Being a Benoni boy, born and bred, it’s something that’s not only relevant to me personally, but as the Editor of a motoring newspaper and website too. This year the organisers invited me to be the judge of the Show and Shine event. I arrived at the show on a Sunday morning recently, not knowing what judging a Show and Shine entailed, well not exactly at least. I approached the organiser, she said that all of the cars that I would have to judge would have the judging criteria printed on an A4 piece of paper, placed under the car’s windscreen wiper. So the proverbial baptism of fire ensued.
I proceeded to systematically judge car after car with the odd motorbike sprinkled in. The problem with being new to the whole judging scene and indeed, using what was written on a piece of paper to evaluate someone’s pride and joy removed a lot of the emotion from the process. So after a few vehicles, I decided to revisit each car, taking my time to appreciate the hard work, some lost more points while others gained.
Overall it was a day worth remembering and it taught me quite a bit about the various micro car cultures that exist. I also learnt that if you’re judging one of these shows that you should insist on having all of the cars in need of evaluation in the same area because I missed a few and had to take more time walking around to find disgruntled entrants.
In the end, it’s all worth it though as the proceeds from the Shows and Shine are going to The Pink Ladies, a cancer organisation. For more information surrounding the show, check out the article featured in the Benoni City Times.
