KEITH MOTT
RPRA SOUTHERN REGION SHOW 2013
The month of November saw us make our annual drive up the M40 to High Wycombe for the RPRA Southern Region Show, which is one of the highlights of the show calendar in the South of England every winter. Show secretary Ron Lacey and his band of helpers work hard every winter and put on one of the best shows I visit! We don’t seem to mention Ron Lacey’s band of stewards and workers in the annual write up, whom year in and year out work tirelessly to put this great show on. I don’t know their names, but we always ‘tip our hats’ when we meet up each November and it’s them same ol’ faces every year working so hard on this great event. Well done to you all!
This year’s show held at the Hazlemere Community Centre turned out to be one of the best ever, with 596 birds entered. There was the usual auction of gift birds and the funds raised by the show and sale were donated to the RNLI and The Air Ambulance. The auction of the gift birds raised some good money for the two charities and I must say they were a great draft of birds. Judges for this year’s show were, Show Racers: Peter Wells, N. Harding, Peter Gretton, D. Keen, A. King, K. Upham, Mick Dickinson and Keith and Sasha Mott: Racing Pigeons: Terry Haley, Brian Chitty, Colin Carter, Mike Horner, Colin Reynolds, Phil Harrod, R. Turner and P. Sowerman.
This year’s Southern Region Show saw my good friend of 30 years standing, Ron Lacey, return as one of the event organizers after packing up as show secretary in 2010. He told me at that time, he was approaching 80 years of age and was having trouble coping with the vast amount of work involved in organizing this wonderful annual show, which I could well appreciate. But Ron being Ron and one of the workers, he could not stay away and is back at the helm. When I say that Ron is one of the sport’s great workers, it is an understatement, he has spent a life time working for the RPRA and the sport of pigeon racing in general.
I have been associated with the Southern Region Show for many years and have derived great pleasure judging at this great annual event through the years. This great event is one of my favourite one day shows. In recent years the Community Centre has proved to be a first class venue for this major event, having two large halls for the show and charity pigeon auction. I have attended the show most years, since it started at Ascot Racecourse over 30 years ago and in recent seasons have booked the judges for the racing classes for Ron. Years ago I used to show and won many firsts with my racing pigeons, which I always considered a good achievement, with the ‘red hot’ competition at the Region show. After Ascot the show moved briefly into Basingstoke and then went to Slough for ten years, being run by the late great Bob Arnold. I always remember Bob telling me that he had been in pigeons all his life, being taken tenderly into a pigeon loft at the age of ten days old, by his father, in 1920. Bob was a wonderful man and put a lot of hard work into the Southern Region Show through his many years as show secretary.
Ron took over the job of show secretary a good few years ago from Val and Tony who had to step down because of ill health and I must sa, Ron has done a brilliant job. Ron told me he was President of the R.P.R.A. Southern Region for 14 years until he had to pack up through ill health. He has been in the sport for 60 years and likes only long distance racing. Ron has 13 natural pairs of mainly Hartog and Vandy pigeons, which he says are never parted, with the nest boxes being closed to stop them breeding in the winter months. The old bird racers are lightly trained up to 30 miles and are fed a good mixture, which includes 50% beans. He had raced north road all his life until turning south road with the club four years ago and has won 1st Federation Lerwick, with the bird on the day. Ron’s 30 youngsters are raced natural to the perch and have won the Young Bird Average several times in recent seasons. The young birds are trained up to 30 miles, the same as the old birds, and race the whole programme. Ron says he is a small team fancier and keeps no stock birds. He maintains that he would cut out all the big money in pigeon racing and the sport looks like it’s failing because there aren’t so many fanciers, but he thinks it’s as good as it’s ever been!
