WINTER SHOW ROUND UP
2013/14
by Keith Mott
As an avid showing enthusiast, I’m busy judging every winter, but this year I have been exceptionally busy and was invited to judge seven premier shows, finishing at the main event, the BHW Blackpool Show, in January. I was asked to judge at the Southern Counties Show Racer Open Show, held at Gravesend in Kent and this major event had to cancelled at the last minute. This was to be my fifth time I have judged this event in the last six winters and was one of the shows I always looked forward to attending. At the time of the show we had the very strong east winds and driving heavy rain and the east coast was hit hard, with lots of bad flooding. The hall at the Gravesend Rugby Club was ideal for holding shows and the SCSRS use the venue for all their Society and Open shows for nine years. When I received a phone call from the SCSRS secretary, Dave Savage, on the Friday night to tell me that the Sunday morning show had to be cancelled, I wasn’t surprised, with the pending adverse weather conditions in Gravesend. The fact that did surprise me was the reason for the cancellation wasn’t the weather; they were informed at the very last minute that the Show Society could not hold pigeon shows at the venue any more, with immediate effect. All the hard work that Dave Savage and his committee had to put in on arranging this big show, and they had it called off at the eleventh hour!
The Southern Counties Show Racer Society was formed in August 2004, with the main aim of having good competition for Show Racers, in a friendly atmosphere. Jim Trim, the Society’s chairman, tells me the annual subscription is only £5, with new members paying a £5 entrance fee which goes into the trophy fund. The Society has a very healthy 22 fancier membership and has no club radius, in fact they had a member in Germany who came over and showed his birds. They hold shows right through the winter months, plus a squeaker show in June, just for a mid-year get together for the members. Shows are held on Sundays and all members have to be present by 09.00hrs to erect the show pens and judging starts at 10.30hrs. The Society own 350 show pens and have opened their entries to flying breeds, including West of England Tumblers, Birmingham Rollers, Tipplers and Racing Pigeons. They award their own Southern Counties Champion Certificate to pigeons that win five ‘best of colours’ certificates under three different judges. In December they hold the all winners ‘Best of Breeds’ show to find their annual Supreme Champion and this was the show which had to be cancelled this winter. I sincerely hope this great Show Society get a new venue very quickly. I wish them the best of luck with that!
The month of November saw Terry Haley and myself make the 240 mile drive down to Bodmin in Cornwall to judge at the South West Show Racer Society’s annual Duchy Open Show. The Duchy Show is open to any fanciers in the UK and John Robilliard tells me they come from as far away as Wales, Gloucestershire and the Midlands to compete. The show’s 37 classes are for Show Racers and Racing Pigeons, and this year’s event attracted a 602 bird entry. Although Terry and I were a long way from home, it was good to see all the old familiar faces we see every year around the Show Racer scene. Best in Show (Show Racer) and Supreme Champion was awarded to a beautiful blue chequer hen named, ‘Abigail’, owned by Brian and Caroline Seward of Brampton. Brian told me on the day that this latest champion was bred down from his wonderful family of show racers that had won many championships through the years. Best Opposite Sex (Show Racer), Best Young Bird and Best Opposite Sex Young Bird were won by David and Jill Fisher with a wonderful duo of mealies. Mr. & Mrs. F. Williams won Best Racer in Show, plus other premier awards, with a handsome blue cock and also lifted the Best Opposite Sex Racer award with a blue hen.
Talking to Brian Seward the day after the show, he told me he had not slept too well with the excitement of his big win and he and his wife, Caroline were highly delighted with their success at the ‘Duchy’ Show. Their Supreme Champion, ‘Abigail’, is named after their eldest granddaughter and she won as a young bird at the ‘Duchy’ and won her class at the 2012 BSRF Southern Show. In 2012 she was mated to a gift pigeon from Alastair Tankard and they produced four youngsters, two of which have won first prizes. This wonderful hen is bred from a long line of premier winners, with her dam, ‘04273’, winning a first at the Camborne show, as well as cards at the BHW Blackpool Show. ‘Abigail’s’ sire is a blue cock gifted to the Sewards by Roland and Julie Thresher and he won a class at the ‘Duchy’ Show last season. The Supreme Champion’s grand dam, ‘04192’, was bred from Jill and David Fisher stock birds and she too was a champion in the show pen winning four firsts as a yearling, as well as 1st all winners champion class at the Devon & Cornwall Show Racer Society. A wonderful line of winning Show Racers.
A nice sunny Sunday morning in November saw me drive over the River Thames to judge a class of old cocks at the Spelthorne Open Show. This club never stands still and have regular activities at the football club HQ in Sunbury, including the Winter Open Shows and the big Summer Breeder / Buyer and Open Race. The show was well attended and my ol’ mate, Terry Smart, wasn’t showing so he kindly stewarded for me. He told me he would be running a third Spelthorne Breeder / Buyer in 2014. As always the quality of the birds competing in the show was 100% and a handsome blue cock owned by Derek Reid won the event and all pools. Members of the Spelthorne club have enjoyed a good 2013 season racing in the Three Borders Federation, with Derek Reid winning most of the inland races in the club, including 1st Federation, 5th SMT Combine Truro (1393 birds). The Spelthorne South Road is only a small club with a maximum nine flying members, based at Spelthorne Sports and Social Club, Staines Road West, Sunbury on Thames, just one mile off Junction 1 of the M3 motorway. Small club it might be, but it is of the highest quality having several Federation winners in recent times and three 1st SMT Combine winners in the last three seasons.
