The announcement of the contest makes it very clear that contestants are absolutely not encouraged to repot their trees to gain points. The judges are advised to ignore the pot should a tree still be repotted.
I have entered in the professional category and I have decided to do whatever I would do anyway with the pine, regardless of wheter and how this would influence the contest.
I absolutely agree that everybody should be discouraged to seriously style and repot a tree at the same time. There are a few occasions when this is still possible without endangering the tree really. This should be reserved to folks who really know what they are doing, being professionals or amateurs. Basically it is about the exact right time and not disturbing the roots.
The pine was repotted the very next day. The new container by Derek Aspinall seems to have been made for exactly this tree. Really it was sitting around for more than ten years and nobody wanted it. As just a pot it looks kind of bad, ugly even. The crude surface with the huge knobs and especially the green and black color make it look like a potter's mistake. Here it can be shown that a bonsai pot can really be judged when it is used with the right tree.
The picture shows the pine on day four in the new pot. On my blog I show a lot more pictures of the whole development. This is NOT the final picture.
