“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

British Homing World Blackpool Show.

I recently had a good chat with David Trippett, the Blackpool Show committee chairman and he told me, ‘Keith to date the show has donated nearly £3,000,000 to charity. As a matter of interest the first show in 1973 at Doncaster donated £3,000, and in the shows prime in the late 1990's sums of over £100,00 were donated each year. The committee reflects the ethos of the show, the majority have associations with its roots, Dora Pounder and Sharon Barker are relatives of Les and Myrtle Henshaw, neither of them are pigeon fanciers but both care so much about the legacy of the show, Susan Fox is the daughter of Alan Heath, again not keeping pigeons but passionate about the show, and of course myself and Pat Mitchell whose fathers like the Henshaws and Alan Heath were part of the founding of the Show.  We also have Charlie Perry and Terry Allan both of whom are fanciers and with Dora Pounder have been working in various capacities at the show since it began in 1973. In more recent years we have asked other members to join us to give their particular expertise, John Robilliard represents the Showing community and does a tremendous job of recruiting our judges every year, David Higgins brings experience and organisational abilities to the committee through his experience as a Region secretary and ex-President, our latest recruits David Bridges and John Wheatcroft offer us even further experience and contacts and bring us up to date. The President and CEO of the RPRA sit on the committee in and ex officio capacity. A mixed bunch but all caring deeply regarding the ethos of the Show, fiercely determined to retain its impartiality and maintain its original principals and objectives to both provide a service to the pigeon community as well as maximising the money raised for charity’.

I mentioned in that conversation with David that I attended the first BHW Blackpool Show held at the Winter Gardens in 1977 and recalled it was to host the 15^th Pigeon Olympiad. David told me the ‘Show of the Year’ had previously been held at Doncaster, but had moved to a bigger venue, the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, to fit in the Olympiad bird.

I remember a gang of us went up to Blackpool in 1977 in a hired mini bus, which broke down on the M1 Motorway and we struggled into Newport Pagnell Service Station where we spent nearly two hours hanging about while the bus was being repaired. We finally arrived at out hotel, The Albion, just around the corner from the Winter Gardens, at 20.00hrs and because we were so late, our evening meal had been thrown out. We finished up our first day at Blackpool in a Chinese nosh shop, where we had a really great mixed grill. At the end of our first day in Blackpool we were all well cheesed off and looking forward day two and visiting the main event, the BHW ‘Show of the Year’.

Next morning we had a good breakfast and the three ladies in our party set off on a coach trip of the Lake District and the ‘four lads’ were outside the Winter Gardens for the 9 o’clock opening, but first we looked around a brand new pigeon transporter which Catterall had on show in the street next to the Winter Gardens. Little did I know at that time what a great relationship I was to have with this wonderful pigeon transport firm in later years, convoying for the London & South East Classic Club. Needless to say the transporter was first class, with a brilliant watering system and ventilation, and was decked out with wicker baskets. Once in the Winter Gardens we walked around the ‘Show of the Year’ first and it was packed to the rafters with fancier from all four corners of the UK. We met up with many interesting pigeon racers, including my ol’ acquaintance, Gerard Van Hee, and I met the Belgium champion, Emiel Denys, for the first time. At that time I was on the RPRA London Centre committee and I bumped in to Claude Hill and Edgar Dodson who were long time members of the committee. The show was so crowded it was a bit uncomfortable trying to walk around and we made one or two purchases from the trade stands we could get near. I wanted to get up to the Opera House Foyer to meet the BHW scribe, Elizabeth O’Reilly, who wrote the ‘Ladies Loft’ column at that time and she was holding a coffee morning, to meet up with fellow scribes. Since the start of the ‘Ladies Loft’ I had written about ten items for her column and thought it would be nice to meet the lady. I finally met up with Elizabeth that afternoon and we had a chat about the fancy press in general. Next on the agenda was to see the Olympiad classes which we had not been near up to that point. The hall was very nicely set out and I remember there was a constant crowd around the British team bench. Back at the hotel, after the evening meal we had a night in and I had a good few hours chat to several fancier, who were also staying there. The first of many Blackpool shows we have enjoyed through the years!

