Matsunosuke Seminar - Judging Winners!

[Russell Peters]

Yes, you have read the title correctly, there was a tie. Erwin Santos and Ed Thomas both had the same number correct. To break the tie we asked Mr. Sakai what he thought would be appropriate. He suggested adding up all of the correct 1st place votes and the one with the most would be the winner. Ed had 5 and Erwin had 7. Erwin was announced as the winner.

While we were breaking down the tanks from the judging Erwin asked me if he could split the prize with Ed and then each of them would pay half of the additional costs for the trip. After consulting Mr. Sakai, he thought it was a very kind gesture, he agreed that it was the right thing to do.

Both Ed and Erwin will be going with PSKoi to the Fall Harvest and private auction of Matsunosuke.

Congratulations to Ed and Erwin. I also want to point out that Joelene came in a very close second to Erwin and Ed. Congratulations.

[KoiCCAPW]

Wow! What a wonderful thing to do! Very cool of Erwin! Best ending to a fantastic weekend.

[Russell Peters]

Soon I will post a copy of Mr. Sakai's judging sheet and pictures of all of the Koi that were judged. The Koi pictures will be numbered so that you can see and judge for yourself.

If you participated in the judging, it will give you a chance to review what you did and to compare with Mr. Sakai.

[koiczar]

KUDOS TO ERWIN-SAN!! You should have seen Ed's face when Russ announced the winners. He was totally blown away!

I have to admit, although I knew Erwin was a classy guy, what he did went way beyond that. It made for a perfect ending to a fantastic weekend. As Grant Fujita put it at the end of the seminar, those who attended have increased their knowledge level by about 3 years!

Russ and Kari

Your kindness and support of the young ZNA NorCal club has gone way beyond what most dealers are willing to do for the hobby! Your efforts to provide this club with an opportunity to learn more about the hobby is exactly what this hobby is all about - Friendship through koi!

All my best for your continued success

Mike Perret

[dick benbow]

Mike, you beat me to the congratulatory message to the 2 winners, couldn't have happened to 2 more koi kichi people.Well deserved!!!

and Mike you beat me again to the special thanks and acknowledgement that needed to be made to Both Russ and Kari for what they did toward furthuring
the knowledge and friendship of folks thru koi.

I can't think of when I enjoyed myself any more. It was such a joy for me to spend time with my KB family and honestly that's what it felt like.

a heartfelt thank-you to Dinh and Larry Gill.....for all you did for me.

[koiczar]

Sorry Dick. I know most folks are just getting home and unwinding from a great weekend. Didn't mean to steal your thunder, just wanted to extend my personal appreciation where needed.

Mike

[Russell Peters]

I did not take a lot of pictures but here is what I have for set up. The ZNA NorCal volunteers did a great job, they came out in large numbers and made my job very easy as all I had to do was bring over 60 Koi.

[Russell Peters]

Again, I only have a few pictures. Here they are.

[Russell Peters]

After lunch Mr. Sakai decided that he wanted to go over some of the results from the judging excersice by dividing up participants into smaller groups of ten. He then discussed some of his choices and explained why using the Koi as a visual aid. This was really helpful.

[Russell Peters]

The judging was divided into three groups. Tosai, Nisai and Sansai. All three groups consisted of Kohaku, Sanke and Showa. The participants had to decide 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each and to test the knowledge learned even further, best Beni, Best Sumi, Best Shiroji and best Tategoi. The final component was to pick the Grand Champion of each size. I am going to show Mr. Sakai's results by showing his judging papers. You will notice that on some of the pages more than one Koi was listed as a possibility for that award. It was because some of the Koi were very close in quality. It was decided that if a participant had picked any one of those choices they got it correct. I am going to show the Koi for each page with the page. The Koi will be shown by variety and they should be numbered from left to right starting with number one. If there are six Kohaku the one on the left would be number one and the last one on the right of it would be number six. The first page is Tosai.