The month of November saw my granddaughter, Sasha and I make our annual drive up the M40 to High Wycombe to judge at the RPRA Southern Region Show, which is one of the highlights of the show calendar in the South of England every winter. Show secretary, Ron Lacey and his band of helpers work hard every winter and put on one of the best shows I visit. This year’s show held at the Hazlemere Community Centre turned out to be one of the best ever, with 596 birds entered. There was the usual auction of gift birds and the funds raised by the show and sale were donated to the RNLI and The Air Ambulance. The auction of gift birds raised some good money for the two charities and I must say they were a great daft of birds. This year’s Southern Region Show saw my good friend of 30 years standing, 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 is back at 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.
Best in Show was awarded to a beautiful opal hen who took everybody’s eye in the pen as they walked around the hall and she was owned and shown by Colin Bullard, who travels all the way from Lowestoft on the east coast to show at High Wycombe. Colin is always the man to beat in any show he competes in and won BIS at the Southern Region Show in 2012, also with a another opal hen. He has had racing pigeons since he started at the age of 16, being very successful at club racing and has had Show Races about 30 years. His latest Southern Region BIS winner is closely related to his BIS winner at last year’s show and both are members of his mosaic family, which originate from birds obtained from George Bartle of Wretford. His opal hen is no stranger to winning, having won first at other premier shows. Colin has judged at all the main shows, including the BHW Blackpool Show and has won BIS East Coast Show, BIS Norwich Spectacular Show and BOS RP ‘Old Comrades’ Show. The Bullard loft also won Best Racer at the Southern Region Show this year with handsome Dordin / Cattrysse blue pied cock too go with his BIS.
The annual C.H.A.S.E. Charity Show was held at the Horsham YMCA Football ground in early December and as in past years the support for this great event was first class. On show day the pens and hall were packed. The entry looked like one of the biggest for some years and judges were Keith Mott, Terry Haley, Peter Obertelli with Sasha Mott, Peter Coles and Roy Underdown. The C.H.A.S.E. Charity Show and Auction staged annually by members of the Horsham R.P.C. has become one of the major winter show events in the South of England. This annual event is one of the fanciers’ favourite winter days out, with a quiz and bingo, and this year’s show had the usual format, with six handling classes for racing pigeons, with additional classes for show racers. Every year a very select daft of quality pigeons are auctioned for the C.H.A.S.E. Charity and this time they had one of the best sales ever, with some unbelievable pigeons being donated! All proceeds of the Show and Auction are donated to C.H.A.S.E.
Best in Show was won by Gordon & Delia Marsh of Southwater and they are one the premier lofts on the south coast, winning many top prizes including 3rd open L&SECC Tarbes (524 miles) in 2013. Their winning pigeon was a handsome blue pied Cattrysse cock and he had to win a very strong 400 miles class to take BIS. Gordon bought the original Cattrysse stock birds from Ernie Goodyear about four years ago and he tells me his BIS winner flew Bergerac (450 miles) in both the last two seasons. Gordon and Delia started the CHASE Charity Show, with a lot of help from the Horsham pigeon club members, about 14 years ago and have raised in excess of £25,000 for the charity in that time. Delia is very heavily into ‘running’ her dogs these days and the show is now run by Clive Turner and Gordon. The Marsh family enjoyed a wonderful 2013 racing season in the very strong Horsham club, winning a hatful of prize cards in the club and federation, including seven firsts, plus 1st section, 3rd open L&SECC Bergerac. (I will be doing a full loft report on Gordon and Delia in the next few weeks). Gordon likes all pigeon races and enjoys winning at any distance, but in recent years has only really raced from over the Channel. Well done to the Horsham Pigeon Club on another brilliant effort! The C.H.A.S.E. show secretary, Clive Turner, puts in a lot of hard work in organizing the show and auction, so a big ‘thank you’ to him! A special thanks to Gordon Marsh, Adam Light and Steve Vizor, who worked flat out all day. Thanks also to the British Homing World for their kindness and generosity with their advert, which was free of charge.
The Christmas period saw me have a couple of weeks off from judging and my first outing in January was the Godalming Open Young Bird Show, held at their new HQ, the Elstead British Legion Club. The pigeon club have only moved in to this venue in recent seasons, after many years at the Shackelford Social Club and what a brilliant place they have there in rural Surrey. They have a very nice bar and activities hall on site, which is wonderful for holding their winter shows in, with good light and plenty of space. The British Legion has also provided the pigeon lads with a good area to mark their birds and set their timing equipment. It was a Sunday morning handling show, which attracted 120 young birds and I made the 25 miles drive down to Elstead with my ol’ mates Terry Smart and Richard Kent of Hersham. The two lads judged the cocks class and gave the red card to a handsome dark, which was owned by David Robinson. I handled the hens and Mick Tuck won this big class with an Eric Cannon blue chequer and she was his first bird on the clock from the young birds Guernsey race, which was a very testing race.
