Cradley Village Hall Welcome

Produce Show

Herefordshire

RESULTS CRADLEY 2022 PRODUCE SHOW Prizes CUPFORWinnerPTSrunner upPTS Evergreen CupFlower Class Joy Edwards56Jane Mumford28 Frank Skinner CupVegetable Class John Perkins128Karen Honeywood44 John Deem CupFruit Class Joy Perkins26Joy Edwards20 Lawrence Little CupPhotography Louise Van Vuren80Tom Van Vuren70 Richard Mitchell CupPoetry Tom Van Vuren Cradley Surgery CupHandicrafts Jane Mumford34 Sue Collins32 Muriel Johnson CupRose Diane Merker Joy Edwards Joy Jerkins CupHighest score male Tom Van Vuren136John Perkins128 Peter Morgan CupHighest score female Joy Edwards166Louise Van Vuren130 Cradley Village CupHighest Family score No Entries Friends of Cradley School CupHighest junior score No Entries Cup Winners

The second Saturday in September is traditionally the day of Cradley Produce Show and this year we opened the doors to exhibitors on Saturday 10th September, with a little trepidation as to how the world changing event of the death of Queen Elizabeth II would affect even our small local event. It would be true to say numbers of entries were down on previous years, but I’d like to think this was more as a result of the poor growing season we have all experienced as, apart from the vegetable fruit and flower classes people arrived with their exhibits; even more art and handicrafts, colourful photography, delicious baking, jams and preserves all for display and competing for cups and honours in several categories. The entries in and the doors close for judging at 11am. Our judges do a wonderful job of deciding the winners with a keen eye for perfection(if it exists!) and giving out encouraging comments along with points for first, second, third and Highly Commended exhibits. Taking notice of the schedule is a must: if it says 3 apples it must be three apples, not four; if it says no more than 10cm high then not a millimetre more! We add up all the points across the show for the best male and best female exhibitor but there are cups for several of the different categories: the best rose flower in the show, the overall handicrafts winner, the photography to name just a few. At 1.30pm we let the public in to view the show, some people came for a look, others came to see how they have fared and hopefully some came and were inspired to enter the show next Year. At 2.45pm there was a short presentation of the trophies and then we auctioned the produce, flowers fruit and food items, kindly donated by the exhibitors. The auction helps us cover our costs and is huge fun, bidding against friends and neighbours for the prize winning items- the longest bean, or the best blackcurrant jam or the stunning basket of produce (you can only bid on the vegetables -all containers are returned to the exhibitor prior to auctioning) Sadly, again, we didn’t have any of our young villagers entering into the show this year. Junior entrants are more than welcome and are able to also win a trophy by gaining the most points in any of the classes by a junior -it’s also free entry to all the classes for them. If you can team up with three other people from your extended family you can also compete for the Family Cup (age no restriction!)- we hope to see this in hot contention next year! I am supported in putting on the show by Chris Lowder, our stalwart director, Ken Nason who provides the ICT support and with the help of volunteers who put out tables, help by with the clearing up, make coffee, run errands and generally do whatever is needed to make sure a good day is had by all. To all of those people a heartfelt thank you. I hope to see many more of you next September, entering whatever you have grown or made or painted or photographed. Schedules will be available from early in 2023. Louise van Vuren