A Day of 2 halves

It has been a funny kind of a day with lows and highs a sort of Merlot and rioja day.As they say I will start with the bad news first,after spending Thursday evening through to Friday morning on a job sleeping in my van and climbing trees with a camcorder (I think I am getting too old for this) still came in with the goods though.I then had to spend Friday taking Linda to dress wedding venues.by the time i got home and on to the garden it was gone 8pm I then rose at 5 am this morning to pull the long roots and a few other things that were needed.I climbed in to the Parsnip and long carrot house and started to pull long carrots from the drums,every one that i pulled had been attacked by carrot fly so i moved to the parsnips which had the same problem what ensued was carrot and parsnip carnage. I ended up pulling nearly every one and could not get any usable specimens and finally gave in and admitted defeat.My attentions then turned to the stumps and after pulling several specimens of both abaco and sweet candle I had some decent show able carrots and in particular I had a fantastic pair of sweet candle the best carrots I have ever grown.So off I went to Huddersfield with only an hour and a half left before the end of staging, I arrived and began staging leaving my collection till the last, when it came to staging the collection there was not enough room on the table so the organisers brought another table and set it up for my display which was a 3x 2 collection  2 leeks 2 stump rooted carrots and 2 large onions this was duly placed on the table and i made it for 955pm just time to check everything before judging then just before 10 I was approached by the stewards and told that they had now made space elsewhere for my collection and would like me to move it, I set about transferring the veg and moved the first leek as I placed  in the new position I heard a thud behind me and turned round to see the best ever carrot I have ever grown on the floor with a split in the side caused by the impact.Then the trouble started no one seemed to be bothered about the problem and after much negotiation a deal was struck and it was agreed that the exhibit would be judged in the condition that it was first exhibited fingers crossed this would happen.
In their favor it did, and upon my return close to closing for the first day I found that out of the 16 exhibits that I staged I had 12 red cards and 1 not as schedule which was vento which were grown for 250g and staged as under 8oz they were about 5 grammes over, Chris the Gardner got first but needs to learn how to tie them get a grip Chris Prizes were awarded this afternoon and I was pleasantly surprised to win four awards these were as follows
NVS plaque for best potatoes in show with 4 blue belle
NVS Medal for best veg exhibit in show for the collection
John Armitage trophy for best exhibit in section f  for collection
Frank Roebuck Trophy for winner of class f28  for collection
all in all a good but stress full weekend

CARROT CARNAGE

SWEET CANDLE

ABACO

THE PRINCE

SHOW PERFECTION

BLUE BELLE

CARROT DAMAGE 

3 LB ONIONS

3X2 COLLECTION

PEAS UNDER 4"

VENTO

PABLO

HEAVY ONION AS GROWN 7LB