“SHOW RACER WORLD” – Number 2.
John Robilliard of Bodmin.
I have judged at the BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ several times and in 2014 had the great honour of being asked to judge the specials, including ‘Best in Show. 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 appled 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! A beautiful mealy was her runner up, but I found a major fault in her on her second handling and Reserve Best in Show went to a stunning looking Show Racer blue chequer hen. We 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. Peter Taylor and I went around the whole show and then spent a nice 30 minutes in the BHW Scribes Room talking to Helen, Nettie and a few fellow BHW writers. Then we were off for a second circuit of the show and I was told there was a rumour that John Robilliard had won Best in Show, but this information was not confirmed. We met up with lots of our pigeon friends on our walk and I had the usual two dozen strangers come up and talk to me about my weekly column in the BHW, which I really enjoy talking about. It was finally confirmed that John Robilliard did own that wonderful red hen and 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 deserve 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. John Robilliard, one of the sports great workers!
In my near 50 years as a pigeon scribe, a fancier I have admired is, John Robilliard of Cornwall, for his high level of success with his birds and the great work he has puts in to our sport, over many years. John first started keeping pigeons in the early 1950’s, about the time he met his wife, Pam, and was doing National Service in the R.A.F. John raced pigeons up to 1958 and in those early days enjoyed showing his race birds at all the local events including the Bodmin November Show. He saw the show birds at these events and obtained his first Show Racers in the late 1950’s, but these were not very good quality, so in 1959 got some better stock from the late Trevor Parker of Treherbert and Edgar Griffiths, who were two of the premier showmen at that time. The three birds obtained from these fanciers won well for John and were a good foundation for his new Show Racer loft. Right from the outset these birds produced stock to win premier prizes at all the National shows for the Robilliard loft, including the People Show held at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London, the Old Comrades Show, Show of the West held at Swindon and the Royal Cornwall Show. The Robilliard loft has been built up over the years with the very best stock obtained from the premier Show Racer lofts in the U.K. John and Pam’s second hobby is dancing and have regular social dance evenings at Luxulyan Village Hall, which they enjoy very much. Through the nearly 50 years that John has been in the sport he has given a 100% commitment, being a founder member of the Bodmin R.P.C., serving over 20 years as secretary, also a founder member of the Mid Cornwall Federation, serving as President of the Federation and Cornish Combine. On the Show Racer scene he has had a 40 year commitment to the Royal Cornwall Show, serving as secretary and chairman, and has a big involvement with the British Show Racer Federation, the Stithians Show and a founder member of both the Devon & Cornwall Show Racer Society and South West Show Racer Society. John had quite a full pigeon life, when did Pam get to see him! He has a big involvement with the R.P.R.A. spanning over many years and was a founder member of the Devon and Cornwall Region. He was elected President of the R.P.R.A. in 1996, serving his three year term and before that was vice-president for four years. John said, ‘It was an honour to be President for the year the R.P.R.A. celebrated it’s Centenary in 1996 and again in 1998 when it hosted the Olympiad in Blackpool’.
In his 40 odd years on the Show Racer scene, John, has one just about every honour in the National show arena, but the 2004 season saw him set a record at the B.H.W. Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’. He won Best in Show (2,400 birds) and Reserve Supreme Champion of Great Britain with his wonderful Mosaic hen, ‘Rocquaine Cathrina’, and she has plenty of previous good form, including B.I.S. South West Show Racer Society in 2003. ‘Cathrina’ went on to win Reserve Supreme Champion of Great Britain at the ‘Show of the Year’ again in 2005. A fantastic hen! Also at the 2004 B.H.W. Blackpool Show, the Robilliard loft, won the premier honour of Supreme Champion of Great Britain with John’s champion Mosaic hen, ‘Rocquaine Dream Girl’. John and Pam won the three premier prizes and £1,250 at the 2004 Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’, and lifted nine major trophies. A fantastic performance and a record that will take some beating! The Robilliard’s champion hen, ‘Rocquaine Dream Girl’, was bred by Austen Runnals of St. Austell in Cornwall and John purchased this hen in 2003 when Austen had his clearance sale. This great hen is a champion in the truest sense of the word, having won: B.I.S. Royal Cornwall, B.I.S. Stithians, 1st. Royal Welsh, 1st. Cornwall Fancy Pigeon Society, B.I.S. Duchy R.P.C. Show and Supreme Champion of Great Britain at Blackpool in 2004. A once in a life time hen!
