Growing in Capel St. Mary
Well, another year has flown by and here we are about to finalise our 44th Show. I have to mention the weather, it wouldn’t be British if we didn’t! We love the heat, (well some of us do), but that alone is not conducive to a healthy growing environment without rain. Ideally, we would like a balanced mix of the two, preferably with the rain at night whilst we sleep. Is that too much to ask! Here in East Anglia particularly we have not had any decent prolonged rainfall. Many of us have not seen such drought conditions in our lifetimes. Look on the bright side, some would say that at least we haven’t been plagued with potato or tomato blight! Perhaps that’s why we have had so many tomatoes entries this year, 33 altogether! Seriously though the weather conditions have made life very challenging in our gardens and allotments this year.
As far as the Show is concerned, I think most of us did not expect to have such a good turnout, in fact a couple of our local village shows have been cancelled this year as a result and those that have had a Show have struggled to fill the benches. We were pleasantly surprised and very pleased to see we received 604 entries from 83 entrants. This was up on last year by 54 classes and 13 entrants.
As far as changes to this years Show Schedule, there were just a few. Firstly, you may have noticed we changed our Show title from Flower & Produce Show, to Village Show. We felt this was a more inclusive title which conveys the belief that everyone is welcome to enter and participate and you do not have to have an allotment or be a member to do so.
At the request of one of our entrants, we trialled opening the doors to the Village Hall on Friday from 1600-1800hrs. This was to allow those with such large numbers of entries, to be able to spread the staging of their exhibits, over the 2 allocated time slots. It was also useful for those entrants who were unable to get here early Saturday morning, for whatever reason. This has proved popular, on the Friday there was a lovely calm relaxed atmosphere with entrants focusing on placing or arranging their entries without the rush that is more apparent on Saturday mornings in some cases. We will no doubt offer this service next year.
Another change we made was to introduce a new cup and a new name in the Novelty section. As I mentioned last year, Graham introduced this Group in the Schedule many years ago and it has always been a favourite for all to enter. The Graham Whybrow Novelty Award is in memory of Graham and has been sponsored by Sue Whybrow. Within this Group this year we changed Class 80 to ‘a bunch of stems of seed pods in a vase’. This has proved a popular new entry with 10 people entering.
Quite a few of you have made suggestions and comments about the Show which we write down and go through at one of our committee meetings. This is how we improve what we do and respond to your suggestions and ideas. As a committee we also note things that are good and some that may need improvement. We introduce new ideas, remove those that we don’t feel work and, we keep those that do work well. Please let me know if you have something to say.
Before we start the Presentations can I say a big thank you to all who have helped us create another grand Show. Committee, allotment members, volunteers and the people who come and look around and support us. Thank You.
Wendy Russell
Show Secretary
This year's winner of the prestigious RHS Banksian Medal presented to the person winning the most prize money in the Vegetable, Fruit and Floral classes was Dennis Smith, and here he is with his medal and rosettes from the show
Dennis Smith
This year's photography competition included a subject of "Depict A TV Programme" one that inspired a lot of people. The winning photo was "Last Of The Summer Wine" by Robert Birnie and it is reproduced here with his kind permission.
The following resources have been made available for download
Click here for details of the major prize winners
Click here for details of the winners of the individual classes
Click here for the Best Kept Allotment competition
Click here for details of the Mammoth Vegetable Record Breakers (We had no new records this year due to the prevailing weather conditions)
The winner of the "Name The Teddy" competition was Pat Presland, the teddies name was "Levi"
The winner of the "Football Game" was John Whittle and the winning team was "Queens Park Rangers"
The Prize Draw winners were as follows:
|
|
Prize |
Winner |
|
1 |
Tubtrug |
Jackie Harman |
|
2 |
Tubtrug |
Sarah Park |
|
3 |
Tubtrug |
Joe Richards |
|
4 |
Tubtrug |
David Fisher |
|
5 |
Tubtrug |
B. Merton |
|
6 |
Tubtrug |
John Holt |
|
7 |
£25 Bypass Nurseries Voucher |
Mrs J Sharp |
|
8 |
Beth Chatto Voucher |
Jane Sago |
|
9 |
Knoll Gardens Tickets |
Trott Ward |
|
10 |
£20 Gladwells Voucher |
Beryl Creasy |
|
11 |
Afternoon Tea for 2 from Capel Bakery |
Mrs Godbold |
|
12 |
£25 Place for Plants Voucher |
Pauline Wragg |
|
13 |
Herb Planters & £10 Co-Op Voucher |
G. Baldry |
|
14 |
Bouquet of Flowers |
B. Merton |
|
15 |
Seed Box & Kneeler from Harrod Horticultural |
Phil Hickley |
|
16 |
Basket of Fruit |
Charles Heath |
|
17 |
Pot of Chocs |
Sally |
|
18 |
Pot of Chocs |
R. Osborn |
|
19 |
Pot of Chocs |
Millie & David Murray |
|
20 |
Pot of Chocs | Jill Miller |
