Page 13 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 30

critiques all the entries and we award certificates and
prizes to the winners.
As we all know, assessing a Koi from a photograph is
tricky, especially given the Crouch members are no
David Bailey or Mark Gardner, so for 2020, the plan
was to trial a ‘Garden Show’, with Keith and a
benching team visiting members, judge the Koi in the
flesh and capture a photograph and video to use at the
presentation meeting. Unfortunately, Covid-19 put an
end to that exciting plan.
Covid-19 of course, as with other Koi Clubs, meant the
Crouch had to cancel its Open Show and all meetings.
To keep in touch and keep our interest in the hobby
going, we have run many competitions through our
WhatsApp group and at the request of some members
decided to run the Photographic Competition as best
we could.
12 of our members stepped up to the plate and a total
of 65 Koi were entered. There were 35 Gosanke and
30 Non Gosanke. A breakdown of the entries was
as follows:
■ 6 Size 1
■ 8 Size 2
■ 21 Size 3
■ 19 Size 4

■ 11 Size 5
With the numbers being much lower than previous
years, it was felt unrealistic to use our normal approach
and the decision was made to scale down the awards
to a straightforward Best in Size across all varieties
plus and overall ‘Best in Show’ Gosanke and
Non Gosanke.

One bonus of the lockdown period was members
clearly had extra time to photograph their Koi. In
previous years, we have seen many out of focus and
overexposed pictures or the odd tail missing from the
shot. We even have one member who shall remain

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