My local show this weekend

[dick benbow]

About 8 years ago, Puget Sound Koi Club in the Tacoma Area of washington state started a young fish show.
It was designed by yours truely to fill in the gap between Seattle and Portlands full blown sized show . So many of our koi keepers had smaller ponds and anything mutch over 15 inches or so was mamoth to them. so we started with an 18 inch maximum. AKCA affiliated, the show is being held at Hoshi Koi in Puyallup as the city of tacoma raised the rent on our ocean park front space to where it was prohibitive.
In a good year the show has drawn 100 koi but we anticipate the numbers to be down this year. thursday is set-up,friday is benching and saturday is Judging. Pat and Larry Christiansen who judged our first show are back as judges from the Portland Area.
I will be glad to do pics and commentary but i need a volunteer to do the posting. Jason has helped in the past on my Blueberry tales baby koi pics but I hate to impose. Any volunteers ( jason if your willing jump in here ) ?
I entered one koi once ,in our second show. Since i came up with the idea, I didn't want to have others think it was something orchestrated so I could win. Actually all my koi are over 24 inches in length. So at the second show after people complained that i didn't support my own show,I went out and bought a 16 ich matsunosuke sanke that took reserve. I never entered again! I do set up and run the becnhing so it keeps me in good standing! (LOL)
Suprisingly there have been some very first class koi in the show. One of my Gin rin shiros and a Kumonru I bred will compete that I know about, so I am excited to see how they do against Japanese koi!
This is koi showing 101, basic but it has a place in this world for members to gain knowledge and enjoy seeing other people's koi. in the past we have had people come as far as idaho,spokane and portland to support us with koi from other states.
I always get excited, and the anticipation is always greatest right now. BUT it comes and goes so fast, that Spokane's show at the end of the month ( yeah, I get to bench again!) can't come too soon!

[JasonS]

Send the pix on. I'm game. I'll probably end up posting after dark tho'. Got stuff to do during daylight.

[dick benbow]

Thanks Jason! Appreciated!

[Bancherd]

They started the show AFTER I left Puyallup!

Please post pictures, one of these days, I'll have to do the Puyallup.

[dick benbow]

For those outside of Western washington state, you should know what doing the puyallup is.....attending the western washington state fair. it's held annually in the town of Puyallup each september ( about the time the silver salmon start to run up the puyallup river) For many japanese during world war two, this was a shipping point on thier way to concentration camps in the interior of the united states.

pronounced pew wall lupp (indian word) from the Puyallup tribe of course!

Bancherd, I'll look forward to your return so I can get you down to the berry farm! Will be thinking of you as I record the setting!

[JasonS]

Dick, I'm out of town from Sunday afternoon through Tuesday. I can post the pictures Saturday evening or Sunday morning if you can get them to me quick enough. After that it'll be Tuesday evening.

FYI.

[dick benbow]

Thanks for the heads up. Will be nye and impossible for me to shoot pics
and get back home and get back to the banquet. too big a distance and too little time. best i can do would be to get the pics to you Sunday.

so I think the pictures will still be meaningful to see a few days later.
what do the rest of the viewers think? any urgency?

[Bern]

I'd say not Dick.

MikeM's portrait of the BKKS National came after the event and that went down well.

Have a good weekend.

rgds BERN

[dick benbow]

Thanks Bern!
Good to hear from you! I'll relax as much as I can and enjoy our show
as you suggest. then following in the footsteps of that great koi reporter
Mike M post some killer pics and commentary!
Somewhere between the Uk and the Americas my asagi BKKS pin is setting. Garry sent it close to a month ago and it never arrived! (GRRRRR!)
A niece to my asagi arrives Friday. She is about 10 inches long. two weeks later i have a nephew coming at about 6 inches to complete the trio. I sure do love those koi!
Now that i have my asagi's I'm working on finding a nice Scot's pine
bonsai. Lately I have been haunting EBAY UK for books by barton and Adams (bonsai Brits).
Keeps me busy and out of trouble! Take care Bern!

[dick benbow]

The Results of the 7th Annual Young Fish Show are in for the Puget Sound Koi Club in Tacoma, Washington state. Judging Duties were handled by the husband and wife team of Pat and Larry Christiansen from the Portland, Oregon area.
Top Honors went to a 17 3/4 inch Kohaku bred by Igarashi Hiromi of nakata koi farm. The owners, Dan and Sharon Olsen of Spokane are rightfully proud of their achievement of capturing top honors. This is the first of many GC for this up and coming pair of koi kichi's.
Reserve was a showa, two class sizes down from the top koi that was incredible. owned by the President of the Puget Sound Koi Club Phil ( and Patty) Ricigiano.
Baby grand ( under 8 inches) was entered by the co-show chairs Cindy
and John Hillstrom. This kohaku with a button nose was quite the crowd pleaser.
Best in size (3rd best in the show) was a gin rin sanke owned by Phyllis and Gene Anderson of the Spokane Club. This is another couple that will be making a name for themselves.
Forgive me, as I have to add one more koi as it was my highlight. A Shiro Utsuri, best in class for size 3. Owned by Brad and Johnnita Billings, no club affiliation but avid show supporters. This koi was bred by yours truely. A gin rin Utsuri of my breeding ( not shown) took second Owned by Sue Squirers and judges award. A kumonru of my breeding took first and Spokane's Friendship award and is owned by Jo Ann and Jerry Tyler
club members and President (jerry) of the Association of N.W. Koi Clubs!
The weather prior to the show had been in the 80's a so hot for this neck of ther woods. Set up day it dropped 20 degrees and friday rained buckets (literally) I believe this may have had something to do with the smaller turn out. About 70 koi when usually we have closeer to the mid 80 and some.
The president of the club made bonsai trophy's for the top three awards, which went over well instead of the usually hardware.
The next NW Show Is the 28th in Spokane.

Thursday I did something very bad to my hip, literally crawled out of bed friday to bench. didn't sleep friday night and finished benching saturday morning. Was relieved of my duties as fish handler cause people didn't like seeing the pain and didn't sleep saturday night but was darned and determined to "enjoy" the banquet.

My thanks to Jason S who volunteered to post early next week dispite his busy schedule. Dan Blatt my previous poster is back on the internet
and has agreed to get the photo's up for me. ( thanks to both for helping out)