An interesting interview from THE KOI SHOW LIVE guys with Laurence “Pondy” Harvey. Lau has been in the hobby for many years and they explore all aspects of his contribution in an informal and friendly way. Lau’s experiences lead the interviewers to share their experiences too giving an all-round perspective of the hobby from some of their early days to the present day. Recommended.
Demonstrating another aspect of a judge’s responsibilities e.g. Prize Giving is David Edge (trainee). Who was given the task of presenting the Special Variety prize at the 34th Holland Koi Show (2026). ZNA had chosen the whole Hikari Utsuri Show Class as this year’s ‘Special Variety’ and the winner was a Tancho Gin Showa. Although a regular visitor to the Holland Koi Show this was David’s first outing as an official trainee judge. David was assigned to the Senior Judges…
At this year’s Holland Koi Show (15 & 16th August) our KJUKO team* chose this 89cms Kohaku for our Friendship Trophy. “A fish with exceptional skin quality and a superb body shape. A koi with a future even at this size”, nevertheless due to the high quality of exhibits in this size it didn’t win any other prize. The owner was Wim de Wit from Belgium who won GC at the 2026 Belgian Koi Show with a sanke that was…
Many thanks to Paul Cunningham for welcoming us all to his lovely pond and gardens today, for what was to be only a few hours in depth tuition from our very own koi guru, Allan Tait, on what to look for in picking kohaku. Not only did Allan pass on his wealth of knowledge on selecting kohaku, but then went on to sanke, showa, and even Paul’s fry !!!! He even finished on a few shiro, as I was leaving…
At the 2026 North of England Koi Show our judging team decided to award Willie Moreland’s Size 5 Shiro Utsuri a JSC Merit Award. Merit awards are rare and most often used when a koi narrowly misses an award due the the strength of the opposition. That was the case here and awarded it to Willy’s fish which they considered exceptional and a contender for the Best Non Gosanke award even though it was considerably smaller. That prize eventually went…
The KJUKO Friendship Award presented at the SAKKS National Koi Show in Durban – Sunday 2nd August 2026 A Doistu Goshiki owned by Dyllan De Beer, Dyllan is new to showing his koi and entered his first Koi Show in Johannesburg last year (2025) where he is a member of the ZNA Gauteng Chapter. This year he transported his koi from Gauteng to Durban for the National Show – a journey of 350 miles taking approx. 6 1/2 hours. This was only…
Two of our members, Chris and Bern are also ZNA judges. Whilst judging at the South African National show in Durban over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd August they were invited to take part in a Judges seminar held by the SAKKS chapter. There were three judges in attendance that are authorised by ZNA to head up these seminars, two of them local South Africans. However, they gave that honour to Bern. Christine joined them in the panel…
A week ago today we went live on YouTube with “The Koi Show” an online venture run by Anthony (Krafty) Day, Dave Tilbury and Lee Hadfield who produce a weekly podcast on their YouTube channel. Our episode was number 10 in their series that has hosted several prominent figures within the wider spectrum of the Koi hobby in the past. Although Allan had featured on their channel before it was a first for Bernie Woollands. Some of their previous episodes…
An ‘Open Day’ event took place at the Oaks Koi Farm over the weekend of the 11th/12th of July. It was a repeat of a previous event last staged six years ago. The event, centred around koi and koi appreciation including an auction deviated a little to include other activities that included woodcarving with chainsaws. The Oaks Koi Farm situated in Dowbridge near Kirkham, Preston is well known amongst northern koi keepers, but surprisingly a secret elsewhere. Which is surprising…
Thanks to the National Show Committee and photographer Liam Bess of World of Nishikigoi fame we managed to get an up-to-date photo of nearly all our members. Left to right: Bernie Woollands, Stefan Malm, Gary Hillier, Carol McCall, Allan Tait, Christine Woolger, Tony Sheffield, Walter Reed, Keith Bertie, Kieron Burns. Front Row: Lau Harvey, Aaron Eden, David Edge, Sven & Nikki Griessman. With the exception of Christine, those in red are our current trainees.