REFLECTIONS ON THE 2014 EPSOM SHOW & MOOT

by John Clements

Sometimes we have to get down to basics. In my case getting down to basics is admitting to how we see and interpret what is around us. The way we get meaning is part of our character. In my case I generally see life through works of art, literature and other arts. So last weekend, when I was at the BICC show, I was in my element at Epsom racecourse: ‘Derby Day’,  race horses, jockeys, the colours and  everything that goes with this world famous location was meat and drink to me.

I loved it and it did no harm at all to British pigeon racing. With not a great deal of an imagination I could see Frith’s painting ‘Derby Day’. I could not escape the frisky highly-strung horses of Eduard Degas or Toulouse Lautrec nor could I get Dickensian characters out of my mind. I was seeing the whole of Epsom through their eyes. Some locations have it some do not, but certainly Epsom has art in abundance.

Tony Cowan (left) in his salad days, pictured here with Pete Chamberlain of Northants. Tony was in top form when auctioning the BICC gift birds at the 2014 Epsom Show & Moot.

We in the pigeon sport are rich in our own Dickensian characters Harold Hamplett Ian Crammond BICC President John Tyerman ear rings, tattoos, worried men, graceful women, the long the short and the tall were all there. There were many more who I cannot name here then finally near the end the coup de grace Tony Cowan auctioning the BICC gift birds.

I was fortunate to have a close look at the Cowan magic and how it worked. Basically he is not dissimilar to those Sickert Edwardian music hall stars of long ago. They were all rascals with a stage presence that developed into an art form of its own. Tony is not much different a likeable rascal certainly, but what a performer. Tony plays the audience bringing them on then dropping them encouraging them, praising them, then berating them.  Then, with a quick almost insignificant finger gesture of approval, he moves to the next pigeon on the list. Tony, now he is older and a little more worn, would be a stage star if he was ever considered for a part in Samuel Becket’s ‘Waiting for Godot’. He is ideal for the part Max Wall played or any part where a character is waiting endlessly and meaninglessly for Godot to arrive. 

It’s not a bad thing to once again get down to basics and see things through art there are less efficient and far less real ways of seeing such as price, science, politics or history. Art, in some form or other, has been around longer than all of them. 

William Powell Frith's 'The Derby Day'

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Elimar - November 2014