Qualify to quantify

The pinnacle of the show grower's ambition is the collection class whether it be your local show or a large NVS or RHS show. I remember when I first started showing and going to the long since defunct Loughborough Show and seeing 4 or 5 superb collections with backboards draped in superb celery and blanch leeks. I'm that old that this was before digital cameras so I have no photos to be able to compare to todays NVS displays like this one at last year's National in Dundee staged by Peter Clark. The prize money is big and the kudos is great. I'm fairly sure that my rose tinted glasses have enhanced those local displays from years ago, and that they wouldn't have been a patch on this exhibit where every dish needs to be as perfect as you can get it. The guys that do these displays will enter very little else as they save all their best veg for this one class, maybe just the one show all season. They are usually made entirely from six sets of 20 pointer veg and you would need a stunning set of 18 pointer veg if you were to substitute a set for one of these. The 20 pointer veg are leeks, celery, long carrots, parsnips, potatoes, long beet, peas, caulis and of course large onions.

Maybe one day in the distant future I'll be good enough to consider competing in this class but for now i'll content myself with trying for something called the Millenium Class at Llangollen, which calls for 5 dishes of veg, 4 each of globe beetroot, 250g onions, potatoes, stump carrots and tomatoes. If I can improve on the form and shape of my stumps and i'm able to harvest 4 good matching potatoes of the same variety then I reckon I could be in with a shout of getting close(ish) to the tickets in what is always a hotly contested class.

This is Allen Young's winning entry at Dorset in 2009.

And here is Mark Hall's top scoring effort from Dundee 2010.

The 250g onions and globe beet are rated 15 pointer veg, the stumps and tomatoes are 18 pointers. Potatoes are the only 20 pointer veg. I've seen a few of these displays now and you often see several faults on the winning collection, especially if that grower has entered the main classes. If you visit an NVS show it's always a good idea to look at these collection classes, going from exhibit to exhibit and assessing the same vegetables against each other. For example, start with the carrots and come up with a 1-2-3 in your head before looking at the marks that have been awarded. Try not to look at the marks before you've done this. Then move onto the parsnips and so on. In a way you're judging it after the event and learning what the judge is looking for, especially if the judge has split the marks for each of the criteria - size/shape/uniformity/condition - but he doesn't always have time to do this.

To be able to show veg you need to think like a judge when selecting your own veg for display, critically analysing your faults and weaknesses to try and bench what is called for according to the RHS or NVS rules applied to any given show. With this in mind I have put my name down to take the NVS judges' exam on October 1st. It involves a written test paper and Dave Thornton has promised me some past papers to look at so I can see the sort of questions likely to be asked. The hardest bit is the practical part, where you have to judge a mock show comprising 6 or 7 'classes' of 5 or so dishes and arrive at a 1-2-3 in front of other qualified judges, handling the exhibits with confidence and explaining your thought processes as you go. Hopefully, I'll pass and then be qualified to judge other shows in the afternoon after staging at my own shows in the morning.