do with some help – We know the winner was Bill Oakley with another Infiltration supplied 82cm Matsunosuke Kohaku. There were around 300 koi entered into the show by some 32 competitors at the Newark Showground in Nottingham. Around 4000 visitors passed through the gates to see the show. In total 75,000 gallons of water was used over the weekend.
2003 – Saw a new winner for the first time since 1995 – Cliff Neale with a superb Sanke supplied by Yume Koi and bred by Momotaro. Cliff Neale was a new hobbyist only been keeping koi for 4 years at this point in time. Many people talk about “buying” the GC prize but a very interesting point to note that he also won the Baby Champion prize at the show this year with a Kohaku. Above is a picture of Cliff (centre) with Mike Sanden of Yume Koi (right) and Diasuke Maeda from Momotaro (left). Despite being best known for Hebetoo (The Sanke) Cliff’s favourite variety of koi is Kohaku.
2004 – At koi ’04 held at Newark Showground over the weekend of 26th / 27th June – around 3000 visitors passed through the gates to see a man who had been close but not quite made the leap to Grand Champion winner step up and take the GC title with a Koi known as “the Mask” – Mark Crampton.
Beating last years winner “Hebetoo” into second place in a reverse of last years placings as “the Mask” took the mature champion title at the National in 2003 giving some indication of her potential and boy did she live up to it.
The Mask was a Koi Water Barn supplied 86cm Sakai Hiroshima Kohaku and was bought in January 2003. It beat a total of 393 entries by 56 competitors in 84 vats – of the 393 entries 206 were in the Go-Sanke classes and 82 of them benched in Kohaku so quite tough competition.
Judges comment on this koi was as follows:- “The body structure of this koi is simply amazing. It’s straight lines. Large head, wide shoulders, deep and wide penduncle give it the impression of a battleship. The quality of the beni is the same from head to tail and the Ojime has the same depth of colour as the rest of the koi. The skin quality is much improved from last year combined with the more defined Fukurin. The pattern on this koi may not appeal to traditionalists – neverless it is a very unique koi and overall a stunning koi and worthy winner”
Marks pond is 15,000 gallons and at nearly 8ft deep is huge. Filtered by 4ft vortex’s for settlement and then square top vortex’s full of Japanese Matting with a final chamber of Oyster shell to buffer his PH. All fed by 4 bottom drains and using 3 x 1/3hp and a 3/4hp pump. He also has 3 x Hi-Blow 80’s and 3 x Hi-Blow 40’s and 4 x 55w UV’s.
Mark Crampton is also one half of the “Crazy Englishmen” who embarked on a Journey to become the first westerners to win the Shinkokai All Japan Show with a koi called “Jessica Rose” which ended up being nicknamed “Super Mask” on many forums in the UK.
2005 – The 30th anniversary of the BKKS and a 2nd win for Cliff Neale and a repeat for Hebetoo the Sanke now measuring over 90cm. Diasuke Maeda was present at the show to see one of his koi take the GC prize. Sadly the koi was lost in a spawning accident after the show (sometime in 2006) so we will not know if she could have gone on to become only the 2nd koi to win the title three times.
Cliff has over 33,000 gallons at his home with his main pond (pictured) is 18,000 gallons is 7.5ft deep and of the usual Block, Render , fibreglass construction. The pond was built in 2000 and has a comprehensive filtration set up Consisting of 2 x 4 tier Bakki Showers, 2 x Bubble Bead Filters and Vortex’s containing 4 x answers followed by more vortex’s with Fluidized K1 all going through 4 x 55w UV’s on it’s return to the pond.
He has also added to this a Ozone system and Protien skimmer, This means with the boiler pumps it is 18 pumps on the pond all told. This gives him the ability to turn over 20,000gph