I found this photo on the t'interweb and it made my blood boil. If I had come back after judging to find my cabbages mutilated in such a way I would have thrown a monumental titfit and as you all know I'm a placid kind of fella. I know why this has been done but it is totally wrong. This subject was in the gardening press recently with some judges calling for every exhibit to be cut to check for various internal diseases. Can you imagine what a showbench would look like in the wake of such a ruling? Thankfully, the NVS is leading the way on this and is now advocating that not even beetroot should be cut as there simply is no need to check for internal white rings with today's modern varieties.
The way I see it is there is a clue in the word 'showbench'. It is a SHOW. The public come to see veg that has been grown to perfection. There may well be a bit of rot deep within that perfect onion you see marvelously presented but so what? You cannot see it so what's the problem? At that moment in time they are the best looking. In another month the rot may well have grown and rendered the bulb useless. At a beauty pageant the winning beauty queen is the best looking bird on that day. You don't cut her in half to see if she has the start of lung cancer or something and then award the title to the minger who came 2nd do you?
The way I see it is there is a clue in the word 'showbench'. It is a SHOW. The public come to see veg that has been grown to perfection. There may well be a bit of rot deep within that perfect onion you see marvelously presented but so what? You cannot see it so what's the problem? At that moment in time they are the best looking. In another month the rot may well have grown and rendered the bulb useless. At a beauty pageant the winning beauty queen is the best looking bird on that day. You don't cut her in half to see if she has the start of lung cancer or something and then award the title to the minger who came 2nd do you?