Best in Show was awarded to a beautiful opal hen who took everybody’s eye in the pen as they walked around the hall and she was owned and shown by Colin Bullard, who travels all the way from Lowestoft on the East coast to show at High Wycombe. Colin is always the man to beat in any show he competes in and won BIS at the Southern Region Show in 2012, also with a another opal hen. He has had racing pigeons since he started at the age of 16, being very successful at club racing and has had Show Races for about 30 years. His latest Southern Region BIS winner is closely related to his BIS winner at last year’s show and both are members of his mosaic family, which originate from birds obtained from George Bartle of Wretford. His opal hen is no stranger to winning, having won first at other premier shows. Colin has three small Show Racer lofts, which house about 20 pairs and these are all paired up in mid-February. He maintains the main factor in good loft design is that it is clean and dry, so his lofts are closed against rain and bad weather. He uses a sand and saw dust litter on the loft floors and the clean out is his first job every day. He has no special preparation in the days before a big show, but the birds get a bath every week. No stock birds are kept and about 30 young birds are bred each season to show, and no Show Racers fly out. Colin has judged at all the main shows, including the BHW Blackpool Show and has won BIS East Coast Show, BIS Norwich Spectacular Show and BOS RP ‘Old Comrades’ Show. The Bullard garden is also the home of Colin’s racing pigeons and he races natural, with long distance racing in mind. He pairs the race birds the same time as the show birds and all are fed the same heavy maple pea and tic beans mixture. He really enjoys seeing the bird come in from the French race points and has won a nice few races through the years. Colin tells me he is only in pigeons for pure pleasure and only races in his local club and is not a member of any National clubs. Colin also won Best Racer at the Southern Region Show this year with handsome Dordin / Cattrysse blue pied cock too go with his BIS. Colin’s daughter, Lynn, has had her own 8ft x 6ft loft of Show Racers since she was ten years old and has been very successful through the years. She is now in her 30’s and has her own family, so time with the pigeons is hard to find, but she managed to win a class at this year’s Southern Region Show. Lynn has judged at many premier shows, including a class of Show Racers at the BHW Blackpool Show. Colin recently went in to hospital to undergo some surgery, which meant he could not lift for several. He has asked me to thank the local pigeon fanciers who helped him with his pigeons through this period, especial Phil Harrod, who cleaned his lofts out.
Sasha and I judged Class 7 (Old Cock or Hen Coloured Show Racer) and Class 8 (Old Cock or Hen Red or Mealy Show Racer), and it turned out to be a very satisfying day for me personally. Colin Bullard’s BIS opal hen was my winner of Class 7 and the winner of Class 8, picked out by Sasha was a beautiful red hen owned by Dennis and Sandra McKane of St Sampson in Guernsey. Dennis and Sandra travel all the way from the Channel Isles to show at the Southern Region Show. Well done to them! Second in Class 8 was a handsome red cock owned by Roland and Jill Thresher of Devon and I gave this Show Racer first at the Cornwall ‘Duchy’ Show three weeks previous. Nice to be consistent! It was great to see Ron Lacey get some reward by winning Class 22 (Old Hens Flown 400 Mile) with a wonderful Chequer Pied Hen!
John & Alice Bell travelled from Catrine in Ayrshire for the High Wycombe Show and won Best Opposite Sex and Best Over All Points. I first met John and Alice in November 2011 when I judged BIS at the NEHU Show in South Sheilds and they won Supreme Champion with their wonderful red hen. This wonderful red ‘doo’ had everything in the hand, outstanding feathering, balance and nice dark eyes, my perfect pigeon. I judged at the Blackpool Show in 2007 and John and Alice won one of my classes with a blue Show Racer hen! John finished with racing pigeons and concentrated solely on Show Racers in the 2006 season and won the Hurlford open show, recording his first Best in Show with a Dark Chequer cock bred from his ‘Old Silver Hen’. The following January this wonderful looking cock went to the BHW ‘Show of the Year’ at Blackpool and won ‘Supreme Champion’. Alice told me, this was the best day of their Show Racer life, to win the Supreme prize on their first attempt. It was a dream comes true! The Bell partners had three open show wins in the 2007 season, four more in 2008 and went on to win Reserve ‘Supreme Champion’ in 2009. In 2010 John and Alice had three major open show wins and so went to Blackpool with three birds in the Supreme Champion class. On entering the Winter Gardens on the Saturday morning they were amazed to see that their yearling Blue Chequer Cock had won his class and Best in Show, so was their fourth candidate in the Supreme Champion class. This cock’s nest mate won Supreme Champion and he was BIS, Reserve Supreme Champion. John told me he didn’t think this had ever been achieved before, with a nest pair winning the two premier prizes at Blackpool on the same weekend. These two champion cocks were bred from a seven year old blue chequer cock bred by Darren Gibbons and he said, ‘it goes to prove that old pigeons can still breed champions’. With a lot of hard work this family of winning Show Racer has been formed from four pairs of original stock birds and the Bell partners told me it is well worth the effort when you win at the very top level with your own family of birds!
