“On The Road” With Keith Mott
BHW ‘Show of the Year’ Blackpool 2017
I would like to start this my annual report on the British Homing World Blackpool Show by congratulating the ‘gang’ at the paper on their issue of 20th January, which celebrated the 40th year that the show had been held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. It had been held at Doncaster previously for several years and moved to Blackpool in 1977, because extra room was needed to host the Olympiad that year. The BHW is always a brilliant read, but the 20th January issue was a bit special! The articles and old pictures were great. It was a very nice surprise to see my old report on the 1977 show reproduced in the celebration issue and I had to laugh at that old photo of me and the late Belgium ‘master’, Gerard Vanhee. I was 26 at the time and hadn’t long sold my drum kit. I was a mod in those days and had my flared bottom trousers and ‘Cuban’ heeled boots on, that’s why Gerard looked like a midget. I loved that old mod ‘Parker’ jacket; it was an old friend and was laid on a lot of grass in its life time. I see in his old photo, Les Parkinson wasn’t a mod or rocker in those days, he looked like a young London bank manager in his smart grey suit and Joe and Margaret Murphy looked like they had just left school. Just brilliant! Well done to the BHW!
Thousands of fanciers made the drive up to Blackpool in mid-January for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the 45th 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 A. Werner had the job of judging the specials this time, including Best in Show. Best in Show over all at Blackpool was won by a yearling Show Racer mealy cock owned by John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Scotland and when I spoke to John at the event on Saturday morning he said, that the partners were thrill to win Best in Show at Blackpool for the second time. The handsome cock is now named, ‘Anniversary Supreme’ and is a Show Racer champion in the truest sense of the word, also going on to win ‘Supreme Champion’ of the Blackpool Show in 2017. This wonderful Scottish partnership were also runner up in the ‘Supreme Champion’ class with a full brother to their good two year old blue chequer cock, ‘Bell’s Young Supreme’, the winner of ‘Supreme Champion’ at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2016. The sire of these two champion cocks was ‘Bell’s Supreme’ and he was also in the ‘Supreme Champion’ class this time at eight years of age, and he won BIS (800 birds) at the SHU Show in 2016 and 2017. John tells me the partners have won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the BHW Blackpool Show five times and thinks it is a record. A fantastic achievement!
It was great to see my ol’ mate, Alan Spedding of Cumbria, up there again on the ‘special’ table, winning Reserve Best in Show at the Blackpool Show with a beautiful Blue Chequer. It was on a ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tour of Cumbria and Scotland that I visited the Show Racer loft of Alan Spedding, soon after he had won Best in Show at the Old Comrades Show for the second time, and I must say, I have always found him to be a very nice guy. He started up with the Show Racers in 1988, taking over the birds when his relation, Donald Spedding packed up, and previous to that Alan raced pigeon with some good success. Donald was a professional singer and had to sell his team of birds to peruse his career in entertainment, and when he had his sale; Alan purchased two pairs back to start himself set up. Donald Spedding was very successful with his wonderful team of birds and is rated by some as one of the best Show Racer fanciers ever in the U.K. Alan told me; Donald was a brilliant stock man and had a natural gift of knowing which pigeon to pair together, to produce winners. He still spends a lot of time at Alan’s loft and his advice has help a lot with their recent success in the National shows. Alan is a member of a big Show Racer society in the north west of England and it has lofts as far apart as Blackburn and Carlisle. As well as winning Best in Show twice at the Old Comrades, the Spedding loft has won B.I.S. twice at the Louella Classic and had a winning pigeon on the top table every year it was staged. The first pigeon I handled on my loft visit was the champion blue chequer hen that had won Best in Show at the Old Comrades Show a few weeks before. To say she was beautiful would be an understatement, she was perfection! She was a latebred, being out of a half-brother, half-sister mating and won the Old Comrades in her first season showing. Her dam, a blue chequer hen, was the nest mate to the champion blue chequer cock, ‘Mr. T’, winner of Best in Show at the Old Comrades in 1994. All these National show winners were bred down from Alan’s famous blue cock, ‘The Irish Blue Cock’, bred by Harry Spratt of Ireland.
