My article in 'Hotspot' issue 105

Bernie Woollands asked me some months ago whether I could write up my story of how I won the Baby Champion award at the All England Koi Show last year for the South East Koi Club's e-zine, 'Hotspot'.

The South East Koi Club run the All England Koi Show, and their 'Hotspot' e-zine has an international distribution and is a prestigious and well regarded piece of koi literature that has some history to it.. reaching it's 105th edition.

Ofcourse, I jumped at the opportunity and it's taken some months to write the thing - the end result bears no resemblance to the first draft. It's been difficult to summarise 4 years worth of efforts and share the highlights but also all the challenges in a balanced way - and without people reading the article and coming away feeling terrible after reading a long list of things that have gone wrong.

Hotspot issue 105 has just been published, and I also had the honour of the front cover picture too - which shows my daughter helping me pack up at the end of a koi show.


Bernie said, 'To my mind it is a pic that will be universally understood by anybody involved in showing anywhere in the world." I am obviously very chuffed, and that picture is actually also one of my favourite family photos too.

Here's a link to the whole e-zine: Hotspot , issue 105

I'd recommend getting yourself on the distribution list - it's a free magazine, that Bernie works up each month or so. And is always a good read. Something to brighten up your inbox. There are contact details for Bernie on page 1 of the e-zine.

I've updated my articles page to include a link to this new article. You can access the articles page from the blog home page.

Much has been going on in the polytunnel the last couple of weeks, and I'm lagging a little behind with my blog updates. More to follow soon.