Page 16 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 69

to materialise. Just under two weeks out before the
Ashley Miskelly, owner of the Judging by all the Facebook photos taken by our
Sea Urchin Science Centre, visiting judges the day was a huge success. Keeping
explaining the wonders of
these fascinating creatures judges entertained around the actual Show is a huge
to our judges. task to organise, but this year it went well, apart from a
near disaster on Show morning. We had arranged a bus,
with the same driver Adam Humphries, as last year to
ferry the judges around, but about 5am on Sunday
KEEPING morning, when we were catching Koi, the driver called
OUR JUDGES to say his eye had swelled up so badly he couldn’t
drive. (He actually ended up in hospital for an operation,
ENTERTAINED so it was very serious.) Very grateful thanks to Lee
Nguyen who stepped into the breach and drove the bus,
AROUND also to Brian Ma who acted as Lee’s chauffer to the
THE ACTUAL Hire Company. It’s nice when our guys help like this,
especially right in the middle of Show day.
SHOW IS A
As experienced last year, a pretty major worry was the
HUGE TASK number of Koi likely to be entered into the Show. The
TO ORGANISE Show site is so large that only two or three hundred Koi
would look lost in the area. This concern remained for a
long time, as online entries, etc., again were very slow
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Show there were only approximately 250 Koi entered!
However, numbers finally climbed to 546. A relatively
early close to entries (two weeks) is essential, because
THE NUMBER allocation of bins suitable for each exhibitor’s Koi is
another very major task, plus of course, time is needed
OF KOI to get the Show boards printed. Shona’s wonderful
Show programme allows an incredibly useful printout
ENTERED IN after Koi entry is closed. It lists all exhibitors, number
OUR SHOW of Koi entered, by the size of each Koi, their combined
length plus the number of bins requested initially by
CLIMBED each exhibitor – not always possible to grant.
TO 546 We try to make sure there is ample room for the Koi in
each vat and avoid them being overcrowded, and
allocate the taller bins to exhibitors showing the most,
large Koi. We now have 20 tall bins with the rest being
the original height but the same 2.0m diameters. We
then draw up a schematic plan for the Show layout
combining suitable height bins for each exhibitor. As
previously, small bins were organised for the Class 1
Koi at one end of the Show ring, each standing on an
upturned bin to allow better visibility. This year, the
small bins were arranged between the larger bins in
a U shape, with a corridor between the rows, thus
making distance walked by the judges between bins
a little shorter.
Friday saw arrival of the bins with a first hurdle –
THE “PIECE DE
RESISTANCE” pulling them apart! Some had stuck together so tightly
it was impossible even with ten men to separate them.
OF OUR SHOW, Dave Keen solved the problem by piping water down
the narrow gap around each side of a bin. They
WAS OUR eventually floated free. As last year, Dave also took
charge of positioning the bins, according to the sizes
TORII GATE
and groupings of the layout plan. The Friday team set
up all the power and air lines, the bunting around the
outside of the bins, the tables and chairs inside the
ring and the all-important tea trolley, the (now quite
extensive) artificial grass, the crosswire holding all the
international and Australian flags, koinorbori and
banners across the centre of the arena plus all other
banners placed around the arena. Lastly, the “piece de
resistance” of our Show, our Torii Gate – constructed
by Richard Davies two years ago – was erected.
Bright red, it looks pretty special as our centrepiece!
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