Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past & present

SOUTHERN COUNTIES SHOW RACER SOCIETY

Just after Christmas I was invited to judge at the Southern Counties SR Society open show held at the Gravesend Rugby Club and I must say, the turn out on the day was a credit to the Society, with 356 birds being exhibited in the very spacious hall. Also judging was my brother Phil, who handled mostly racing pigeons, Gordon Marsh, who was having his first bash at the show racers and I must add made an excellent job of it, Peter Taylor, who stewards for me and Ian Johnson, who judged the West of England Tumblers and Tipplers. The whole event was a wonderful spectacle! We judged about 12 classes each, but the real buzz came at the end when Phil, Gordon and I had judged the winners for the Best in Show awards, and the result was announced.

A young lad named John Harrold of Suffolk won Best in Show with a 2007 red show racer cock and entering a team of 20 birds that day, had won a hat full of prize cards. The sire of this near perfect red youngster had won several major cards including 1st at the Dunoon Show in Scotland and BIS at the Gainsborough Show. John tells 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. This was only the BIS red cocks second show as John’s area of Suffolk was restricted by the recent ‘bird flu’ out break and he couldn’t show. He says his best performance to date is BOS at the RPRA Southern Region Show last year and has won four firsts at the BHW Blackpool Show. Fantastic performances put up by this young lad! John has only been into Show Race for three 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. Congratulations to young John on his wonderful performance!

A fancier who wins regularly at the Southern Counties Shows is teenager Joanne Rice also from Suffolk and she won BOS at the open show. Her star bird was a silver chequer show racer hen purchased from Richard Greenwood at Blackpool in 2004 and she has had very few shows, but taken some useful prizes. Joanne entered a team of 20 birds in the open show and had a great result, winning five firsts. She started up with show racers in 2003, with pigeon obtained from Collin Bullard and John Robilliard, and tells me she likes the yellows, creams and mosaics best. She has 20 pairs of show racers and gets a bit of help from her father, Julian, who has had pigeons since 1980. The Rice family race and show pigeons, and won best racer at the ‘Old Comrades’ Show last year. Joanne has two lofts for her show racers and uses a sand litter on the floors, with fed being a good widowhood racing mixture. The birds are paired up the weekend after the BHW Blackpool Show and their get a bath every Monday, including the week before a show. The Society held its first show of the 2007 season at Gravesend in October and the members entered 150 young birds. Joanne Rice won Best Show Racer in Show with her beautiful blue chequer hen and this was a really good performance, as this was the first time she had shown in the Society. Well done to Joanne!

