“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
The history of the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show (Part Two).
As I stated last week, I have been associated with the RPRA Southern Region Show since it started in the late 1970’s 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, which is now held at the Hazlemere Community Centre, near High Wycombe. The show hosts a charity auction of gift birds every year and over its nearly 40 years since it was started at Ascot Race Course, the show has raised and donated well over £20,000 to charity. A wonderful achievement! That is credited to the Show Secretaries and their band of worker who turn out this great show year after year!
One of the familiar faces I always see at the RPRA Southern Region Show is that of ‘Jock’ Price, who it seems has been there working away since the year dot! ‘Jock’ and his gang of workers put the show up and then take it down every year, and keep it running super smooth. This lovely Scotsman has been in the sport of pigeon racing for most of his life and started when he was the local pigeon ‘ace’, Bert Cusgrove’s, loft boy in 1953. He soon got his own loft of racing pigeons and flew in the Lochee Club and Dundee Federation, with great success. ‘Jock’ served ten years in the Navy, after which he moved to Littlewick Green in 1975, and joined the Maidenhead pigeon club. It was at this time that he started attending the RPRA Southern Region meetings and began working at the show, with the invitation of then show secretary, Bob Arnold. He is still a member of the Maidenhead club today and is club’s serving President.
As I have stated the RPRA Southern Region Show and pigeon auction have donated thousands of pounds to charity over the last 40 years and one of the charities was the Brain Tumour Charity, which is based at Farnborough in Hampshire. ‘Jock’ and his wife, Liz, lost their dear daughter a few short years ago to a brain tumour and they were happy with the decision to donate to the charity from the 2015 show. ‘Jock’ and Liz were presenting the £500 cheque at the Brain Tumour Charity head office in Farnborough and he asked if I would like to come along and take some pictures for the fancy press. Goes without saying, I was more than happy to attend and enjoyed meeting Liz and the Charity staff. I was told that the founders of the Bain Tumour Charity, Neil and Angela Dickson, were awarded MBE’s for their services to the brain tumour community in July 2015. Neil and Angela founded the Samantha Dickson Research Trust twenty-two years ago following the death of their 16 year old daughter from a brain tumour. The charity became the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust, which later merged with Brain Tumour UK and The Joseph Foote Trust to create The Brain Tumour Charity. The charity maintains, over 9,300 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year. We remember all those who have lost their life to brain tumour and those who have lost family and friends. The charity has ‘Supporter Groups’ which are a wonderful way to bring friends, family and colleagues together to fundraise in memory of, or inspired by, a loved one. Each group is committed to fundraising on an ongoing basis and is supported by a dedicated team every step of the way.
2010: That seasons RPRA Southern Region Show was a bittersweet affair for me personally, the downside being told that my good friend of many years standing, Ron Lacey, was packing up as show secretary, and this event was his last. He told me 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. When I say that Ron is one of the sport’s great workers, it is an understatement; he has spent a lifetime working for the RPRA and the sport of pigeon racing in general. He told me he would be in the ‘wings’ for a while to teach the new show secretary the working of the show. It was nice to see Mrs. Hazel Marsh, RPRA Southern Region secretary, and Mrs. Claire Mill, RPRA Southern Region President at the show.
The 2010 Region Show attracted over 700 birds, which Ron told me was a record, but there were a few empty pens on the day, with fanciers on the east side of the UK being hit with snow blizzards and not being able to make the show. My good late friends, Peter Obertelli came down from Mansfield in the Midlands to judge and when they left home at 07.00hrs there was a foot of snow outside his front doors. Long distance racing legend, Mark Gilbert of Windsor, and Roger Low of Reading judged the specials and it was refreshing to see them give ‘Best in Show’ and BOS to two racing pigeons.