John & Alice Bell - Alan Spedding
Class winners at the 2017 BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ were: 1 (86 birds) A. Tankard: 2 (93 birds) Les Carter & son: 3 (82 birds) John & Alice Bell: 4 (79 birds) Robert Wiggins: 5 (64 birds) Nigel Rescoria: 6 (56 birds) Jill & David Fisher: 7 (67 birds) John Barnes: 8 (72 birds) Miss Nicole Bell: 9 (51 birds) R. Sexton: 10 (49 birds) Robert Logan: 11 (50 birds) John & Alice Bell: 12 (50 birds) Nicholas Yule: 13 (46 birds) Jill & David Fisher: 14 (45 birds) Mr. & Mrs. Alan Spedding: 15 (44 birds) John Barnes: 16 (61 birds) J. & A. Rundell: 17 (54 birds) Fitzpatrick & Fleming: 18 (63 birds) John & Alice Bell: 19 (67 birds) Coutts Brothers: 20 (46 birds) E. Balmer: 21 (45 birds) Robert Hughes: 22 (14 birds) Dave Fussey: 23 (11 birds) McCord & Turpie: 24 (14 birds) McCord & Turpie: 25 (16 birds) D. Murphy: 26 (23 birds) McCord & Turpie: 27 (19 birds) T. & K. Mawhinney: 28 (33 birds) E. & N. Yule: 29 (30 birds) McCord & Turpie: 30 (41 birds) T. & K. Mawhinney: 31 (32 birds) Miss Keelie Wright: 32 (29 birds) John Wheatcroft: 33 (30 birds) C. Gilliver: 34 (28 birds) Master Jack F. P. Lavender: 35 (29 birds) Craig Coutts: 36 (33 birds) Craig Coutts: 37 (31 birds) Craig Coutts.
John and Alice Bell always have great success where ever they compete and before their 2017 Blackpool Show success, they also 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 five times and have been runner up five times! This Blackpool success finished off a wonderful 2015/16 show season for them, when they had won several premier shows. That season’s ‘Supreme Champion’ was their good yearling blue chequer cock, ‘Bell’s Young Supreme’ and to qualify he won BIS at the RPRA Southern Region Show in November. I judged four Show Racer classes at the Region Show and John and Alice won three of them, with ‘Bell’s Young Supreme’ being one of those winners. This wonderful cock is a son of, ‘Bell’s Supreme’ the 2011 Blackpool ‘Supreme Champion’ winner and he in turn is a brother to, ‘Wild One’, the 2007 Blackpool ‘Supreme Champion’. What a fantastic family of Show Racers! The 2015/16 show season saw John and Alice enter seven open shows prior to the Blackpool show and they won six of them, including: Shildon Open Show, NEHU Open Show, Shildon BSRF Open Show, RPRA Southern Region Show, Clydesdale Open Show and SHU Open Show.
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 his dark chequer cock, ‘Wild One’, 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. Three of his Blackpool ‘Supreme Champions’ 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’. John and Alice enjoyed a very successful 2011 show season, winning four open shows and qualified for the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at Blackpool in January 2012. 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!
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 flew his birds until the 2000 season when sadly his friend and mentor, Louis Campbell, passed away. He was always keen on showing his racing pigeons and took then to events all over Scotland, where he was very successful in local and open shows. The Bell loft had four racing pigeons that had won open shows in the same year with over 500 birds competing, at that time, and qualified for the Supreme Champion of Great Britain class at Blackpool and won Reserve that year. Whenever he went to the big National shows he would spend long periods of time looking at the Show Racer and thought how great they looked. Alice used to go with John to the big shows and she also took a liking the wonderful looking show birds, so they both decided to get a few and give proper showing a go. The first Show Racers were brought in, in 2002 and quality specimens proved very difficult to obtain. He was lucky to know, Raymond Murphy of Cambuslang in Glasgow, who was a very good showman who was going out of the sport, and was having a clearance sale. John visited Raymond’s loft and purchased a five year old silver hen and her son, which was a three year old silver blue cock, both being top quality. Other birds were obtained including a young blue chequer cock from Darren Gibbons of Grimsby. In the 2002 season the ‘Old Silver Hen’ won three big open shows and her son, the silver blue cock, won two classes at open events. John and Alice went to the RP ‘Old Comrades’ where the young chequer cock won his class and went on to win the Best Young Bird at the Scottish East Region Society Show, then went forward to Blackpool to represent the Society in the BSRF class. The 2003 season saw more good success with several open show wins with racing and show birds. John told me that Alice was very instrumental in the success as she spent a lot of time with the birds and made them very tame. They responded really well to her and sit on her head and feed from her hand. John maintains making her a full pigeon partner was one of the best things he ever did, as she manages the loft when he is working, cleaning out and feeding the birds.
