| 

Attention: open in a new window. PDF

Cambridgeshire Koi Show 2011

Sat the 16th and Sunday the 17th of July 2011 saw the Cambridgeshire Koi Club hold their first ever open show, building on the success of their 2010 closed show that won rave reviews, this was a massive step up and was sure to test the organisation of the event to the limits!

The build started the week before with a team of club members arriving to help clean vats and get marquees erected, it didn’t take long and by the Wednesday of the week before the show, everything was in place and over 18000 gallons of water was being aerated and dechlorinated ready to be dispersed to the waiting vats.

As Friday 15th came, the koi started to arrive and we certainly weren’t let down. By the end of the day we had over 270 koi on display and there was amazing quality throughout the sizes. By this time a few guesses were being made as to where the GC would come from and the general consensus is that it would be one of 2 koi

At 9:30 on Saturday the gates opened to the general public, and after a week of terrific weather during the show build, unfortunately, so did the clouds! The rain stayed with the show until about 2pm and at times it was nothing short of torrential, but that didn’t stop the crowds and the paying public attending!

The rain made it somewhat difficult for the judges to get on with their work, so an early lunch was in order and the hope that the rain would ease, thankfully it did and the judging process started around 1.30pm.

Given the number and quality of koi on display the judges concluded their task in good time, and rather than making the GC award the first one they chose on the day, they left it till last in order to get ‘their eye in’.

With the rain having now left and the still weather with us, the vats received their last water change of the day and had their covers put on for the night, it was then a mad dash for some to the summer dinner dance where the main prize awards would be announced.

The major awards were announced and it was soon discovered that Andy Baker had taken the title of Grand Champion with his impressive 3 step Kohaku, the very same koi that took the award of Mature Champion at the EMKC winter show back in February.

That wasn’t to be the only award to go to the South East with Frank Collins picking up the Mature Champion award with his stunning Showa. The Adult Champion made it’s way up the M6 to the East Midlands with Martin ‘Mushio’ Barnet and his impressive size 5 Hoshikin Kohaku who also took the Jumbo Champion award with his 86cm Chagoi called Fanny. The Young Champion went to a simply shimmering Gin Rin Shiro Utsuri owned by Helen Clarke and Sue Churchill, that only left the Baby Champion award to be announced and it came as no surprise to see it go to the very same Kohaku that had taken the accolade at the Winter Show in Feb that is owned by Glen Jones & Jackie Porter.

So with the awards announced it was time for the partying and chat to being and from some of the sore heads that were witnessed on the Sunday morning, it seems the partying went on for quite some time!

On Sunday morning the worst of the weather had passed and whilst there were still the odd showers to be seen during the day, on the whole mother nature was far kinder to us than on Saturday.

The crowds certainly weren’t put off however and with a steady stream of people coming through the gates the show ground had a terrific atmosphere about it, with people milling round the vats comparing awards, visiting the attending dealers picking up a few bargains and new koi along the way and checking out the Alpacas that were drawing many comments from the younger members of the crowd.

The weekend ended with the awards ceremony that saw all the exhibitors receive their certificates, and a bucket of growth food from Koyoshi for exhibiting as well as all their rosettes and trophies for the awards they had won.

All in all over 1300 people visited the show over the weekend and those that did couldn’t help but comment on the quality of koi that were on display.

So on behalf of the Cambridgeshire Koi Club, I’d like to thank everyone that took the time to come along and support the show from the exhibitors that gave us such a great display of koi to look at, the dealers for putting out a great range of products to view and purchase, the people that put up with the weather to come and see the results of everyone’s efforts and of course our primary sponsors without whom the show wouldn’t have been possible, Koyoshi Premium Koi Foods, RotoInnovations, The Japanese Koi Company and TMC.

We’re thrilled with the response and feedback we’ve received and already planning for next year, we aimed to put on a show that would cement its place on the show calendar and we’re pleased to say we believe we may have done just that!

We look forward to welcoming you to the fens once again on the 21st and 22nd of July 2012.