Despite very adverse weather conditions almost 500 people braved the snow and ice to visit the 4th British Discus Show held at The Dome, Doncaster.
The UK’s premier Discus show is now an established international event, attracting visitors and fish entered into the competition from Brazil, Poland, Ireland, Sweden, Holland and of course Scotland, Wales and England.
Here are just some of the highlights from the weekend.
International Discus Competition
There was an internationally recognised panel of very experienced judges:
- Cuneyt Birol (head judge from Turkey)
- Paul Butler (England)
- Andrzej Nowicki (Poland)
- Kaj Persson (Sweden)
They judged 80 show tanks and deliberated for a very long time before announcing the BIDKA Challenge winner, the Sid Adams Trophy winner, the six class winners and Grand Champion.
The Grand Champion - pictured at the top of the page - was awarded to Jason Wu (IP Discus) from Holland.
The "Peoples Choice" trophy (winning fish pictured above) was won by Clive Brampton. This is where everyone visiting the show gets to vote for their favourite fish on display. It is satisfying to win the approval of the public for any fishkeeper.
Class Winners
The judged show is formatted into six groups, different colours, patterns and so on. Many prizes were won by UK Discus keepers, Pete Daniels, Clive Brampton, Brian Howard, Martyn Pearce, Rak-Aqua and Steve Punchard all doing very well, as did Injaaz (Qatar) and Andrzej Nowicki (Poland)
The head judge commented that the standard of Discus and Discus keeping in the UK is going from strength to strength, year on year. It was indeed the best selection of Discus yet to be seen in the UK.
Sid Adams Trophy
A week before the 2011 show, Discus stalwart Sid Adams died suddenly in his sleep, Sid was in his mid 30’s and his loss hit the Discus community very hard indeed. In consultation with Sid’s partner, Jan, this year’s show saw the awarding of the Inaugural "Sid Adams Trophy".
BIDKA and Jan decided to award it at every British Discus Show going forward. and a perpetual trophy has been donated. The winner also gets a trophy to keep and the winner was fittingly one of Sid’s best friends, Pete Daniels, whose fish is pictured above. Only fish entered by genuine hobbyists can win this award. It is judged in the same way as the International competition, but the same panel of judges.
BIDKA Challenge
The bi-annual "Discus Challenge" was won by Raymond O’Brien. This challenge was sponsored by Guy Rigby of "Yorkshire Beefheart".
18 months ago Guy obtained 48 x 2” Discus from Jeffrey Tan (Malaysia).
BIDKA members then applied to receive eight fish each free of charge and had to raise them, documenting success and failure on the BIDKA forum.
The conclusion of the challenge is the show - each competitor agrees to enter two of the fish, and they are judged by the international panel. An element of marks are awarded for the competitors' feedback and updates to the forum.
It is a very interesting journey and Raymond O’Brien from Scotland and his "Ring Leopard Discus" (pictured above) were indeed worthy winners.
Show supporters
There was a number of trade stands at the Dome where Discus enthusiasts could buy those not so easy to find items, chat with fellow enthusiasts and enjoy the daily lectures.
Tradition
On Saturday night the Discus Dinner was attended by almost 60 people and went on well into Sunday morning….lucky for us we were staying in the beautiful Earl of Doncaster Hotel.
Mike O’Sullivan organised this year’s event and during a short speech at the dinner paid tribute to Sid and Jan and thanked all the volunteers, judges, visitors and businesses who gave up so much of their free time to make the British Discus Show the success it is.
Mike promised us an even better show next time, so why not come along and see for yourselves?
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