Well what a day!!! This years spring auction took place on Sunday 18th April 2010 and was a day to remember, more than one person genuinely said it was the best BCA event in many years and I'm inclined to agree with them 100%,

The sun shining on the journey down was a good omen for a very successful spring convention, I left my house in the company of two very good friends and the journey to the event was filled with talk about our favourite fish, breeding methods and general fishroom chat, with company like this, the 2 hour journey takes no time at all and we were one of the first to arrive at the Lodge park venue, after booking in and ordering what must be the best cooked breakfast south of Birmingham we started the day as we meant to go on!!!

After catching up with friends and meeting new faces we soon settled down to listen to Mark Breeze's superb talk about his trip to the Peruvian Amazon in October 2009, this serious talk about Mark's beloved Apistogramma was interupted with moments of humour and imagining Mark sweating, swearing and smoking his way through the thickest jungle had us all giggling along. As well as a superb talk he also showed very interesting pictures of his experiences with native South American life, from the humblest jungle hut to the modern hotels in the center of Iquitos, for a dwarf cichlid fan like myself this was a superb talk and received well by everyone attending.

After a long lunch break that allowed people the chance to catch up and swap fishkeeping stories and tips and generally enjoy each others company we then sat back to enjoy a facinating lecture by the best in the business, Professor George Turner. This facinating talk was a superb look at the ecology and distribution of fish species in the areas surrounding Lake Malawi, from the various river systems running into the lake to the individual lakes alongside Malawi Prof. Turner gave a fantastic insight into this magical area and let us see what actually lives in the areas surrounding the great lake and how they have evolved. A very professional lecture by Prof. G Turner was appreciated by all.

After another short break where the BCA committee arranged the auction and lots and lots of fishbags, Mr. Bob Barnes kindly got us underway in his own unique and excellent auctioneer style. Using all the tricks in the book to ring the very last penny out of the BCA faithful he expertly presented the fish for all to bid on, this years auction was a huge success, the 250 lots contained some of the UK's rarest fish at the lowest reserve prices you are ever going to see!! that was well appreciated by the crowd and the bids flew in thick and fast, the highest price of the day went to three gorgeous wild caught brown discus for a bargain £50 with several very rare dwarf cichlid pairs fetching prices not far behind!! there were plenty of bargains to be had and the best by in my opinion were the P.taenaitus 'Nigerian green' that i managed to pickup for a little over £10!!! These fish are never seen in the hobby and at the selling price were 4 times cheaper than what you would pay in the shops!! I nearly ran out of the door before someone realised they had made a mistake!!

After posting on the advertising that i needed more rift valley cichlids entered i was not disapointed at all, the rift side of the BCA has been a little quiet of late but they arrived to the convention in fine form and did us proud with some of the best quality Blue and Yellow fish ive seen in a long time Keep up the good work guys and girls and the BCA will continue to support you with excellent auctions such as this one!

Following the auction we managed to squeeze in a fantastic raffle that was crammed with prizes kindly donated by our sponsors, this was so large and generously supported that it took almost 30 minutes to clear all the prizes.....Thanks go to, Mars fishcare, tetra, Aquarian, Juwel, interpet and king British.

Finally our day would be nothing without the support of some very special friends to the BCA, firstly Dr. Peter Burgess who is a loyal supporter of our club came on behalf of Mars Fishcare and freely gave out information and help where ever possible and to anyone who needed it! He finally donated all the products that he brought for the BCA to do with as we wished, this generous offer added funds to the bank account so that we can continue to put on quality events such as this.

Next up is another loyal BCA follower and friend, Mr Tim Addis of TA aquaculture is a very handy man to have at a event such as ours, his shop TA aquaculture stocks all the essential fishroom items and a huge range of very high quality foods, its a fishkeepers one stop shop and the BCA committee would like to thank both Peter and Tim for taking the time to attend our show with their trade stands.

Next up for special thanks, go's to Mr Darren Evans, Darren is a personal friend of mine and took it upon himself as a member of the BCA to organise and arrange raffle prizes from all the major manufacturers and businesses, thanks Darren for taking the time out to chase these prizes up and all in your own time and expense, the committee really appreciate your help and take our hats off to you.

Finally and most importantly the BCA committee would like to thank all the people that attended today, over 70 people made the journey to Reddich and judging by the size of peoples smiles it was enjoyed by all!! It was a excellent day in terms of BCA finances and good attendances and auction prices help to generate funds to continue putting on popular and well supported conventions. Hopefully we will see even more people in the autumn for the second convention of the year.

Many thanks from the BCA committee, we could not do it without you..