“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT
RPRA Southern Region Show 2015
The month of November saw fanciers make their annual drive up the M40 to High Wycombe for the RPRA Southern Region Show, which is one of the high lights of the show calendar in the South of England every winter. It was great to be back at the Southern Region Show after a season lay off from judging because of my ‘dodgy knees’ problem. I had five great classes of pigeons to judge and picked a wonderful Show Racer blue chequer cock from my yearlings class to be the best pigeon I handled that day and he then went on to win Best in Show for John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Ayrshire. A very satisfying result for me personally, as the Supreme Champion owned by Brian and Caroline Seward at the Duchy Show the weekend before was also one of my class winners! This year’s show held at the Hazlemere Community Centre turned out to be one of the best ever, with 480 birds entered. The entry for this wonderful event was from all over the UK, including Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, and several of the judges commented on high the standard of the birds entered was. There was the usual auction of gift birds and the funds raised by the show and sale was donated to the Brain Trust and the Hampshire Air Ambulance.
Judges at this year’s show were: Charlie Griffin, Naris Harding, Ricky Turner, Stuart Sheffield, Gordon Marsh, Clive Turner, Keith Mott and Ron Lacey did an excellent job of judging the specials.
At the age of 84, my good friend of 35 years standing, Ron Lacey, has finally decided to stand down as Southern Region Show secretary and it is now in the very capable hands of Peter Gretton of Brighton. Peter is used to this type of work, being the secretary of his local Federation and serving on the RPRA Southern Region committee for many years, and must say he made marvellous job of the 2015 show. The 2013 Southern Region Show saw Ron Lacey return as one of the event organizers after packing up as show secretary in 2010. He told me at that time, he was approaching 80 years of age and was having trouble coping with the vast amount of work involved in organizing this wonderful annual show, which I could well appreciate. But Ron being Ron and one of the workers, he could not stay away and returned to the helm. When I say that Ron is one of the sport’s great workers, it is an understatement; he has spent a life time working for the RPRA and the sport of pigeon racing in general. Peter Gretton and his band of helper work hard every winter and put on one of the best shows I visit! We don’t seem to mention Peter’s band of stewards and workers in the annual write up, whom year in and year out work tirelessly to put this great show on. I don’t know their names, but we always ‘tip our hats’ when we meet up each November and it’s them same ol’ faces every year working so hard on this great event. Well done to you all!
Best in Show was won by a beautiful yearling blue chequer cock owned by John and Alice Bell of Scotland. John & Alice travelled the 400 miles from Catrine in Ayrshire for the High Wycombe Show and in the three years that they have competed they have won Best Opposite Sex on the first two times they have shown. Went I spoke to the partners at the show, they were highly delighted at finally winning Best in Show at their third attempt and said it was well worth the 400 mile drive down from Scotland. The winning pigeon was bred from a long line of classic show winners and his dam, an eight year old blue chequer, won the old hens class on the day, also judged by myself. I judged four Show Racer classes at High Wycombe and the Bell loft won three of them and took many cards in other class. A brilliant performance!
I first met John and Alice in November 2011 when I judged BIS at the NEHU Show in South Shield’s and they won Supreme Champion with their wonderful red hen. This wonderful red ‘doo’ had everything in the hand, outstanding feathering, balance and nice dark eyes, my perfect pigeon. I judged at the Blackpool Show in 2007 and John and Alice won one of my classes with a blue Show Racer hen! I asked John how he started up in pigeons and he told me, ‘I started with racing pigeons in 1974, at the age of nine and my first birds came from local fanciers, Eric Wilson of Mauchline who gave me two cocks and Sonny Mathieson who gave me two hens to mate to them. A year or so before that a friend of mine got some pigeons and I got hooked on them when I visited his garden. My parents agreed to allow me to keep some birds and with no experience I raced the whole young bird programme in 1975. I won my first race the following season and scored at the mighty Scottish National race from Rennes (552 miles), and I must say it was a great feeling! To breed and race birds that can race from France to Catrine, Ayrshire in the west of Scotland is a great buzz, as it is a very hard place to race pigeons too’. John finished with racing pigeons and concentrated solely on Show Racers in the 2006 season and won the Hurlford open show, recording his first Best in Show with a Dark Chequer cock bred from his ‘Old Silver Hen’. The following January this wonderful looking cock went to the BHW ‘Show of the Year’ at Blackpool and won ‘Supreme Champion’. Alice told me, this was the best day of their Show Racer life, to win the Supreme prize on their first attempt. It was a dream comes true! The Bell partners had three open show wins in the 2007 season, four more in 2008 and went on to win Reserve ‘Supreme Champion’ in 2009. In 2010 John and Alice had three major open show wins and so went to Blackpool with three birds in the Supreme Champion class. On entering the Winter Gardens on the Saturday morning they were amazed to see that their yearling Blue Chequer Cock had won his class and Best in Show, so was their fourth candidate in the Supreme Champion class. This cock’s nest mate won Supreme Champion and he was BIS, Reserve Supreme Champion. John told me he didn’t think this had ever been achieved before, with a nest pair winning the two premier prizes at Blackpool on the same weekend. These two champion cocks were bred from a seven year old blue chequer cock bred by Darren Gibbons and he said, ‘it goes to prove that old pigeons can still breed champions’. With a lot of hard work this family of winning Show Racer has been formed from four pairs of original stock birds and the Bell partners told me it is well worth the effort when you win at the very top level with your own family of birds!
