PIGEON PIXELS ONLINE SHOW 2012
by Richard Shepherd
Pigeon Pixels Online Forum held their annual online show series over 5 weeks in November/December 2012. This is the 2nd year the show has been run. This year the free to enter show received sponsorship from the Somerset One Loft Race who very kindly donated a free entry into their One Loft Race 2013 to the winner of Best In Show. In addition the winner received the title Pigeon Pixels Best In Show 2012, The Best In Show Trophy and the winning bird was displayed on the Forum Banner for the next 12 months! The entry of 295 was 35% higher than last year's 198 entries! This shows the way the show is heading and hopefully next year the entry level can be even higher!
The 295 birds were entered in total across the 4 classes: Old Cocks, Old Hens, Young Cocks and Young Hens. Pigeon Pixels is striving to make this the biggest Online Show in the United Kingdom and went some way to securing that with the quality of prizes on offer and the judges who were selected to judge the classes and the Grand Final.
The first class took place on the 18/11/12 and was for Old Cocks which saw 83 birds entered. Matt Rakes - 1st Section, 1st Open National FC Tarbes 2009, 1st Section, 1st Open Central Southern Classic Guernsey, 1st Section, 1st Open Central Southern Classic Bergerac, had the privilege to judge and it took quite a while to reach a decision with Matt commenting:- ‘Wow, what a set of pigeons, there are some real beauties in amongst them. Thank you very much for your offer to judge these birds, I really have enjoyed looking through them and thinking how much I would like to have some of these in my loft.’ Matt finally came to the decision that the winner was Mass Palombo (NikkiMass35) from Aylesbury with a cracking looking Cheq Cock. This show did really have some beautiful pigeons and the owners did themselves justice!
The second class Old Hens took place on the 25/11/12 and saw 82 entries which was judged by Alex and John Mellor - Judge at the BHW Show of the Year, 12 x 1st Club this season. Competition was tough but they selected a Blue Hen owned by B. Williams & Son from Ystradgynlais (BICC winners 2011 & 2012) to claim the spot in the Grand Final. John and Alex commented:- 'A top class show and some real tough decisions. There were some top class looking stock birds in there!'
The third show on the 2/12/12 was for Young Cocks and this was judged by Mark Williams - 1st South West One Loft Race 2012, 4 x 1st UK Hotspots in the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon race. 71 birds were entered into this class and Mark made his decision that Barry Newman (Bazzio73) from Buckinghamshire and his Blue cock would be the one to go forward to compete in the Grand Final. Mark commented that the standard was good and that the winner ‘Was a stunning looking bird’.
The final class was for Young Hens and took place on the 9/12/12 with 59 birds being put forward for battle! Paul Woolliss - 1st Section National Flying Club Pau, 703 miles. 1st Section, 7th Open British Barcelona Club Palamos, 815 miles, had the honour of selecting the winner. He reached his decision that saw Viv Lee from Cardiff taking 1st prize with a W/F Blue Hen who completed the Grand Final line up. Paul commented after the result ‘It was a great class good standard. I would have liked to have got my hands on them to really check them out’.
The 5 placed pigeons in each of the shows went through to the Grand Final in a 5th and 6th place off. The 20 card winners went onto the site on the 10/12/12 and members had the week to vote for their top 4 birds. 4pts was awarded for 1st, 3pts for 2nd, 2pts for 3rd and 1pt for 4th. When voting had closed the two birds from the 20 claimed the Grand Final 5th and 6th places. These two birds belonged to Rob Beynon (Boxer) from Wales and Gordon Stewart (Nogin) from Lanarkshire, Scotland.
It was now time for the main event with the 4 class winners (who each received a trophy for winning their class) competing in the Pigeon Pixels Grand Final 2012. Once again a top class judge was chosen and they don’t come much bigger than Bert Braspenning! Bert needs no introduction and it was he who had the duty of placing the 4 class winners in order and selecting the Best In Show Champion! He chose the Blue Pied Hen who was 1st Old Hens Class belonging to B. Williams & Son (Chichichi) from Ystradgynlais to be crowned the Pigeon Pixels Best In Show Champion 2012! Bert commented that ‘For me the old hen is very special’.
Just pipped and claiming 2nd prize was Mass Palombo (Nikkimass35) from Aylesbury with his cracking looking Cheq Cock who was 1st Old Cocks Class. 3rd was awarded to Viv Lee from Cardiff, with his W/F Blue Hen who won 1st Young Hens Class and finally 4th went to Barry Newman (Bazzio73) from Buckinghamshire with his Blue Cock who was 1st Young Cocks class.
May I take this opportunity to thank The Somerset One Loft Race for sponsoring our shows this year and offering a great prize to the winner. I would also like to thank the Judges for the show namely:- Matt Rakes, John and Alex Mellor, Mark Williams, Paul Woolliss and of course Bert Braspenning. I would also like to thank everyone who has entered the shows, all the prize winners and everyone who has supported the shows we have held.
Pigeon Pixels is a free online forum and all fanciers are welcome to join. We do not charge and all will be made very welcome by our ever increasing number of existing members! Why not join and enter the show series yourself in 2013? I can confirm we have once again secured sponsorship from Terry Williams from the Somerset One Loft Race! www.Pigeonpixels.co.uk – Leading the way! Richard Shepherd
www.Rasbull-lofts.co.uk
www.Pigeonpixels.co.uk Richard Shepherd
