NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER
by Doug McClary
January 2015
Blackpool and all that
Welcome to the Focus for this, the Blackpool edition. I will also wish readers a happy New Year with good wishes for health and happiness. Unfortunately I will not be at Blackpool this year except in spirit. I will be thinking of you all competing at this, the highest possible level of showing. In spirit I will be on the Cornish coach during Friday travelling up to the show and enjoying the banter which is a part of such a journey. I miss this sort of competition for down here in Australia it simply does not exist and is never likely to. However, I have the memories and will be looking forward to looking at the results.
Fresh thinking
Alan Pollard dropped a few lines noting a decline in the numbers in the sport keeping and showing show racers and feels that something needs to be done. What he is suggesting is that successful fanciers should be prepared to donate birds to newcomers to start them off in the right way. He is willing to act as coordinator or to assist anyone else so appointed by the British Show Racer Federation. He also mentioned Jim Fitzpatrick’s interest in the scheme. Alan intends to make an approach to the BSRF through Les Carter to invite discussion at the Blackpool meeting. Meanwhile, Alan can be contacted on
Sydney
Following my illness which forced me to cancel my judging appointment at the National show in Ipswich, Queensland I was provided with a flight voucher to be used within six months. Ann and I therefore thought that a few days in Sydney would be good in the pre-Christmas period and set off to that beautiful city for a short stay. I was hampered by a bad knee which curtailed my walking but we managed to get around and included a rail trip out to the Blue Mountains. The last time we had visited the mountains it had rained and this time guess what? It poured and not only that it was cold with it. We managed to get around to see most of the sights so all was okay. On our last day, Fred and Josie Frendo came in to meet us at our hotel and took us out for the day, down the coast to Wollongong where we enjoyed lunch. Following that, Fred took us home to their beautiful home in Orchard Hills where we spent a most enjoyable afternoon. Fred’s lofts are spacious and well ventilated. As well as the British Show Racers he also keeps the old-established Australian Show Racing Pigeons so has quite a number of birds on display. He has just about completed his breeding and is preparing to clean the nest boxes. He took us back to the airport for our flight home and thus ended a most enjoyable pigeon day.
Fred and Josie Frendo outside their loft
Yorkshire fanciers
Colin Farndale dropped a few lines about the comments I made about the dreadful anonymous and threatening letter which had been written carrying a Yorkshire postmark. Possibly my comments were a little strong and it caused some of the fanciers from the proud county to have a say. I will use Colin’s own words on the subject: “Regarding the threatening letter, we agree with you that there is no room in the sport for any behaviour like this, there is also no need for anonymous calls or sabotage of any kind however recent or in days gone by. I know of the three incidents you refer to all happened in God's own County of Yorkshire, but to suggest that all Yorkshire people can't stand to be beaten is a little bit wide of the mark, most of us Yorkshire people are good sports & will help anyone. I feel today that a few of the exhibitors take showing pigeons far too seriously, it is a hobby after all, it is not life & death. We all know the same person can't win every time although some win more than others, but we should all be able to take defeat as well as success with the same smile on our faces.” Paul Littlewood also wrote with similar sentiments so my words must have conveyed a different meaning to the one intended.
Colin and Ingrid Farndale
Some while ago I mentioned to Colin the length of time he had been a part of the showing sport and suggested that he might like to let me have some details. Again, I will use Colin’s own words to outline his considerable experience. “I first got interested in 1964 when my elder brother got some show pigeons from a local fancier; he showed in his own name until 1967 when we then joined as a partnership. In 1969 on the marriage of my brother he moved from the family home and he left the partnership so I showed on my own with very limited success. I soon realised that the birds I had were not up to standard so they were disposed of, all but 1 pair which we had obtained a couple of years earlier from T J Parker. I then obtained 2 pairs from W H Lloyd (Bill) one of the top men locally; they were two blue hens & a blue cock of his own breeding & a mealy cock he had got from Kingdom & Duckham. I also bought two pairs of mealies from Cornwall after seeing an advert in the RP, these came from A R Brown, then I started to build a family from these five pairs. These were the foundation of my team and all my birds are related to them in some way. In 1978 I introduced a blue hen as an outcross this bird came from Newport in South Wales. There is hardly any need to tell you who I got her from, it was Bert Hutchins. I concentrated on blues & mealies until Bert Hutchins offered me a silver chequer hen in 1981. I had just acquired from him 2 mealy cocks which were closely related to Western Choice & they were outstanding pigeons & blended into my family of blues & mealies really well. I trusted Bert's judgment & accepted the offer of the Silver Cheq but when I got her she was of outstanding quality, out of his good Mosaic family. Bert could not provide me with a cock to pair to her & seeing that I only had Blues & Mealies I was at a bit of a loose end until by good luck one Sunday morning I visited a local Show Racer fancier & he was just going to dispose of a Mosaic cock he had got a few years earlier from Percy Mitchel. I was informed that this pigeon hardly ever filled an egg but I took the risk and saved its life. I took it home and paired it to the Silver Ch hen and they were the founding pair of my Mosaic family, in fact they bred for me a Mosaic cock who was Best Young Bird at the GYA in 1982. I showed in my own name until 1996 when my wife Ingrid joined me and have since shown as C & I C Farndale until the present & hopefully for a long time in the future. We had a short break from showing from October 2005 until January 2008; the reason for this was because I was getting chest problems, in fact it got to the stage where it was taking me 2-3 days to get recover from shows. After selling most of the birds in 2005 we only retained 6 old favourites. I had my blood taken at Blackpool in January 2006 and the result was almost off the scale 163, when anything above fifty was considered high, so as you can see my result was very high. Luckily with the persuasion of Ingrid I had bought an air helmet from Brad West and as it turned out it was the best £120 ever spent. It meant I was able to start building a team again from scratch in 2008. Most of our present team is bred from stock obtained from our good friend Steve Dodgson of Dixon & Dodgson. We still only have a small team breeding from six pairs in 2014 but in 2015 hope to breed from 8 pairs but this will be our limit. I have never been a large team man and to me these are manageable numbers. As I have said, showing is only a hobby!”
