When I visited a few of these shows in person I also came across one or two where the steward on the door had all the charm of a menopausal rottweiler. I felt most unwelcome and a quick scan of the benches told me that the show wasn't as well supported as it should have been. By contrast those that made me feel welcome had a good feel about them and the benches were bursting with produce. The lesson is clear.... make your show as welcoming and enjoyable as possible and people will come every year.
I see also on Paul's blog that he went along to a nearby show to support it and he was told the 'locals' wouldn't be happy if an 'outsider' won most points (he had) and he now feels he won't be attending in future. Another pal, Paul in Cumbria, said his daughter had overheard some old boys moaning about him after he had also swept the board. I've heard this sort of thing myself and i'm contradicting myself to a certain extent by saying that sort of thing has made me even more determined to go back the next year and do it again. Some old boys think they have a god-given right to win the trophies year after year and won't give any credit if someone comes along with veg better than theirs. Paul and Paul.....they're not worth bothering about and as long as the organisers want you there then keep rubbing their geriatric noses in it!
Meanwhile, tonight I popped over to see how Ester was growing. I think she's on a par with Heidi last year in terms of diameter but not quite as deep, so I don't think she will match her 262lbs. Only another 3 days until she makes her bow at Seagrave Show. Bit of a grainy photo from my mobile in the dusky gloom i'm afraid.
5 comments:
Where is the fun in winning if the real competition feel unable to compete because their winning will be unpopular? These people need to be quietly taken to one side and a serious word had with them about what being a "good sport" means, and also have it explained that their entries must clearly be substandard even in their own minds if they are threatened by new outside competition.
Sad, as after these stubborn old boys have passed on, then there may be no-one to follow them if they have driven all other interested parties away!
Simon you wanna try living round my way.
There is even a show that they changed to local villagers ONLY..And they would have no problem in grabbing you and throwing you out the door. They even have bouncers after some decent stuff turned up one year to there shock.
Didn't do my local show this year from all the back stabbing from the new committee who even throw there own president off as she disagreed with the schedule being changed so much, it looked like a 2 year old wrote it. The classes didn't even state things such as long carrots, it just said carrots, was pretty funny to read. Written by people who have no idea about showing veg..just a bunch of old grannys who only like there friends to win.
No top growers went so I prosume this show will now die.
Problem with quite a few shows is they have been taken over by people who have no idea about showing vegetables. As the old guard die out and people retire from showing the knowledge is lost and people prosume decent veg does not exist and are shocked at the fact we actually grow this veg to enter in a show? wtf..no way.
The best thing is to hire a community hall or other such like building and start your own show.
I might start one up here and could possibly use a garden centre where they have all the things that you need. It would be a win win situation.
You should try some local garden centres and see if they would host it and maybe provide sponsorship in return for all the publicity and trade you would create for them.
i can't believe some shows - loads of shows have folded over the last few years - i thought it was the financial climate - but reading your posts it may be down to attitude. I'm show sec at our village show and we go from strength - i think because we go out of our way to be friendly and encourage new comers whether they are local or not - 125 entrants this year staged 918 exhibits and we're only a small village. We have lots of younger growers which takes the reliance off the "old boys" and to that end i've developed a website - which smithy kindly links (Sutton Show Nr Macclesfield)and we've even set up a Facebook page this last week - just to keep in touch with the young ones.
Quality is good too.
If you want to set up your own show - i can let you have word docs of our schedule that you can change to suit - may save you a bit of time.
Equally frustrating for me is being isolated on a small island like Guernsey we only have 3 shows each year, the North, South and the West. Guernsey is divided up into Parishes, of which there are 10. One show covers 4 parishes and the other two have three each. The rules mean that you can only enter the show that covers the parish where you reside. I have tried recently suggesting that as most of these shows are suffering from few entries, (often certain classes only having one to three entries), they should open the shows up to all Guernsey residents to enter. The reaction was much as I should have expected. In other words "this would spoil the individual character of the shows", "we would lose our identity", "this has been suggested before and was outvoted" etc.
So frustrating when you can see at least one of the shows is on its last legs, now held in little more than a small village hall, and the other two, whilst much bigger, are still dependant on weather and if they had two bad years of poor weather would most likely fold.
Apart form anything else, it is no fun winning if you are the only entry in a class, and it would be a whole load more challenging (and interesting for visitors), if there were loads of entries in each class.
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