John Robilliard has owned and shown many champion Show Racers in his time in the sport and some of them are: CH. ‘Rocquaine Supreme’ winner of B.I.S. and B.Y.B. at the 1981 Old Comrades Show, B.I.S. Old Comrades Show in 1983 and was the first bird ever to win B.I.S. twice at the Old Comrades. This Mosaic cock went on to win, B.I.S. Royal Cornwall (twice), B.I.S. Devon & Cornwall S.R.S. (twice) and won 25 times first position: ‘Rocquaine Richard’, a full brother to ‘Supreme’ and winner of 1st. B.H.W. Blackpool Show, 1st. Old Comrades Show and was Supreme Champion at the Devon & Cornwall S.R. Society Show: ‘Rocquaine Westward’, winner of Champion Young Bird at the Old Comrades, 8 times B.I.S., 20 times first, including 1st. Old Comrades, 1st. Birmingham Mail, 1st. Royal Dairy, 1st. Welsh Charity Show and twice Championship winner at the Cornwall S.R. Society Show: ‘Rocquaine Hat Trick’, won first at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show three years on the trot, lifting the ‘Gordon Richards Trophy’ and the ‘Bas Carbonite Trophy’: ‘Rocquaine Miss Silver’, Best Young Bird at the B.H.W. Blackpool show in 1976: ‘Rocquaine Princess’, won 17 times first, twice B.I.S. and seven times B.O.S.: ‘Rocquaine Lucy’ won several premier prizes including B.I.S. British Show Racer Federation Championship Show at Louella Pigeon World in 1988: ‘Rocquaine Duchess’ winner of 1st. Plympton. 1st. Holmans and 1st. Old Comrades Show, lifting the ‘Silver Jubilee Trophy’. One of the best lofts of Show Racers in the world today!
John keeps his loft management very basic and simple, and is not a user of supplements in the water or on the feeding. He is a great believer in natural immunity and likes to keeps his birds clean of chemicals as much as possible, only doing usual yearly jab. The Robilliard team are treated with Ivomec to prevent parasites and are given a preventative treatment for ‘cocci’. The birds are cleaned out and given a water change daily, and are kept on a strict balance diet, with a little hemp seed added for the moult. When John was asked about pairing up, his reply was, ‘Usually around the middle of February. There is no set number of pairs which I put together, but I do like to breed about 25 to 30 youngsters per year. I’ve only four actual breeding pairs which are past their showing years, but still produce the winners. I also tend to breed off the birds that are winning for me as well as the stock birds’. The Robilliard set up is made up with two lofts, one 16ft.x 8ft. and the other 8ft. x8ft, joined by a nice roomy flight. John is not a lover of deep little and only gives the birds the odd handful of sawdust in the nest boxes. The Show Racers build up for the big shows is a bath on the Monday and are fed on Buckton’s conditioning mixture, in the week before the show. Their feet and rings are cleaned and are basketed the night before travelling to the show. The day of the show there are taken out of the basket and checked fore soil marks on their feathering, and the saw dust is changed in the show baskets, before travelling off to the show arena.
John maintains that the United Kingdom is the envy of the Show Racer world, as it has some of the best Show Racers and is the home of some the finest shows in the world. He is always in great demand to judge at all the premier National shows and when he was asked what he looks for, his reply was, ‘In a nut shell, I prefer a medium sized Show Racer, well balanced and not too deep. It’s got to have a good head, with the correct eye and colour to match. At the end of the day all I looking for basically is what I would like to take home’. He has no favourite colour when judging, but picks out the winners on type, condition and all the other qualities that a good Show Racer must have. If any one knows what to look for in a Show Racer, it’s John Robilliard!
Roland & Julie Thresher of Minehead.
