The KAS AGM was held on Thursday, 10th September, in the Market Hall, where the results of this year’s allotment judging were announced.
How the judging works
Each year the allotments at Sparrow Lane, Mereheath Lane and Warren Avenue are judged, with certificates and cash prizes awarded for the best plots at each site, plus a Best Newcomer prize at each. The site producing the highest-scoring plot overall receives a shield, held for the year.
Plots are judged across five categories — Plot Planning, Variety and Health of Produce, Weeds, Compost, and Sustainability.
This year, with an independent judge unavailable, judging was carried out by site representatives from the other allotment sites: Sparrow Lane judged Mereheath Lane, Mereheath Lane judged Warren Avenue, and Warren Avenue judged Sparrow Lane. It proved a useful exercise, giving a number of people first-hand experience of the judging process.
As scoring is inevitably a little subjective, and each site had a different judge this year, Katie revisited the leading plot from each site afterwards to decide the overall shield — and judged Bev’s the best of the three.
Sparrow Lane
- 1st: Paul Jackson
- 2nd (tied): Sally Bennett and Kirsty Melia
- 3rd (tied): Michael Pye and Peter Jones
- Best Newcomer: Richard Anderson and Mathew Bashford
Warren Avenue
- 1st: Bev Hill — also this year’s Overall Winner (shield)
- 2nd: Clare Brabbins
- 3rd (tied): Pauline Callaghan-Yates and Stewart Blunstone
- Best Newcomer: Rik Walsh
Mereheath Lane
- 1st: Jackie Edwards
- 2nd: David West
- 3rd: Andrew Tucker
- Best Newcomer: Stuart Mearns
Congratulations to all this year’s winners, and thank you to everyone who took part.
Looking ahead to 2027
Two changes are planned for next year’s judging. Firstly, judging will move from August to early July, avoiding the very hot weather experienced this year. Secondly, the scoring categories will be reviewed — it was felt this year that the Compost score had a significant bearing on final placings, and the committee will look at rebalancing this ahead of next year’s judging.
