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Nova Scotia

Several years ago, the Windsor Pumpkin Festival and the Anamosa, Iowa Weigh-off conducted a pumpkin pool. It was a 50/50 fundraiser. Basically, it involved a list of approx. 15 groups of growers, 4 growers per group. Entrants could only select 1 grower per group. The objective of course is to select growers who you think combined will produce the greatest weight. Pumpkins weighed at recognized site; GPC, WPC or a reputable weigh-off. Detailed rules will be forthcoming.
For example, a group of: Howard Dill, Pete Glasier, Jim Kuhn and John Lyons and a group of Jack LaRue, Al Eaton, Larry Checkon and Jerry Rose. You can only pick one grower from each. There will be an entry fee and prizes to be determined. What does everyone think? Could be a lot of fun. We could raise enough, maybe donate some to a scholarship? Let us know any of your ideas, suggestions, etc. Feel free to discuss. Thanks, Danny

4/27/2006 3:14:25 PM

Eugene,OR

It would be kind of like Fantasy Football. Pick your lineup and go head-to-head with the other Fantasy Pumpkin team owners. It could be fun!

4/27/2006 3:36:05 PM

Follansbee, Wv

So you would have 15 growers on your "team"? One from each group of four? Sounds interesting.

4/27/2006 5:21:10 PM

Mulino, Oregon

Danny, sounds like fun, so we can live vicariously through another grower. The trick would be to group growers according to their current growth habits, personal bests etc... could be tough but fun.

4/27/2006 7:31:39 PM

Massachusettts

Fantasy Football and AG growing? It couldn't get any better.

4/27/2006 8:30:43 PM

Halifax, Nova Scotia

I'm in.

4/27/2006 9:11:13 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Howard, sounds fun! I'm in either way but where will the money go and who is going to organize it?

4/27/2006 9:38:37 PM

Pemberton, BC

Count me in! I'm a poolie nut, Hockey,Football,Baseball...pumpkins, sounds good to me.

4/27/2006 10:23:06 PM

[email protected]

Im in..

4/27/2006 11:27:30 PM

No Place Special

Sounds like fun

4/27/2006 11:35:50 PM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Is there a simple way to computerize this? Anybody good with MS Access? I'm not :-( Although, it would actually be very easy to set up a web form that would email people's choices. That I could do in a couple of minutes. Collecting the money is another story.

4/27/2006 11:55:13 PM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

I've already got an almost finished prototype.

4/28/2006 12:34:48 AM

Central Mi

Sounds like fun. Jim - Will this count as step three or four?

4/28/2006 3:33:42 AM

Mulino, Oregon

Todd, you are through 3, this is definitely on to step 4. You could have made it to 8 if you'd gone on the cruise but hey, good things come to those who wait! LOL

4/28/2006 9:24:21 AM

[email protected]

Would it be just the bigger, better known growers or the members of this site too? Maybe have the growers grouped by previous personal bests and rookies in their own group. Maybe start with world record holders from the last 10 years. Then guys with personal bests from 1300+ that haven't had a WR. Then a 1200 to 1300 PB group. If the lower weight groups are too large they could be divided into smaller groups somehow, maybe by location. Have tiebreaker with a guess of who grows and how much this years largest offical pumpkin is. It would be a lot of work for someone, but maybe we could make some money for a good cause too.

4/28/2006 6:30:12 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

Make columns...A.a column... growers last five year winners...column B..Growers top ten weights other then previous winners...column c..growers over 1000 lbs.....column d...new world record weight...now you only get.... one pick from column a...two picks from column b and three picks from column c....you total the weights of your picks...less the amount your off of the largest weight and highest total wins...We do this with golf all the time.

4/28/2006 6:34:04 PM

Clinton, Iowa

This sounds really fun.. I would be interested!!
DAN

4/28/2006 6:48:31 PM

Mt.Pleasant,Iowa

Sounds Great!

4/28/2006 6:58:31 PM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Once it's all figured out, I'm happy to make it into a web form. Just email me when it's ready.

4/28/2006 8:00:31 PM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Wait, just like in other pools, shouldn't we be able to trade half way through the season?

Let's say I have Howard Dill and millions of people flock to his farm in july after seeing the Dill gang featured on Martha Stewart. I'd probably want to trade him for a draft pick or a grower to be named later. Something like that.

4/29/2006 12:13:43 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

Nope! gotta do ir now!

4/29/2006 1:25:05 AM

[email protected]

No trading. It isn't a draft where you "own" the rights to that grower and no one else has that grower. Its basicly trying picking winners from each pool. If every person entered picked Howard then everyone would get the pounds from Howard's largest fruit added to his/her total.

I thought it would work like this:

Group 1: Jerry Rose 2 lbs
Group 2: Jim Sherwood 3 lbs
Group 3: Monty Wallace 2 lbs
Group 4: Brooks Bosworth 4lbs
Group 5: Whoever 3lbs

Your total would be 14 lbs, if thats the highest total you win. If there is a tie in total poundage then we go to the largest fruit weight guess for a tie breaker.

Is this what other were thinking? All fruits have to be official weights with no DMG's? There could also be a squash group thrown in too.

4/29/2006 10:15:54 AM

Windsor, Nova Scotia Canada

Thank you everyone for your interest and ideas. We are still drafting the groups of growers, and few we have yet to see if they plan to grow in 2006. Naturally growers will be grouped accordingly to past results, experience etc. However they will be a wide range including many growers who are frequently here on top.

There will be growers from Alabama to Alaska, there will be groups of "rookies/new growers", all female group, 70+ etc. etc. etc! Right now we have about 15 groups, 5 growers per group. We'll keep you posted.

Danny

4/29/2006 7:38:29 PM

Applegate, Oregon

Nice work Danny, this is going to be fun!

4/29/2006 9:19:27 PM

Somerset,Ky

I want to play too!

John Van Hook

4/29/2006 10:00:11 PM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

My eight cents. I think that you will need at least two things:

1) Either a lot of groups or a lot of growers in each group. This should reduce the likelihood of going to a tiebreaker by increasing the number of variables. And, of course, more variables makes for more possibile combinations and more fun.

It looks like you'll have a number of groups. Maybe one of them could be an "unknown" group for people who nobody has heard of before. Maybe they are rookies, or maybe they've just never grown anything really big before (like me). This category may make a good late-stage tiebreaker since participants wouldn't be likely to pick the same people in this group if they have no idea who they are.

2) In the unlikely event that a tiebreaker is needed, we'll need a good tie-breaking system to be determined, obviously, before the contest starts. There should be a number of other criteria before we have to resort to "pick a number". One of those variables could be the highest single pumpkin weight. But, there could be a number of others.

Just some ideas. Hope it helps.

4/29/2006 10:32:57 PM

Montoursville, PA

My two cents worth......Two of the highest efficiency organizations meaning money percentages going, to the stated purposes are: The Cystic Fibrocous Association and the Salvation Army.

I think this sounds like fun. Don't just grab any old charitable organization, in the rush to kick off something that could continue and grow, to surprising levels, of fund raising.

4/30/2006 8:52:58 AM