KEITH MOTT
BHW ‘Show of the Year’ Blackpool 2019.
Thousands of fanciers made the drive up to Blackpool in mid-January for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the 47th British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’. Everyone anticipates and looks forward to this wonderful weekend in Blackpool, not only for their annual fill of ‘pigeon fun’, but mostly to meet up with good pigeon friends. This year’s event attacked a show entry of 2,000 birds and ‘Best in Show’ over all at Blackpool was won by a beautiful Show Racer silver blue cock owned by Darren Christie of Dunaghy in Northern Ireland. Darren has named his champion cock, ‘Barney’, and tells me he has had a lot of good wins previously, including ‘Best in Show’ at the INFC Show in Lisburn in 2017 and also won ‘Best in Show’ at an open show the week after the 2019 Blackpool event. He named his silver blue cock after his friend, John Barnes, who gifted him a silver blue hen which was his dam and his sire was blue cock bred through gift pigeons from Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Cambuslang in Scotland.
When I asked Darren what he looks for in a Show Racer he told me, ‘what I look for in a pigeon is a good darker eye, nice strong colour, pear shape in the hand and a good strong head. At present my birds are my own family and to create this family, I obtained birds from James Fitzpatrick, Alistair Tankard and John Barnes’. Darren has three lofts, with the main Show Racer one being 25ft x 7ft with a two foot outshoot with four sections for cocks. The second loft is 16ft x 7ft with a two foot outshoot with two sections for hens. The young bird loft is 10ft x 7ft and he breeds around 50 to 60 youngsters each year. Darren keeps around 20 pairs of Show Racers and likes to have five or six spare hens so he can change the pairs around.
Darren was 12 years old when he started up in pigeons, the main reason being because his next door neighbour, Andy McCook, kept pigeons and he has now been in the sport 30 years. He obtained his first stock from Thomas Rouke and he gave Darren a pair of mealies to start him off and his first winner was a mealy hen. Thomas Rouke, Harry Spratt and Fitzpatrick & Fleming drew his attention on their performances in the early years. T. & K. Mawhinney of Ireland have a wonderful family of blue pied racing pigeons and they won ‘Best Racer in Show’ twice at the BHW Blackpool Show, first time winning ‘Best Racer in Show’ in 2014, both with blue pied cocks. Darren’s first successes were achieved with the Thomas Rouke and the Fitzpatrick & Fleming pigeons, when competing in the Northern Ireland Show Racer Society and his first loft was 10ft x 6ft, with two sections. He considers T. K. Mawhinney who shows Racing Pigeons to be the best fanciers in his area and he is a good friend, who gives Darren advice and help when needed. Darren was in partnership with Thomas Rouke for twelve years and they were known as Rouke and Christie. He tells novice to get pigeons from top fancier and look at different loft set up before choosing they own loft set up. Darren works as a council worker and is a part-time DJ, and told me his biggest thrill in his time as a pigeon fancier was winning ‘Best in Show’ at the BHW Blackpool Show.
The Scottish racing partnership of John McCord and Terry Turpie won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the BHW Blackpool Show with their super blue racing cock, ‘Moerbreke Blue Boy’ and to say he is very special would be an understatement. Talking to John on the phone he told me, ‘we have called the blue cock ‘Moerbeke Blue Boy’, after our good friend Stefan van Moerbeke, who sadly lost his life in a car crash on 29th April 2017 on the out skirts of Ypres in Belgium, which was his home town. How I meet Stefan was though the Ypres race, which the Scottish National Flying Club has every season. Stefan was the man who got this race point started along with Roy Seaton and I was the convoyer with the pigeons. We struck up a good friendship with him and his family who looked after us to perfection on our trips to Ypres. ‘Moerbeke Blue Boy’ was a latebred in 2016 and stood out like a sore thumb from day one, being raced lightly in 2017 and flew the Fife Federation program in 2018. His breeding is: his sire is a grandson of the late John Ellis of Wellbank near Dundee good black pied hen paired to a daughter of ‘Andy’s Boy’, winner of 1st open London & South East Classic Club Pau for Alister Muir of Abinger Hammer in Surrey. His dam is a daughter of ‘Kingdom Spirit’ raced by George and Brian Hunter of Dunfermline Fife and she is probably one of the best 500 plus mile racing pigeons about, winning two ‘Gold Awards’ with the Scottish National Flying Club and flew ten times across the English Channel in to Scotland. There has only ever been two pigeon in history to be double ‘Gold Award’ winners’.
John McCord and Terry Turpie race and show their pigeons from both their addresses, one is in Methven near Perth and the other is in Pitlessie near Cupar in Fife. John was born in Ballymena Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland and Terry in St. Andrews in Fife. They started keeping pigeons at about the age of twelve and Terry been racing pigeons since 1968, starting in the Cerces pigeon club. John been racing since 1993 and started in Kells and district pigeon club in Northern Ireland and then moved to Scotland in 1998. They are now members of Perth and district club and Glen Rothes club. Terry works as a joiner / window fitter and John is a farmer / haulage contractor, with only a limit amount of time for pigeon racing and showing. John says some of the ‘house hold’ names in pigeon racing they look up to now are: David Black and family of Dromore, Tommy Maclean of Annaghmore, Dave Baldie of St. Andrews, Billy Bilsland, the late Dennis Dall and Gordon McCaw.
