Baby Champion!
Had a great result at the South of England koi show .....
If you haven’t seen my facebook page, you’re probably still waiting to hear about my results from the South of England koi show just over a week ago.
The show was one again a big success, and this year the level of competition was markedly up with a few more big name out of towners exhibiting their koi. That makes for a great show, and is good for the competition, but tougher for the exhibitor to win awards…
Last year I won the baby champion, and scored heavily in size 2 and 3 with my home breds, and this year I didn’t win as many awards, but the level of success was still way above what I could hope to achieve with home bred koi.
I achieved Baby Champion for the second year in a row, with a size 2 kohaku from my May 15 spawning. That makes it the best koi out of the 93 koi in size 1 and 2 at the show!
Size 2 was the most hotly contested size grouping with 62 being exhibited, and my Baby Champ also came 1st in size 2 across all varieties, and another of my kohaku’s came 2nd in size 2 across all varieties too.
I also achieve 2nd out of 12 kohaku in size 1, and 3rd out of 10 kohaku in size 4 with a male kohaku from my July 14 spawning. This size 4 award is particularly special, because of the high level of competition and its my first competitive prize in size 4 at an open show with one of my home breds. And, a bit of luck really – because I almost didn’t take this fish to the show. I’d planned to bring it to the show but on the Friday, we spent so much time choosing the size 2 and 3 kohaku that we almost ran out of pakcing up time . In hindsight… I’m glad we made the extra time available to bring it along.
My size 3 tancho came 1st in size 3 tancho….. but it was the only koi in that class! So, nice to have a prize with that koi, but it wasn’t a competitive placing.
I exhibited 3 kohaku’s in size 3 but they drew a blank. Competition was tough, and whilst they were very presentable fish, there were at least 3 size 3 kohaku’s that were better than mine. I think one or two of these size 3 kohaku’s could be in a better place development wise for exhibiting next year and the year after in the middle size groupings.
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| Baby champ ! |
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| 2nd in size 2 overall |
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| Exhibited under my kids' names, and this size 4 nissai won the junior exhibitor award |
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| Another pic of the kohaku that came 2nd in size 2 overall |
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| Last year's baby champ, returned this year in size 4 but drew a blank. And the kohaku that came 2nd in size 2 overall. |
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| This year's baby champ, and last year's baby champ (returned, this time in size 4) |
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| This size 4 male nissai came 3rd in size 4 kohaku. |
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| The tancho we took in size 3. |
