Record entries for Autumn Show

Over 40 people entered, twice as many than for the same show last year, with a total of 210 exhibits.

Gail Pinder was awarded the Autumn Shield for the most points in all classes and Phil Maynard was awarded Best in Show overall for his onions.

Ron Juden, the Society’s Chairman, said: “I haven’t seen a show as well attended as this for a long time. All the exhibitors did the village proud, with a splendid display of the vegetables, fruits and flowers of autumn.

“This was English gardening at its finest. And as for cakes, pasties, jams, and chutneys – well, the table would have held its own in the Harrods Food Hall! I can’t wait to see what next year will bring.”

This year there was also a special new class for people to enter which was to write a poem based on nature, and the widely respected writer Christopher Lee, who lives in Beckley, was the judge. He wrote the long-running and award winning series This Sceptred Isle which was broadcast on Radio 4, and he’s written over 100 radio plays.

Ron Juden went onto say: “Sarah Batehup, who’s never done anything like this before, won first prize and Christopher gave a short talk explaining what he had been looking for when he was judging and why Sarah’s poem so impressed him.

“There were 13 entries and I think it’s fair to say he was surprised and impressed at the general standard as well.”

Christopher Lee and Sarah Batehup are pictured here discussing her work after the prize-giving, along with some of the visitors and entries in the other classes.”