In spite of the Covid and Bird Flu problems looming over the 2022 show, there was only one thing guaranteed when the fanciers travelled to Blackpool for the 50^th British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’ was that they would have a great time! Although it was a great success and good fun, the 2021 live event had to be cancelled and had to go ‘on line’ because of the Covid restrictions. Well done to the Blackpool Show committee on making the pandemic restriction workable for our favourite show this year and getting the birds back in the pens for the 50^th anniversary event. With the show being staged in the North West of England in January, some years the weather is a bit cold and wet, but this year’s show weekend was treated to blue skies and wall to wall sunshine, which made this year’s event even more special. Thousands of fanciers made the drive up to Blackpool in mid-January for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’. Everyone anticipates and looks forward to this wonderful weekend in Blackpool, not only for their annual fill of ‘pigeon fun’, but mostly to meet up with good pigeon friends.

Last year’s event attacked a show entry of 2,000 birds and ‘Supreme Champion’ and “Best in Show’ was won by John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Scotland. John tells me, this is the third time they have won the double at Blackpool, winning ‘Best in Show’ three times and ‘Supreme Champion’ a record seven times. They have had five open shows this season, including the BHW Blackpool Show and have won ‘Best in Show’ three times, plus ‘Best Show Racer’. Well done to John and Alice, a brilliant performance! Their seventh Blackpool ‘Supreme Champion’ was their wonderful two year old mosaic hen; ‘Gracie’ and she previously won ‘Best in Show’ at the RPRA Southern Region Show in High Wycombe last November. John & Alice travelled the 400 miles from Ayrshire for the High Wycombe Show and won six classes, ‘Best in Show’, ‘Best Opposite Sex’, ‘Best Show Racer’ and ‘Best Points’. A wonderful performance by the partners and this year’s Southern Region ‘Best in Show’ is their fourth in recent years. The ‘Best in Show’ winner, now named ‘Gracie’, was their yearling mosaic hen competing in her first show ever and she is a daughter of ‘Mervanic’, the winner of ‘Best in Show’ RPRA Southern Region Show for Nicole Bell in 2016. Now the wonderful ‘Gracie’ has gone on and become the ‘Supreme Champion’ at the greatest show in the pigeon sport, the BHW Blackpool Show! John and Alice won ‘Best in Show’ at this year’s Blackpool event with their good four year old mosaic heh, ‘Alice’s Dream Girl’ and she is a full sister to ‘Gracie’. What a fantastic family of Show Racers!

John told me his best show racer is his old dark chequer hen, ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ and she has won many premier positions including: the Hurlford Open Show,  the Kingdom of Fife Open Show and the North Eastern Open Show, with over 450 birds entered. The beautiful hen has been a class winner at many open shows, even in 2014 at the age of seven, but she has been a champion in the stock section, breeding champions with different cocks each year. In the 2009 season she bread a nest pair of chequer cocks, one of them won Best in Show at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2011 and he also went on to be reserve ‘Supreme Champion’  at the same show, being beaten by his brother. The chequer cock’s nest brother won Best in Show at the North Eastern Open Show in 2010 and then won most consistent bird Scottish East Region Show Racers Society 2010 and the went to Blackpool, winning ‘Supreme Champion’ in 2011 and beating his nest mate. John said, ‘I don't think this has ever been done at Blackpool by a nest pair before. ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ also bread a chequer hen in 2011 and she won the Kingdom Open Show, and then went into the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at BHW Blackpool Show. The next year this hen went to Blackpool and won the Inter Society Yearly Hen Class and then went on to win reserve Best in Show. This great hen then went on to other top cards at the Blackpool Show. She bred a chequer cock in 2012 that won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the East Region Show Racer Society Show in 2013. He went on to win five firsts in the Society and was the most consistent bird award, and represented Scottish East Region in British SR Federation class at Blackpool in 2015. The champion chequer hen, ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’, also bread a chequer cock in 2013 which won Best in Show at the North Eastern Open Show, then went into ‘Supreme Champion’ this year. As you can see she has bred champions each year with different cocks each time. Her father was a 2002 bird, with her mother being bred in 1997, so as you can see old birds can still breed champions Show Racers. ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ father was five years old and her mother was ten years old when I bred her and I hope she lasts as long as her mother did and still breeds champions’.

