Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

The Show Racers of Great Britain - Part 6

MR & MRS COLIN CARTER

OF CHURCHDOWN

When walking around the National shows in the winter months, we quite often bump into Colin Carter, and win or loose, he always seems cheerful. Colin is a fancier who enjoys his pigeons, top or bottom of the result sheet, he always enjoys himself! Being one of the premier Show Racer fanciers in the U.K., more often than not he has pigeons on the winners table, which is great achievement as he is a small team man, with quality and not quantity being the criteria for his pigeon regime.

Colin Carter was born in Portchester, Hampshire in 1938 and no member of his family kept pigeons only shot them for food, along with wild rabbits, and chickens for their eggs. He became a pigeon fancier at the age of 15, when he caught a couple of strays at the local abattoir, where he worked as a slaughter man. In a short time he met up with two local fanciers, George Brister and Bill Harris senior, who set him up and got him going in the sport. His first club was the Fareham & Dist. F.C., flying both south and north road and he won his first race on the north road. At the age of 18, the young Colin had to go off and do his National Service and formed the H.T. Carter pigeon partnership with his father, Harold. The Carters were founder members of the Portchester Flying Club. Colin is a very keen fisherman and spent a lot of time out on his cousin’s boat in Portsmouth harbour. Fanciers he admired and gave him advice in the early days were Norman Southwell, Russ Dowden and Colin’s idol, Vic Robinson. Colin says he can remember Vic giving his opinion on eyesign, saying, ‘it’s eye site they need not eyesign’.

Colin’s first show birds came from Cyril Lowe of Guernsey in 1965 and at that time Bill Harris was a stoker on the boats that went on regular trips to Guernsey from Portsmouth. Bill would bring show birds over from Cyril to go to the big London shows. When Colin saw these Show Racers he was hooked and when Cyril Lowe found out he gifted Colin with several pairs. At that time Colin married his wife, Jean, and started a family. In 1970 work took the Carter family to Gloucestershire, where they set up home in Churchdown and because of lack of time all the pigeons had to be sold off. Colin restarted up in the sport in 1991 with a few race birds and joined the Newent & Dist. F.C. On visiting the Old Comrades Show at the N.E.C. Birmingham that winter, Colin bumped in to Doug McClary, who he hadn’t seen for over 20 years. One thing led to another and he soon had some of the McClary Show Racers in his back garden, replacing the racing pigeons. He joined the Monmouth Show Racer Society and more show birds were introduced, mainly from Ron McCarthy, Tony Williams and the Wheatley family in the north east of England.

Some of Colin Carter’s main achievements in recent years have been: 1995: B.I.S. Louella Fancier of the Year, Reserve Champion British S.R. Federation Show: 1996: 1st. Pairs class B.H.W. Blackpool Show (Colin’s first attempt), B.I.S. East of England Spectacular: 1997: B.I.S and B.Y.B. at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show, Best Yearling at the Old Comrades Show: 1998: Club champion of the Devon & Cornwall S.R. Society, B.O.S. and Best yearling at the Old Comrades Show: 1999: B.I.S. and B.O.S. R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show, B.I.S. and B.O.S., Best yearling at the Old Comrades Show, Club champion of the Devon & Cornwall S.R. Society, B.I.S. Pensilva Show: 2000: B.Y.B. at the Old Comrades Show, B.I.S. Pensilva Show: 2002: B.Y.B. at the Old Comrades Show, Best Show Racer National Young Bird, B.O.S. to club champion and Champion Young Bird Devon & Cornwall S.R. Society: 2003: B.I.S. and B.Y.B. at the B.H.W. Blackpool show: 2004:  B.Y.B. Plymouth Open Show, Best Show Racer R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show: 2005: B.Y.B. Royal Welsh Show, B.O.S.Y.B. South West Open Show, B.I.S. Devon & Cornwall S.R. Society Young Bird Show, B.Y.B. and Reserve Champion Young Bird in the final club show.

Some of the premier pigeons in the Gloucestershire loft are: Champion ‘Cotswold Queen’, Best in Show B.H.W. Blackpool Show 2003, 1st. National Young Bird Show, B.Y.B. and Reserve Champion Devon & Cornwall S.R. Society Show, 1st. R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show: Champion ‘Cotswold Gem’, Best in Show B.H.W. Blackpool Show 1997, Best Yearling Old Comrades Show: Champion ‘Cotswold Star’, Best in Show Old Comrades Show 1999, 1st. Thame Show, B.I.S. West Country Medley: ‘Young Ron’, Winner of the fancier of the year at Louella Show, beating all breeds in 1995. B.O.S. Thame Show, 1st. B.H.W. Blackpool Show: ‘Cotswold Lad’, B.Y.B. Old Comrades Show, B.Y.C. Royal Welsh Show, 1st. R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show: ‘Cotswold Girl’, Best in Show East of England Show 1996.

Colin told me he likes to keep his family as close bred as he can and that way, he can produce the type of bird that suits his management system, produce the type he likes. The loft has 18 nest boxes and at the final show, Blackpool, the loft is normally housing 12 pairs. The birds are paired up at the end of January and he breeds a maximum of 30 youngsters for the show pen. No stock birds are kept, all the old birds have to go to the show arena and competes in about 16 shows each season. Colin maintains that if a pigeon is six years of age or older in his loft, it is something very special and likes to breed off young pigeons, and not from old stagers. All young birds are pen trained, but are naturally quite tame and any showing wild tendencies are disposed of, as it upsets the rest of the loft. The show loft has four compartments, two for cocks and two for hens, with the birds being separated at the end of July. The young and old birds are run together and get a bath once a week. The perches are scrapped every morning, the floor three times a week and no deep litter system is used in the loft. The water fountains are topped up every day and the birds are fed on farm peas and beans, with a young bird mixture added in the summer months. T.W.P. is given before the shows.  When judging, Colin likes a bird that is well balanced, silky feathering, handsome looks and good colour. He doesn’t mind what colour, but the bird must be good in colour, not wishy, washy, or one of those pretty ones you sometimes see, and of course handle fit, and not short in the keel.

Well that’s our sixth and last article in the ‘Show Racers of Great Britain’ series. I hope my readers have enjoyed reading them over the weeks, I really love the show birds and have enjoyed penning it very much. Something a bit different! I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!