This year's show was held in Cobh on Sunday 18th October. A very confusing one-way system in Cobh made the place a little hard to find, but we got there in the end! The day was pretty miserable with some heavy rain at times, but some dry spells too, and it was quite mild for the time of year so can't complain really.
The show hall itself (Great Island Community Centre) was a little small I thought, especially considering the entries were up a little on last year (97 cats entered). It was nice and bright inside though, with very good lighting and nice quiet flooring. It was within walking distance of the town, and within short driving distance of many of Cork's tourist attractions such as Fota Wildlife Park. There was little space for anything other than the cat pens in the show hall, but there were a small number of stands, and also a pet photographer. There was very little seating unfortunately, except for a small area upstairs, but the cats could not be seen from there so it wasn't ideal really. This meant that we ended up spending most of the day on our feet, which was somewhat tiring to say the least! Drinks and snacks were available from a small stand in the foyer, which was useful if, like us, you didn't want to face the walk into the town in the rain!
We had expected a long wait for results, due to the late arrival of ourselves and others, and also in light of there being only four judges engaged; but to our delight many of the open results were up already on our return to the show hall around 12.30pm. The side classes were a different matter though, I don't think the majority of those results went up until 3pm or later!
There was a simply huge crowd of visitors throughout the day, which made a change from the last few years. The management team must have put a huge effort into advertising I think - either that or there is simply nothing else to do in Cobh on a rainy Sunday afternoon ;-) It was great to see such good support for a cat show, and I must say most of the visitors were very courteous and respectful of both cats and exhibitors, but it did unfortunately result in parts of the show hall becoming very very crowded, which made it quite difficult for exhibitors to get to their cats at times.
Surprisingly there were no rosettes indicating Best Kitten/Adult/Neuter in each section (though I believe there were trophies awarded to cats whose owners were Cork Cat Club members). This made it difficult to see which cats were being considered for Best in Show. In any case the Best of Variety winners were as follows:
Best Persian: Catscastle Galatea
Best Semi-Longhair: Sup Pr Ishcus Marvin
Best British: Cassiobury Indiana Jones
Best Foreign: Nikelsilva Neptune
Best Burmese: Somatir Norma Jean
Best Oriental: Khardagia Cait Saidhe
Best Siamese: Shadowsquad Anam-Cara
Although we didn't hang around for the overall Best in Show announcement (as it just went on way too long!) I later heard that it was the Blue British owned by Ronnie Brooks: Cassiobury Indiana Jones.
Overall we enjoyed the show very much and it all seemed to run pretty smoothly. The information that was provided with the schedule on cat-friendly hotels, and tourist attractions in the area, was most useful and much appreciated (if only other shows would provide similar info!). Our stay in the Bella Vista Hotel was just wonderful, and the two evenings we spent in the hotel bar with fellow cat exhibitors were great fun!
The highlight of our day was getting to finally see the new Devon Rex on the block - Monty (Ketcherex Rakasta Klaatu) owned by Mark and Ann. He seemed so relaxed in and out of his pen and was totally unfazed by the crowds. Many congrats to him on his 1st and Best of Breed, and we wish him every success at future shows. Our own two Devon Rex girls had a good day out too - Squeek gained her 1st Grand PC and also won Best of Breed over our other Devon Rex, Keisha.
Here's our updated "standings":
Keisha (Lorrentino Lilyofthevalley):
- International Grand Premier
- 1 Tara GPC under GCCFI (needs 1 more to make Tara Grand Premier)
- TICA Supreme Grand Champion Alter (SGCA)
- TICA Best Devon Rex Alter in Europe North 2008/2009
Squeek (Lorrentino Tiger-Lily):
- International Premier
- 3 out of 3 1st Opens as a kitten
- 2 Reserve Grand PCs under GCCF
- 1 Grand PC under GCCFI
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