Page 39 - Simply Veg 1 2024

Scottish Branch
MEMBERS 30000 TO 39999
It’s been another busy few months for the Branch.
At the beginning of September, we
had our annual Branch Championships
at Haddington having been stymied for a couple of years in our efforts to get there because the premises were needed for the show were being used by the NHS for matters connected to the Covid pandemic.
The quality of the exhibits was exceptional especially given another
iffy spring and a summer of extremes of weather and congratulations to all those who won trophies and well-deserved tickets. We are now planning for next year’s Branch Championships at Duthie Park, Aberdeen at the invitation of the Royal Horticultural Society of Aberdeen
intention was to provide support to recently qualified judges, a refresher for the more experienced and also an opportunity for non-judges to have a go and test their knowledge. Hopefully some in that latter category will now be willing to sit the judge’s exams after what was a positive event.
At the time of writing, we are in the final planning stages for our Annual Seminar
to be held this time at a new venue, the Aytoun Hall, Auchterarder, on Saturday 11th November. A new venue can bring a new set of challenges, but we are hopeful all will go well.
Finally, congratulations to the following whose hard work for the Branch was recognised with awards at the AGM at Newby Hall Ripon in September.
Setting up for the show was another amazing example of teamwork from the Branch members who turned up at 6.30am to a bare floor with
Setting up for the show was another amazing example of teamwork from the Branch members
in conjunction with their bicentennial celebrations.
Some of our members travelled down to Newby Hall near Ripon for the NVS National Championships and came back home having been very successful. Congratulations to all involved. Many thanks also to the Northern Branch for all your hard
tables flat packed on the
periphery. Amazingly, the
show was set up ready
for staging in under an
hour. A huge thankyou to
East Lothian Horticultural
Society for inviting us
there. Huge thanks also to our Show Officials, judges, and stewards, all our members who turned out to help set up the show and of course to our exhibitors without which we wouldn’t have a show.
work in hosting a great show. Full details elsewhere in this magazine.
With not having a judge’s exam in October, we took the advantage of instead, of holding a judging workshop. Our
Frank Taylor FNVS Ian Simpson FNVS Jean Thomson FNVS Neil Muirhead FNVS Ian Archibald
Jim Veitch
Gold medal Silver Medal Silver medal Silver Medal Fellowship Fellowship
Frank Taylor FNVS Scottish Branch Chairman
Scottish branch Judges workshop
As the Scottish branch did not hold a Judges exam in October 2023, we took the opportunity to create a judges workshop and despite the wet weather it was a huge success. Designed primarily in support of recently qualified judges but also as an aid/refresher to more experienced judges concentrated on determining the points deferential between exhibits whilst judging collections.
We set up two collections comprised of high and low pointed veg. One collection was deliberately set up with better veg and the other with lesser quality, the most extreme example being two sets of Hative de Niort shallots. The “good set” were on the small side, but were in good condition, well-shaped, uniform, nicely coloured. The not so good set were bigger and also nicely coloured but rather than nicely round, were oblong having divided internally and on being handled some of them seemed to be showing signs of botrytis around the necks.
Both collections had 7 dishes, some the same kind of veg, some different. The collections were then prejudged by three experienced judges. Once that was done, everyone else present was invited to point the collections and record their scores anonymously on standard pointing sheets.
On the positive side, everyone managed to get the winning collection correct but the points differential of 23 calculated by the prejudges had comparisons as low as 1.
What does that tell us? Well, we all know that judging is subjective and on a blind test there will be variances. As the exercise was done on an anonymous basis, we can’t say who had the low points differential but the guidance to recently qualified judges or those aspiring to join the judging ranks must be to try to get some experience by shadowing some
experienced judges while they are judging shows where collections are to be pointed.
It also reminds us that each show or class within show has a standard set, and you then point items up or down from that initial standard that was established.
A big thank you to all who turned up for the event on a horrible day of weather with special thanks to all who took along vegetables whether they were used or not and of course to our own Judging guru Jim Williams who after the pointing sheets were submitted, Jim explained how and why the prejudges arrived at their conclusions. This was a particularly interesting area of the event and involved lots of exchanges of ideas and discussions. A very worthwhile exercise and one that we plan to repeat.
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