A National History - The Duchess
2006 – This was another difficult year for the show as it nearly had to be cancelled due to a complete lack of volunteers for the show committee. Wayne Eady stepped in as Show Chairman and the show went ahead with very little time left and a lot of effort by many volunteers.
A new name was engraved on the Grand Champion trophy in 2006. That of John Hellens who took the GC title with a Yume Koi supplied Takigawa Kohaku who he affectionatly calls “The Duchess”. John also took the Mature Champion prize with a Momotaro Sanke also supplied by Yume Koi.
John Hellens has been into keeping fish in some shape or form since he was a teenager. He belongs to the North East section.
John’s pond is 2m deep and 23,000 gallons of traditional build but a different coating called metflex (rubber coating) filtered with a Estro sieve and Bakki Showers and he keeps approx 18 koi in this pond. 
2007 – Bill Oakley strikes again in 2007. Another Infiltration supplied Matsunosuke Kohaku. The koi is 11 years old and 90cm at the time of benching. Got to say for me the best Kohaku I have personally seen at the National so far that has taken GC. This koi spent a season in Momotaro’s 1500 ton pond in 2003 before coming to the UK in 2004/5 where it has been in Bills pond since.
2008 - A return to Newark and another win for Bill Oakley to complete an amazing hat trick of major Prizes taking the Grand Champion Prize with last years Matsunosuke Kohaku which is now 12 years old.
To add to this Bill also took the Mature Champion Prize with a Torazo Sanke and Adult Champion with a Nogami Kohaku. A quite magnificent achievement.
The overall entry was slightly down on the 2007 figure although the koi in the larger sizes (6+) were up on previous years.
2009 - Three years in a row for Bill Oakley again - The 2009 BKKS National saw another triumphant hat-trick for Bill Oakley taking the Grand Champion, Mature Champion and Adult Champion awards once again. There was however a reversal of last year with the Mature Champion from 2008 taking the GC award this time and the winner from the 2007 and 2008 shows taking the Mature Champion prize.
The new Grand Champion koi was bought from Torazo by Bill Oakley back in 2004 as a 5 year old when Infiltration was still in business and was first exhibited at the BKKS National in 2007, taking the Mature Champion prize in 2008 before the ultimate triumph in 2009. The koi is now 10 years old and is size class 7 (75 – 85cm).
There were 353 koi exhibited by 51 hobbyists using 74 vats to display the koi in. Koi numbers were slightly down on the previous year and this was mainly in the larger size 6 and 7 classes but the competition in the middle sizes was huge as usual. Over 2500 visitors attended the show which is showing a steady increase for the last couple of years.
A round up – the most popular variety GC was the Sanke with 15 of the 31 winners plus a Tancho Sanke. Then another 12 winners being Kohaku. With 2 showa, a Kin Hi Utsuri and a Yamabuki Ogon alos being varieties than won.
Bill Oakley is the entrant with the most GC titles with 9 in total. Closely followed by Joe Wilmington with 5.
The winning koi was supplied the most times, kind of obviously, by Infiltration with a staggering 18 times since it’s formation in 1982.
The BKKS has had many problems over the history of the show and has so far overcome these and when you actually look and see the pictures of the first shows and the vats etc they used there is much to be grateful for.