Keith Mott

Southern Counties Show Racer Society

 

I recently had the pleasure of judging at the Southern Counties Show Racer Open Show, held at Gravesend in Kent and the turn out was excellent, with over 350 birds being entered. This was the fourth time I have judged this event in the last five winters and other judges were my grand daughter Sasha Mott, Ced Allwright, Clive Allwright and Brian Goodwin, with Terry Phillips on the West of England Tumblers. The hall at the Gravesend Rugby Club is ideal for holding shows and the SCSRS use the venue for all their Society and Open shows. The birds always look ‘mint’ when penned in the hall and this year’s array of 130 West of England Tumblers looked especially outstanding. The SCSRS secretary, Dave Savage, with partner S. Tyson won a lot of the classes, but Best West of England Tumbler was won by B. Richie, with a quality young Dun hen. A really brilliant looking hen!

 

A young lad named John Harrod of Suffolk won Best in Show with a young blue show racer cock and entering a team of 30 plus birds that day, had won a hat full of prize cards. The parents of this near perfect cock were obtained from the premier Show Racer fancier John Bell of Scotland and were bred from a line of top show winners. John was ill on the day of the show, so did not attend, but his dad, Phil, penned the birds and lifted the prizes for him. The Harrod loft has won BIS at this event twice previously and the last time I met up with young John he had won BIS at the RPRA Southern Region Show a few winters ago. John told me then that he has all colours in his show racer team, but his reds, which were obtained from his father’s friend, are particularly strong in quality and win well whenever he exhibits them. He says his best performance to date is BIS at the RPRA Southern Region Show and he has won several firsts at the BHW Blackpool Show. Fantastic performances put up by this young lad! John has only been into Show Racers for about seven years and says he has three lofts, which houses his big team. He feeds a heavy racing mixture and cleans out regularly, not being keen on deep litter on the loft floors. His dad, Phil, is very interested in the pigeons and drives John to all the shows. Congratulations to young John on his wonderful performances over the last year!

 

Frank and Patsy May of Gravesend won Best Racer with a wonderful blue cock and this pigeon really stood out, standing in his pen when you walked in the hall and was a worthy winner of Best Racing Pigeon in Show. The partners have a 16ft x 5ft loft and race their 20 widowhood cocks and hens on the North Road. The main family kept is the Soontjens and they like sprint racing up to 300 miles. The birds are mated up at the end of January and only rear one nest of youngsters before going on the widowhood system.  The May’s team of 45 young birds are allowed to pair up if they want and get three 40 mile training tosses during the racing season. Frank tells me he mixes his own corn and never breaks the racers down. He has been in the sport 35 plus years and has won the Federation many times, the best win being 1st Federation Doncaster by 15 minuets. Well done mate!

 

Class winners were:

Adult Blue Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) C. Reynolds 3) C. Reynolds.

Adult Blue Hen: 1) C. Bullard 2) F. Southgate 3) M/M Mackintosh.

2011 Blue Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) J. Harrod 3) M. Horner.

2011 Blue Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) J. Harrod 3) F. Southgate.

Adult Blue Chequer Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) J. Harrod 3) M. Horner.

A/A Blue Chequer Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) C. Bulled 3) M. Horner.

2010 Blue Chequer Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) C. Reynolds 3) M. Horner.

Adult Red Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Reynolds.

Adult Red Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Bulled.

2011 Red Cock: 1) C. Reynolds 2) C. Bulled 3) C. Reynolds.

2011 Red Hen: 1) C. Bulled 2) J. Harrod 3) J. Harrod.

Adult Mealy Cock: 1) C. Bulled 2) F. Southgate 3) C. Reynolds.

Adult Mealy Hen: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) C. Reynolds 3) C. Bulled.

2011 Mealy Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) C. Bullard 3) J. Harrod.

2011 Mealy Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) C. Bulled 3) M. Horner.

Adult Opals Cock: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Reynolds.

Adult Opals Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) J. Harrod.

2011 Opals Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Bullard.

2011 Opals Hen: 1) C. Bullard 2) J. Harrod 3) M/M Mackintosh.

Adult Colours Cocks: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) M/M Mackintosh.

Adult Colours Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) M. Horner 3) C. Reynolds.

2011 Colours Cock: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) A. Boakes 3) A. Boakes.

2011 Colours Hen: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) F. Southgate 3) C. Reynolds.

Adult Cock TW: 1) L. Bulled 2) C. Bulled 3) J. Harrod.

Adult Hen TW: 1) C. Reynolds 2) L. Bullard 3) C. Bullard.

2011 Cock TW: 1) C. Bullard.

2011 Hen TW: 1) C. Bullard 2) M. Horner.

Adult Racing Cock: 1) M/M F. May 2) M/M F. May 3) M/M F. May.

Adult Racing Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) J. Trim.

2011 Racing Cock: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) M/M F. May 3) M/M F. May.

2011 Racing Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) M/M F. May 3) M/M F. May.

AOC A/A Cock: 1) C. Bullard 2) J. Trim 3) C. Bullard.

AOC A/A Hen: 1) C. Bullard 2) C. Bullard 3) M/M K. Whiting.

West of England class winners were: No.29. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.30. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.31. D. Baker: No.33. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.34. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.35. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.36. D. Baker: No.37. B. Collins: No.38. B. Collins: No.39. B. Richie: No.40. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.41. B. Collins: No.42. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.44. B. Richie: No.55. B. Richie: No.46. B. Richie. The specials were judged by Keith Mott, Ced Allwright and Terry Phillips.

Best in Show – John Harrod.

Best Show Racer – John Harrod.

Best Racer – Frank & Patsy May.

Best West of England – B. Richie.

The open show was sponsored by Simon & Sarah Knowles of Malibu Grains in Wingham and Linda Nicholas of Stimulite Bird Foods in Hartlip.

 

The Southern Counties Show Racer Society was formed in August 2004, with the main aim of having good competition for Show Racers, in a friendly atmosphere. Jim Trim, the Society’s chairman, tells me the annual subscription is only £5, with new members paying a £5 entrance fee which goes into the trophy fund. The Society has a very healthy 22 fanciers membership and has no club radius, in fact they had a member in Germany who came over and showed his birds. The headquarters is the Gravesend Rugby Club, just 15 minutes off the M25 Motorway at the Dartford Crossing and they hold shows right through the winter months, plus a squeaker show in June, just for a mid year get together for the members. Shows are held on Sundays and all members have to be present by 09.00hrs to erect the show pens and judging starts at 10.30hrs. The Society own 350 show pens and have opened their entries to flying breeds, including West of England Tumblers, Birmingham Rollers, Tipplers and Racing Pigeons. They award their own Southern Counties Champion Certificate to pigeons that win five ‘best of colours’ certificates under three different judges. In December they hold the all winners ‘Best of Breeds’ show, to find their annual Supreme Champion.

 

Well that’s it for this week! I would like to finish by thanking Jim Trim for inviting us once again to judge at the open show, we all really enjoyed it very much, it was a great day out! Well done to Colin Reynolds, SCSRS show secretary, for all his good work on the day. I can be contacted on phone number: 01372 463480.

 

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.