Almost as pleasing on the chuff stakes was my first ever win at Leicester in the tomato class. For the past 4 years I’ve come away after ‘staging’ convinced my tomato entry was a nailed on ‘red card’ but all I’ve ever managed was a paltry 3rd last year. This year there were about 10 entries and I overheard another couple of exhibitors saying mine were the best before the judges had come but as I knew from previous experience chickens should never be counted.This raises a number of issues about judging. Despite the fact that there are standards for the judges to work to (RHS or NVS guidelines) there is bound to be a certain amount of subjectivity involved and 10 different judges will never arrive at the same 1-2-3. I’ve had people come up to me in the past and say ‘you ought to contest that result’ but equally I’ve had occasion to think I’ve been fortunate to win a class. I’ve always said this is a hobby that has the added advantage of keeping me sane in a crazy world and if I ever got to the stage where I was disputing decisions it would be the day I gave it up and took up stamp collecting. Judges are human beings also and very often don’t have enough time to do their job as the show stewards are pressuring them to get the show open.
Having said that…….it’s about bloody time you got the decision right you blind sods! LOL
3 comments:
I know what you mean about judges.
I had a 125lb pumpkin beaten into second place by some celery a few years ago because apparently even a perfect pumpkin will never score as highly as some decent celery due to the maximum points each can be awarded.
Now that sucks !!!
Oh... well done in the show by the way.
Dan.
many congratulations.just wondering how you are going to get all those prize cards and trophies into 1 photo for garden news. i see your leicester photos have come out orangey like mine due to the lighting me thinks. just working out logistics of seagrave show weekend. have 2 other shows to pssibly fit in. will return trophy on day if thats alright
Dan,
You'd have been better off keeping the pumpkin for the 'heaviest' class. There are some veg deemed harder to gow than others that have a maximum 20 points and celery is amongst these. They might have got 16 out of 20 whereas your pumpkin might have got 10 out of 12 ( I think 12 is the max for pumpkins.
Some judges go on a percentage scoring system whereby your pumpkin would have won as it would got a higher percentage of the maximum available but it's rare for that system to be utilised.
You just have to live and learn I'm afraid.
Kev,
Perhaps they should just give me my own column? LOL
No probs about bringing the trophy on the day. Should be a good show this year as I've hopefully encouraged several new exhibitors to give us a go.
Regards
Simon
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