I have known Roland and Julie Thresher for many years and I often see them at most of the major winter shows, when I’m judging and they are competing. The Minehead couple are very successful with their Show Racers and I have asked them for an article many times, but I now call Roland the ‘Dentist’, as trying to get info from him is like pulling teeth! Finally we pinned him down on the floor, with his arm up his back and he came across and gave us some info, so I could give him a bit of credit for his brilliant performance at the 2015 BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’. Roland is the third part of four generations of pigeon fanciers in the Thresher family, with his father and grandfather both being outstanding racers, and now his son, David, is taking up racing pigeons, and recorded 1st section D in the 2014 NFC Carentan race. Roland’s parents, Graham and Gwen Thresher live in Alcombe and they won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the BHW Blackpool Show in January 2013 with their champion racing blue white flight cock, ‘Ponderosa Boy’. The handsome cock won nine firsts at premier shows and was bred from Ponderosa UK Stud Delbar stock birds. The January of 2015 saw Roland and Julie Thresher have some brilliant success showing their birds, with them winning ‘Supreme Champion’ at the BHW Blackpool Show with their champion blue cock, ‘Wilson’. What a wonderful weekend that was!
Roland has been in pigeons all his life, but had his first Show Racers at the age of ten in 1974 and they were obtained from a local fancier by the name of George Ensley. His father, Graham, purchased him his first serious pair Show Racers from Stan Merry of Essex in 1978 and he paid a whacking £25 for that pair of blue chequers, and Stan also gifted him a very nice red chequer cock. He produced a few winners from that original pair, but it transpired that the family threw a lot of eleven flighted birds. The early days were very much a learning time about the Show Racers for the young Roland and he only kept eight pairs in a neat 8ft x 6ft loft. His first major success as a junior was to win Best in Show at the Cullumpton Open Show and his first club was the Devon & Cornwall Show Racer Society, and he is still a member today, now being joint secretary with his wife, Julie. The Devon & Cornwall SRS Have their HQ in Bampton and the twenty members enjoy four major society events every winter. For the last two years Roland and Julie have won the Society’s over all ‘Supreme Champion’, which is awarded to the winner of an all winners show at the end of the season.
Roland and Julie were married in 2007 and Roland tells me she dose the biggest part of the pigeon work in the loft, especially in the winter when her hours are cut at work. The partner’s loft is a 36ft ‘L’ shape structure with four sections and a full length corridor, and this loft houses the 40 pairs of show birds. The show team live on sloping perches in the show season, with a sprinkle of sand on the loft floor and they are cleaned out twice a day. Roland says, they try and keep bird numbers to a minimum, so not to over crowd the loft and wild bird are never tolerated. The normal traditional wooden nest boxes are used and are removed from the show loft in the winter months. Roland and Julie like routine and the birds are fed at the same time every day on a good mixture, which is heavy with farm tic beans. Roland has his own potion, which he has made up at the local chemist and this is in the water pretty much all the time. He tells me most of the conditioning of the birds for the show pen is done through the drinking water. The ten pairs of stock birds are housed in a 10ft x 6ft loft and all the birds are paired up at the end of February. Julie told me, the partner like to keep the pigeons as natural as possible and like the longer days for their breeding, which she says produces better youngsters. They breed about sixty youngsters every season, with some them being gifted to other fancier and these are given pen training at the loft. The babies have about eight shows in their first season and sometimes go to their first event carrying their last flight. Roland and Julie like to show their birds once every two week through the season and like to compete at all the National events every winter. Their build up for the BHW Blackpool Show would be no showing for at least two weeks before the event and a steady increase of tic beans in the feeding.
Roland has judged at every National pigeon show in the UK through the years and judged a National show in Australia in 2013. The loft has won at all premier shows in the UK and have been Best in Show many times. The partners 2015 ‘Supreme Champion’ at the BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ was their three year old blue cock, Champion ‘Wilson’ and he was bred by Allister Tankard. He was named after Allister’s late father, Wilson Tankard, and was bred from a Roland Thresher cock, with the Threshers getting the first cock youngster back off the pair, which was ‘Wilson’. He has won first at major shows every season, with the highlight being: 2014: Best in Show South West SRS: 2015: ‘Supreme Champion’ of Great Britain at the BHW Blackpool Show. Other top pigeons at the Minehead loft are: “Julie’ winner of eight major shows and twice ‘Reserve Champion’. 2011: British Show Racer Federation Champion at the BHW Blackpool Show. She was an outstanding breeding hen. “Sargent Major’ winner of: 2014: 1st British Show Racer Federation class at the BHW Blackpool Show. Also the winner at sixteen open shows. Roland tells me his best Show Racer ever was his 1997 bred Mosaic WF hen, ‘Tammy’ and to say she was a champion would be an understatement. The wonderful pigeon was very tame and won forty firsts at major shows, plus five times Best in Show. ‘Tammy’ was Champion Young Bird and Champion Old Bird at the Devon & Cornwall SRS Shows, and won firsts at the BHW Blackpool Show as a young bird and as a ten year old. Absolutely fantastic! She was a champion breeder, producing many top winners for the Thresher loft. ‘Tammy’ was bred from Ted and David Bramley of Derby bloodlines and dam, a beautiful mosaic white flight hen was purchased by Roland at Pontypool Open Show selling class for £10. He says it was the best £10 he ever spent, with her breeding winner after winner!
