“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT
BHW Blackpool Show Committee Meeting
The BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ has been one of the premier pigeon shows in Europe for many years and I could never understand why it has never had an official Press Office. Our editor at the British Homing World, Steve Richards, has done a wonderful job every January of taking and publishing photos of the winners in the paper the following Friday and I have written up the show off my own back quite a few times through the years. In opinion this has always fallen a bit short, as a show as important as Blackpool should be written up every year, to complement Steve’s photo feature. I’ve got an opinion on the matter, but didn’t really want the job, as I am a ‘free’ agent these days and do my own thing on the article front. I received a phone call from the Blackpool committee recently asking me if I would be the official ‘Voice’ for the show in the fancy press and report on their regular meetings, so as the fancy are up to date on what is going on. I was also asked to do regular articles on the show and the winners, so I think that means to be the ‘Press Officer’. I consider it to be a very import job and something that has been needed for years for the BHW Blackpool Show, so I accepted the committee’s invitation. To kick off, the committee held a meeting in Doncaster in March and these are the main items to come from that:
1. To increase the representation of the 'Showing' fraternity Mr. Colin Carter was invited to join the committee, which he now has duly done.
2. In response to requests made to the committee Rule 5 has been deleted with Rule I being altered, such that it will read as follows for the 2017 Show:
'The show will be held under the rules of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. All rings must be the property of the fancier entering them and must be registered in the exhibitor's name prior to 1st. October in the year prior to the show in the records of a registered Association / Union. Competitors entering pigeons over 10 years old must ensure that those rings have been registered correctly with the appropriate Association/Union. Any prize-winning pigeon found not to be correctly registered will be disqualified and the prize money forfeited.
3. Rule 13 (which will become Rule 12) is amended as follows:
'The first paragraph will read as follows:
Supreme Champion: Exhibitors who qualify for an entry into the Supreme Champion class must ensure that a fully completed official entry form, duly signed by an official of the organising show is obtained. IT IS THE EXHIBITORS RESPONSIBILITY TO OBTAIN AND submit THE ENTRY FORM. Class is open to overall winner of any Show of racing pigeons or show racers, held between (appropriate dates), a minimum of 400 exhibits on the day, all of which must have been entered not later than the closing date of the show, in order to qualify for the Supreme Champion Class not accumulative entries - fancy pigeon breeds do not qualify towards the 450 entries.
4. A certificate acknowledging and celebrating qualification for The Supreme Champion Class is to be awarded to each qualifying entry.
5. Following a request the committee agreed that to celebrate the Centenary for 2017 only a Lerwick Class is added. Entries to this class will not qualify for any special awards.
6. We are to look to try and display the Supreme Champion and Best in Show more prominently on the stage.
7. Trade Stand Pricing will remain unaltered. Wristbands are to be provided to stand holders to cover the set up phase of the show up to Friday evening. To recover some of the increased Winter Gardens charges entry tickets are to be provided to stand holders at the following rates:
Stands < 2 mtrs 1 stallholder entry ticket
Stands < 3 mtrs 2 entry tickets
Stands >3mtrs < 5mtrs 3 entry tickets
Stands >5myrs <10mtrs 4 entry tickets
Stands <10mtrs 5 entry tickets.
I had a good chat with David Trippett, the Blackpool Show committee chairman and he told me the committee meet about five times a year, and the show has raised about three million pounds in its existence, with over £60,000-00 being donated from the 2016 event. I mentioned in that conversation with David that I attended the first BHW Blackpool Show held at the Winter Gardens in 1977 and recalled it was to host the 15th Pigeon Olympiad. David told me the ‘Show of the Year’ had previously been held at Doncaster, but had moved to a bigger venue, the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, to fit in the Olympiad bird.
I remember a gang of us went up to Blackpool in 1977 in a hired mini bus, which broke down on the M1 Motorway and we struggled into Newport Pagnell Service Station where we spent nearly two hours hanging about while the bus was being repaired. We finally arrived at out hotel, The Albion, just around the corner from the Winter Gardens, at 20.00hrs and because we were so late, our evening meal had been thrown out. We finished up our first day at Blackpool in a Chinese nosh shop, where we had a really great mixed grill. At the end of our first day in Blackpool we were all well cheesed off and looking forward Day Two and visiting the main event, the BHW ‘Show of the Year’.
Next morning we had a good breakfast and the three ladies in our party set off on a coach trip of the Lake District and the ‘four lads’ were outside the Winter Gardens for the 9 o’clock opening, but first we looked around a brand new pigeon transporter which Catteralls had on show in the street next to the Winter Gardens. Little did I know at that time what a great relationship I was to have with this wonderful pigeon transport firm in later years, convoying for the London & South East Classic Club. Needless to say the transporter was first class, with a brilliant watering system and ventilation, and was decked out with wicker baskets. Once in the Winter Gardens we walked around the ‘Show of the Year’ first and it was packed to the rafters with fancier from all four corners of the UK. We met up with many interesting pigeon racers, including my ol’ acquaintance, Gerard Van Hee, and I met the Belgium champion, Emiel Denys, for the first time. At that time I was on the RPRA London Centre committee and I bumped in to Claude Hill and Edgar Dodson who were long time members of the committee. The show was so crowded it was a bit uncomfortable trying to walk around and we made one or two purchases from the trade stands we could get near. I wanted to get up to the Opera House Foyer to meet the BHW scribe, Elizabeth O’Reilly, who wrote the ‘Ladies Loft’ column at that time and she was holding a coffee morning, to meet up with fellow scribes. Since the start of the ‘Ladies Loft’ I had written about ten items for her column and thought it would be nice to meet the lady. I finally met up with Elizabeth that afternoon and we had a chat about the fancy press in general. Next on the agenda was to see the Olympiad classes which we had not been near up to that point. The hall was very nicely set out and I remember there was a constant crowd around the British team bench. Back at the hotel, after the evening meal we had a night in and I had a good few hours chat to several fancier, who were also staying there. The first of many Blackpool shows we have enjoyed through the years!
We all made the drive up to Blackpool this January for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the 44th 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 Roy Musto had the job of judging the special this time, including Best in Show. The Fancy Pigeons section celebrated their tenth year at the Blackpool show and it is full credit to Andy Lowe of Nottingham who runs the event every year. The Blackpool Fancy Pigeons Best in Show winner was a Polish Lynx exhibited by David Richardson and Reserve BIS was a Norwich Cropper owned by Adrian Waldron. Best in Show over all at Blackpool was won by a young Show Racer mosaic cock owned by Jill and Dave Fisher of Bideford in Cornwall 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 is now named, ‘Valentino’ and is a young bird champion in the truest sense of the word, winning: BIS South West SRS young bird show, then 1st in the all winners class to be nominated in to the BSRF class at Blackpool, to win that and Best in Show. A fantastic achievement! John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Scotland had a brilliant 2016 Blackpool Show winning four first, several trophies and ‘Supreme Champion’. The Bell partnership started showing at Blackpool in 2003 and have won ‘Supreme Champion’ an amazing four times and have been runner up four times!
Well that’s our article for this week! I have had a brilliant response to my new ‘YouTube’ channel and it is now 50 plus pigeon videos strong. Just go on to ‘YouTube’ and put my name in and they should all come up. Enjoy!
I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480
or email on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keith mott.com)
