Page 34 - ALG Issue 1 2022

Yorkshire
Yorkshire and parts of Humberside
REPRESENTATIVE
Mike Farrell
Yorkshire & Humberside 07802 196 688 mfarrell.nas@gmail.com
MENTOR
Tony Urwin
Yorkshire & Humberside 0845 250 1292 turwin.nas@gmail.com
The Regional Rep goes to Harrogate Show – in Ripon
Calls to 0845 numbers cost 3p (ex VAT) per minute plus your telephone company’s access charge.
When I asked about having a stand at the Harrogate Autumn Show, it began a sequence of events which could
only happen to me. The first unusual thing was it wasn’t to take place at Harrogate, but at Newby Hall, which is closer to Ripon. However, four phone calls secured me a 1.85 metre spot in the “Society Marquee”, so then I looked for volunteers and when none stepped forward I “press ganged” the wife, bless her. The search for somewhere to stay proved a bit trickier, as the only place not too far away only had a room for one night, and I needed two. However, the guest house landlady contacted me a couple of days before the show to say she had a single room now available for the first night and the double for the second. So, my eventual solution was to go and do the first day alone, and
my wife would travel up alone on the second day.
Well, when I got all my leaflets, catalogues and magazines, it was a good job there was only me in the car. When I arrived, the gatekeepers stopped me entering the grounds and told me no vehicles could go in until after the show closed for the day. Taking it in my stride, no arguing, no pleading, I parked up and thought: Right, I’ll carry as much as I can and come back for the rest.
As I walked/staggered along, a stallholder was so impressed he took the photo on this page. Now, some of you may be getting the idea that my approach can be summed up as “jump in and hope it’s not the deep end” and there may be an element of truth with regard to some of my activities; on this trip I did do some sort of planning, and I knew in which marquee I was to be stationed and the number of my stand.
34 Allotment and Leisure Gardener
some of you may be getting the idea that my approach can be summed up as “jump in and hope it’s not the deep end”
Unfortunately, whoever set the
tables out must have been under the impression that I would “wing it” and that it didn’t matter about pinning my stand number to a table. Either that, or he or she thought it would be amusing to watch me wander around this huge marquee, ladened up more than a camel on an eastern desert caravan trip, looking for an allocation number which hadn’t been put out. After two circuits of the marquee and numerous questions to people busy setting up exhibits, I asked the Beekeepers of Ripon to look after my tackle whilst I set off to fetch more tackle. In keeping with the Harrogate show not being
in Harrogate, it turned out the Ripon Beekeepers were from Calderdale (further from Ripon than Harrogate is).
Welcome to our new members...
Bramley Allotment Association Skelmanthorpe Allotment Society
South Street Allotment Society
Station Road Allotments Cooperative Society 3 individuals
Tankersley Parish Council