Greatest Show in Tottenham

A weekend or so ago was Lordshop Rec Festival, with the Second Annual Tottenham Food and Produce Show. Of course I entered some stuff: my colourful hyperbolic crochet coral reef won a first, so did my arrangement of assorted seedheads. My jar of apple and pear jelly didn't win any award. And my blue plastic bag, a string bag crocheted out of the bags that the local small groceries round here give away, cut round and round into long strips, won second in the handknits and crochet class. Both the crochet projects were conversation pieces. Particularly with the plastic bag, people going around would glance over the display, then do a double take as they fingered it and recognised that it was indeed a plastic bag made out of the common or garden throwaway bags.

Last year, when I turned up to register, I thought the people running the produce show needed to be better organised. So this year I volunteered to give a hand. It was v. educational -- the paperwork needed to register entries for judging, then to match up the judges' decisions with names to go on the prize certificates is just mind-bogglingly complicated, and the pace of the process needs to be taken steadily and methodically, step by step. First stage is registering the entries: entry form with exhibitors name and entries with division and class numbers entered. Each entry then gets tagged with a raffle ticket, with different colour tickets according to division entered. Entrants name written on ticket stub, class number written on ticket attached to the item. Tick off each entry on the entry form as it is processed, put processed entry forms into a plastic folder. A team of kids acting as runners carry the items to the bench where that class number is to be displayed -- with popular classes (eg jams, home baked cakes) expanding beyond their alloted space, while others fail to enrol a single entry. When I arrived around 8.30am, the queue of entrants was a good dozen long, and registration went on until noon, with two registration tables running full-time, expanding to another two when school or club groups turned up bearing a car-load of entries from their members. Three hours of methodical concentration. Reel off exhausted with my co-registerer for cup of tea at the food co-op/cafe.

But that was just the end of phase 1; we headed back to phase 2. While the judges went about their business, it was time to sort the entry forms into alphabetical order -- simple enough. Then the judges forms started coming back, with the winning entry numbers for each class. Each winning number had to be checked against its ticket stub (in the approporate coloured raffle book), and the appropriate prize certificate written out with the entrants actual name on it, in nice flowing calligraphy. Since I can do flourishly flowing writing (albeit all but unreadable), I was put to that job. Second and third prize cards (with class number noted on each) got put out against their entries on the tables. But first prize certificates were held back, since there was more to do with them.

By this time, the marquee was overdue to be opened up for the public to view the show. But we were still sitting around our little table, sorting the 1st prize cards into alphabetical order, to identify the 'Best in Show' cup winner with most red cards, and the cup for family with most prizes, and children's cup for best young entrant... Finished just in time for the local MP to stand at the mike and start handing them all out, at 3.30pm.