‘Best in Show’ was awarded to a handsome dark pied cock who took every body’s eye in the pen as they walked around the hall and he was owned and raced by Julian and Joanne Rice of Suffolk. Julian likes the racing side of the sport and told me the ‘Best in Show’ cock had flown the English Channel in the 2010 racing season. He has enjoyed a good racing season in 2010 winning some premier positions from Tarbes (600 miles). His teenage daughter Joanne is the show girl and has made quite a name for herself in recent years, winning many top honours at the Show Racer Society and National Shows around the country. She could not attend the Region Show this year, as she had to work, but I’m sure she had a surprise when she got home that night and saw her new ‘Best in Show’ silver ware. She started up with show racers in 2003, with pigeon obtained from Collin Bullard and John Robilliard, and told me she liked the yellows, creams and mosaics best. She had 20 pairs of show racers and got a bit of help from her father, Julian, who had had pigeons since 1980. The Rice family raced and showed pigeons and won best racer at the ‘Old Comrades’ Show, but say their Southern Region ‘Best in Show’ was their best performance to date. Joanne had two lofts for her show racers and used a sand litter on the floors, with fed being a good widowhood racing mixture. The birds were paired up the weekend after the BHW Blackpool Show and their got a bath every Monday, including the week before a show. The Society held its first show of the 2007 season at Gravesend in October and the members entered 150 young birds. Joanne Rice did a lot of her showing at the Southern Counties Show Racer Society in those days and won ‘Best Show Racer in Show’ with her beautiful blue chequer hen, which was a really good performance, as this was the first time she had shown in the Society.
2013: This year’s RPRA 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, which I could well appreciate. But Ron being Ron and one of the workers, he could not stay away and was back at the helm. Ron is one of the sport’s great workers and has spent a lifetime working for the RPRA and the sport of pigeon racing in general. The 2013 show had 596 birds entered and the funds raised by the show and auction sale was donated to the RNLI and The Air Ambulance. The auction the gift birds raised some good money for the two charities, and I must say they were a great daft of birds.
‘Best in Show’ was awarded to a beautiful opal hen who took every body’s eye 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 was always the man to beat in any show he competed in and also won ‘Best in Show’ at the RPRA Southern Region Show in 2012, also with another opal hen. He has had racing pigeons since he started at the age of 16, being very successful at club racing and had had Show Races about 30 years. His 2013 Southern Region BIS winner was closely related to his BIS winner at the previous year’s show and both were members of his mosaic family, which originate from birds obtained from George Bartle of Wretford. His opal hen was no stranger to winning, having won first at other premier shows. Colin had three small Show Racer lofts, which housed about 20 pairs and these were all paired up in mid-February. He maintained the main factor in good loft design was that it was clean and dry, so his lofts were closed against rain and bad weather. He used sand and saw dust litter on the loft floors and the clean out was his first job every day. He had no special preparation in the days before a big show, but the birds got a bath every week. No stock birds were kept and about 30 young birds were bred each season to show, and no Show Racers flew out. Colin had 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. Colin also won Best Racer at the 2013 Southern Region Show with handsome Dordin / Cattrysse blue pied cock too go with his ‘Best in Show’.
2014: This year’s show held at the Hazlemere Community Centre had a wonderful entry of 729 birds and Ron Lacey told me he had to turn down all the late entries, because the show was full up, but he could have accepted them all the entry would have been around 800 birds. The entry for this wonderful event was from all over the UK, including Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, and several of the judges commented on high the standard of the birds entered was. There was the usual auction of gift birds and the funds raised by the show and sale was donated to the RNLI and The Douglas and Helen House Hospice. Stuart Sheffield came along and did an excellent job of judging the specials.
Best in Show was won by a beautiful two-year-old Mosaic hen, named ‘Cotswold Southern Belle’, owned by Colin and Jean Carter of Churchdown. This was the third time that the partners had won ‘Best in Show’ at the RPRA Southern Region Show’. Colin & Jean Carter won ‘Best in Show’ for the third time at the 2015 BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’, with his champion silver hen, ‘Cotswold Silver Star’. This hen was bred from Steve Wheatley and Ron McCarthy stock birds and the Blackpool show was her first time in the show pen! Colin and Jean have had very successful 2014 / 15 show season and another principal pigeon was their mosaic hen, ‘Cotswold Southern Belle’, and she won this time: 1st Blackpool show and Best Inter Society (350 birds), BIS RPRA Southern Region Show (729 birds), BOS Stithians Show, 1st South West Open Show and 2nd ‘Duchy’ Open Show. What a great season! Colin told me at that time, ‘this hen, ‘Cotswold Southern Belle’, is bred from our well known and successful mosaic family, which we have established over the last seven years from a pair of mosaic pigeons from John Robilliard, and a number of mosaic pigeons loaned from Ron McCarthy. By winning Best in Show at the RPRA Southern Region Show this winter, ‘Southern Belle’, she qualified for the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at the 2015 BHW Blackpool Show, but we decided to enter her in the normal show, and she won 1st Class 10 and Best Inter Society Classes 9 to 14 (350 birds). By making this decision we helped secure ‘Most Points’ and £100 for the Devon & Cornwall Show Racer Society.’