The Threshers told me that the Show Racer partnership of Denis and Sandra McKane of St. Sampson in Guernsey have been their good friends for many years and the premier show man Jimmy Fitzpatrick of the Fitzpatrick & Fleming partnership of Cambuslang near Glasgow has been their close friend and pigeon ‘mentor’ for many years. Roland told me, ‘Jimmy is the greatest and has helped me a great deal over the years with advice and pigeons, and he bred my champion hen, ‘Julie’, for me in 2007’. For his perfect Show Racer, Roland likes a blue chequer of medium size, with a nice natural apple body in the hand and it must have good head. Roland’s only regret is that there is not enough young fanciers coming in to pigeons these days and fears it could be detrimental to the sport in the years to come. There you have it, Roland and Julie Thresher of Minehead!
Jill & David Fisher of Bideford.
We all made the drive up to Blackpool in mid-January 2016 for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the 44th British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’. That 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. 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 first 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!
Terry Haley, Steve Howard and myself make the 240 mile drive down to Bodmin in Cornwall in December 2016 to judge the South West Show Racer Societies annual Open Show. The December open is the sister show to the Duchy Show which is held every November and 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 that year’s event attracted a 595 bird entry. All the judges on the day were given the task of judging the specials from the 37 class winners and with the quality of the pigeon there, what a hard job that was! We awarded ‘Best in Show’ (Show Racer), ‘Best Young Bird’ (Show Racer) and ‘Supreme Champion’ to a beautiful 2016 bred mosaic cock, owned by David and Jill Fisher of Bideford and that wonderful pigeon was a son of their champion cock, ‘Valentino’, winner of ‘Best In Show’ at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2016. I had five great classes of pigeons to judge and picked a wonderful young mosaic cock from my mosaics class to be the best pigeon I handled that day and he then went on to win ‘Supreme Champion’ for David and Jill Fisher. A very satisfying result!
Both Dave & Jill Fisher were born and brought up in and around the Bideford area and Jill’s dad is Mervyn Patt, an old friend of mine and he has been a pigeon fancier all his life. Jill’s first pigeon was a dark chequer cock given to her by her dad at around the age of three or four and she followed her dad into pigeon showing and initially entered Children’s classes at a very young age. Jill was later told that she apparently had the knack of always recognising her own bird at the show, much to her dad’s amusement. All through her childhood, Jill had pigeons and when she reached her teens, Mervyn provided her with a three or four pairs and a spare compartment and later her own loft to keep and look after her own birds. Family friend Percy Mitchell was also there on hand with a couple more birds to help with the mix and Jill was by then entering the open classes and one of her memories was of winning BIS at a Devon & Cornwall show at the age of 16, with a mealy hen. When she started work, other teenage interests in boys, music and clothes unfortunately distracted Jill from her birds and meant that she took a break from them, although she always had an interest and enjoyed the odd trip to a show with her dad when he was judging and needed a steward. In the mid 1970’s, dad had also started a racer stud and by the late 1990’s had run a stand at the Blackpool Show for many years on which he sold mainly racers, along with the odd few show racers. Around 1998, Mervyn asked Jill if she could help out on the stand as one of his normal helpers could not make it. She went and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when it came to the few show racers that dad had included on his stand. She joined her dad again at Blackpool the following year and this time took along husband Dave as an extra pair of hands were needed. It was at the Blackpool stand in 2000 that Jill first saw an eye catching dark chequer show racer hen of her dad’s that she found she could not bear to put into the sale pen. Jill spent the whole of Saturday with the sale pen write-up for that chequer hen in her pocket. That Saturday night was the turning point and after much discussion, Jill and Dave decided to have a go at keeping a few show racers themselves, starting with a certain dark chequer hen! As a youngster, Dave was a keen football player and played for the North Devon team while he was at school and later played on his work’s football team. Jill has been in the sport 50 years overall, although there was a 20 year gap in the middle and for Dave it has been 16 years. Jill has never raced pigeons and has kept Show Racers only.
