Keith Mott's On The Road

The other day I was asked if I thought the show scene was in decline. I defiantly think there is a massive decline in ‘bread and butter’ showing at local club level and to see this in recent years is very up setting. For me true exhibiting of Racing Pigeons and Show Racers is when they are handled and in our Surrey area, most of the club and open shows are through the wires. Fanciers these days seem to like to grab their birds out of the loft, with no preparation, and put them in the pen to be judged through the wires. They almost seem to be frightened to have them handled and at our local show they seem to prefer fancy colours classes. When I’m showing a lot of time is spent in preparing my pigeons for the pen and we have won local open show points cups about 18 times, but I don’t show at local events any more, because of the lack of quality competition. I think the whole thing comes down to ‘pounds, shillings and pence’ and the people who run the club shows are looking to make money for the club, which can’t be wrong, but they are not really interested in quality pigeon showing, the like of which we enjoyed years ago. I think it is a bigger achievement to win a handled class competing against 25 birds, than it is winning a through the wire class against 50 entries! The National show scene is still brilliant and getting better every year, and that’s where you have to exhibit to get the quality competition these days. Look at the great old RPRA Southern Region Show, still going after all these years and even bigger and better this year! I think the fancy should be very proud of our mother show, the BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’, a wonderful spectacle and raising thousands of pounds for charity every January. I get my buzz at the Nationals events these days and very rarely attend the local club shows, only on the odd occasion to judge handling classes.

The invitations for me to judge at the major shows have come thick and fast again this year and as always I can’t wait to take some of them up. My judging commitment this winter is absolutely mind boggling and I will be out on the road most weekends visiting clubs and societies all over the U.K. The month of November was to see me have a weekend away from home in Cornwall, judging the ‘Duchy Show’, at the invitation of my friend, John Robilliard. Also in November we have the RPRA Southern Region Show and C.H.A.S.E. Charity Show. My ol’ side kick, Peter Taylor, is coming to all the events as my steward and as he says, these events help to keep us busy in the winter months and back into the new racing season. As I have previously said in earlier articles, I can’t turn off in September, as soon as we finish racing, I switch into show mode! If I had a big garden and not the postage stamp we have now, I would defiantly have a second loft for Show Racers as well as my long distance racing team. I hate October! For starters my birthday is in October and I’ve got to the point in my life when I don’t like birthdays much. On the pigeon side, it’s all that boring stuff, cleaning out loads of feathers and feeding every day and no competitive activities. I’ve stated many times previously in my column, that I can’t turn off at the end of racing like most fanciers do and I enjoy the showing side of the sport, as much as I do racing. So lets forget October and all those feathers blowing around the garden, and have some fun at the shows. Enjoy your showing this winter!

Southern Counties Show Racer Society Open Show 2010.

I will judging with, my brother Phil, Gordon Marsh and Tony Dann at the Southern Counties Show Racer Society Open Show this Christmas and that one is a great day out! In December 2007 I first judged at the Society’s open show held at the Gravesend Rugby Club, which is one of the major show events in Kent, with the Society being one of the biggest in the UK. Just after Christmas 2008 I was invited to judge at the same event again and I must say the turn out on the day was a credit to the Society, with 357 birds being exhibited in the very spacious hall. Also judging was my brother Phil and Gordon Marsh, who both judged the show racers and I must add made an excellent job of it. Peter Taylor stewards for me, Ian Johnson judged the West of England Tumblers, and Society secretary, Dave Savage judged the four racing pigeon classes. The whole event was a wonderful spectacle! We judged about 12 classes each, but the real buzz came at the end when Peter Taylor judged the winners for the Best in Show awards, and the result was announced.

A young lad named John Harrod of Suffolk won Best in Show with a silver blue show racer hen and entering a team of 36 birds that day, had won a hat full of prize cards. The dam of this near perfect hen was bred by John Bell of Scotland and had won several major cards including 1st at the BHW Blackpool Show. The Harrod loft won BIS at this event the year previous and the last time I met up with young John he had won BIS at the RPRA Southern Region Show that November. John told me he has all colours in his show racer team, but his reds, which were obtained from his father’s friend, are particularly strong in quality and win well when ever he exhibits them. He says his best performance to date is BIS at the RPRA Southern Region Show the year previous and has won several firsts at the BHW Blackpool Show. Fantastic performances put up by this young lad! John had only been into Show Racers for four years and says he has three lofts, which houses his big team. He feeds a heavy racing mixture and cleans out regularly, not being keen on deep litter on the loft floors. His dad, Phil, is very interested in the pigeons and drives John to all the shows.

Frank and Patsy May of Gravesend won Best Opposite Sex that year with a wonderful young blue racing pigeon cock and he was a Jan Aarden bred by the Southern Counties SR Society chairman, Jim Trim. This pigeon really stood out standing in his pen when you walked in the hall and was a worthy win of Best Racing Pigeon in Show. Frank told me the pigeon had flown the full programme through to 200 miles in the 2008 season and was not a ‘dark’ youngster, being flown national to the perch. The May’s team of 45 young birds are allowed to pair up if they want and get three 40 mile training tosses during the racing season. The partners have a 16ft x 5ft loft and race their 20 widowhood cocks and hens on the North Road. The main family kept is the Soontjens and like sprint racing up to 300 miles. The birds are mated up at the end of January and only rear one nest of youngsters before going on the widowhood system. Frank tells me he mixes his own corn and never breaks the racers down. He has been in the sport 35 years and has won the Federation many times, the best win being 1st Federation Doncaster by 15 minutes.

Well that’s it for this week! I would like to finish by thanking Jim Trim for inviting me and the lads to judge at this years open show, we are all really looking forward to it! The open show will be held on Monday 27th December and details can be obtained from Colin Reynolds on: 01634 856138.