Annual show

2024 Garden and Home Produce Show Saturday 31st August.

Our Annual Show on Saturday 31st August was a great success in spite of a challenging growing season. There was a beautiful display in the hall, with several first-time entrants and very close scoring. Steve Wroe won the Lewis Cup for the most points in the vegetable classes, presented by Jonathan on behalf of his parents Alan and the late Val Lewis. Anita Harper retained the Tom Ethelstone Memorial Trophy for the most overall points, presented by Ivy Evans on behalf of Sue Ethelstone. The show was open for public viewing from 2.30 with all our visitors also enjoying the delicious donated homemade cake with their refreshments, and the hall was buzzing! Thank you to all our helpers and to everybody who entered and supported the show, also to our exhibitors who generously donated their vegetables and fruit to the Burntwood Be A Friend Community Store on Sankeys corner, gratefully received by volunteers in the shop. Please see our blog for photos of the presentations, then have a look at lots more of this wonderful day across all the classes on our Gallery , all taken by our members, including the lucky raffle prize winners with their spoils!

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It was great to have our Garden and Home Produce Show back in 2023 on Saturday 16th September, our first since Covid interrupted what used to be an annual event. We were delighted with the support from exhibitors which provided a wonderful display in the hall that was enjoyed by members and visitors alike. Despite the vagaries of this summer’s weather, there were over 200 exhibits of excellent quality across all the classes.

Scoring was very close and our chairman Deborah Jackson was honoured to present the Lewis Cup, on behalf of the Lewis family, to Martin Plater for the highest number of points in the vegetable classes. Sue Ethelstone was down from Yorkshire to award the Tom Ethelstone Memorial Trophy, this time to club member Anita Harper, for the highest number of points won across all sections and classes. To celebrate the return of the show, both trophies were accompanied by donated gardening gift tokens, and Brenda Brettell won the members-only class for her Pelargonium. Our judge had also commented on one outstanding individual exhibit so a special award of a donated gift token (from the treasurer’s supply) was given to Clive Hancock for his Eucomis.

We were pleased that several first time exhibitors had a go and enjoyed it, as well as taking home some of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places cards for all classes – well done to all entrants! After the presentations Sue drew our raffle which included some kindly donated prizes, and there were afternoon refreshments of hot and soft drinks with delicious homemade cake. There are some photos on our gallery page which give a flavour of the day.  Many thanks to all the committee, judges, helpers, exhibitors and visitors for putting this show back onto the calendar as a wonderful village event. Happy gardening!

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Our 2019 show on 10th August was well supported by both exhibitors & visitors despite the weather & change of date, with similar entry numbers to last year & an excellent standard of exhibits. We feel as if we’ve come of age now that we’ve had several successful years in a row! The exhibits in the Home Grown Flowers classes 1 – 9 looked particularly stunning against the light of the windows as you’ll see from a good browse through both of our gallery pages, and there were 8 super entries in class 27 (5 Vegetables on a Tray), won by Val Wroe. Competition was close and Martin Plater won the Lewis Cup for the highest number of points in the vegetable classes, with June Morris retaining the Tom Ethelstone Memorial Trophy for the most overall points, both well deserved (Ivy Evans presented this trophy on behalf of Sue Ethelstone who was sadly unable to attend due to the very regrettable late change of date). The members-only class 37 Fuchsia “Dollar Princess” which members had grown on from cuttings given out earlier in the year was won by Derek Roberts who is currently deciding which of the two donated prizes to accept…the other one will be retained by the club for a future competition. Many thanks & well done everybody – continued happy gardening to you all!

Our 2018 show was held on Saturday 8th September. After the challenges of the summer drought came the heavy rain but this didn’t deter our members & we had an even higher number of entries than last year – 269! There were some fabulous exhibits & our judges commented on the high standards of the entries which filled the village hall with a beautiful display. There are lots of photos on our Gallery Page and a report on the blog. A big thank you to everybody who entered, supported and helped out. June Morris won the Tom Ethelstone Memorial Trophy for the highest number of points overall, & Ivy Evans scooped the Lewis Cup for the most points in the vegetable classes. And our members’-only class for the pots of Acidanthera that we gave out as bulbs in spring gave a perfect backdrop from their vantage point on the stage. Well done everybody!