Colin Carter was born in Portchester, Hampshire in 1938 and no member of his family kept pigeons only shot them for food, along with wild rabbits, and chickens for their eggs. He became a pigeon fancier at the age of 15, when he caught a couple of strays at the local abattoir, where he worked as a slaughter man. In a short time he met up with two local fanciers, George Brister and Bill Harris senior, who set him up and got him going in the sport. His first club was the Fareham & Dist. F.C., flying both south and north road and he won his first race on the north road. Colin’s first show birds came from Cyril Lowe of Guernsey in 1965 and at that time Bill Harris was a stoker on the boats that went on regular trips to Guernsey from Portsmouth. Bill would bring show birds over from Cyril to go to the big London shows. When Colin saw these Show Racers he was hooked and when Cyril Lowe found out he gifted Colin with several pairs. At that time Colin married his wife, Jean, and started a family. In 1970 work took the Carter family to Gloucestershire, where they set up home in Churchdown and because of lack of time all the pigeons had to be sold off. Colin restarted up in the sport in 1991 with a few race birds and joined the Newent & Dist. F.C. On visiting the Old Comrades Show at the N.E.C. Birmingham that winter, Colin bumped into Doug McClary, who he hadn’t seen for over 20 years. One thing led to another and he soon had some of the McClary Show Racers in his back garden, replacing the racing pigeons. He joined the Monmouth Show Racer Society and more show birds were introduced, mainly from Ron McCarthy, Tony Williams and the Wheatley family in the north east of England.
2015: It was great to be back at the RPRA Southern Region Show after a season lay off from judging because of my ‘dodgy knees’ problem. I had five great classes of pigeons to judge and picked a wonderful Show Racer blue chequer cock from my yearlings class to be the best pigeon I handled that day and he then went on to win ‘Best in Show’ for John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Ayrshire. A very satisfying result for me personally, as the ‘Supreme Champion’ owned by Brian and Caroline Seward at the Duchy Show the weekend before was also one of my class winners! That year’s show held at the Hazlemere Community Centre was as usual well supported with 480 birds entered. There was the usual auction of gift birds and the funds raised by the show and sale was donated to the Brain Tumour Charity and the Hampshire Air Ambulance. At the age of 84, my good friend of 35 years standing, Ron Lacey, has finally decided to stand down as Southern Region Show secretary and it is now in the very capable hands of Peter Gretton of Brighton. Peter is used to this type of work, being the secretary of his local Federation and serving on the RPRA Southern Region committee for many years and must say he made marvellous job of the 2015 show.
Best in Show was won by a beautiful yearling blue chequer cock owned by John and Alice Bell of Scotland. John & Alice travelled the 400 miles from Catrine in Ayrshire for the High Wycombe Show and in the three years that they have competed they have won Best Opposite Sex on the first two times they have shown. Went I spoke to the partners at the show, they were highly delighted at finally winning Best in Show at their third attempt and said it was well worth the 400-mile drive down from Scotland. The winning pigeon was bred from a long line of classic show winners and his dam, an eight-year-old blue chequer, won the old hen’s class on the day, also judged by myself. I judged four handled Show Racer classes at High Wycombe and the Bell loft won three of them and took many cards in other class. A brilliant performance!
The Show Secretary of the Southern Counties Show Racer Society, Colin Reynolds, won Best Opposite Sex and at that time he told me he had a good winning family of blues, which believe it or not, originally started from a pair of blue chequers! He had been Show Secretary for about ten seasons and said he liked the standard colours of blue chequer, blue, red chequer and mealy best, although he had several Mosaics in the loft. Colin kept 20 pairs of Show Racers in his four sections ‘L’ Shaped loft and paired them up after the BHW Blackpool Show in January. The birds were fed on a high protein mixture, which includes Beans and Maple Peas. He had been keeping Show Racers since 2004, when the SCSRS was formed and said the Societies chairman, Jim Trim, was a big help in getting him going. The Reynolds loft had won Best in Show many times through the years, including BIS at 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 had been in the sport over 60 years and obtained his first racing pigeons in the 1950’s 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 Racer in 2004.
