Keith Mott
BHW BLACKPOOL SHOW 2007
Every year when I come home from the British Homing World Blackpool Show, I always comment that the crowds on the Saturday morning at the Winter Gardens are getting bigger every year, but the mass of fancier in attendance about an hour after opening on the first day last weekend was by far the biggest I’ve ever seen there. The place was heaving and the atmosphere was electric! Peter Taylor and I travelled up to Blackpool on the Friday and made our usual mid-day break at the first motorway services past the M6 Toll, where we sometimes meet up with a few of the pigeon lads. We had a meal in the ‘Little Chef’ and on going to the desk to pay, a beautiful young girl came up to me and said, ‘Excuse me, are you Keith Mott?’. I was a bit surprised as it’s usually ‘old boys’ that come up to talk to me. I was delight when she told me that she was the grand daughter of the late Hersham legend, Charlie Maycock, and was now racing pigeons her own right. It’s so refreshing to see young people coming into our sport! Her father, Arthur, and Charlie were regular Federation winners for many years up to the early 1990’s and are featured in a forth coming ‘Champion’s of Yester Year’.
The main thing I really enjoy about our great show in Blackpool is meeting up with people, the staff of the B.H.W. and R.P.R.A., old and new friends from the racing side of the sport and the lads of the Show Racer world. I met Don Spedding of Cumbria, for the first time last weekend and must say that was a great pleasure, as I have communicated with this showing ‘Master’ by telephone and email many times, but never met him in person. Last year I featured Don in my Show Racer series of articles and it was all compiled by phone and internet. I had a phone call from Don congratulating me on the Show Racer series of articles and I took advantage of the call, and asked him if he fancied being part number seven. Don is only part time in the sport these days, being a busy professional singer, but spends as much time as he can at the Show Racer loft of his cousin, Alan, who is a very successful fancier in his own right.
The Spedding loft housed only ten pairs of birds, which were paired up on February 14th. and he was always very selective with the pigeons, always looking for something to get rid of. Don told me, that he only had a small loft, so could only keep a small team and kept a family of blue chequers, which he enhanced by introducing a cock from Harry Spratt of Belfast. He called this cock, ‘Harry’, and he was bred down from pigeon he obtained from Don Spedding and a dark hen from Graham Rougvie. This champion breeding cock produced many fantastic pigeons to win at National and Classic shows. Don also obtained a young blue cock he fancied from Harry Spratt and he went on to become the famous breeding cock, ‘Irish Blue Cock’, and he is the sire of Alan Speddings loft today. Donald told me he had many great years showing his birds, but one of his biggest thrills was the year he bred his champion mealy hen, ‘Lady Di’. She won seven Classic shows in succession as a young bird, then went on to be Best in Show (1,300 birds) at the G.Y.A. as a yearling. At the G.Y.A. she beat Bill Meader’s, Champion ‘Princess Asti’, winner of 30 firsts and many times Best in Show. Don says his greatest thrill was showing in the 1970’s and 80’s when showing pigeons was at it’s height in this country. He won Best in Show at the mighty G.Y.A. Show seven times! The two great fanciers, Harold Dalzell and George Greenshield, had both won it twice, so it was a wonderful thrill to win it seven times.
I also met Mike and Pauline Spear of Bishops-Leighton for the first time at the Blackpool Show and they have had some really outstanding success racing their pigeons to their home in Devon in recent seasons. The Spear Partnership won Best Racer in Show at Blackpool last weekend, at only their second time exhibiting at the ‘Show of the Year’. Well done to them! At the R.P.R.A. Awards presentation at the Tower Ballroom last Saturday, I met Keith Arnold of Leamington Spa and he had won the award for outstanding short distance racing. The Arnold loft won the Federation eleven times in thirteen old birds races in the 2006 season and also recorded the first five in Federation result. A fantastic performance! Keith told me it was a Federation record and couldn’t hope to repeat it in the 2007 season, but would be more than happy to get his usual three of four first Federations next season. I didn’t know until I spoke to Keith that his cousin is our own local Staf Van Reet ‘ace’ Paul Arnold of Sutton. Keith also races the Staf Van Reet pigeons and some times exchanges birds with Paul, with brilliant results.
Last weekend Norman Perry of Port Talbot won Best Young Bird and when I met up with him in the Winter Gardens on Saturday morning, he told me he was very proud that he had won Best Young Bird three years on the trot at Blackpool. I first met Norman Perry several seasons ago, when I was judging at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show and he won Best in Show with a Mosaic Chequer hen, bred from pigeons obtained from his good friend, Ron McCarthy of Rhymney. Norman has since gone on and won B.I.S. at the Southern Region Show (twice), B.O.S. R.P. Old Comrades Show and the top honours of Supreme Champion and B.I.S. at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show in 2005. Norman has been in the sport since he left school and has kept Show Racers for about eight years, being a north road racer before that. He changed over codes, to showing pigeons because his job as a postman didn’t allow him the time to race his birds properly. He was very keen on the long distance racing and won Lerwick twice. He pairs his 25 pairs of show birds the weekend after the B.H.W. Blackpool Show and keeps mainly the very successful Ron McCarthy bloodlines. He has nine pairs of stock birds and breeds about 50 babies each season, retaining half these for the show pen. Norman’s set up is made up of three lofts, with flights and the birds are fed on a Young Bird mixture. His club is the Monmouth Show Society and he enters only club events and three National shows each season. A fancier with a big future in the Show Racer world!
On a personal note, I must say the 2007 Blackpool Show was probably the greatest of them all for me! Firstly, I was given the great honour of being asked to judge for the second time, previously judging 95 young Show Racer cocks with my wife, Betty, in 2001. Secondly, being filmed judging by a B.B.C. camera crew, for a forth coming ‘Inside Out’ programme to be screened in a few weeks. Ray Hough, the producer, had a two hour meeting with me at my home a week before the Blackpool Show and decided he wanted to feature my Claygate loft in the show and the judging shots would being cut in to the eight minute piece. Thirdly, while at the show last weekend, I was asked to appear on a Canadian T.V. programme called ‘Mega World U.K.’ and this was shot in the main show area of the Winter Gardens on the Saturday afternoon. The crew were filming all weekend, including judging on Friday night and will be shown on the Discovery channel at the end of the year.
Well, judging at the Number One National Show and two T.V. appearances in one weekend, pure fantasy! Getting back to the most important thing, judging at Blackpool, I handled Class 13 (Young Show Racer Cocks) and Class 14 (Young Show Racer Hens). The cocks class was won by a handsome Mosaic cock, owned by Norman Perry of Port Talbot and that was the pigeon that won Best Young Bird. Well done Norman, his pigeon was a credit to him! The hens class was won by a wonderful blue, owned by J. Bell, who is very successful at all the National Shows every season.
Another great Blackpool thrill for me was seeing my Eric Cannon blue hen sold for £540 at the Charity Auction in the Opera House last Saturday morning. Betty and I donate a Cannon pigeon off our Number One stock pair to this wonderful auction most years and the massive interest shown in these birds is a great compliment to the genius of our late great friend, Eric Cannon of Wormley. I must thank my good friend Peter Taylor, who stewarded for me at the show and did a great job, and like me had one of his best pigeon weekends ever. I have to meet and talk to a lot of fanciers at the Blackpool show every year and come home very tired, but last Sunday, Peter and I came home totally ‘knackered’. Roll on next January and lets get back to Blackpool!
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.
25/1/07