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NICOLA MAKES A TRIO OF GOOSEBERRY CHAMPS

The winning gooseberry trio

Gooseberry grower Peter Goode, twice winner of Goostrey’s show with his Prince Charles berry, has almost been toppled from the throne as the family’s heavyweight champion….by his wife, Nicola.

 Peter, whose 33 pennyweight berry took  top spot a week ago at the Goostrey contest at the Crown Inn, won success after raising berries for 25 years.

And their son,Jamie, nine, a pupil at Holmes Chapel primary school, also became a family champ when he gained the junior trophy at the same show with a Belmarsh berry of 26 pennyweights and nine grains.

 Now Nicola, a novice grower of only six years, has come within a whisker of beating Peter’s heaviest berry by winning the Swettenham Club show  at the week-end with an Ann Archer berry of  32 pennyweights and fifteen grains – only a fraction below her husband’s heaviest berry.

Nicola, the first woman ever  to win the Swettenham show, thought she had little chance of success when she looked at her trees tangled in a mass of chickweed on the eve of the show.

 But as Peter cleared the bushes for the official picker, Chris Jones from Goostrey, to see what he could find for Nicola’s entry he felt a clutch of  whopping-sized fruit hidden among the foliage.

“I just thought ‘Oh, my God’ as soon as I felt what was there,” said Peter. “I asked Chris to take a look and he said the same. I just couldn’t believe it as I had only just said I didn’t think there was anything worth picking for the show.

“It was the last tree I looked at and there were actually four berries all over 30 pennyweights. She certainly sneaked in with that one but I am very pleased for her.”

Nicola, who also collected a clutch of other prizes at the show, pipped veteran grower, Tom McCartney, in the place for the premier gooseberry.

Her Ann Archer berry was cultivated by world champion grower, Kelvin Archer, at his cottage garden at Rode Hall, near Congleton, and named after his wife.

Said Nicola: “I still can’t quite believe my success, and what is nice I think we are probably the only husband and wife growers to win the premier award in the same year at two shows.”

She added: “I had no idea there was a tree in my pens with a berry of such a size but they were hidden in its heart"

PETER'S PRINCE CHARLES WINS THE CROWN

Peter and Jamie

It was goodies for the Goode family at Gooseberry Goostrey Show - Peter Goode won the top place for the  heaviest berry for the second year in a row! 
Peter, always somewhat of a dark horse in 25 years of cultivating the fruit, beat all the odds of a season of discontent among growers to sweep the board and  collect most of the silver.
Few gooseberry men believed that size would matter this year as the result of a season two weeks ahead and juice-swollen fruit bursting on the bushes.
 But Peter the Plumber pulled a monster from his box to win the premier prize. He repeated his success of last year as the top grower with another Prince Charles berry, this time even heavier at 33 pennyweights than his previous best of 29 pennyweights and seven grains.
And  to cap it all his son Jamie. a mere stripling of nine, weighed in as a junior contestant with a big  Belmarsh berry of 26 pennyweights and eleven grains raised on his dad's allotment at Cranage. 
Jamie, a pupil at Holmes Chapel primary school,was as thrilled as his dad at the outcome. He has been growing berries for only  three years and this was his first show.

Alan Garner hands Peter a  trophy

But in a day of nail-biting competition at the Crown Inn, two absent members took second and third places for the heaviest berry. In second spot was Tom McCartney, top of the crop in 2012, who is still unwell, with a whopper of a Millennium in a season of bursting fruit of 30 pennyweights and nine grains. 
The late David Heath, another of Goostrey's top growers who died earlier this year, came third with an Edith Cavell berry of 28 pennyweights and seven grains presented at the show by his widow, Kath.
The prizewinners also included Griselda Garner, of the Blackden Trust at The Old Medicine House and Toad Hall, Blackden. Goostrey, where an archive of gooseberry varieties cultivated by the late Frank Carter, a legend among growers,  is maintained. Her husband, the novelist Alan Garner, presented the trophies.