2016: At time the John and Alice Bell partnership had won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ a record six times and are a ‘household’ in the UK Show Racer fraternity. Not many people knew that their daughter, Nicole, is an outstanding pigeon fancier in her own right, winning several premier shows, including ‘Supreme Champion’ at the RPRA Southern Region Show held at High Wycombe in November 2016. Her winner was her four-year-old mosaic cock, ‘Mervanic’ and he was a gift Show Racer from Mervin Hosking of Wales. Nicole was only 23 years old and worked for the National Autistic Society as a support worker. She told me, her work commitments were the only thing that made her miss the shows, but she tried to work her shifts around it and used her annual leave to cover time off so she could attend the pigeon shows.
At that time, I had a chat with Nicole and what a smashing girl she is! She had very definite and positive views on the direction she was going in with her pigeons, and this is what she had to say, ‘I have been brought up with pigeons all my life, with my mum and dad being John and Alice Bell. Dad raced pigeons from 1975 until 2006, when he parted with the racers and started with show racers. From about 2002 till the present day I was always in the loft with the birds, starting when I could first walk, and I loved it when the babies were parted, and I could sit on the floor with them. People used to say to dad, she will frighten them or pull a feather out of them, but dad said they will soon get used to her. I always went to the shows with them up until I was about 12 years of age, then I did want to go as much, as I wanted to play with my friends. Then when mum and dad were away, I was left to look after the birds and I started to get interested again, so I asked them if I could have my own team to show. So, I set about picking my favourites from mum and dad’s loft and at the end of that season’.
2017: I was judging again this year, with my granddaughter, Katie, stewarding for me and my good mates, Steve Howard and Richard Nicholas, were also judging, so we all went to the show in Steve’s car. I had two great classes of pigeons to judge and picked out two wonderful Show Racer blue chequers to win Classes 1 and 2 and they then went on to win Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex for John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Ayrshire. That year’s RPRA show saw 550 birds entered from all over the UK, including Scotland and Wales. The funds raised by the show were donated to the Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Prostrate Cancer charities. Dom McCoy and his friend, George Koritsas, purchased a load of big tubs of ‘Respro Sani Dry’ loft floor dressing at well under wholesale price from Phil Gardener and sold it at the show, donating all the profit to the charities. Richard Hummerston of the Guide Dogs for the Blind was present at the show and he had his 15-year-old dog, ‘Drew’, with him. She was a Yellow Labrador x Golden Retriever and was a retired breeding bitch, with 20 of her 25 puppies becoming Guide Dogs for the Blind. She was retired in August 2007 and had to be spayed to save her life, after a very difficult time giving birth to her third and last litter of pups. What a wonderful dog!
Best in Show was won by a beautiful blue chequer hen owned by John and Alice Bell of Scotland. John & Alice travelled the 400 miles from Catrine in Ayrshire for the High Wycombe Show and were also Best Opposite Sex with her half-brother, also a beautiful blue chequer. These two winners were brother and sister to ‘Bell’s Young Supreme’, the winner of Supreme Champion at the 2016 BHW Blackpool Show and all three were sired by ‘Bell’s Supreme’, the winner of Supreme Champion at the 2011 BHW Blackpool Show. What fantastic family of pigeons! In the five years that John and Alice had competed at the RPRA Southern Region Show they had won ‘Best in Show’ twice and ‘Best Opposite Sex’ three time, with their daughter, Nicole Bell, also winning Best in Show in 2016 with her wonderful mosaic cock, ‘Mervanic’. When I spoke to the partners at the show, they were highly delighted at winning Best in Show for the second time and said it was well worth the 400-mile drive down from Scotland. I judged two Show Racer classes at High Wycombe and the Bell loft won both of them and took many other firsts in other classes. A brilliant performance!
2018: The month of November saw fanciers make their annual drive up the M40 to High Wycombe for the RPRA Southern Region Show and the entry from all over the UK was well over 500 birds. The funds raised by the show were donated to the Raystede AS and Sebastian’s Action Trust charities. I was judging again this year, with my ol’ mate Wullie Young, stewarding for me and my good mates, Steve Howard and Ron Gammage were also judging.
