Hillingdon Allotment News 16: Allotment Judging - multiple plots

Do you run more than one plot?

It will soon be competition time again and the judges are seeking your assistance to make the process easier.
People with more than one plot can cause a problem for the competition judges because it is rarely clear which plots should ‘count as one’; especially when they are not actually next to each other. In 2007 the judges asked site secretaries for lists, but there was no information from some sites and confusing information from others.

If someone has two small plots near or next to each other it seems fair to treat it as one patch, especially if their beans are on one and the brassicas on the other, but when there are two plots a hundred yards apart they can hardly be considered as ‘one’, and indeed the plot-holder may not even think of it as a single plot.

To avoid confusion from this summer 2008 the competition will only look at individual single plots, unless the plot-holder has put up clear signs listing all their plots that they want judged as one, and put one on each of the plots. 

Groups that have been ‘always judged together before’, ‘look the same’, ‘Fred always had both’, ‘obviously use the same sort of labels’ will no longer count, and please do not try and be helpful by simply putting the same number on the different plots, that can really confuse things.

Labels should be like ‘Plots 13+39’ on both please, ’23 & 24’ and ‘24 & 23’, or even ‘22, 3, 6a & 38’ if that’s what you run and want judged together.

David Slater