Class winners were:
Class 1: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd J. & A. Bell, 3rd M/M B. Seward:
Class 2: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd Petty & Crawford, 3rd C. Reynolds:
Class 3: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd Petty & Crawford: 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 4: 1st C. Reynolds, 2nd M/M B. Seward, 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 5: 1st C. Bullard, 2nd M/M M. Horner, 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 6: 1st M/M M. Horner, 2nd M/M Hughes, 3rd R. Sexton:
Class 7: 1st L. Withey, 2nd L. Carter & son, 3rd C. Bullard:
Class 8: 1st C. Reynolds, 2nd C. Gilliver, 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 9: 1st Petty & Crawford, 2nd C. Bullard, 3rd M/M B. Seward:
Class 10: 1st Hoskins & Roach, 2nd M/M Hughes, 3rd D. Minter:
Class 11: 1st M/M Hughes, 2nd M/M B. Seward, 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 12: 1st M/M B. Seward, 2nd M/M Hughes, 3rd M/M Hughes:
Class 13: 1st C. Reynolds, 2nd M/M M. Horner, 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 14: 1st Hoskins & Roach, 2nd J. & A. Bell, 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 15: 1st C. Bullard, 2nd C. Bullard, 3rd L. Withey:
Class 16: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd Hoskin & Roach, 3rd J. & A. Bell:
Class 17: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd J. & A. Bell, 3rd C. Gilliver:
Class 18: 1st C. Gilliver, 2nd M. Jordon, 3rd C. Gilliver:
Class 19: 1st M/M Upham, 2nd M. Jordon, 3rd N. Walker:
Class 20: 1st C. Bullard, 2nd C. T. &S. Bunting, 3rd C. Bullard:
Class 21: 1st T. Twyman & son, 2nd N. Walker, 3rd M/M Upham:
Class 22: 1st J. Prentice, 2nd J. Prentice, 3rd J. Prentice:
Class 23: C. T. & S. Bunting, 2nd S. Tarr, 3rd M. Jordon:
Class 24: 1st M. Jordon, 2nd M/M Leney, 3rd C. Bullard:
Class 25: 1st C. Gilliver, 2nd R. Mayled, 3rd C. Gilliver.
Trophy winners were:
Best in Show, John & Alice Bell:
Best Opposite Sex, Colin Reynolds:
Best Show Racer, John & Alice Bell:
Best Race Bird, Colin Bullard:
Best 400 miles, T. Twyman & son:
Best T. T. W., Hoskin & Roach:
Most Points Show Racer, John & Alice Bell (51):
Most Points Race Bird, C. Gilliver (29),
Best Points Over All, John & Alice Bell (70).