John and Alice have two 24ft x 8ft lofts, which have a nice 3ft wire flight running along the front so the birds can get out in the weather and bath, and these are cleaned out by Alice twice a day. John works long hours and says a lot of loft management is down to his partner, which includes cleaning out the lofts as many times as ten times a day on the build up to big shows. He maintains this cleaning out is very important as the birds don’t have to be lifted and pulled about to clean their feet on basketing for the shows. Alice told me that if the bird’s feet are not cleaned on basketing day they look nice and powdery and not an unnatural pink. The birds are bathed at the beginning of the week and no litter is used on the loft floors. John mixes his own corn and this has a big maple pea content, and the birds are never fed condition seed. The pigeons are never fed maize prior the going to show, as Alice maintains it makes the candidates loose and messy in the pen. The twelve pairs of birds are mated up in late February as the partners like to enter two open Society shows which are after the Blackpool show at the back end of January. No stock birds are kept as all birds are shown and about 60 young birds are bred each, which are brought down to about twelve just before the show season begins. John told me, ‘I enjoy judging and have no favourite colour, when judging or in my own loft. I just love good quality Show Racers, whatever their colour! Showing is very hard work and to get a team ready for a big National event it can take up to a month to get them right. Our best ever Show Racer is the Darren Gibbons blue chequer cock and although we don’t keep stock birds, he is our main breeder, being the sire of many winners. I’ve lost count of the many open shows he has won and he has also won several times at the RP ‘Old Comrades’ Show and the BHW Blackpool Show. I would like to finish this article by saying how important Alice’s hard work is to our good success with our Show Racers. She is a wonderful pigeon fancier’. John & Alice Bell own one of the top Show Racer lofts in the UK at this time.

Class winners at the 2022 BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ were: 1 (90 birds) Thomas Souness: 2 (91 birds) Dave Fussey: 3 (87 birds) R. J. Parker: 4 (79 birds) A, Freer: 5 (54 birds) J.K. & J.D. Lynn: 6 (53 birds) Matthew Donoghue: 7 (72 birds) John Barnes: 8 (76 birds) John Barnes: 9 (41 birds) Edson & Wheatcroft: 10 (42 birds) John & Alice Bell: 11 (41 birds) John & Alice Bell: 12 (39 birds) Nigel Rescoria: 13 (35 birds) J. & D. Fisher: 14 (35 birds) Nigel Rescoria: 15 (39 birds) S. Ferguson: 16 (39 birds) Edson & Wheatcroft: 17 (42 birds) Alistair Tankard: 18 (58 birds) Darren Christie: 19 (44 birds) John & Alice Bell: 20 (70 birds) Winters Family: 21 (72 birds) Coutts Brothers: 22 (72 birds) Master Aidan Winters: 23 (66 birds) William & Brian Massey: 24 (8 birds) Michael Wareing: 25 (11 birds) McCord & Turpie: 26 (21 birds) G. & K. Parker:  27 (19 birds) Miss Keelie Wright: 28 (42 birds) Todhunter & Grisedal: 29 (38 birds) McCord & Turpie: 30 (44 birds) William & Brian Massey: 31 (46 birds) E. & N. Yule: 32 (29 birds) Emmie & Olivia Gilliver: 33 (30 birds) E. Balmer: 34 (24 birds) Adam Christie: 35 (22 birds) Miss Keelie Wright: 36 (53 birds) Master Aiden Winters: 37 (51 birds) Master George Tytler.

Darren Christie of Dunaghy in Northern Ireland won ‘Reserve Best in Show’ with his wonderful silver chequer hen, ‘Ewing’s Lass’, following on from his great success in 2019 when the Christie loft won ‘Best in Show’. The 2019 event attacked a show entry of 2,000 birds and ‘Best in Show’ over all at the Winter Gardens was won by a beautiful Show Racer silver blue cock owned by Darren. He has named his champion cock, ‘Barney’, and tells me he has had a lot of good wins previously, including ‘Best in Show’ at the INFC Show in Lisburn in 2017 and also won ‘Best in Show’ at an open show the week after the 2019 Blackpool event. He named his silver blue cock after his friend, John Barnes, who gifted him a silver blue hen which was his dam and his sire was blue cock bred through gift pigeons from Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Cambuslang in Scotland.