I have known Jill’s father, Mervyn Patt, for well over 30 years and when I asked her about his past, she said, ‘Mervyn was brought up with pigeons in the family and his very first birds were a couple that his father gave him when he was just a toddler! Mervyn and his father kept pigeons for a few years until the War and moving house meant that they had to give them up for a while but just a few years. Later Mervyn was back into pigeons, starting again firstly with a few Tipplers and other breeds, before he started to develop a small racing team. Mervyn remembers that at the time corn was rationed to just 7lbs a week and having to supplement the birds' food with a little rice. Being a business man in the making, a young Mervyn was over the moon when his Granddad suggested that he had could sell one of his Tipplers for a princely sum of £3, after he had only paid one shilling and six pence for it! Timing in the birds was a challenge in those early racing days as the only clock was owned by a neighbour and so a sprint down the road to the clock was also required on race days. As a 14 year old Mervyn started to race in his own right as a Junior and had a particularly good start, winning five out of the six races available to juniors. Mervyn's good mate Peter Kendall won the 6th of the juniors' races that season. After a stint in the Army doing his national service, my dad continued with the racing, although he laughs that his father did manage to loose a lot of his pigeons while he was away in the Army.
Even though his dog chased her cat and he was truly in the ‘dog house’ for that, Mervyn married Margaret, the girl across the road, in 1955. Mervyn continued to race his birds until they moved house in 1964. At the new house, the position meant that racing was never easy and, although he continued for a while, involving all the family, my dad steered himself more into the Showing side of things and developed a good team of Show Racers. One particular breeding season during the mid-1960's was a very fraught one for my dad when his little girl, Jill, decided that it would be good to try and help feed the show racers by herself and then, while the birds were off their nests eating, she took all the tiny (un-rung!) youngsters plus any un-hatched eggs for a nice little trip around the garden in the empty corn bucket. Jill could never quite understand why her dad did not seem that pleased when he came home & discovered what had happened!! My dad encouraged all four of his children, Jill, Jeanette, Michael and Denise into pigeons; each were given their own “pet” pigeon which they could enjoy taking along to the shows and entering in the Children’s class. Not all four children were totally “pigeon wise” in those early days …when something happened to a young Michael’s red chequer cock “Steve”, it was quietly replaced by a dark chequer hen. When Michael questioned his dad as to why his ‘Steve’ looked different, he was told that it had moulted of course and had changed colour. Dads are always to be believed, so it was quite a few years before Michael realised that something very strange had happened during that particular moulting season! Extra pocket money was also to be earned by the children in helping to clean out the lofts. Dad was always ready with an up-turned bucket for them to stand on if the traps or perches were too high to reach with the scrape!
The 1970's where a decade when Mervyn was showing in earnest with a young Jill doing her best to follow in his footsteps. Margaret was often heard to say that they could never go anywhere without a pigeon being on the end of it! The 1970's also saw the start of the ‘Ven Lofts’ Racing Stud, with the purchase of Van Hee Busschaerts and later the Stichelbauts and Kirkpatrick lines too. Mervyn's successful racing stud was behind some very well know birds, including his good friend, the late Freddie Elliott’s 1st open NFC Nantes winner, Champion ‘Euro Lad’. ‘Ven Lofts’ bred Fred Elliott’s 1st SMT Combine Rennes winner, ‘Euro Bird’ and in turn he was the sire of Champion ‘Euro Lad’. The 1980s / 1990's had seen my dad concentrate on the Racing Stud. but when I developed the showing bug again in 2000, and me and hubby Dave decided to give it a go. My dad was not far behind in getting back into showing and leading the way. Even though he is now in his eighties, he still enjoys the showing side of things, especially when he can enjoy a piece of cake or bowl of trifle (or both!) at the show and then has a red card & rosette to go home with’.