*Click on the pictures to enlarge

A Prince Charles Berry!

Blogs from the Bongs: NOT A BERRY HEAVYWEIGHT YEAR!Kelvin with his wor...

Blogs from the Bongs:
NOT A BERRY HEAVYWEIGHT YEAR!
Kelvin with his wor...: NOT A BERRY HEAVYWEIGHT YEAR! Kelvin with his world record holder  If ever there should be a song "They are Bustin' Out all...

NOT A BERRY HEAVYWEIGHT YEAR!

Kelvin with his world record holder

 If ever there should be a song "They are Bustin' Out all Over..." it would be most apt for the Gooseberry men of Goostrey - and all growers  around these parts- poised to do battle in the annual ritual of finding the heaviest fruit of the year. But, what with a mild winter, wonderful spring and now a hottie summer to savour, many of the berries are reportedly past their best for the start of the showing season this Saturday. When the boxes filled with the luscious offerings are opened at the Crown in Goostrey there will be some nail-biting, I guess. Sadly some of the village's most ardent growers will be absent, such as David Heath, who has died since the last show, and Tom McCartney, a 91-year-old champion, still unwell. But their berries will be presented for weighing by proxy, that is if like many a grower the juice-filled fruits have not already burst. Here at BH where a single pen of bushes is shrouded to reflect the burning heat the chief grower dare hardly look under her covers to see how they are surviving! World champion grower Kelvin Archer with last year's Millenium berry of 41 pennyweights 11 grains grown at Rode Hall tells me he can't see any records being broken this time around.. He admits he has a lot of decent berries but  nothing of the order of last year. "I don't think there will be record weights this year because they were ripe two weeks ago and have now stopped growing. There was no winter to speak of, an early spring and then there has not been much rain." However, we will watch with interest to see what Kelvin pulls out of his box at Lower Withington's show on Saturday!The Goostrey show coincides with a week-end beer festival at the Crown, so there will be ample ale in which the growers can drown their sorrows. 

John Dutton

I must end on a sad note as yet another friend has gone to a higher place. John Dutton, of Dutton Contractors, who moved in the recent past from Barnshaw Hall Farm to Middlewich, died of cancer earlier this month. The packed service of a celebration for his life at St Luke's, Goostrey, on Wednesday was a reflection of the high esteem in which he was held and the many friends he made over the years, both as a farmer and for many years as a businessman,as well as serving as a member and chairman of Goostrey Parish Council. I can confirm all that was said about his great sense of humour, generosity and that he was just a hell of a nice guy. I will  miss his cheery greeting whenever he saw me of Hi, Johnny, boy! He was born on Valentine's Day, 1936.

D-DAY SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

A World War 11 poster from the Home Front

I woke this morning  with an unfamiliar news report on Today on Radio 4. It told of the allied landings on the Normandy beaches in a voice that I certainly didn't recognise. But then I realised it was D-Day. And the item that snatched me from my slumber was the voice of an actor reading in measured tones the script of the  news report of invasion across the channel 70 years ago. I am old enough to remember World War 11 and the bloody battles and bombing raids, and young enough not to have served in the conflict. My grandchildren, Hugh, six, and Joseph, five, looked a bit non-plussed  when I asked on their return from school if anything was mentioned about what is probably the greatest day in Britain's history since we defeated the Armada in 1588 and the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo. Now, at their tender years, I guess such a historic moment in time would have gone over their heads, and I can only assume in this less

