C.H.A.S.E. CHARITY SHOW
2013
by Keith Mott
The annual C.H.A.S.E. Charity Show was held at the Horsham YMCA Football ground in late January and as in past years the support for this great event was first class. On show day the pens and hall were packed. Entry looked like one of the biggest for some years and judges were Keith Mott, Terry Haley, Brian Doick, Peter Coles and Roy Underdown.
The C.H.A.S.E. Charity Show and Auction staged annually by members of the Horsham R.P.C. has become one of the major winter show events in the South of England. This annual event is one of the fanciers' favourite winter days out, with a quiz and bingo, and this year’s show had the same format, with six handling classes for racing pigeons, with additional classes for show racers. Every year a very select draft of quality pigeons are auctioned for the C.H.A.S.E. Charity and this time they had the best sale ever, with some unbelievable pigeons being donated! All proceeds of the Show and Auction are donated to the C.H.A.S.E. The C.H.A.S.E. Children's Hospice Service is dedicated to the support of children who are not expected to reach their 19th birthday. For these children there is, at present, no hope of cure but they and their families still need care and support over the course of the life ahead of them. Ever since 1994 C.H.A.S.E. has been dedicated to the support of life-limited children and their families in Surrey, South West London and parts of West Sussex. C.H.A.S.E. offers this vital service at no cost to the families 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in whatever way it is needed, emotionally or practically, at home or at ‘Christopher's’, the purpose-built children's hospice just outside Guildford.
Best in Show was won by David and Lesley Bridger of East Preston and they are one the premier lofts on the south coast, winning many top prizes including 1st open L&SECC Tarbes (524 miles) in 2011. Their pigeon was a handsome blue chequer cock and he had to win a very strong old cocks class to take BIS.
Two weeks after the 2011 Tarbes Classic race, Peter Taylor and I made the 50 mile drive down to the south coast to visit Dave and Lesley and to see their champion pied hen, ‘Pipi’. We picked a beautiful July day for the visit and the Bridger’s wonderful garden was in full bloom. David told me Lesley is the gardener and I must say she certainly knows her job, the garden looked magnificent! On our arrival at their home, we sat and had tea in their back conservatory, and I began by asking David if he had enjoyed his Tarbes success and he replied, ‘Being asked to have a report on my loft following my win from the London & South East Classic Club Tarbes is by far the biggest honour that I have had in nearly 50 years of racing. I have in the past had the only bird on the day in the club from Thurso 551 miles, timed from both Thurso and NFC Pau on the same day and have been 1st Club, 1st Federation, 1st Combine Thurso and 1st Club, 2nd Federation, 2nd Combine from Thurso, but nothing tops the feeling I had when timing my London Classic Club bird on the day from Tarbes flying 524 Miles 587 Yards at 9.33pm. I have never lost any sleep over winning the Club, Federation or Combine but I certainly did the night of our Tarbes Classic win’. His Classic winner was his beautiful three year old pencil blue pied hen ‘Pipi’ and she flew the 524 mile race, being the only bird clocked on the day in the L&SECC and was sent sitting 12 day old eggs. She was paired to one of David’s premier racing cocks, ‘The Star’, winner of several premier positions including 1st Federation Messac and 6th Federation Yelverton.
David has lived at the current address in East Preston for the past 30 years and apart from a few years living in Rustington and Littlehampton, just after being married he has been in East Preston all of his life. Like a lot of lads in the sixties he started to get some fantails and pigeon odds and sods together when he was about 12 years old. This moved on to him catching and reporting strays, and always hoping that the owners would agree to transfer them to him. David’s first loft was part of his father’s old chicken shed, but after some persuasion a small 6ft x 6ft loft was soon erected and a few years later was extended to a 12ft long structure, with an 8ft section for old birds and a 4ft section for young birds. This housed 12 pairs of old birds which were all flown natural and he bred 16 young birds for racing every year. He says, 'In those days as a young lad names such as Eric Canon and Jim Biss were the top flyers and always seemed to time in when others struggled and although I did meet Eric Canon many years later how was I to know at that time that they were to become the legends that they are?’. One of the partners' best performances was from Thurso (551 miles), when they timed on the day to win 1st Club, 1st Federation and 1st Combine winning an RPRA award for the best individual performance for a bird flying the north route over 450 miles. All David’s pigeon friends call him David ‘long distance’ Bridger, but he tells me he enjoys all racing long and short, but gets his big ‘buzz’ from racing long distance. The loft houses several inland Federation winners and has been very successful with Mark and Dick Evans’ Vandenabeele pigeons. The Bridger loft has won premier positions in the Federation, Combine, Classic and National through the years and in one young bird inland race took the first sixteen positions in the Federation. Not bad for premier long distance racer!
