competition | Baldock Allotment Association

September 8, 2024

Best Kept Allotment Competition

Two independent judges scored the 20 shortlisted plots for Best Plot Overall and the 6 shortlisted plots for Best Newcomer 2024. The judges had a difficult task this year as it was a closely fought contest.

Adam H. (CR47B) scored the most points at Clothall Road and is the Best Plot at Clothall Road. Dave K. (NR49B/50B) scored the most points at North Road
and is the Best Plot at North Road. Congratulations to Adam H., who scored the most points overall and will be awarded the Basil Bryant Cup. Winners will receive a £25 voucher to use at the Members’ Shop. Presentations will be made at the 2025 AGM.

Best Plot at North Road (please note we took the picture in late August)

Here are the results for the newcomers: Kemjira S. (CR14A) scored the most points at Clothall Road and is the Best Newcomer at Clothall Road. Colin M.
(NR60A) scored the most points at North Road and is the Best Newcomer at North Road. Kemjira will be awarded the Frank Conway Cup and Colin will be
awarded the John Gray Cup at the 2025 AGM. In addition, the Best Newcomers will receive a £10 gift.

Best Newcomer at Clothall Road (Please note photo was taken in late August)

Best Newcomer at North Road (Please note photo was taken in late August)

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists! Pictures of the winning plots can be found in this article. Hopefully, this will give you some inspiration for next year!

September 2, 2023

Best Kept Competition 2023 – The Results

Third time lucky, and the final round of judging for this year’s Best Kept Allotment competition took place at the beginning of August. We had to postpone it twice due to the poor weather. Two independent judges scored the 21 shortlisted plots for Best Plot Overall and the shortlisted 6 plots for Best Newcomer 2024. The judges had a difficult task this year as it was a closely fought contest.

Adam H (CR47B) scored the most points at Clothall Road and is the Best Plot at Clothall Road. Stephen D (NR39) scored the most points at North Road and is the best plot at North Road. Congratulations to Adam H, who scored the most points overall and will be awarded the Basil Byrant Cup. Winners will receive a £25 voucher to use at the Members’ Shop. Presentations will be made at the 2023 AGM.

Here are the results for the newcomers. Lesley F (CR37A) scored the most points at Clothall Road and is the Best Newcomer at Clothall Road. Terry and Melody M (NR24) scored the most points at North Road and both are the Best Newcomer at North Road. Lesley will be awarded the Frank Conway Cup and Terry and Melody will be awarded the John Gray Cup at the 2024 AGM. In addition, the best Newcomers will receive a £10 gift.

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists. The pictures of the winning plots can be found in this article, and bigger versions on the website. Hopefully, this will give you some inspiration for next year!

May 29, 2021May 29, 2021

Best Kept Allotment Competition 2021

Yes, it’s that time of year again! We missed it last year due to COVID-19 restrictions. The annual judging for the Best Kept Allotment Competition will be taking place towards the end of June. The first-round judging for all plots on both sites will be during the week commencing 21st June and for finalists during the week commencing 12th July. Also resuming this year will be non-cultivation inspections, as part of our formal process, which will take place at the same time.

A small panel of committee members from each site will judge all the plots and select the best 10 plots from each site. These selected plots will then be put forward for final judging by an independent judge on 12 July who will determine the best plot on each site. Each site winner will receive a prize of a £25 voucher to be spent at the members’ shop. Of these two, the plot gaining the most points will be declared the overall winner and the tenant awarded the Basil Bryant Cup. In addition, a separate independently judged competition will select the Best Newcomer for a new tenant in their first year of cultivation. The winner will receive the Frank Conway cup.

Have a look at the 2019 winners for inspiration:

Best Overall Winner (2019)

Best Newcomer (2019)

August 6, 2017September 18, 2019

Best Kept Allotment Competition 2017

The short-listed plots were judged by an independent judge a couple of weeks ago. The judge commented how high the standard was this year, so well done to all those short-listed.

The plot gaining the most points at the North Road is tenanted by Gordon Petitt. Gordon has had his full plot for 14 years and I loved the structure and order of his plot.

The plot gaining the most points on the Clothall Road site was Chris Vincent who has only had his half plot for four years. I was amazed at how much he had managed to cram in on his plot with numerous varieties of various crops, including onions grown from seed.

Wonderful beanpoles coppiced from nearby woods

Both Gordon and Chris will receive a voucher for £25 to be spent in the members’ shop.

Of these two plots, Chris’s plot scored the most points and he will be awarded the Basil Bryant Cup at the AGM in January 2018.

Each year a separate competition is run to judge the Best Newcomer, with tenants taking on their plots after 1 May 2016 being eligible for the award this year. Paula Lancaster scored the most points for her half plot which she took on in February earlier this year. I was amazed to see not only was her plot fully cultivated, but it was full of crops too.

An excellent job Paula! Paula will be awarded the Frank Conway Cup at the AGM next year.

Congratulations to all our winners!