Class winners were: Class 1: 1st M/M C. Carter, 2nd L. Carter & son, 3rd Petty & Crawford: Class 2: 1st M/M C. Carter, 2nd R, J. & D Thresher, 3rd J. & A. Bell: Class 3: 1st J. Harrod, 2nd J. & A. Bell, 3rd C. Reynolds: Class 4: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd M/M C. Carter, 3rd R. Hughes: Class 5: 1st M. Hoskins, 2nd J. & A. Bell, 3rd J. & A. Bell: Class 6: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd P. Cammock, 3rd M. Horner: Class 7: 1st C. Bullard, 2nd J. Robilliard, 3rd R, J. & D Thresher: Class 8: 1st D. & S. McKane, 2nd R, J. & D Thresher, 3rd J. Harrod: Class 9: 1st C. Reynolds, 2nd J. Rice, 3rd R, J. & D Thresher: Class 10: 1st C. Bullard, 2nd J. Rice, 3rd M. Horner: Class 11: 1st C. Reynolds, 2nd Petty & Crawford, 3rd R, J. & D Thresher: Class 12: 1st Petty & Crawford, 2nd C. Bullard 3rd J. & A. Bell: Class 13: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd C. Reynolds, 3rd R, J. & D Thresher: Class 14: 1st R, J. & D Thresher, 2nd N. Westbury, 3rd M/M C. Carter: Class 15: 1st T. Smith, 2nd R. Zyjewski, 3rd T. Smith: Class 16: 1st T. Smith, 2nd J. & A. Bell, 3rd M/M B. Leney: Class 17: 1st Miss L. Bullard, 2nd S. Royall & son, 3rd M/M G. Thresher: Class 18: 1st J. & A. Bell, 2nd Miss L. Bullard, 3rd C. Bullard: Class 19: 1st Brookes, son & Turner, 2nd J. Rice, 3rd S. Tarr: Class 20: 1st M/M G. Thresher, 2nd J. Rice, 3rd Brookes, son & Turner: Class 21: 1st J. Harrod, 2nd J. Harrod, 3rd J. Rice: Class 22: 1st Ron Lacey, 2nd J. Davies, 3rd Ron Lacey: Class 23: 1st C. Bullard, 2nd M/M D. Turnham, 3rd C. Bullard: Class 24: 1st D. J. Clark, 2nd M/M B. Leney, 3rd C. Bullard. Class 15: 1st T. Smith, 2nd Brookes, son & Turner, 3rd J. Rice. Trophy winners were: Best in Show, Colin: Best Opposite Sex, John & Alice Bell: Best Show Racer, Colin Bullard: Best Race Bird, Colin Bullard: Best 400 miles, John Harrod: Best T. T. W., Colin Reynolds: Most Points Show Racer, John & Alice Bell (44): Most Points Race Bird, T. Smith (23), Best Points Over All, John & Alice Bell (53).
Well that’s it for this week! Betty and I would like to wish all our many friends throughout the pigeon world a Merry Christmas and a successful 2014! Congratulations to Colin Bullard on his great success at the RPRA Southern Region Show. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters on telephone number: 01372 463480.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)