The IHSGB Autumn Show at Connegar Farm kindly hosted by Mike and Elizabeth Adams was great fun and a huge success.

What is more, once again we have some newly qualified IHSGB Regional Sport Judges. Four IHSGB members who have been participating in the IHSGB Judge Training Scheme passed the two theoretical on-line parts of the exam in August (multiple-choice questions on the FEIF Rules, Regulations and Sport Judge Guidelines and a difficult video-judging test) and passed the third and final Live Judging part of the IHSGB Regional sport judge exam at the show on Sunday. The pass mark was very high – 75% for the Rules and Regs test, and 85% for the video judging and live judging tests. Our newly qualified judges passed all parts with ease, demonstrating that they have the knowledge of the rules & guidelines, the skills they need to interpret what they see into marks and comments, and the ability to work at speed under pressure.

This puts an entirely new perspective on the possibility of running local and low-key competitions in Great Britain without running up huge costs. In the past three years we have gained 8 Regional sport judges to join Mic Rushen and me on the official IHSGB Sport Judges list. Bringing in judges from abroad can be prohibitively expensive for small events but now the possibilities have changed.

If you wish to organise a small event, but have been put off in the past by the cost of importing judges, now is your chance to try something out. Our new judges also need to consolidate what they have learnt by judging as much as is possible. As with all new learning, if you don’t use it, you can lose it!

We are delighted to announce that Sandy Carson, Crissie Edwards, Linda Rivad and Nina Wietek are now official IHSGB Regional Sport Judges.

Congratulations!