CLUB NEWS
aturday May 8 2010 saw the Crouch Valley members do what they do best – and that is to support the UK’s number one koi club at one of their many annual events.
Crouch Valley auction S
preparation for our equipment which was arriving by trailer. With the many hands that turned up you can see from the outset that things were going to get done very quickly on that Saturday afternoon.
As normal at the Barleylands venue there is a Saturday morning farmers’ market; a place where they sell their local farm produce which can be anything from meats to cheese to fine cakes. A majority of the Crouch members turned up early so we waited about for the farmers to leave and of course see if we could pick up any freebies. Well why not? If you don’t ask you don’t get!
Once the farmers had left and the market hall was basically empty we started giving everything a good clean and sweep in
Within only an hour of the equipment arriving vats were being erected and water began to fill them, other jobs like bunting was being placed around the market by Andy and the PA system was being put together and tested by Vic. The Chief Auctioneer’s stand was being put in place and all the paperwork was being sorted, like voting cards and vat numbers. Saturday afternoon came and went very quickly. Once again, thank you to all the members that give up their afternoon to help.
Sunday 6.00am
Alarm went off! Crikey it’s Sunday morning and it’s that time already. I had planned to get up early on the Sunday as I had two koi to pick up from the pond of one of the Crouch Valley members. I wanted to be at the venue at around 7.00am or thereafter. So after some swift netting action at John’s I was soon on my way to the venue with two koi bagged, boxed and ready. By the time I arrived there was plenty already going on, koi were being benched and the vats were filling with koi in bags. After a quick look around I could already see that there was a great turn out of quality koi. It was obvious that many people would be walking away that day with some outstanding bargains.
The auction
Once again there were 15 vats. By 11.00am there was a koi in each that caught your eye. The day started off a little chilly but this had not stopped the many hundreds of koi keepers walking through the door to see what was on offer. We even had a couple
come all the way down from South Shields, which was over a five-hour drive just to attend the day! On that note a big thank you to Simon and Sheryl for your dedication. With the numbers of people in attendance and the bidding being rather fierce at times with some very persistent bidders, it was not long until all the vats were empty. I would like to thank all the barrow pushers for their efforts in transporting the koi safely from the market to the cars.
It was then time to break down the auction, empty the vats, clean and dry them. Tables and chairs had to be put away and everything else stored ready for the trailer to pick it all up again for storage. Well what a weekend, what an auction!
Why not join us for the next one, on September 5 2010? Same place, same great team. Thank you Crouch Valley Koi Club members.
Graham McCartney BKKS & Crouch Valley Member 82 KOI CARP
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