The partner’s current loft is 31ft long, divided into four 6ft x 6ft compartments, housing old cocks, young cocks, old hens and young hens separately. The remainder is split into two smaller sections, which can be opened up into one larger section as required. This extra space is used to house a few spare birds during the breeding season and acts as an over-flow, on the occasions where we have an in-balance in the ration of cocks to hens .The floors in each section are split between solid floor & grids. The grids are lifted and cleaned out at least once a week and the solid part of the floor is scrapped at least once a day. Along the front of the loft, each section has access to its own flight (traps) where the birds are bathed and enjoy the fresh air. During the winter, Perspex sheets are used on the front of these flights to prevent any strong drafts from catching the birds and these flights are generally closed at night and opened through the day unless conditions are really bad. Under the flights in the four main sections are the next boxes, which are boarded up when not in use. Along the back of the loft there is a 4ft wide corridor which contains some pens. This corridor is especially useful when basketing for a show as it gives plenty of space. Jill told me, ‘in a good loft design, I think it is important for both the birds and the fancier to be comfortable. If it is a pleasure to be in the loft yourself, I think you are more inclined to spend more time looking after the needs of the birds. We have used various methods of deep litter floor covering in the past but our preference is for the floors to be bare and scrapped each day. One of the many advantages of this is that you can instantly see any change in droppings’.
The Fisher partners keep 24 pairs of Show Racers and they are normally paired up in the first or second week in February. During the breeding season the birds are given a first class breeding mixture, with the addition of a strong mix of Maple Peas, Tic Beans and Tares. During the showing season the feeding id hardened up, so they are given mainly peas, beans and tares. The origins of our current show team were mainly from Mervyn Patt, but with crosses over the years from a few different show fanciers. Jill and Dave enjoy introducing a couple of new birds each year and experimenting with the results of crossing them with their existing team. They breed in the region of 45 to 50 young birds each season and Dave says they are very wary that for every young bird bred an old bird has to go, to keep the number manageable. Jill is currently Chairman of the Devon & Cornwall SRS and her occupation is in tooling sales and technical support for a multi-national connector manufacturer. Dave’s occupation is a postman / driver for an Agricultural company. Apart from Jill’s dad, one of her sisters, Denise and also two of her nieces are interested in the sport and have a small team of their own.
When I asked Jill about advising new starters in the sport she said, ‘firstly enjoy your time with your pigeons in the loft and go to as many shows as you can and look and listen. Listen to all points of view and advice; some you may agree with and some you may not but after a short time, you will soon find what methods of keeping your birds suit both you and them best. Extra tips from experienced fanciers will help along the way. When selecting birds to keep, remember that you are with them 365 days a year, so make sure that they pleasing to you first. The judge sees them for the day but you get to take them home afterwards’. The Fisher partners keep a range of colours and of the birds in there are a family and are related to some degree. Dave told me, ‘we only breed late breds in certain circumstances, for instance, where there is a particular pair that we would like an extra youngster from or may be where the pair took a while to settle down or did not produce early youngsters for some reason. Most of our birds are fairly quiet and this is a real bonus in the show pen’. Needless to say Jill and Dave think the moult is very important and give their birds a general feed mixture at this time of the year. General cleaning and regular baths are essential and their birds are parted in June. Congratulations to Jill and Dave on their wonderful 2016 Blackpool success!
Brian & Caroline Seward of Brampton.
The month of November 2015 saw Terry Haley and myself make the 240 mile drive down to Bodmin in Cornwall to judge the South West Show Racer Societies 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 the 2015 event attracted a 604 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. We awarded Best in Show (Show Racer), Best Young Bird (Show Racer) and Supreme Champion to beautiful 2015 red chequer cock, owned by Brian & Caroline Seward of Brampton and that wonderful pigeon was bred down from gift stock birds from Alistair Tankard. The Seward loft also won Best Adult Cock. Brian and Caroline had previously won Supreme Champion at the Duchy Show in 2013 with their good mosaic hen named, ‘Abigail’.
Originally the Duchy Show was put on for many years by the Duchy Racing Pigeon Club and when it disbanded about seven years ago the South West Show Racer Society took it over, and this year’s event is their seventh open show. The SWSRS has 35 members with their lofts in mostly Devon and Cornwall, with a couple of members living in South Wales. The Society holds five shows each season, three club events and two open shows, one in November and the other in December. The competition in the Society is very keen and the members do very well at all the National and Classic shows throughout the UK. The Societies chairman, John Robilliard, told me, a few years ago the club out grew their old HQ at a local hospital site and managed to secure the Luxulyan Village Hall, which is a brilliant venue to stage big pigeon shows, with a nice well-lit hall and good catering and parking facilities. The hard working secretary is, Liz Watts, who has her loft in Camborne and the President is Ken Hearn.
