Page 14 - Simply Veg 1 2024

National Championships 2023
The 2023 National Championships was held as part of the Harrogate Autumn Show at its base within the grounds of the magnificent Newby Hall, Nr Ripon in North Yorkshire.
I will no doubt be echoing the words of many previous Championship organisers over the years but having started the preparation 12 months previously it was a slow and steady build up, then it seemed
to be all over in a flash. It really does feel like that, although this year there have been some minor issues to clear up and letters of thanks to write, but otherwise I think that it has been a great National.
I hope the following will be a useful background to what goes on when organising a National, and will give a little insight for future organisers, although they may not be faced with the same dilemmas I was. The preparation of the 2023 National started
over 12 months before the event was staged. The first task for me was to identify the four Northern Branch judges, which is no easy task with our resource of judges diminishing. The Northern Branch Judges were John Bebbington from Merseyside, David Elcock from Bradford, Paul Neve from East Yorkshire, and Ken Ridehalgh from Lancashire. At that time, I was also getting e-mails from the
other Branches identifying the appointed Judges from those other branches – John (Hoss) Martin from Scotland, Vanessa Jones from Southern branch, Owain Roberts from the Welsh branch and Bob Oliver from the Midlands Branch.
Because the area around the showground is very rural and hotels within a reasonable price range in the immediate vicinity are few and far between, it was important to find suitable accommodation for those judges requiring it. And that should be within close proximity to the showground, I eventually chose the Crown hotel in Boroughbridge which is literally 7 miles from the show, and although slightly pricier than the guidelines I’d just written, I thought it would be ideal. From the feedback I’ve received the Crown had been a good choice.
From then on things got a little messy, and for me was scattered with some ups and downs, and for a person who doesn’t stress easily my stress levels at times peaked. The big issue that emerged quite early on was looking for a venue for the post show social evening, which has always been a free event for those who exhibit. Ripon has few pubs and of those it has, none had a room available. None of the clubs could help either. So, I spread the net a little wider and got a bit of a shock with prices to hire a room, on top of that the cost for catering and some form of entertainment
was in my opinion disproportionate for a charity to pay for relatively few people. It was clear to me that the provision of a free event was in contravention of Charities Commission guidelines. OK so we charge for it, but the figures I was looking at would make the event tickets very expensive. As it wasn’t a decision I could take alone, I took my findings back to the Northern Branch Committee, where there was considerable debate, and in the end it was agreed that we would not offer a social evening, but the committee decided we should put a small buffet available for those attending the AGM which was within the Charities guidelines. Admittedly
The exhibition at Newby is held in a large marquee labelled ‘ The Incredible and Edible Marquee,’ the name deriving from the place where show vegetables, fruit and Giant vegetables are displayed. The benches
in the Marquee are set up and prepared by Newby Hall staff, but the setting out
of space for our displays are done by Jim Robinson and James Park these two hard working guys start their preparations on the Thursday before the event and by late afternoon on the Thursday when I arrived it’s all set up and ready to go! Both Jim and James take a well-earned break then, as they will be on duty overnight allowing
the decision would not go
down well with those who
have attended the event
for a number of years, but
times have changed since
the first social gathering
was arranged, and it is
important that the money
the charity makes is wisely
spent and within the
constraints of the Charities
Commission guidelines and
the NVS constitution. I was
sorry to be the bearer of bad news when I took the decision to the Trustees.
As it was Simon Smith (Smithyveg) stepped into the breach and organised
an event in Harrogate independent of the Northern Branch, he was able to get a free room and organised a paid for buffet.
The second little blip was that the NVS AGM was originally to be held in the ‘Orangery’ at Newby, but unfortunately there was another event taking place which relegated us to hold the AGM in a small marquee close to the Orangery but very adequate for our purpose. As it turned out it was ideal.
Entries to any event don’t come in quickly, but this year they seemed to be trickling
in quite slowly and even by mid-August I only had around 20 entries. Which is a little disconcerting and you begin to wonder whether it’s been a disastrous year for the regular entrants. Still the time could be used wisely, I write all the winner’s cards by hand and the details of each section were written which means on the day all I have to add is the winner ’s name.
I prefer entries by e-mail and will always respond to an e-mail entry indicating
that an entry has been received, with the National postal entries are also responded to, but with Northern Branch events postal entries are not responded to. Entries
by e-mail will also allow mistakes to be rectified by a quick e-mail.
competitors to bench in the early hours. I then get on with handing out benching cards and show passes
for the exhibitors which must be attached to their NVS membership card to gain access all over the weekend. It is surprising how many people ask
for tickets for their family, unfortunately for this type of show we don’t get extra tickets. The organisers are
very generous to the NVS, but they have to make a profit from the show otherwise their generosity or the show will disappear.
Iamusuallyonsiteuntil9or10pmIthen leave for home and a few hours’ sleep before coming back to site between 4 and 5 am,
to sort out any problems that have arisen overnight, most issues (not entered an item or entered the wrong item) can be sorted out if I’ve got the necessary paperwork to do so, but unfortunately there are times when I don’t have paperwork and have to say no.
By 6am the Judges and Stewards are beginning to arrive. The Stewards, Malcolm Tordof, Neil Blumson, Michelle Nixon and Stan Graham. Also assisting me was Angie Graham who was responsible for inputting the raw data into the database leaving me to complete the cards.
After a warm drink and a little pep talk from me explaining that if the judges are in any doubt, there was lots of expertise in the Marquee, in particular other NVS judges are judging the Harrogate side exhibition and Northern Branch Chairman Adrian Read all were available should the need arise. From that point onwards we are looking at a tight timetable, the aim is to get the judging over and cards on the benches before the Public are let into the show at 9am. It mostly went well one or two little issues because of wrong information being added to the score sheets but were sorted out quite quickly. That all sounds like there were no other problems,
The preparation of the 2023 National started over 12 months before the event was staged
14 Simply Vegetables
GEOFF WILSON FNVS, SECRETARY NORTHERN BRANCH