Godalming & Dist RPC has a long history of top quality fanciers going back to the 1920s, with well-known names of the time, such as H. H. Boshier, the mayor of Godalming, winner of 1938: 4th Open Marande, 1939: 2nd Open Marande; Mr. Raynesford winner of 2nd Open San Sebastian in 1935 and Seaman Bros. 2nd Open Marande in 1937. Other top long distance fanciers in Godalming in those early days were C. R. Gush and the great Harold Edgington. Harold was the father of the late Stan Edgington who unfortunately passed away early in 1995, and who made a huge contribution to pigeon racing locally and was a great loss to the club. The club has strong ties with the NFC, as a clock station, and is the home of well over twenty 1st Section winners in Sections A and E. Modern-day National winners in Godalming Club are: Paul & Arthur Bridgewater, 1st Open Nantes NFC and Eric & Pat Cannon, lst Open Sartilly NFC and a wonderful 16 times lst Section. Other Classic organizations are also well supported by club members, including the BBC and the BICC. The club was a long-time member of Surrey Federation and was one of its largest clubs, with Godalming members winning a long line of 1st Open S.M.T. Combines and Federation wins through the years. Racing in Godalming has always been very competitive with many well-known fanciers competing most weeks. There are about 50 members and a very large radius of ten miles from Godalming Station, with members flying to locations as far apart as Headley Down, Farnham, Farnborough, Woking, Cranleigh, and Wormley.
I then received a phone call in December from the BHW Blackpool Show committee inviting me to take on the premier judging job in the show world, to judge the specials and Blackpool Show ‘Best in Show’. I have been judging at top National and Show Society shows for 40 years and to judge ‘Best in Show’ at Blackpool was the crowning glory of all those years doing the job. I was highly delighted and accepted the invitation immediately. My ol’ mate Peter Taylor has travelled all over the UK as my steward for many years, but in recent times has not travelled because of his ‘dodgy’ knees, but I managed to get him to Blackpool to steward for me on this great occasion. It was late on the Friday night when we arrived at the Winter Gardens to judge, just before 23.00hrs I think, and we were greeted by chief steward, Dora Pounder, and what a nice lady she was! Dora has been doing the job at the Blackpool Show for many years and was so efficient, directing us to all the pen numbers to sort out the show specials. There was the usual gang of show stewards in attendance and I must say a big ‘thanks’ to them all, as they were there in the middle of the night, waiting to feed and lock up the birds. I spent quite some time judging the 29 class winner and needless to say I went through them with a fine tooth comb! From the outset of judging there was only one winner of Best in Show, a wonderful Show Racer red hen and she was medium apple bodied, with good balance and brilliant feather quality. I loved the hen as soon as I picked her out of Pen 4 and from then on she was the one the others had to beat! It was a great judging session to remember and we finished just before 01.00hrs, after which we jumped in a taxi and went back to the Hilton Hotel. It was a very long day and I finally got to bed just after 02.00hrs!
Peter and I got up on Saturday morning and after breakfast I was keen to get down to the Winter Gardens to see who owned the red hen, but on our arrival in the show hall there were no cards on the winner’s pens. Later it was finally confirmed that John Robilliard of Cornwall owned that wonderful red hen and she had won his second Best in Show at the BHW Blackpool Show. I was so delighted to hear that great news, as John has given a life time’s work to our sport and deserves every success he has with his wonderful Show Racers. Talking to John after the event, he said the hen is now called ‘Rocquaine Queen’ and she won as a young bird, and won a first at the Duchy Show in November 2013. She was bred from a pair of stock birds that John obtained at the Ken Jeffery of St Ives dispersal sale. Congratulations to John and Pamela on their great success! John and Alice Bell of Scotland had a fantastic Blackpool Show winning: ‘Supreme Champion’, Reserve Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex. Well done to John and Alice! I had a good chat with David Trippett, chairman of the Blackpool Show committee, and he told me the Blackpool Show committee meet about five times a year, and the show has raised about three million pounds for charity in its 42 years existence, with over £63,000-00 being donated from the 2013 event. Well done and full credit to our great sport in general!
The beginning of last November marked the start of the 2013 show season and I must say I was looking forward to visiting all the major shows this winter. Although I love long distance racing pigeons, many of my racing friends can’t understand my passion for showing pigeons. I can never turn pigeons off and when racing is finished in September, the Mott loft goes into showing mode. I have to have my ‘fix’ twelve months in every year. I suppose I’m a bit of a frustrated show man at heart! I think breeding pigeons for type and winning with them at a Classic show is as much an art as breeding outstanding racers and winning a National race. I derive as much pleasure out of seeing a Best in Show winner at the National shows, as I do a National race winning pigeon, but I think I’m one of the lucky ones, as I can enjoy both sides of our great sport. Although I’m mostly known for the racing side of the sport, I have a big involvement in the Show Racers scene and have judged at all the Classic and National shows through the years, which I have really enjoyed.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