David and Lesley have a very smart loft set in the very special garden and when I asked about the loft and racing system, I was told, ‘the loft set up has grown over the years but I have always kept it to a size I thought was manageable. It is currently 32ft long with a tiled roof divided into six small sections with sliding doors between each section. This enables me to separate off certain sections or have the birds running together depending on how I want to treat them for racing. I have a small stock bird section which has an aviary so that the birds can enjoy the sunshine and fresh air something, which I feel is essential if you are going to keep birds in captivity. At the start of the season I usually have about 24 race pairs and 12 stock pairs and breed about 45 young birds with quite a few regularly given to other club members. The youngsters are darkened from mid-March until the first week of June which helps them keep in good feather for the later young bird races. I get nearly as much satisfaction when somebody else wins with one of the birds bred at my lofts than as if I had won myself. With regard to feeding I do not have any particular fads as long as the feed is of good quality. I regularly feed Gem foods from Brian Wall in Chichester together with Beyers young bird mix, Depurative and Energy mix and Versa Laga Best All Round’. Congratulations to David and Lesley on their brilliant C.H.A.S.E. win!
The Southern Counties Show Racer Society's hard working secretary, Colin Reynolds, won Best Show Racer at the C.H.A.S.E. Show with a beautiful young bird mealy hen, which was bred down from a long line of premier winners. Colin tells me he has a good winning family of blues, which believe it or not, originally started from a pair of blue chequers! He has been Show Secretary for the last eight seasons and says he likes the standard colours of blue chequer, blue, red chequer and mealy best, although he has several mosaics in the loft. Colin keeps 20 pairs of Show Racers in his four section ‘L’ Shaped loft and pairs them up after the BHW Blackpool Show in January. The birds are fed on a high protein mixture, which includes beans and maple peas. He has been keeping Show Racers since 2004, when the SCSRS was formed and says the Society's chairman, Jim Trim, was a big help in getting him going. The Reynolds loft has won Best in Show many times through the years, including BIS at the SCSRC OPEN Show and the Thame Show in 2010. Colin started in the sport as a ten year old lad, when he got his stock birds by catching ‘roadies’ in old farm buildings near his home in Morpeth, in the North East of England. He has now been in the sport 59 years and obtained his first racing pigeons in the 1950s from Clarke Brothers who had won the Combine in long distance races. Colin moved to Gillingham in Kent in 1971 and enjoyed racing long distance with the Les Stevens / Fabry pigeons for many years. He raced very successfully with 16 natural pairs, but went completely over to Show Racers in 2004. Congratulations to Colin on a wonderful performance.
This year’s show saw over 155 birds entered in the six classes, which were all handled. Racing Pigeon Class winners were: Old Cocks: 1) Mr. & Mrs. Bridger 2) D. & D. McFadden 3) D. & D. McFadden: Old Hens: 1) Doug Gatland 2) D. & D. McFadden 3) Vizor & Shepherd: Young Cocks: 1) Mr. & Mrs. Bridger 2) Mr. & Mrs. Bridger 3) D. & D. McFadden: Young Hens: 1) Doug Gatland 2) G. & D. Marsh 3) A. Muir: 400 mile Cock & Hen: 1) A. Muir 2) A. Muir 3) A. Muir: Eyesign (Judge: Roy Underdown): 1) D. & D. McFadden 2) G. & D. Marsh 3) Doug Gatland. Show Racer Class winners were: Old Cocks: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M. Horner 3) C. Reynolds: Old Hens: 1) C. Reynolds 2) C. Reynolds 3) M. Horner: Young Cocks: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M. Horner 3) M Horner: Young Hens: 1) C. Reynolds 2) C. Reynolds 3) M. Horner. Winner of Best in Show was David and Lesley Bridger winning the ‘Charity Cup’, B.O.S was Doug Gatland winning the ‘Clare Cup’, and the ‘Fred Mott Memorial Cup’ for the best young bird, plus ‘The Ralf Foreman Cup’ for the best hen. Winner of the ‘400 Mile Cup’ taking the first three positions in the class was A. Muir. Winner of the points cup for the seventh year running was D & D McFadden and in the Show Racer classes, Colin Reynolds won B.I.S & B.O.S, lifting the ‘Iris Mott Memorial Cup’ and the ‘Millis Cup’.
A small draft of twenty two gift birds were auctioned and helped to push the donation to the C.H.A.S.E. Charity up to a wonderful £1,400 this year. This time they had one of the best sales ever, with some unbelievable pigeons being donated! Thanks to the donors of the auction birds, it was a magnificent gesture! The show is put on by the Horsham Pigeon Club, under the leadership of Show Secretaries, Clive Turner and Gordon Marsh. I consider several pigeon clubs to be very special in our sport and the Horsham RPC is one of them! It’s a quality pigeon club, with quality fanciers and has a good long friendly and family orientated tradition.
It was a good fun day and the lady members of the club put on tea, cakes and sandwiches, for all to enjoy. The raffle on the day was massive with prizes donated by most who attended the show, but a special ‘thanks’ must go to ‘Pets Pantry’ of Cranleigh who donated a mountain of pigeon items, including six bags of corn for prizes. Thanks to Darran and Des! The show has been extended in recent times and included four classes for Show Racers, which I enjoy judging.
Well done to the Horsham Pigeon Club, on another brilliant effort! The C.H.A.S.E. show secretary, Clive Turner, had to go into hospital for an operation a few days before the show and could not attend, but a big ‘thank you’ him for all his hard work on the lead up, and get well very soon, mate! A special thanks to Gordon Marsh, Adam Light and Steve Vizor, who worked flat out all day. Thanks also to the British Homing World for their kindness and generosity with their advert, which was free of charge. I can be contacted for any pigeon matters on telephone number: 01372 463480.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)