STAMPS TWINNING DAY 3rd AUGUST 2008
Text by Paul Barrow
Photographs by Paul Barrow

Stamps followed on Rydale's funday in June with one of their own held at South Shields. Guests arrived from Rydale AS, Scarborough AS and OASIS. Quite a few local guests could not attend because of holidays etc. Peter Wright, our Vice Chairman was another who put in his apologies because a recent operation has left him temporarily housebound. He did, however, send in the quiz used later in the day. John Douthwaite and his grandson, Daniel Charters, organised and ran the fish show, Daniel designing the place cards. Wendy Charters put together a fish food basket for the raffle, and along with junior members Amy Charters & Bethany King ran it. Darren Lamb looked after the sales bench, and Anthony King set up the projection equipment for David Marshall. An unexpectedly large entry of fish was ably judges by Robbie Kirkup. A full list of show winners can be seen on the next page. A lot of good ideas were on display in the novelty aquarium class, judged by Martin Ingermalls & Norman Banks, the winner being Sue Marshall of Rydale. Peters Wright's quiz was won by Norman Banks of OASIS; this despite question like "Name a fish staring and ending in K" the answer being Kwick-save battered Haddock! Amy Charters organised a free treasure hunt, the prize being a basket of chocolate. This was won by her brother, Daniel, who refused to share with her. The main event of the day was David Marshall's excellent talk on Guppies. He imparted his years of experiences with this species, starting from the first discovery of the species, its naming and ending with the very latest forms being bred in Europe and Asia.

An excellent spread was put on by members from all clubs.

In the foreground is a group from Rydale, with STAMPS members at the rear.
sitting left: Trish Jones, Sue Marshall, Avril Banks & Sue Kenworthy.
Sitting next to Steve Jones, back to camera, is Martin Ingermalls one of the judges for the Novelty Aquarium class.

Funkmaster Bede got the proceedings started with his latest song 'Slap-up my Guppy' while his minder looks out for troublemakers.

Funday_anthonyking.jpg
Anthony King set up the projector he provided for David Marshall's talk.

Dave Marshall gave a well informed talk on keeping & breeding Guppies. He showed pictures of the new varieties that are coming out of Eastern Europe, the pictures being supplied by his KGB contacts.

Robbie Kirkup toasts the fish before starting the arduous task of judging them. There were 41 entries in the 9 amalgamated classes, which took in most fish that could be shown at an open show. Well Done Robbie!

Malcolm Short of Rydale receives the Best-in-Show award for his Guppy
.

Our Chairman, Ken Scott, receives his first place award from John Douthwaite for a Davario sondhii.

Finally, a bit of glamour as Paul Barrow get his second place awards from Ken.