THE 1977 BLACKPOOL OLYMIAD EXPERIENCE
by Keith Mott
As I reported a few week ago, back in October I received a letter from the RPRA inviting me to judge at the BHW ‘Show of the Year’ Blackpool 2014 and I was delighted to accept as I have always loved to 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 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. On our arrival at the Hilton Hotel in Blackpool, John Robilliard introduced me to David Trippett, the Blackpool Show committee chairman and David was take Peter and I to the Winter Gardens in a taxicab after the main judging had finished, to do our final judging job of Best in Show. I had a good chat with David Trippett and he told me the Blackpool Show committee meet about five times a year, and the show has raised about three million pounds for charity in its 42 years existence, with over £63,000-00 being donated from the 2013 event. I mentioned in that conversation with David that I attended that first BHW Blackpool Show held at the Winter Gardens in 1977 and I recalled it was staged to host the 15th Pigeon Olympiad. David told me the ‘Show of the Year’ had previously been held in Doncaster, but had to move to a bigger venue, the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, to fit in the Olympiad birds.
When I returned from Blackpool in January, I thought I might dig out some material on that very first show and found in my archive about fifteen black and white photos I took that weekend and an article, published in the Pigeon Racing ‘Gazette’ in March 1977. I must say the Winter Gardens looks very different now, but looking at those old photos I don’t look a day older now than I did then. Ha! Ha! Only joking of course! Pigeons, Sex and Rock ‘n Roll have certainly taken their toll on me over those years. The main things I remember about that weekend was it was snowing, with us breaking down on the M1 motorway and walking up to the ‘Racing Pigeon’ stand at the show and seeing the photo of my good dark pied cock, ‘John Boy’, on the front page of that week’s paper. Great days!
Seven of us left my flat in Surbiton at midday on 14th January in a hired mini-bus and our destination was Blackpool to visit the 15th Pigeon Olympiad. Our party consisted of myself and Betty, my brother Phil and his wife Pauline, Alec and Molly Martin and Betty’s brother, Alfie. We broke down just south of Newport Pagnell on the M1 motorway with a split heater hose. We had to carry water in two flasks from a nearby ditch and Alec Martin fell in and made his new ‘johns’ wet! When the radiator was full we struggled into Newport Pagnell Service Station where we spent nearly two hours hanging about while the bus was being repaired. I spoke to the comedian, Eric Sykes, who had also broken down on the motorway and was having his car sorted out at the Service Station. We finally arrived at our 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 to Day Two and visiting the main event, the BHW ‘Show of the Year’.
Next morning we had a good breakfast and the three ladies, Betty, Pauline and Molly, set off on a coach trip of the Lake District, which in spite of the snow was a great day out for the girls. 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 Catteralls 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 fanciers 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 Belgian champion Emiel Denys for the first time. I had some great success racing the Denys Brother pigeons in the late 1970s and early 1980s and it was great to meet this great fancier and shake his hand. Probably the best pigeon I ever owned, Champion ‘Kenny’, winner of 37 prizes in the first six, including 13 times 1st club and 3rd, 5th, 9th, 11th, 24th Federation was a 100% Denys Brothers pigeon.
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 there was a constant crowd around the British team bench. Senior & Blakeley of Dewsbury had two Combine winners in the sporting class and Brian senior was staying with his wife and son Graham at the same hotel as us. This partnership had an excellent record in the Olympiads, winning three silver medals at Dusseldorf in 1973 and a gold medal at Budapest in 1975. Finally we went to the Pavilion Cinema where the auction of gift birds was taking place, for a sit down and to rest our aching feet. This sit down cost Alec Martin £22, which was a lot of money in 1977, as he bought a nice yearling red chequer of a French strain. Charlie Miller made a first class job of auctioning this draft of birds for charity. Back at the hotel, after the evening meal we had a night in and I had a good few hours chat to Brian senior.
After breakfast on the Sunday morning we left for home at 09.30hrs and we broke down yet again 20 miles north of Birmingham! There was no such thing as a mobile phone in 1977 and I had to walk 3 miles up the motorway to phone the AA, and it was very windy and freezing. Three hours later the AA turned up and sorted out the problem, and we were on our way again, arriving home in Surbiton at about 18.00hrs. It was congratulations to the RPRA Olympiad committee at that time on organizing a first class event, which was a real credit to the sport in the UK. I really enjoyed my first stay in Blackpool; it was that mini-bus that took the edge off it for me!
Well that’s it for this week; we are back in 2014 for our next article! I hope my readers have enjoyed our little look at the first BHW Blackpool Show, as much as I have enjoyed digging it out! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keith mott.com)
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