Colin and Ingrid Farndale in Norway
British Show Racer Federation north open show
Show results as follows. The BSRF Show was held at Shildon Railway Institute on 23rd November 2014 with 472 entries.. . Judges were:- Derek McMullan, William Gilbert & John Edgar All from Northern Ireland Winners were:- Class 1:- Ad,cocks bred 2012 or earlier, red.blue, mealy or chequer 2nd J & A Bell, 3rd J & A Bell, 4th J & A Bell. Class 2:- Ad.Hens bred 2012 or earlier red, blue, mealy or chequer 1st J & A Bell, 2nd Mr S Ferguson 3rd C Swinburn, 4th D & J Hull. Class 3 Yearling cocks 1st J & A Bell, 2nd J & A Bell, 3rd J & A Bell, 4th Dixon & Dodgson Class 4 Yealing hens 1st J K & J D Lynn, 2nd Mr & Mrs A Spedding, 3rd J Barnes, 4th Mr & Mrs A Spedding Class 5 Young cocks 1st J & A Bell, 2nd Mr S Ferguson 3rd Wallace & Ferguson, 4thJ & A Bell. Class 6 Young hens 1st J & A Bell, 2nd J Barnes, 3rd J & A Bell, 4th J K & J D Lynn Class 7 Old coloured cocks bred 2013 or earlier 1st J & A Bell, 2nd C Swinburn, 3rd C Swinburn, 4th C Swinburn, Class 8 Old hens coloured, bred 2013 or earlier 1st J & A Bell, 2nd J K & J D Lynn, 3rd C Swinburn, 4th C Swinburn. Class 9 Coloured young cocks 1st C Swinburn, 2nd J & A Bell, 3rd J K & J D Lynn, 4th C Swinburn. Class 10 Coloured young hens 1st C Swinburn, 2nd J Barnes, 3rd C Swinburn, 4th D & J Hull. Class 11 TWires cocks any age 1st Dixon & Dodgson, 2nd Mr S Ferguson, 3rd J K & J D Lynn, 4thW & B Wharton. Class 12 T.Wires hens any age 1st Mr S Ferguson, 2nd Wallace & Ferguson, 3rd Mr & Mrs K Hardaker, 4th D & J Hull. BIS J & A Bell. BOS J & A Bell.
British Show Racer Federation southern show, Bampton
This show did not attract the numbers enjoyed by the fanciers in the north despite having the support of racing enthusiasts. Welsh judges Dave Minty and Dave Treasure did the judging. Best in show went to the Minhead lofts of Roland and Julie Thresher with a young blue hen while John Robilliard, who won both opal mosaic classes, took out the Best Opposite Sex award with the cock winner. Nigel Rescorla won BOSex YB and also the award for best wires pigeon. Photos at Bampton by Owen Vaggers. The class winners were as follows: Racing section. Best, Mr and Mrs G. Thresher, also BOSex YB and best wires. BOsex Hearn and Prouse, BYB George Hensley, and best eyesign pigeon to Exeter with Bob Reeves snt. It is worthy of note that Bob and George, (pictures) are two 92years old fanciers. The class winners were as follows: Adult cocks R.& J Thresher Adult hens L.Carter and Son Yearling cocks, Mr and Mrs B. Seward(A good and consistent winner this one) Yearling hens N.Rescorla Young cocks red or mealy, N.Rescorla Young hens red or mealy, Paul Bedler Young cock, blue or chequer R.& J Thresher Young hens, blue or chequer R.& J Thresher Young cocks AOC R.& J Thresher Young hens AOC R & J Thresher Unusual coloured cocks N.Rescorla Unusual coloured hens R.& J Thresher Opal Mosaic cocks J.C.Robilliard Opal mosaic hen J.C.Robiliard TWires Cocks Mr and Mrs B. Seward TWires hens N.Rescorla RACERS Unflown C AA M/M G Thresher Unflown hens A.A. Mr and Mrs G. Thresher 100 Mile Y C George Hensley 100 miles young hens Mr and Mrs G. Thresher Adult Flown C Mr and Mrs G Thresher Adult hens Hearn and Prouse Channel cocks, George Hensley Channel hens, Mr and Mrs G.Thresher Eyesign for breeding, Bob Reeves Eyesign for racing, Bob Reeves C or H Through wires, Hearn and Prouse.
