Following the success of our Garden Show in 2021, there was unanimous agreement amongst our members to repeat the event this year (rather than running a photographic competition).

The format was, as per the previous year, that a 3-man team consisting of bencher, judge and photographer would visit members ponds to bowl and judge the fish in the flesh. Judging would again be undertaken by our resident senior BKKS judge, Keith Bertie. Keith would view each fish in the flesh, making notes he could refer back to, and each koi was measured, photographed and videoed to a) provide the judge with reference material and b) provide the images and videos for the presentation evening.

The competition structure was as follows this year:

  • Each member could enter up to a maximum of 6 koi
  • For best in size, the competition was split into Go Sanke (which included Tancho and Kin Gin Rin) and Non Go Sanke with all sizes being judge up to size 7 (which would be size 7+)
  • The Champions would be chosen from the best in size winners (with GC being excluded from all other awards)
  • There would also be an award for the best in variety across all 13 of the BKKS show varieties

Whilst the entries were a little down on 2021, a commendable 108 koi were entered

BENCHING MATRIX

With Crouch members being spread all over Essex, this meant a busy few weekends through October for the team but they cracked on with the visits, compiling and categorising all the photos and videos so Keith could complete his judging and then a full slide presentation was put together for our December meeting.

The format for the presentation evening is very straightforward; each size is reviewed in sequence with Keith providing a critique of the koi and answering questions before the first, second and third place fish are revealed. Next up, first second and third in each class are revealed. Finally the champions are announced with GC being the final award.

Paul Green of Chosen Koi in Benfleet is a great friend and supporter of CVKS and was extremely generous in providing gift vouchers as prizes. Our members are very grateful indeed and of course several now look forward to a trip to see Paul and use those vouchers on some of the very good koi he always has.

Overall, another great event run by the Crouch culminating in a very enjoying evening on a cold winters night. There seems little doubt there will demand for it to be part of our calendar in 2023.

Here are our winners receiving their awards from Keith:

Here are the Koi that took the major awards:

Here are the Best in Size Winners – Go Sanke
And Best in Size Winners – Non Go Sanke
And finally the Best in Variety Winners

We hope you enjoy reading this article as much as we enjoyed our event and again, a BIG THANK YOU to:

  • The Team running the event
  • Everyone that took part
  • And of course, Paul at Chosen Koi