Class winners were: Adult Blue Cock: 1) C. Bullard 2) C. Reynolds 3) J. Trim & Daughter: Adult Blue Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) C. Bullard 3) R. Cook: 2007 Blue Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Harrold 3) C. Bullard: 2007 Blue Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) J. Trim & Daughter 3) J. Rice: Adult Blue Chequer Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) C. Bullard 3) M/M McIntosh: Adult Blue Chequer Hen: 1) M/M McIntosh 2) C. Reynolds 3) J. Harrold: 2007 Blue Chequer Cock: 1) C. Reynolds 2) C. Bullard 3) C. Reynolds: 2007 Blue Chequer Hen: 1) J. Rice 2) M. Horner 3) M/M McIntosh: Adult Red Cock: 1) J. Harrold 2) J. Harrold 3) J. Harrold: Adult Red Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) R. Cook 3) J. Harrold: 2007 Red Cock: 1) J. Harrold 2) J. Harrold 3) J. Trim & Daughter: 2007 Red Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Harrold 3) J. Harrold: Adult Mealy Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Trim & Daughter 3) C. Bullard: Adult Mealy Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Trim & Daughter 3) J. Harrold: 2007 Mealy Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Trim & Daughter 3) C. Bullard: 2007 Mealy Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) C. Bullard 3) J. Trim & Daughter: Adult Opals Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Rice 3) M/M McIntosh: Adult Opals Hen: 1) J. Rice 2) M. Horner 3) J. Rice: 2007 Opals Cock: 1) J. Rice 2) R. Cook 3) R. Cook: 2007 Opals Hen: 1) J. Rice 2) M. Horner 3) M/M McIntosh: Adult Colours Cocks: 1) M/M McIntosh 2) C. Bullard 3) J. Trim & Daughter: Adult Colours Hen: 1) J. Rice 2) C. Bullard 3) M/M McIntosh: 2007 Colours Cock: 1) R. Cook 2) C. Bullard 3) R. Cook: 2007 Colours Hen: 1) J. Rice 2) J. Harrold 3) R. Cook: Adult Cock TW: 1) J. Rice 2) C. Reynolds 3) J. Rice: Adult Hen TW: 1) J. Rice 2) C. Bullard 3) M. Horner: 2007 Cock TW: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Rice 3) J. Harrold: 2007 Hen TW: 1) J. Harrold 2) M. Horner 3) C. Reynolds: Adult Racing Cock: 1) C. Bullard 2) C. Bullard 3) J. Trim & Daughter: Adult Racing Hen: 1) J. & J. B. Rice 2) J. & J. B. Rice 3) C. Bullard: 2007 Racing Cock: 1) J. & J. B. Rice 2) J. & J. B. Rice 3) C. Bullard: 2007 Racing Hen: 1) C. Bullard 2) J. & J. B. Rice 3) J. & J. B. Rice. Best in Show – John Harrold: Best Opposite Sex – Joanne Rice: Best Young Bird Show Racer – John Harrold: Best Racer – Colin Bullard.                  

The Southern Counties Show Racer Society was formed in August 2004, with the main aim of having good competition for Show Racers, in a friendly atmosphere. Jim Trim, the Society’s chairman, tells me the annual subscription is only £5, with new members paying a £5 entrance fee which goes into the trophy fund. The Society has a very healthy 22 fancier’s membership and has no club radius, in fact they had a member in Germany who came over and showed his birds. The headquarters is the Gravesend Rugby Club, just 15 minutes off the M25 Motorway at the Dartford Crossing and they hold shows right through the winter months, plus a squeaker show in June, just for a mid year get together for the members. Shows are held on Sundays and all members have to be present by 09.00hrs to erect the show pens and judging starts at 10.30hrs.

The Society own 350 show pens and have opened their entries to flying breeds, including West of England Tumblers, Birmingham Rollers, Tipplers and Racing Pigeons. They award their own Southern Counties Champion Certificate to pigeons that win five ‘best of colours’ certificates under three different judges. In December they hold the all winners ‘Best of Breeds’ show, to find their annual Supreme Champion. The 2007 Supreme Champion was a Mosaic hen named ‘Misty’ and she is owned by the Society president Mike Horner. This wonderful hen is a grand daughter of his 2006 RPRA Southern Region Show BIS (645 birds) winner ‘Barny’, which has won 12 firsts for the Horner Show Racer loft at Alton.

The highlight of the Southern Counties Open Show for me was to see the two youngsters, John Harrold and Joanne Rice, win the two premier honours, but it was nice that I awarded Mike and Theresa Horner first in the Adult Red Hens class, and it turned out to be their 2007 RPRA Southern Region Show BIS winner. I spoke to a triumphant Mike Horner after the Region show in December and he was over joyed at winning Best in Show for the second year on the trot. He has named his latest winner, ‘Cilla’, and tells me she has won ten firsts in the show pen. Both her parents are two very successful breeding reds and were obtained from Colin Carter in 2003. The day after the Southern Region Show, Mike showed at the Southern Counties SR Society show held at Gravesend and ‘Cilla’ won Best Opposite Sex, being beaten by her half brother, who won Best in Show. A great fancier, with wonderful Show Racers!

Well that’s it for this week! I would like to finish by thanking Jim Trim for inviting me to judge at the open show, we all really enjoyed it very much, it was a great day out! I can be contacted on phone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT

30/1/08