Growing in Capel St. Mary
Welcome to the Allotments Associations 40th Anniversary year and thank you for supporting our Show. For many of you, it has become a regular event not to be missed, with the chance that you may win a prize or two and look on with glee the fact that you did better than other entrants in that class. If you are a first- time exhibitor we hope you have enjoyed the experience and will come back again. It never ceases to astonish, the vision of perfection presented within the classes, not a blemish or a mark in sight, or a stitch or stroke out of place. The array of variety in the expression of the photography subjects, or those mouth -watering recipes that make you want to take a bite! The amazing sizes of our mammoths or the lengths we go to for the longest runner bean! We must not forget the nurturing of our children and the delight on their faces to see how they have done. A wonderful display of colour that meets the eye when you enter the Hall, never fails to amaze the eye.
This year we have received 657 entries from 71 entrants. An increase from last year and the highest number since 2013. The highest number of entries previously received was 704 in 2011. The highest number of entrants was 97 in 1992 when Charles Heath became Show Secretary. Compared to last year our Vegetable sections in Class A were up by 35, as well as the mammoth classes up by 38. The Capel grown produce was up by 17, as well as the Novelty classes up by 18. The weather may have had something to do with the fruit classes entries as they were up by 25 from 2016. The children’s classes showed an increase of 11 entries but the most surprising drop in entries this year was the Photography section which was 42 down on last year. The photography section has traditionally been very popular.
We are not only celebrating 40 years of the Capel St Mary Allotments, with the Ruby incentives in selected classes, but this year has seen a huge advancement in our information technology, particularly with running and managing the Allotments Show and website. You will have no doubt have read in this years’ Show Schedule and communications to our members, the changes to submitting your entries and completing an on-line form. As a result, we have received 32 on line entries in our first trial year. We will always receive ‘paper’ entries from those who do not use a computer but we will continue to ask for on line entries as this enables us to process them more efficiently. Martyn Dowsett, our IT Manager has made this happen, we have bought Capel Allotments technology to the 21st century. Improvements have been made in how we collate, merge and present our data and this has made organising our annual Show so much more streamlined, faster and of course less stressfull!! We are not new to IT by a long way and must not forget that using computer technology came about in 2000 when Mick Webb, our General Secretary at the time, devised a computer system to produce entry cards, staging notices, Show results and calculation of prize money. Our Website was created and launched in 2001 by Keith Bright and was maintained by Mick Webb until 2016 when Martyn took over. Mick had been awarded a certificate for the best community website on Onesuffolk in 2008. We will continue to improve in this area of technology and are open to ideas and suggestions from you all. This is your Show and we want to enable you to enjoy and participate in how we organise our events, your input is important to us.
Wendy Russell
The following resources have been made available for download
Click here for details of the Major Prize WinnersClick here for details of the winners of the individual classesClick here for details of the Best Kept Allotment competition