D-Day plus 70 years is digging for treasure for  the boys

jingoistic age it was not thought a subject to merit the curriculum. Which is a tad sad when kids - not here I must add - will spend hours on screens playing violent games that make real war more like a Sunday school outing! Anyone whose early schooldays took in the years 1939 to 1945 will remember the conflict as a bit of an adventure worthy of Biggles. Youngsters felt none of the fear of their parents as nights were spent cowering in a shelter in the blitz as bombs rained down and shells burst overhead. I still have razor sharp shards of  metal that dropped from the sky from  exploding shells. It was collected as we walked  the three miles to school - much of it still  hot - from the night raid. And I recall my frustration of a daylight raid when my dad refused to allow me  from the shelter beneath living room window to let me watch as  fighter planes weaved in the sky above in mortal combat. Still. that was then and the world has changed, a peace that began when heroes stormed the Normandy beaches is to be preferred than the rattle of battle. So long as we remember the fallen and survivors of that longest day and, hopefully, somewhere in their school years youngsters will catch up with history that is still real to many. 

PETER'S CROWN TROPHY

Goostrey gooseberry champion Peter Goode won the trophy awarded for the first time by the Crown Inn as the winner of the heaviest premier berry from contests held at the  pub and The Dog, Over Peover. He was photographed by Bernard Tuck after he was presented with the award and a bottle of champagne during the Crown's beer festival. Picture: Bernard Tuck

MY GOODNESS KELVIN'S GOOSEBERRY IS A GUINNESS RECORD!

Kelvin shows the world champion at Rode Hall

Everyone said the Holy Grail of the gooseberry growing fraternity would come back to Cheshire from their Yorkshire rivals at Egton Bridge. Now in something of a near miracle and the upside-down climate, the  record for the world's heaviest berry has returned  - weeks after the end of the official growing season.  And Cheshire's gooseberry men were not surprised to learn  that it was Kelvin Archer who regained the prized title - lost in 2009- with a berry  the biggest recorded in something like 300 years! The monster Millennium-named fruit tipped the scales at 41 pennyweights 11 grains after it was plucked from a bush at Rode Hall where Kelvin is head gardener to Sir Richard Baker Wilbraham and family. One of Kelvin's berries named Ann Archer in honour of his wife took the premier award at this year's Lower Withington show, but it was a tiddler in comparison with the world-beater. In the hall's Victorian kitchen garden where visitors delight in floral displays, Kelvin kept a keen eye on the bulging fruit as it continued to thrive among the ranks of gooseberries long after the village shows were over for the summer. "The seasons this year have been so different that everything in the garden has been three weeks behind," says Kelvin. "I thought I would see how long the berry would last as it was nowhere near ripe. Normally all the gooseberries would have burst by now but this is still as solid as anything. I'm sure it could have made another five pennyweights if it had been left to grow."  A special weighing session was arranged, conforming with Guinness Book of Records rules, at Marton where Kelvin captured his previous world record in 1993 with a Montrose berry of  39 pennyweights 19 grains on  the same set of scales. Surrounded by witnesses from the Mid-Cheshire Association and long-time growers from local shows, including Goostrey's Tom Mcartney and Terry Price, the larger-than golf ball sized fruit was weighed by veteran enthusiast, Peter Buxton, from Marton. When it toppled the world-record holder, Bryan Nellist, by a couple of pennyweights,  if there were no actual whoops of  goosegob  joy there was celebration at Kelvin's success. "Everyone was really pleased the world record was back in Cheshire," said Kelvin. "We sent it off  to the Guinness Book of Records to be verified  as the world record but it will take about six weeks before it is confirmed." Kelvin, as do all top growers, encourages new blood but ask how he  produces really big berries and the response is a little vague. It boils down to feeding the trees but it is what you feed them - that is his secret recipe!

The world's heaviest berry

Meanwhile, all eyes are on next week-end when Goostrey's reigning gooseberry champion at the Crown Inn, Peter Goode, and Les Stanier, winner of Peover's show at The Dog, will be going head to head at the Crown's beer festival to help raise funds for East Cheshire Hospice. What they will produce in berries  in this Champion of Champions contest is anyone's guess but perhaps Kelvin could be persuaded to take another peep beneath his bushes to pull of another big one for the occasion!
*Words and pictures copyright John Williams
www.blogsfromthebongs.blogspot.com