After Friday night’s revelry (Michael Moran sucessfully defended his
Irish championship) we got up and took a little walk outside the hotel along by
the river..
Such a pretty place..
after that we wandered over by the Spanish Arch where all the
contestants were assembling to participate in the morning parade
The lady representative of the Czech Republic was all decked
out
Everybody was happy and having a good time
And the official town crier was even there to help with the
festivities..
with contestants and fans alike
And of course Oyster Pearl was a popular lady (okay, I couldn't resist)
But eventually they all formed up and off they went to be in
the parade through the old town
We went back to the hotel for a little rest and then walked
over to the Marquee complex for the afternoon’s opening contest.
All seventeen contestants assembled on the stage to be introduced before the competition began
Including our champion, Mike Martin
After the all the hoopla and before the contest began, I was
sequestered with the judges in the back tent, so didn’t get to see any of the
actual shuc.... er, opening (it’s hard not to use our term for opening oysters, but when in….). Since I was able to see that two years ago,
that was okay. You could hear it going
on through the walls as they have announcers running around behind the contestants
counting off how many so and so has done..
kind of a “top chef” approach. Eventually
the trays came back to the judging area
This was taken when judging was done, but is one of the better ones,
all thirty oysters neatly lined up and rather nicely presented. As I said before, they arrive with just a
number on the tray so nobody knows whose tray is whose. Unlike the St. Mary’s version,
for the judging process, they have a “specialist” for each
category. Most of them have been doing
it for over twenty years! There is a “counter”
(usually a “junior”); one who checks for bits of shell, another making sure it
is cleanly cut, no cut meat, all on the shell, and so on.
Quality/presentation is kind of a mutual venture. They then collate all the penalty points in
the various categories, and those totals along with the “quality” points (out of 30) are handed off to
yet another pair of people who will add the time element for the final score. After they give the point sheets, the judges are through and generally go have a pint and join the
festivities. Once again they treated me
like I was a twenty year veteran and didn’t make me feel like an outsider..
In the end, there are just the lonely trays
of oysters.
After the judging is completed and no “go backs” are deemed
necessary, a few oysters go down the gullets of the judges, including the “objective
observer”, aka me.
I rejoined MFO in the tent, and awaited the results of the
contest to be announced. I had feared
that being left alone for a couple of hours (three heats of openings, plus
judging) would be a burden. Well, not
so. We had found a seat at one of the
few tables in the tent, and by the time I returned she knew everybody and was
having a high old time.
Finally they got around to announcing the winners, our contestant Mike Martin came in a
respectable 11th, and finally the grand champion was announced and
it was none other than..... Michael Moran! This
was his second World Championship and he said he could now hold his head up at
the dinner table with his dad who is also a double winner. Needless to say, he was quite happy
And of course being Irish, his victory was quite popular, and he really is a very nice guy..
And like Indy, there is a traditional beverage to be
quaffed by the winner
Although the partying continued, MFO and I took the
opportunity to take a break and go back to the room, rest up, and get ready for
the big gala in the evening. So I think
we will also take a break and talk about the evenings activities along with the
wrapup of the festival the next day.
So a wonderful experience with the openers and the judges,
with many new friends made. Makes you
want to go back.. excuse us while we go
DFD
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