[excerpt] .......David Stirzaker, 73, has won 12 trophies with his produce in just four years, and now the North Cadbury & District Horticultural Society has taken the view that his skill is somehow unfair on those who can’t yet coax their soil to yield such paragons of parsnips and titans among tomatoes. It smacks of a New Labour ethos of “prizes for all”, whereby excellence is seen as an affront to equality, rather than a challenge to aim higher.
Imagine if this philosophy applied in all competitive fields: “Accrington Stanley are the new FA Cup holders – or they would be, if they hadn’t already won the Premier League.” Or how about: “And therefore Marcus Bungay is duly elected, because he wasn’t last time.” [end excerpt]
North Cadbury and District Horticultural Society's letter to Mr Stirzaker followed discussions at committee meetings in September and October. Members felt that his domination of the show over recent years was contributing to declining numbers of entries.
A spokeswoman for the society said she could not comment until after its latest meeting which was scheduled for Wednesday night..............." Somerset News
Good thing it doesn’t.
Talk about green with envy!
If this guy is monopolizing the trophies, then they should have second and third place winners. That would encourage people to try to beat his green thumb without denying him his own recognition.
Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy. ~Aristotle
If I’m a very good 73 year old gardener I would be more laid back about it all and withdraw from competition for three years. Let others win the prizes and become a judge perhaps. After three years go at it again. I don’t get the compulsion to be so competitive when you are in retirement
Maybe the guy is a jerk and telling him his vegetables are just too good is a way to get him to go away.
-PJ
Socialists: Punishing excellence since...forever.
I’m not sure what’s worse... the idea that this is all the UK has to work on (despite creeping socialism and the muzzies), or the fact that the whole PC entitlement BS has infiltrated local gardening shows.
Either way, the UK is lost, it seems.
Give him a big Master Gardener Emeritus award or some such, and make him a judge for the competition going forward.
Perhaps the NCAA should follow suit and ban the UConn Women’s Basketball team from the NCAA Tournament.
Ridiculous. If their shows are anything like American gardening shows, everybody goes home with plenty of ribbons. I used to show daffodils, and they give ribbons for form, size, color, anything you can think of, in every possible category. My daffodils were never particularly stunning or rare, yet I have a whole box full of assorted ribbons in every color. Yeah, the Real Winner gets an actual trophy, but it’s damn near impossible to go home empty-handed. These runners-up are Sore Losers and lazy to boot.