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| Chrich's giraffe catfish,
| Synodontis
albolineatus | On Sunday
13th March the Ryedale Aquarist Society celebrated its 20th Anniversary with a
special day for members and friends, which was held at the Pickering Centre of
Askham Bryan College. George and Arthur from Otley went along and were made very
welcome with nice hot cup of tea on arrival.
The day began with the auction
of 9 'lots' of aquatic items. Our photograph shows Steve Jones auctioning a small
show tank as his trusty assistants Henry Hallsworth and Martin look on.
At
the same time Y.A.A.S. 'A' Class judge Mr. Kevin Webb judged 16 fish that had
been entered into the Ryedale Championship contest. Thankfully his assistant David
Marshall had very little to do. The result was a very close run thing with a small
Rasbora owned by Mr. Roy Blackburn beating Brian Chrich's Giraffe catfish by the
narrowest of margins.
Ann Grayson and Sue Marshall were very grateful for
the help of Joan Douglas, Marian Hildred, Trish Jones and Martin from Scarborough
as they put together a buffet Dr. David Ford described as the 'best spread he
had seen in 30 years of touring aquatic events'.
With the buffet over Dr.
David Ford presented the first 4 placed Ryedale Championship winners with a selection
of Aquarian products. Tetra had also sent along air pumps for the first 4 placed
winners while Maidenhead Aquatics and Aquarian sponsored prizes for the 12 runners-up.
Dick Mills and Bob Esson then proceeded to present the Ryedale members with a
special F.B.A.S. trophy in order to commemorate the first 20 years.
The first
talk of the day was given by Simon Wolstencroft and entitled 'My life as editor
of Tropical World magazine'. With no visual aids or props Simon kept his audience
entertained with a mixture of serious and funny happenings during his time as
a tropical fish hobbyist.
The second talk featured an excellent slide travelogue
of trips to Africa, Madagascar and Asia undertaken by intrepid aquarist David
Armitage. On his trips David found some very unusual fish in equally unusual places.
An enjoyable, but busy, day was had by all.
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