The partners say they have raced their pigeons to all sorts of homes in the past years: from a derelict house to one Tonne potato boxes, but maintain, as long as they are dry and sheltered the pigeons are happy. John and Terry’s present lofts are mainly built by Petron, one was bought second hand and had a bit added to it by them ourselves and the other was the last loft the Petron firm ever had at the Doncaster s how about eight years ago and it has now had a bit added to it. The partners say, ‘if the lofts are not right, the pigeons will never be right. Pigeons need plenty of room, with overcrowding being the worst mistake you can make and that also goes for pigeons in baskets going to the race points. No animals thrive in overcrowded conditions’. Their lofts have grilled floors and are scraped out daily, with a touch of saw dust in damp weather. They race mainly on the natural system, with the odd ‘tweak’ here and there.
The McCord & Turpie partnership have been very successful racing and showing their pigeons over the years and really enjoy both codes equally, racing and showing. One cock they owned won 21 firsts and was found in loft a few times and so lost out on a few more firsts. He came in to John and Terry’s loft as a stray from Charlie Cameron and he kept coming back to them, so they then got told to keep him. This game cock was a flying machine and was lost at Wakefield getting him ready for the National race. The partners won 2nd open Clermont in France with the Scottish National Flying Club. They have won ‘Best Racing Pigeon in Show’ at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2016 and 2017 with the same pigeon, ‘Jack’s Boy’ and reserve ‘Best Racer’ in 2018. Their good young grizzle cock, ‘Grizzly Jock’ won ‘Best Racing Pigeon in Show’ at the Blackpool Show in 2019 and of course ‘Moerbeke Blue Boy’ won ‘Supreme Champion’. McCord & Turpie were ‘Fanciers of the Year’ in the Fife Federation in 2018, making it three times they have won this premier award and have also won ‘Fanciers of the Year’ for Section C in the Scottish National Flying Club.
Class winners at the 2019 BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ were: 1 (112 birds) Jim McTaggart: 2 (103 birds) H. Baugh & son: 3 (103 birds) Mr. & Mrs. Brian Seward: 4 (89 birds) Iain Paterson: 5 (64 birds) Mr. & Mrs. Hardaker: 6 (69 birds) Mr. & Mrs. Brian Seward: 7 (66 birds) Jill & David Fisher: 8 (83 birds) J. K. & J. D. Lynn: 9 (47 birds) H. Baugh & son: 10 (44 birds) John Barnes: 11 (47 birds) Darren Christie: 12 (43 birds) P. Yates: 13 (40 birds) Nigel Rescoria: 14 (39 birds) Colin Bullard: 15 (38 birds) R. & J. Thresher: 16 (45 birds) Thomas Rouke: 17 (50 birds) Jill & David Fisher: 18 (68 birds) J. H. Goddard: 19 (66 birds) C. Gilliver: 20 (77 birds) H. Baugh & son: 21 (70 birds) J. K & J. D. Lynne: 22 (73 birds) W. & N. Gilbert: 23 (77 birds) T. & K. Mawhinney: 24 (13 birds) McCord & Turpie: 25 (15 birds) D. J. Harrison & son: 26 (13 birds) D. Murphy: 27 (19 birds) D. Murphy: 28 (48 birds) James Hughes: 29 (49 birds) T. & K. Mawhinney: 30 (43 birds) McCord & Turpie: 31 (41 birds) McCord & Turpie: 32 (46 birds) E. Balmer: 33 (47 birds) C. Gilliver: 34 (32 birds) Master Cameron J. Hannah: 35 (36 birds) Master George Tytler: 36 (45 birds) Master Aidan Winter: 37 (43 birds) Master George Tytler.
Two previous winners of ‘Best in Show’ at BHW Blackpool Show, Harry & Tony Baugh of Hodnet and Jill & David Fisher of Bideford, enjoy some more outstanding success at the 2019 event. Tony Baugh won three classes at this year’s show to follow his ‘Best in Show’ success in 2018. Chatting to Tony after the event last year he said, that his late father, Harry, would have been thrilled to win Best in Show at Blackpool for the second time. Tony told me the cock was bred by Alistair Tankard and is now named ‘Koster King’. This beautiful pigeon had only had two shows that season, winning first at the Midlands Show Racer Society show, which qualified him for Blackpool, where he had recorded the Baugh loft’s second ‘Best in Show’ win. Jill and David Fisher won ‘Best in Show’ in 2016 and at this year’s show they won two classes. Their ‘Best in Show’ at Blackpool in 2016 was won by a young Show Racer mosaic cock and when I spoke to Jill after the event she said, that the partners were thrill to win Best in Show and this performance was their best to date. The handsome cock was named, ‘Valentino’ and was a young bird champion in the truest sense of the word, winning: BIS South West SRS young bird show, then was first in the all winners class to be nominated in to the BSRF class at Blackpool, to win that and ‘Best in Show’.
Jim McTaggart of Girvan is totally new to the British Show Racers and only obtained his very first birds in January 2018 at BHW Blackpool Show. He made the 400 mile plus drive down from Scotland in November to enter birds in the RPRA Southern Region Show and was rewarded by winning ‘Best Opposite Sex’ on the day. His winner was a handsome blue chequer cock bred from the John and Alice Bell bloodlines. One year later Jim came back to the Blackpool to show his birds and won Class 1, one of the biggest classes at the show. A fantastic achievement!
Well that’s my annual report for the 2019 BHW Blackpool Show! Congratulations to Darren Christie and McCord & Turpie on yet another great Blackpool success! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480 and email:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
