Black Country Show

Parkinson LJ.

Every now and again we are asked to go somewhere for one reason or another, the latest was to go and judge for the show society at Tamworth. I was not sure about this and asked Mike O’Hare to come along and help me out. So, Mike & Rita O’Hare plus Elizabeth & Myself set off down the M6 to see what we could do with a team of show pigeons. This all came about when Bill Carney was one of the judges for the pigeon section at the Royal Cheshire show back in the middle of June. Bill asked if I could get someone to go down and judge a class of show pigeons at the Black Country Show Racer Society. As expected, takers are not in abundance especially because the Lancashire Social was on the same weekend and most of the fanciers who like to do these jobs from the area were at that event. I once judged a class of show pigeons at the Blackpool Show and was not all that sure of them, but it went well. So, this was my second attempt to sort out what can be very nice pigeons to handle. What I have noticed about them is they vary in size so much, you can have pigeons of the same sexes and the difference can be quite a lot. Some of them were a nice type of pigeon for racing while others were even a bit too big for my hands and I don’t think they are small. What I can add and that is they all had real silky feathering and were mostly in excellent condition. At the end of the day we were there to judge pigeons and I have to say I did enjoy the job and if available I would do the job again, but not at the moment because we are so busy at Elimar. There were two other judges, Ray Grimsdell and Simon Cole so we had a good talk during the day. I first met Ray and his good lady many years ago at a National presentation, so they were not new to me. This was the first time I had met Simon and his good lady, and we spoke and shared our views several times while we were judging. I was saying how far we had travelled but when you look at Mr & Mrs John Bell who had travelled down from Ayrshire to enter their pigeons, we were only going around the corner. When you think about it the fanciers who have show pigeons on average do travel far more to their events than the racing fanciers. However, pigeon fanciers do far more road work while training their pigeons and that can be many miles in a season. I was talking to John Bell from Ayrshire who was saying that he had been to the North East Show the day before and that was about 160mls. Then for this show on the Sunday it was 300mls which was all worth while when they won BIS with a pigeon that had won one of the Black Country Shows the previous year. We also had a very good ploughman’s lunch which I must say I did enjoy as did the others, plates were clear.

Judges with Best in Show 

Judges with Bill Carney

Show Class winners

The winners are, Class 1 Old Cocks 2016 or earlier red, mealy, chequer, blue, was won by H Bogle who came over and judge the Cheshire Show earlier in the year. Class 2 Old Hen 2016 or earlier red, mealy, chequer, blue, was won by J & A Bell B.O.S. Class 3 2017 Cock, red, mealy, chequer, blue, was won by J & S Bell. Class 4- 2017 Hen red, mealy, chequer, blue, was won by J McTaggart. Class 5 2018 Cock red, mealy, chequer, blue, was won by Petty & Crawford. Class 6 2018 Hen red, mealy, chequer, blue, was won by Edson & Wheatcroft Best YB. Class 7 Old Cock -2107 or earlier, A.O.C won by J & S Bell also B.I.S. Class 8 Old Hen 2017 or earlier A.O.C. won by Edson & Wheatcroft. Class 9 2018 Cock A.O.C. won by Mr & Mrs R Hughes. Class 10 2018 Hen A.O.C won by A McLafferty & Son. Class 11 AACTTW Any colour won by Mr & Mrs Hughes. Class 12 AAHTTW Any Colour won by H Bogle. Looking at more in the show world I asked the top man at the show John Bell for his thoughts on showing and this is what he had to say. “I started with racing pigeons when I was 10yrs old and raced quite successful for years I scored out of the Scottish National from Rennes 520 miles. This was a great achievement for me into the west of Scotland it's a hard place to get them. When I was racing, I went to local club shows and found that I really liked the showing side my mother used to take me on the bus to the shows she loved it as well. When I got older and was able to drive, we went to some open shows with the racers and was successful with them. I have had 4 open show wins in a season with them with over 550 birds on show to qualify for Supreme Champion at Blackpool I could never win it with a racer. Over the years I had always one in it at least, but my best was reserve champion a couple of times. My mum always wanted to see me win the Supreme Champion class at Blackpool. She was very ill with cancer in 2002 so I decided I was going to sell all the racers and bring in the show birds to try and do this for her. There were a few fanciers always saying to me never mind showing racers cone into the real show game and see how good you are. Looking back, they didn't know what they were saying to me as this was all the push I needed. At the end of 2002 I sold half the racers, so I could get show birds and I had managed to get 3pair of show birds, it was very hard to get a start with the show pigeons, but I was fortunate to hear Raymond Murphy was packing in so went and seen him and bought a pair of him. Also, Dave Mckillop was finishing as well so I bought a couple off him to which I added a young chequer cock of Darren Gribbons that's where the show ones all started from. My first breeding season was 2003 I won my first open show with the show birds with enough birds to qualify for Supreme Champion at Blackpool. At the Hurlford open show in 2006 he went to Blackpool January 2007 and won Supreme Champion class, we were over the moon for my mum was gravely ill in hospital we got back home Sunday night and went to hospital to show mum the chequer cock and the trophies she was so happy it gave her a great boost. Alice came into the pigeons with me then as she didn't like the racing side, she loved the show birds because they were tame and quieter. We have had at least 1 class win at Blackpool every year since we started show birds that's 16 years in a row. We have won 2 best in shows Blackpool and 6 times Supreme Champion of Great Britain at Blackpool. In the last 10 years we have won Supreme Champion 3 years in a row this is a massive record probably never be equalled in our lifetime, hope we can make it 4 in a row in January. When you were judging at Black Country show we won best in show and reserve. We won NEHU show the day before that was nearly a journey of 1000 miles in the weekend to travel so he is qualified for Supreme Champion” That’s what I call dedication to your hobby. Thanks to everyone concerned with the show, another experience under the belt.

Les J Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ. 01606836036 Mobile 07871701585.

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