First let me start by saying that our hard working committee
should be congratulated on setting up a hard but fair dahlia judging
exam at Dundee. The exam consisted of six classes with six vases
in each class; from poms to giants.
My tilt at the exam was around 1.30 p.m. in the third group of
five, this giving me an hour or so after breakfast to have a final
run through the guidelines. We arrived in good time at Dundee
and straight away met Joyceline Wallace. “Where’s John”
I enquired. “Got a severe dose of nerves” she said.
“Had to go to the toilet”. This didn’t do much
for my morale. However five minutes later John returned with his
nose stuck firmly in the Classified Directory. “Stop worrying,
you’ll pass OK.” I assured him. “Let’s go
and see how my dahlias got on before it’s time to go in.”
First man we met was Joe Gartshore. “Tough dahlia exam”
he says. “Not one single pass in the first five.” Morale
hits rock bottom as there were some knowledgeable men in there.
Dorothy Spencer offered us a cup of coffee to calm the nerves
and apologised for not having anything stronger. Some advice from
Dorothy and the second lot of five appeared from the exam hall
this time with two passes. Before we could ready ourselves Doug.
Semple was ushering us upstairs to where it was all about to happen.
A brief talk from Tom Cleghorn and the departing words of “Good
luck, gentlemen” rung in our ears as we entered the room.
Six classes in one hour was our target.
The first five classes of dahlias were straight forward but with
fifteen minutes to go my last class was six vases of pompon dahlias
with six blooms in each. What a nightmare. 36 blooms to ring and
my hand wouldn’t hold the ring steady. My hand was just about
steady enough to tell me that three vases were N.A.S.; two vases
were all right and the other was touch and go. In the end I settled
for another N.A.S. as time was getting short, and time would tell
if I got it right or not. Exam paper checked and handed to the
examiner we retired to a side room to await their judgement.
This gave us time to reflect on and discuss what had gone before.
Looking out the window we spied a beer tent and John and I decided
that pass or fail we would go and sample their ale.
The door opened and in walked Dougie Semple. “Three failures
and two passes” he said. After a post-mortem with the three
gentlemen who failed, an outstretched hand of congratulation was
warmly received and my judge’s medal was slipped into my
pocket.
My friend John Wallace had passed as well to make the day complete.
Well almost - we still had the beer tent to visit. Cheers!