THE Mid-Murray Orchid Club has claimed plaudits for its performance as host and competitor at the 2023 Country Orchid Clubs Challenge.
After last year’s successful challenge in Stawell, the club has returned to its home turf to claim overall victory two years running.
Club president Graeme Oram said this year’s challenge in Kerang had attracted new faces.
“The hall had more than a few people in there the entire time,” he said.
“I saw a lot of people at this show that I haven’t seen at our own show for a few years, which I thought proved that we had done a good job.
“I know for sure that we had 280 through on the Saturday, and we don’t yet have a figure for Sunday, but we had a steady flow of people coming in all day.”
Mr Oram said that while the club’s success was pleasing, the competition often took a back seat to camaraderie.
“When judging was all finished the Mid-Murray Orchid Club had won the overall show,” he said. “This is our fourth win in the 22 shows.
“We kind of use the orchids as a side issue, as a way to get together and catch up as clubs.
“It’s the fellowship that we really enjoy the most at the challenge, and that is what it’s all about.
“Most of the members from the other clubs were really rapt that the show is run well, and well planned.
“There’s a lot of planning. We started planning for this event 18 months ago and it’s just been constant.”
Mr Oram said the Country Orchid Clubs Challenge brought tourism money to the region.
“We hope we’ve injected a fair bit of money into the town over the weekend,” he said.
“We hold a couple of raffles and auctions over the weekend, and we wanted to be sure the money for prizes was spent in our town.
“We had over 100 people at both nights for the dinners, which has come down a bit in recent years because clubs are getting a bit smaller.”
“We’ve had a very good show, everybody enjoyed themselves. We got a lot of great comments about how well we run the event.”
Mid-Murray Orchid Club will be hoping to back up its success with a third win in a row at next year’s challenge, set to take place in Warrnambool.