When I asked Darren what he looks for in a Show Racer he told me, ‘what I look for in a pigeon is a good darker eye, nice strong colour, pear shape in the hand and a good strong head. At present my birds are my own family and to create this family, I obtained birds from James Fitzpatrick, Alistair Tankard and John Barnes’. Darren was 12 years old when he started up in pigeons, the main reason being because his next door neighbour, Andy McCook, kept pigeons and he has now been in the sport 30 years. He obtained his first stock from Thomas Rouke and he gave Darren a pair of mealies to start him off and his first winner was a mealy hen. Thomas Rouke, Harry Spratt and Fitzpatrick & Fleming drew his attention on their performances in the early years. T. & K. Mawhinney of Ireland have a wonderful family of blue pied racing pigeons and they won ‘Best Racer in Show’ twice at the BHW Blackpool Show, first time winning ‘Best Racer in Show’ in 2014, both with blue pied cocks. Darren’s first successes were achieved with the Thomas Rouke and the Fitzpatrick & Fleming pigeons, when competing in the Northern Ireland Show Racer Society and his first loft was 10ft x 6ft, with two sections. He considers T. K. Mawhinney who shows Racing Pigeons to be the best fanciers in his area and he is a good friend, who gives Darren advice and help when needed.  Darren was in partnership with Thomas Rouke for twelve years and they were known as Rouke and Christie. He tells novice to get pigeons from top fancier and look at different loft set up before choosing they own loft set up. Darren works as a council worker and is a part-time DJ, and told me his biggest thrill in his time as a pigeon fancier was winning ‘Best in Show’ at the BHW Blackpool Show.

The Scottish father and son racing partnership of William and Brian Massey of Rosewell won ‘Best Young Bird in Show’ with their beautiful slatey pied cock, ‘Fram’. Very pleasing for me, because I’m her number one fan, William and Brian’s wonderful pied hen, ‘Olivia’ won class 23. What a hen! As I previously stated the annual BHW Blackpool Show weekend had to be cancelled in 2021 because of the ongoing Covid problem and had to go ‘online’. There was a strong Scottish dominance of the ‘On Line’ Show with both of the top awards going north of the border! The ten classes attracted an entry of 474 birds which were competing for outstanding prize money, in spite of a free entry. ‘Best in Show’ was won by Coutts Brothers of Scotland, with the champion blue cheque cock, ‘King Louie’. These lads from Aberdeenshire are really ‘setting them alight’ winning at all the National shows in recent seasons. ‘Best Opposite Sex’ also went to Scotland, with William and Brian Massey winning with their good pied hen, ‘Olivia’. I had some good fun, judging 68 Show Racer old hens in Class 2.

I asked Brian how his sport had been with recent Covid problem and he told me, ‘the 2020 season saw us win five firsts racing, Old Bird Average, Yearling Derby, Young Bird Knockout and Combine Average. When racing I believe preventative is better than cure! Mixing with birds and stress I believe it’s a must to be treating for canker and respiratory every couple weeks alternative! Any major problems get test kit and swabs, UK and German vets we use for these. Of course due to Covid we did not show in 2020 other than the online pictures, but 2019 was a great season in the show pen with eight 1^st prizes at the Open shows and awards from stage being ‘Best in Show’ and ‘Best Racer’ Ayr NR Show, ‘Best Opposite Sex’ Clydesdale Show, ‘Champion Young Racer’ Fife Show, ‘Champion Young Bird’ Scottish Homing Union Show and all these shows were Blackpool qualifiers with 400 plus birds competing in the show. My most thrilling experience in the sport would be the 2015 BHW ‘Show of the Year’ and winning three firsts for me and my dad and then seeing three firsts for my son, Craig, in the young fancier, meaning we’d came down from Scotland and six birds from our loft were on the ‘Specials’ table at Blackpool. That was a buzz! In terms or showing our racers from 2010 to 2019 and last season showing with Covid, we have won the following major prizes: six times ‘Best in Show’ awards, ‘Best Opposite Sex’ NEHU Show, three times ‘Champion Young Bird’ Scottish Homing Union Show, four times 1^st prize BHW ‘Show of the Year’ Show. We won many first prizes and awards but that’s the major awards for us’.

