“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT
Southern Counties Show Racer Society
In late December I had the pleasure of judging at the Southern Counties Show Racer Society Trophy Show, held at Gravesend in Kent and the turnout was excellent, with over 200 birds being entered. This was the fifth time I have judged this event in the last few winters and the other judges were my good friends, Terry Haley and Steve Howard. The entry was spit in half, Terry judged show racers, racers and a small class of Americans and I handled the other half of the show racers and about 50 West of England Tumblers. The Society secretary, Dave Savage, posted me the ‘standard’ books on the Americans and West of England Tumblers about a week before the show as Terry and I had never judged these ‘fancy’ breeds before and were both going in as ‘novices’. Terry has shown and judged at the highest level for over 50 years, winning at many a premier show, including top honours with his bird in the British Olympiad team. I have been judging at National pigeon shows for over 45 years, including five times at the BHW Blackpool Show, twice at the RP ‘Old Comrades’ Show, over twenty times at the RPRA Southern Region Show and this was the first time I had judged West of England Tumblers. I am a great fan of the ‘fancy’ breeds and was really looking forward to the challenge of judging the four classes of ‘Westies’. I kept to the ‘standard’ when judging those wonderful little pigeons, with short neck and legs, good line at the bottom of the mask, good beak position and clean feet feathers etc. At the end of the day I don’t need a standard book to judge pigeons, after all those year judging at the top level I know what I want to see. The best ‘Westie’ in the show was a handsome yellow cock owned by Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson and it had already won at SCSRS shows previously this season. Dave is a great worker in the show racer world and is one of the premier fanciers of the ‘fancy’ breeds fraternity in the UK today. Well done to Dave and Sharon, that yellow cock was something very special! The partners cock went on to win ‘Best Fancy in Show’ and Dave & Jean Mackintosh won ‘Best Young Bird’ West of England Tumbler in show, with a yellow hen bred by Dave Savage and Sharon Tyson out of that same champion yellow cock. LOL! The novice picked them out alright!
‘Best Show Racer’, ‘Best Young Bird’ and ‘Supreme Champion’ on the day were won by a red hen that won one of my classes and this super pigeon was owned by Colin Reynolds. What a pigeon, she had it all! This event was the society’s end of season trophy show and Colin Reynold’s red hen and Savage & Tyson’s yellow cock were then entered in to a class with all the previous ‘Supreme Champions’ of the season, to decide the ‘Supreme Champions’ of the season. I was asked to judge this class and without any bias, I gave the awards to Colin Reynolds’ and Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson’s pigeons. These two wonderful pigeon were the best of a wonderful class of champions. Congratulations Colin, Dave and Sharon on their great achievement!
Dave and Jean Mackintosh won both the ‘Westie’ young bird classes on the day and both birds were bred by the ‘maestro’ Dave Savage. The partners have won many top prize with their Show Racers and casting my memory back, I can remember them winning Best Show Racer at the C.H.A.S.E. Show in 2010. They keep a team of about 60 Show Racers, which are housed in several back garden lofts and pairs up at the end of January. David says they have been showing since 2006 and now have their own family based on Show Racers obtained from Mr. & Mrs. Peter Brookshore, Mr. & Mrs. B. Wilson and Lisa Smith, all fanciers from the North of England. He likes silver blues and creams. They are members of the Southern Counties Show Racer Society and in recent seasons have won Supreme Champion two years on the trot. David and Jean started up in the sport with racing pigeons in 1970 and were long distance enthusiasts, racing on the North Road. They raced the Cattrysse pigeons on the widowhood system and won Thurso (550 miles) four times in five seasons, being second the year they missed out. David told me the Cattrysse family were winners from 105 through to 550 miles.
The Societies hard working Show Secretary, Colin Reynolds, won ‘Supreme Champion on the day with a beautiful Show Racer red hen, which was bred down from a long line of premier winners. Colin 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 the last 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 section ‘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 then 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.
Class winners were: Adult Blue Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: Adult Blue Hen: Dave & Jean Mackintosh: 2016 Blue Cock: 1) Dave & Jean Mackintosh: 2016 Blue Hen: 1) Dave & Jean Mackintosh: A.A. Blue Chequer Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: A. A. Blue Chequer Hen: 1) Colin Reynolds: Adult Red Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: Adult Red Hen: 1) Colin Reynolds: 2016 Red Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: 2016 Red Hen: 1) Colin Reynolds: Adult Mealy Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: Adult Mealy Hen: 1) Colin Reynolds: 2016 Mealy Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: 2016 Mealy Hen: 1) Colin Reynolds: Adult Opals Cock: 1) Colin Reynolds: Adult Opals Hen: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: 2016 Opals Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: 2016 Opals Hen: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: Adult Colours Cocks: 1) Dave & Jean Mackintosh: Adult Colours Hen: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: Adult Racing Cock: 1) Dave & Jean Mackintosh: Adult Racing Hen: 1) Dave & Jean Mackintosh: West of England Tumblers: Adult Cock: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: Adult Hen: 1) Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: 2016 Cock: Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: 2016 Hen: Dave & Jean Mackintosh: American (four classes): Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson won all four classes. The specials were judged by Keith Mott and Terry Haley: Colin Reynolds: ‘Supreme Champion’, ‘Best Show Racer’: Dave Savage & Sharon Tyson: ‘Best Fancy Breeds’: Dave & Jean Mackintosh: ‘Best Young Bird Fancy Breeds.
The beginning of November marked the start of the current 2016 show season and I must say I’ve looked 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 was finished in September, the Mott loft went 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.
Well that’s it for this week! I would like to finish by thanking Dave Savage for inviting us to judge at the ‘Trophy Show’, we all really enjoyed it very much, it was a great day out! I can be contacted on phone number: 01372 463480 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT
(www.keithmott.com).