John told me his best show racer is his old dark chequer hen, ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ and she has won many premier positions including: the Hurlford Open Show, the Kingdom of Fife Open Show and the North Eastern Open Show, with over 450 birds entered. The beautiful hen has been a class winner at many open shows, even in 2014 at the age of seven, but she has been a champion in the stock section, breeding champions with different cocks each year. In the 2009 season she bread a nest pair of chequer cocks, one of them won Best in Show at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2011 and he also went on to be reserve ‘Supreme Champion’ at the same show, being beaten by his brother. The chequer cock’s nest brother won Best in Show at the North Eastern Open Show in 2010 and then won most consistent bird Scottish East Region Show Racers Society 2010 and the went to Blackpool, winning ‘Supreme Champion’ in 2011 and beating his nest mate. John said, ‘I don't think this has ever been done at Blackpool by a nest pair before. ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ also bread a chequer hen in 2011 and she won the Kingdom Open Show, and then went into the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at BHW Blackpool Show. The next year this hen went to Blackpool and won the Inter Society Yearly Hen Class and then went on to win reserve Best in Show. This great hen then went on to other top cards at the Blackpool Show. She bred a chequer cock in 2012 that won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the East Region Show Racer Society Show in 2013. He went on to win five firsts in the Society and was the most consistent bird award, and represented Scottish East Region in British SR Federation class at Blackpool in 2015. The champion chequer hen, ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’, also bread a chequer cock in 2013 which won Best in Show at the North Eastern Open Show, then went into ‘Supreme Champion’ this year. As you can see she has bred champions each year with different cocks each time. Her father was a 2002 bird, with her mother being bred in 1997, so as you can see old birds can still breed champions Show Racers. ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ father was five years old and her mother was ten years old when I bred her and I hope she lasts as long as her mother did and still breeds champions’.
John and Alice have two 24ft x 8ft lofts, which have a nice 3ft wire flight running along the front so the birds can get out in the weather and bath, and these are cleaned out by Alice twice a day. John works long hours and says a lot of loft management is down to his partner, which includes cleaning out the lofts as many times as ten times a day on the build up to big shows. He maintains this cleaning out is very important as the birds don’t have to be lifted and pulled about to clean their feet on basketing for the shows. Alice told me that if the bird’s feet are not cleaned on basketing day they look nice and powdery and not an unnatural pink. The birds are bathed at the beginning of the week and no litter is used on the loft floors. John mixes his own corn and this has big maple pea content, and the birds are never fed condition seed. The pigeons are never fed maize prior the going to show, as Alice maintains it makes the candidates loose and messy in the pen. The twelve pairs of birds are mated up in late February as the partners like to enter two open Society shows which are after the Blackpool show at the back end of January. No stock birds are kept as all birds are shown and about 60 young birds are bred each, which are brought down to about twelve just before the show season begins. John told me, ‘I enjoy judging and have no favourite colour, when judging or in my own loft. I just love good quality Show Racers, whatever their colour! Showing is very hard work and to get a team ready for a big National event it can take up to a month to get them right. Our best ever Show Racer is the Darren Gibbons blue chequer cock and although we don’t keep stock birds, he is our main breeder, being the sire of many winners. I’ve lost count of the many open shows he has won and he has also won several times at the RP ‘Old Comrades’ Show and the BHW Blackpool Show. I would like to finish this article by saying how important Alice’s hard work is to our good success with our Show Racers. She is a wonderful pigeon fancier’. John & Alice Bell own one of the top Show Racer lofts in the UK at this time.
Well that’s it for this week! Congratulations to John and Alice on yet another great Blackpool success!
I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480
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TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT
(www.keithmott.com)