Les and Sarah Carter at the Bampton show
Brian Seward receiving his BSR Fed trophy from secretary Les Carter
Two 92 year old fanciers, George Hensley and Bob Reeves.
Winners at Bampton, Roland and Julie Thresher (BIS) and John Robilliard (BOS).
Steward Mark Cook with judge D. Treasure at Bampton
Dave Minty, judge at Bampton.
CLASSIC SHOW RACERS SOCIETY
Russel Davidson has written about the first show on 29th November, at the Loanhead Miners, the judges for the day were A.Tankard & S. Dodgson who made the long journey up from Yorkshire. There was 331 birds competing.
Class 1 O.C.T.W. Judge A.Tankard
1 N. Yule Mealy this pigeon also won class 3 2 Coutts Bros 3 N. Yule 4 JK & JD Lynn 5 Kerr & Davidson 6 Coutts Bros 7 Kerr & Davidson 8 Coutts Bros
Class 2 O.H.T.W. Judge S.Dodgson
1 Coutts Bros Red Chequer 2 Kerr & Davidson 3 D. Harcus & Son 4 McCord & Turpie 5 McCord & Turpie 6 A. Pollard 7 Kerr & Davidson 8 Kerr & Davidson
Class 3 O.C.H. Judge S.Dodgson
1 N. Yule Mealy 2 Coutts Bros 3 Coutts Bros 4 McCord & Turpie 5 N.Yule 6 JK & JD Lynn 7 Kerr & Davidson 8 McCord & Turpie
Class 4 O.H.H. Judge A.Tankard
1 Kerr & Davidson Red Chequer 2 Kerr & Davidson 3 Coutts Bros 4 A. Pollard 5 Coutts Bros 6 McCord & Turpie 7 McCord & Turpie 8 C & C Winter
Class 5 Yearling C.T.W. Judge S.Dodgson
1 Coutts Bros Blue Chequer 2 Coutts Bros 3 N. Yule 4 C & C Winter 5 McCord & Turpie 6 Mc Cord & Turpie 7 A. Pollard 8 A .Pollard
Class 6 Yearling H.T.W. Judge A.Tankard
1 N. Yule Mealy 2 Coutts Bros 3 Kerr & Davidson 4 N. Yule 5 C & C Winter 6 Coutts Bros 7 C & C Winter 8 A. Pollard
Class 7 Yearling C.H. Judge A.Tankard
1 Coutts Bros Red Chequer 2 Kerr & Davidson 3 Coutts Bros 4 N. Yule 5 McCord & Turpie 6 Coutts Bros 7 McCord & Turpie 8 N. Yule
Class 8 Yearling H.H. Judge S.Dodgson
1 JK & JD Lynn Blue Chequer 2 Coutts Bros 3 Kerr & Davidson 4 N. Yule 5 JK & JD Lynn 6 Kerr & Davidson 7 Coutts Bros 8 N. Yule
lass 9 Y.C.T.W. Judge A.Tankard
1 N. Yule Mealy this cock also won class 11 2 Kerr & Davidson 3 Coutts Bros 4 JK & JD Lynn 5 Kerr & Davidson 6 Kerr & Davidson 7 JK & JD Lynn 8 A. Pollard
Class 10 Y.H.T.W. Judge S.Dodgson
1 Kerr & Davidson Red Chequer 2 Coutts Bros 3 Kerr & Davidson 4 JK & JD Lynn 5 JK & JD Lynn 6 Coutts Bros 7 A. Pollard 8 Coutts Bros
In conclusion
Enjoy Blackpool and all that is brought to the show for pigeons and fanciers. I will be pleased to hear from anyone with details of the show but trust that it proves to be a positive experience for the pigeon racing fancy in Britain.
I will here at 3 Kunyung Roaf, Mount Eliza, Vicoria 3930, email
Douglas McClary
Kemyel Lofts of British Show Racers
douglas-mcclary.blogspot.com.au
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