Grand Champion Reserve Grand Champion Grand Champion B
Owner - Henry Culpepper Owners - Richard and Luanne Porter Owners - Richard and Luanne Porter
Mature Champion Young Champion Baby Champion
Owners - Richard and Luanne Porter Owners - David and Karen Hardcastle Owner - Merle DeLand
NAPLES SHOW REVIEW
By Karen Hardcastle
What a weekend! A bit breezy and cool but nice weather none the less. There were 81 living jewels entered at the Third Annual ZNA- SKA Koi Show in Naples. The show site was set for a very relaxed and enjoyable weekend. There were two fish vendors, Quality Koi and Jeff’s Koi House; and one food vendor. Of course Vernal from Hikari couldn’t stay away, he had to come and visit with us for a spell.
Art and Nicole Lembke were our outstanding judges. Story goes that the Statues of Limitations ran out in Naples, thus allowing Art to come back to this city and judge the show. Guess you’ll need to ask him about that story. Anyways they were ready to answer your questions and help in any way that they could. Of course they got to ride the train or at least get their picture taken on the train. Great job guys.
We had a great crew in benching, registration, fish wrangling, water quality, judge patrol and helping hands. Speaking of helping hands, we have a koi stalker amongst us. Please watch your Doitsu babies, this person likes to rub on them and state out loud how supple they feel. No names please in order to protect the guilty. Henry, where are you? Let’s move on to the next tank please! Big pat on the back to everyone who participated at this show; John Sprinkle, Joe & Sherri White, Henry Culpepper, Richard & Luanne Porter, Ron & Sue Bilkis, David & Karen Hardcastle, Shirley Stone, Ruth Nichols, Merle Deland, & “Stud Muffin” Luen Nguyen. We also had a couple of newcomers that helped out, Mike Donahue & David Brown. David take care of all those newly acquired babies you got. We will expect to see them next year.
Whenever you work in the ring, at any table of the show, or just walking around, you are bound to be asked a question or two. What fun would it be if you couldn’t satisfy the general public’s thirst for knowledge like: How old is that fish? How much does it weigh? Do you eat them? How fast do they grow? How long do they live? What do you feed them? Luen was also interviewed by a major television network on Friday and was asked how expensive was it to keep koi? He stated “It was cheaper to have a mistress than to keep koi”. These and many more questions were answered over and over again. Just a small price to pay in educating the public or is it simply just a labor of love for our wet pets. In any case we all had fun with these inquiries this weekend.
The food was superb at Friday nights get together at “Carrabba‘s” and then at Saturday nights banquet “Ridgeway Bar & Grill”. Joe gave a little speech on how successful our little show did, and thanked Art & Nicole for being here. Then John arranged for a nice and short ceremony for the top winners of the show. John did an excellent job with the trophies. The remaining trophies were handed out on Sunday morning at the show site. This proved to work out better than handing them all out at the banquet, allowing for more talking and enjoying each others company.
Congratulations to go out to the winners.
Grand Champion: Henry Culpepper - Tancho - >70bu,
Grand Champion B: Richard & Luanne Porter - Asagi/Shusui - 70bu Reserve GC: Richard & Luanne Porter - Showa - 70bu
Mature Champion: Richard & Luanne Porter - Sanke - 70bu
Young Champion: David & Karen Hardcastle - Sanke - 50bu
Baby Champion: Merle Deland - Sanke - 30bu
Most Unique: John Sprinkle - Kinginrin (all)-50bu
Judges Award: Luen & Paula Nguyen - Sanke -70bu
AKCA Award: Joe & Sherri White - Kawarigoi -70bu
Best in Size 6: Luen & Paula Nguyen Hikari (all) >70bu
Best in Size 5: Luen & Paula Nguyen Sanke 70bu
Best in Size 4: Shirley Stone Kohaku 60bu
Best in Size 3: Mike Donahue Koromo/Goshiki 50bu
Best in Size 2: Shirley Stone Kohaku 40bu
Best in Size 1: Merle Deland Asagi/Shusui 30bu
Best in Variety: Kohaku, Kawarigoi Merle Deland
Best in Variety: Sanke Luen & Paula Nguyen
Best in Variety: Showa, Utsuri, Koromo/Goshiki Ruth Nichols
Best in Variety: Tancho, Hikari (all) Richard & Luanne Porter
Best in Variety: Asagi/Shusui Shirley Stone
Best in Variety: Kinginrin (all) Joe & Sherri White
There were many first, second and third placing winners also. There was a size five Chagoi that got a lot of attention and he won his owner (Bill Rankin) a first place recognition. Congratulations again to all participants.
What better way to end a weekend than taking a trip out to the Porter’s place (zoo). Joe, Sherri, David & I headed to their place after everyone was packed up and gone. What a treat! A menagerie of Koi, ponds, dogs, exotic birds, and tortoises all on 38 acres in one of Florida‘s natural surroundings. Our lives are that much more complete now that we got on top of a tortoise. I know there is a picture with each of us on The Tucson Kid. Thank you Richard & Luanne for letting us see your place. Awesome!
Full Show Results 2008 Naples Show Results.pdf