Summer Show 2017 Review

The venue is booked, the schedule approved, date and time agreed and judges confirmed. Prize money sorted, trophies polished and I wait… The Wednesday night Club meeting prior to Show day is when I find out just how many of our members are entering Saturday’s Annual Show (15th July) and, just as importantly, the number of entries in each of the 50 classes.

This year, as for the past fifteen years or so that I’ve managed the Show, I wonder what effect the weather has had on the fruit, vegetables and flowers that members intend to enter. I need not have fretted because, although overall numbers were less than last year (due in the main to the loss of three strong competitors), there were a few new names on my list. I could now plan for the big day.

Thursday evening was spent labeling up bottles for the bottle stall and getting paperwork ready. On Friday evening a small band of members attended the Margaret Harker Hall and set up the heavy trestles, tables and chairs for staging. Table cloths were laid and the back drop set up for the floral exhibits. The Committee set about allocating spaces for each class and generally readying for the morrow.

Pelargoniums

Saturday morning, I arrive first and fill the bottle stall, put a few surplus plants on the plant stall, erect the banner outside and add a few sapphire bows here and there and wait…

9am: The first entrants arrive excitedly, putting their various fruit, veg etc. in the pre-ordained spaces. A hive of activity fills the hall until 11am when the doors are locked and only the two judges, me and my newly recruited assistant remain. After a quick catch up the judges set about the task in hand. My assistant and I record the results and “sticker” the entry cards. I can see that this year there will be new names recorded as winners and some of our new members have had some success too.

12.30: The judges have left and I’m alone to tot up the points, grab a light lunch, sort out the prize monies and take a few photos to record the day.

1.45: A few members return (via the back door) to ready themselves on the cake, plant, bottle, raffle and refreshment stalls. Then 2.00, the doors are opened to members and the public; what starts as a gentle hum becomes a buzz as successful entrants take in the all important placings.

Bottles are won, raffle tickets bought and wonderful tray-bake cakes and teas enjoyed over the next hour or so. Then the prize giving begins, firstly the financial awards followed by all important rosettes and trophies culminating in the Blofield & District Gardening Club Cup and Norfolk & Norwich Horticultural Society Medal. The trophies themselves have been donated over the years by past Club Officers or in memory of a long time member by their relatives. We then move on to the Auction of the Show Produce which is conducted with great merriment and finally the raffle is drawn. As the day draws to a close, the hall is cleared, the banner and backdrop and cloths folded and farewells said.

Veg BoxFruit

The Show is not about me, it’s about the members. If it wasn’t for their entries and displays, their generous donations of plants, cakes, bottles and raffle prizes and enthusiasm to help, buy and sell, the Show would not happen.

45 years ago a small group of local residents decided to form a gardening club and amongst their aims was “to be a friendly club for people interested in all aspects of gardening, cooking produce and floral arrangements and to hold an Annual show”. I hope that today’s members feel that we continue to uphold those admirable principles and will do so for many, many years to come.

My thanks go to everyone who helped to celebrate our Sapphire year.

Sylvia Nelthorpe, Show Secretary