Back in October 2014 I received a letter from the RPRA, inviting me to judge at the BHW ‘Show of the Year’, Blackpool and I was delighted to except, as I have always loved do the job and consider it a great honour to be asked. This was my third time judging at the premier show in the UK and the last time I judged was in 2007 when the BBC sent a film crew to the Winter Gardens to film me and Peter Taylor for the ‘Inside Out’ programme. I then received a phone call in December from the Blackpool Show committee inviting me to take on the premier judging job in the show world, to judge the specials and Blackpool Show ‘Best in Show’. I have been judging at top National and Show Society shows for 40 years and to judge ‘Best in Show’ at Blackpool was the crowning glory of all those years doing the job. I was highly delighted and accepted the invitation immediately. My ol’ mate, Peter Taylor, has travelled all over the UK as my steward for many years, but in recent times has not travelled because of his ‘dodgy’ knees, but I managed to get him to Blackpool to steward for me, on this great occasion. We knew the Friday of the show was going to be a hard day, with the 250 mile drive up to the Hilton Hotel in Blackpool, then attend the RPRA dinner that evening and after that the late night judging in the Winter Gardens.

It was late when we arrived at the Winter Gardens, just before 23.00hrs I think, and we were greeted by chief steward, Dora Pounder, and what a nice lady she was! Dora has been doing the job at the Blackpool Show for many years and was so efficient, directing us to all the pen numbers to sort out the show specials. On arrival, I took the first ten minutes to set up my filming equipment to record the judging on auto and finished up with a brilliant 14 minutes personal DVD of the whole weekend. There was the usual gang of show stewards in attendance and I must say a big ‘thanks’ to them all, as they were there in the middle of the night, waiting to feed and lock up the birds. I spent quite some time judging the 29 class winner and needless to say I went through them with a fine tooth comb! From the outset of judging there was only one winner of Best in Show, a wonderful Show Racer red hen and she was medium appled bodied, with good balance and brilliant feather quality. I loved the hen as soon as I picked her out of Pen 4 and from then on she was the one the others had to beat! A beautiful mealy was her runner up, but I found a major fault in her on her second handling and Reserve Best in Show went to a stunning looking Show Racer blue chequer hen. I gave Best Racer to a handsome pencil blue pied cock and although it wasn’t confirmed, I was told it might have won at the Blackpool Show in 2013. It was a great judging session to remember and we finished just before 01.00hrs, after which we jump in a taxi and went back to the Hilton Hotel. It was a very long day and I finally got to bed just after 02.00hrs! John Robilliard of Bodmin in Cornwall owned that wonderful red hen and had recorded his second Best in Show at the BHW Blackpool Show. I was so delighted to hear that great news, as John has given a life time’s work to our sport and deserves every success he has with his wonderful Show Racers. Talking to John after the event, he said, the hen is now called ‘Rocquaine Queen’ and she won as a young bird, and won a first at the Duchy Show in November 2013. She was bred from a pair of stock birds that John obtained at the Ken Jeffery of St Ives dispersal sale. John and Alice Bell of Scotland had a fantastic Blackpool Show winning: ‘Supreme Champion’, Reserve Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex. After nearly 50 years judging at National and Society pigeon shows, including five times at Blackpool, that was my highlight to judge ‘Best in Show’ at the BHW Blackpool Show!

Well we are back at Blackpool this weekend for the 2023 BHW Blackpool Show. Have a great time and good luck to all the fanciers who are competing! I will be doing my annual report on the greatest National pigeon show in the world in two weeks’ time. Congratulations again to John and Alice Bell on their great Blackpool success last year! A special congratulations also to the young fanciers: Adam Christie, Keelie Wright, Aiden Winters and George Tytler, who all won class’s in 2022. It is really great to see young people win at the very top level! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480 and email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)