Page 55 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2025

West Yorkshire DA
The West Yorkshire DA held their AGM
in December 2025 with the Chairman
opening the meeting with a minute’s
silence for Steve Bundy who passed
away in early December 2025 after
fighting cancer. Steve will be a great
loss to the DA as he always attended
both our meetings and helped out on
our stand at Newby Hall. At our monthly
meeting you could always find Steve
washing up. Steve was also an NVS
judge and will be missed in the York area
where he judged many shows.
Back to the AGM and the committee
was voted on and remains the same as in
previous years. We also held a quiz with
the questions being done by John Smiles
on a range of topics all to do with fruit and
vegetables. David Allison came out as the
winner with his wealth of knowledge in
both veg and fruit growing.
Back in September 2024 quite a few
of our members showed at the Northern
Branch Championship held at Newby Hall,
with John Smiles and Fiona Farrar winning
red and other cards. Allan Godfrey and Mr
& Mrs Peel were also recipients of cards.
The West Yorkshire DA also helped out
the NVS Northern Branch in early October
by holding the judge’s exam at Mirfield
Community Centre when quite a few
people sat and did the exam. Three of the
West Yorkshire DA members sat the exam
and all 3 passed, these being Olive Peel,
Allan Godfrey and Mark Brown, Well done
all.
The DA will be holding meetings every
two months around the West Yorkshire
area with speakers, after the success of
2024 when all the meetings went down
well and new people coming to them.
Our speaker of 2025 was David Metcalfe
on growing large exhibition onions. The
meeting was run alongside Keighley
Horticultural Society, the list of the rest of
the meetings for 2025 are as follows:
John Smiles Winning Entry In the Millennium Class at Newby Hall
•
Wednesday 16th April 2025 at 7-30pm
held alongside Huddersfield Allotment
Association. Speakers John Smiles
and Olive Peel, Venue Tunbridge
Working Club, 9 St Andrews Road
Huddersfield HD1 6SB.
•
•
•
•
Tuesday 10th June 2025 at 7-30pm
our speaker will be Darren Myers on
Growing Exhibition Sweet Peas at The
Lancasterian School Room, 785 Low
Moor Side Lane Leeds LS12 2H.
Tuesday 12th September 2025
at 7-30pm the speaker is to be
confirmed, held at Wilsden Village
Hall Townfield Wilsden Bradford
BD15 0HT.
Wednesday 15th October 2025 at
7-30pm speaker John Smiles held
alongside Wrose Horticultural Society
at Eccleshill Football Club, Kingsway
Wrose Bradford BD2 1PN.
Tuesday 9th December 2025 at
7-30pm is our AGM and a night
of fun and laughter to be held at
Lancasterian School Room, 785 Low
Moor Side Lane Leeds LS 12 5HY.
Our annual DA show will be held on
Saturday 27th September 2025 at Mirfield
Community Centre.
Andrew Cunningham
Fiona Farrar Winning Entry at
Newby Hall in the Carrot Class
John Smiles Winning Entry in
the Tap Root Class at Newby Hall
Simply Vegetables 55