Talking to Brian Seward the day after the show, he told me, he had not slept to well with the excitement of his second big win at Luxulyan and he and his wife, Caroline were highly delighted with their continuing success at the ‘Duchy’ Show. This was their wonderful red cocks first time in the show pen, to win Supreme Champion and was bred from the best of Alistair Tankard’s loft in Scotland. Their 2013 Supreme Champion, ‘Abigail’, is named after their eldest granddaughter and she won as young bird at the ‘Duchy’ and won her class at the 2012 BSRF Southern Show. A wonderful line of winning Show Racers!
Brian was a pigeon fancier at a very young age, with his father, Arnold, being a very successful racer before and after the Second World War. The late Arnold Seward flew both North and South roads with outstanding success in club and Federation, but his main success was gaining premier positions in the National Flying Club, and from Palamos. Arnold got his interest in pigeon racing from his uncle, Arnold Record, who flew in the Record & Talman partnership of Exeter before the war. In the 1970’s Brian’s pigeon racing conflicted with his work in the family business and their two young sons’ activity of horse riding. The late great Show Racer fancier, Mike Hale of Cornwall, suggested that some show birds might be more compatible with Brian busy life style at that time and Brian decided to changed codes, and Mike supplied him with his first pair of Show Racers. Brian’s father, Arnold, also changed over to show birds and they enjoyed showing and judging at all the major shows together. Arnold passed away in 1993 and Brian found it very hard to travel around the country show on his own, so packed the pigeon up. Doug McClary kept in touch with Brian through his none pigeon years and gave him regular judging appointments. Brian was invited to judge at the 2005 BHW Blackpool Show, where he received a wonderful welcome back by his Show Racer friends and he soon had a new loft erected in the garden. The smart new 18ft x 8ft structure was soon followed by a basket full top quality Show Racers, gifted from Jill and David Fisher, and Jill’s father, Mervyn Patt. Within two years these stock birds produced both adult and young bird champions in the Devon & Cornwall SRS. Brian and Caroline retired from work in 2008, which gave them more time to be involved with the pigeons and they became joint secretaries of the Devon & Cornwall SRS.
Brian and Caroline’s cottage was originally a stable before the war, when Brian’s grandfather’s business delivered bred by pony and trap across Exmoor. It is Exmoor which still plays a large part in their retirement, as they help as volunteers on the Exmoor National Park. They have licences to monitor Dormice and Otters, and to lead walks over the moor. Exmoor National Park have big adventure days, when the theme is about the war and Brian has a stand with information leaflets about the ‘Pigeons In War’, which he backs up by taking a basket of birds to display, which proves very popular. One school in Minehead has had visits from the Exmoor National Park, when Brian and Caroline take the children out on nature walks. Recently Brian attended with a ranger to discuss ‘Pigeons In War’ at the school assembly and he took some pigeons as a surprise, which really went down well. He borrowed a pair of racing birds from local fancier, George Hensley, so messages could be attacked to the birds and then they were released. The children whooped with encouragement as the birds soared into the sky and yelled the direction of home as they circled over the school getting their bearings. The birds quickly returned to their loft and George read the messages, which thanked him for the loan of his birds.
Brian gave me an update in 2019 and said, ‘John Robilliard has certainly got a great family of winning Show Racers and in 2016 we exchanged a daughter of his champion hen, ‘Princess’ for one off my four red chequer brothers, of which two had taken ‘Best in Show’ at the Duchy Show. I had bred these four very successful red cocks and I paired ‘John’s Hen’ to one of the brothers. This year one of the offspring took Class 3, yearling cocks at the BHW Blackpool Show and a young hen having been ‘Best Young Bird’ at the all winners class in the South West Show Racers Society and then took ‘Best Young Show Bird’, followed by ‘Best Show Hen’ overall at Blackpool this year. So of course I am keeping the family together this year’.
I’ve really enjoyed the week’s article, they are four of the very best in the West Country. I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com).