The Show Secretary of the Southern Counties Show Racer Society, Colin Reynolds, won Best Opposite Sex and he tells me he has a good winning family of blues, which believe it or not, originally started from a pair of blue chequers! He has been Show Secretary for about ten seasons and says he like the standard colours of blue chequer, blue, red chequer and mealy best, although he has several Mosaics in the loft. Colin keeps 20 pairs of Show Racers in his four sections ‘L’ Shaped loft and pairs them up after the BHW Blackpool Show in January. The birds are fed on a high protein mixture, which includes Beans and Maple Peas. He has been keeping Show Racers since 2004, when the SCSRS was formed and says the Societies chairman, Jim Trim, was a big help in getting him going. The Reynolds loft has won Best in Show many times through the years, including BIS at the Thame Show in 2010. Colin started in the sport as a ten year old lad, when he got his stock birds by catching ‘roadies’ in old farm buildings near his home in Morpeth, in the North East of England. He has now been in the sport over 60 years and obtained his first racing pigeons in the 1950’s from Clarke Brothers who had won the Combine in long distance races. Colin moved to Gillingham in Kent, in 1971 and enjoyed racing long distance, with the Les Stevens / Fabry pigeons for many years. He raced very successfully with 16 natural pairs, but went completely over to Show Racer in 2004.
Congratulations to Colin on a wonderful performance.
I have been associated with the Southern Region Show for many years and have derived great pleasure judging at this great annual event through the years. This great event is one of my favourite one day shows, which is now held at the Hazlemere Community Centre, near High Wycombe. In recent years the Community Centre has proved to be a first class venue for this major event, having two large halls for the show and charity pigeon auction. My good friend, Ron Lacey, former President of the R.P.R.A. Southern Region, has run the show in recent years and prior to that Val and Tony Viccars were the show secretaries. I have attended the show most years, since it started at Ascot Racecourse over 30 years ago and in recent seasons have booked the judges for the racing classes for Ron. Years ago I used to show and won many firsts with my racing pigeons, which I always considered a good achievement, with the ‘red hot’ competition at the Region show. After Ascot the show moved briefly into Basingstoke and then went to Slough for ten years, being run by the late great Bob Arnold. I always remember Bob telling me that he had been in pigeons all his life, being taken tenderly into a pigeon loft at the age of ten days old, by his father, in 1920. Bob was a wonderful man and put a lot of hard work into the Southern Region Show through his many years as show secretary. My ol’ mate, Ron Lacey, took over the job of show secretary a good few years ago from Val and Tony who had to step down because of ill health and I must say, Ron has done a brilliant job. Ron told me he was President of the R.P.R.A. Southern Region for 14 years until he had to pack up through ill health. He has been in the sport for 60 years and likes only long distance racing. Now the show is in the very capable hands of Peter Gretton, who has made a wonderful start with the 2015 event.
Peter Gretton was born in Small Dole and has been in the pigeon sport many years, with one of his biggest interests being a Football referee for 25 seasons. In the beginning he lived in Upper Beeding where his next door neighbour, the late Bill Lee, had a loft of pigeons, and when Peter got interested he erected his first loft, and Bill gave him some birds. In his novice days, Peter says his birds got very little training and he could not look after them properly as he worked away from home most of the time. He did eventually go in partnership with his new neighbour in Brighton and has now raced on his own for the last seven seasons. His first winner was from Avranches in the Worthing club many years ago and tells me his best position was winning 1st open SMT Combine Messac, but has won the Federation many times through the years. He tells me his family of pigeons are ‘Heinz 57’, with most of them being Staf Van Reet and has been successful racing on the natural system in the longer races from France, which prefers to the sprints. Peter is only a small team man and houses his birds in a back to back loft set up, which is 16ft long, and has now installed the Unikon ETS. He feeds his natural racers depurative on Saturday and Sunday, with Widowhood mixture for the rest of the week and likes his birds sitting 14 day old eggs for the longer channel events. The 2009 season saw Peter have ago at the roundabout system for the first time, with one training toss midweek and he tells me he likes his old birds to race the full programme. The birds are parted for the winter months after the last race and every effort is made to ensure the birds have a good moult. He has 18 pairs of stock birds, which are paired up on 1st February and breeds 60 young birds each season to race. They are trained up to 25 miles and then raced on the natural system to the perch, and are made race the Federation programme. ‘Pedro’ tried the ‘dark’ system once and the following year found he was not getting the performance out of them birds. He is one of the sport’s workers and is secretary of the South Coast Federation
and now of the RPRA Southern Region Show.
Well that’s it for this week! Congratulations to John and Alice Bell on their great success at the RPRA Southern Region Show. Thanks to Ron Lacey’s Grandson, Matt Wallace, who is a great photographer and supplied some of the photos for this week’s article. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters on telephone number: 01372 463480.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