I had two great classes of pigeons to judge and picked out two wonderful yearling Show Racer blue chequers to win Classes 3 and 4. The hen, now named ‘Dottie’, and then went on to win ‘Best in Show’ for John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Ayrshire. ‘Dottie’ won her class at the BHW Blackpool Show in January 2018 and then went on to win, ‘Best Young Bird’ in Show’, ‘Best Hen in Show’, ‘Best Opposite Sex Show Racer’ and ‘Best Opposite Sex’ over all with over 2,000 birds competing. Her dam, another beautiful blue chequer hen, won her class on the day at the RPRA Southern Region Show and was ‘Best in Show’ at the RPRA Southern Region Show in 2017. John and Alice also won ‘Best Racer in Show’ with beautiful six year old blue chequer pied hen and she had previously won ‘Best in Show’ at the Kingdom of Fife open show (450 birds), and then won ‘Best Racer in Show’ at the Kingdom of Fife in 2017. Talking to John at the Region Show he told me, he had entered eight classes on the day and won six firsts. At the time of writing that show article John and Alice had competed in six major open shows and won ‘Best in Show’ six times and had four Show Racers qualified for the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at the BHW Blackpool Show in January 2019.
John & Alice live in Catrine in Scotland and had travelled down to High Wycombe again to win ‘Best in Show’ for the third time. I had judged ‘Best in Show’ at the RPRA Southern Region Shows for the last two years and given the ‘Supreme’ award to a mother and her daughter. ‘Dottie’ was easy to pick out that year because she was world class and after we all knew about her previous success at the BHW Blackpool Show in January 2018, her record spoke for itself. A fantastic Show Racer! I gave her dam ‘Best in Show’ at the RPRA Southern Region Show in 2017 and she is a sister to ‘Bell’s Young Supreme’, the winner of Supreme Champion at the 2016 BHW Blackpool Show and they were both sired by ‘Bell’s Supreme’, the winner of Supreme Champion at the 2011 BHW Blackpool Show. What fantastic family of pigeons! In the six years that John and Alice had competed at the Southern Region Show they had won Best in Show three times and Best Opposite Sex three time, with their daughter, Nicole Bell, also winning Best in Show in 2016 with her wonderful mosaic cock, ‘Mervanic’. A wonderful performance!
Thousands of fanciers made the drive up to Blackpool in mid-January 2018 for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the 46th British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’. John and Alice Bell won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the Blackpool Show for a record sixth time. There winning pigeon was a wonderful sliver blue hen, now named ‘Mary’s Dream Supreme’ after John’s late mother, Mary and she won Best in Show at the Kingdom of Fife Show (506 birds) to qualify for her place al Blackpool. The Bell show loft has had tremendous success at the Blackpool Show over the years winning: ‘Supreme Champion’ six times, including winning it over the last three years on the trot, Reserve ‘Supreme Champion’ five times, ‘Best in Show’ twice and Reserve ‘Best in Show’ twice. ‘Mary’s Dream Supreme’ is a half-sister to ‘Bell’s Young Supreme’, the Blackpool ‘Supreme Champion’ in 2016. A fantastic achievement! I had a conversation with John after the Blackpool show last January and he told me that they had a bad start to the show season, with Alice going in and out of hospital over the period of the first three major shows, but once she got back in to her roll of the pigeon management they won BIS at the RPRA Southern Region Show (six firsts), BIS at the Kingdom of Fife Show (six firsts) and BIS at the Black Country Show (two firsts). John and Alice had two class winners at the Blackpool Show, with ‘Dottie’, a young blue chequer hen winning ‘Best Opposite Show’ and the loft won ‘Fancier Gaining Best Points’. John told me, ‘I would like to say 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.
Jim McTaggart of Girvan was one of several fanciers who made the 400 mile plus drive down from Scotland to enter birds in the RPRA Southern Region Show and was rewarded by winning ‘Best Opposite Sex’ on the day. His winner was a handsome blue chequer cock bred from the John and Alice Bell bloodlines. This was his very first year breeding pigeons for over 34 years, since his late dad, George and he raced pigeons very successfully in the old Vale of Girvan Homing Society. Jim’s father was an outstanding pigeon racer; clocking pigeons on the day of liberation from France, flying into Scotland. Jim was totally new to the British Show Racers and only obtained his very first birds in January 2018 at BHW Blackpool Show. Jim went to John & Alice Bell and they helped him to get started. Jim told me, they have kept him right and they have let him travel with them to open shows, also explaining to him what he should do with the birds at penning. In the few short months that Jim had been showing at open shows he had won 2 x 1st, 2 x 2nd and a 4th prize card, with the highlight being, entering nine birds and winning ‘Best Opposite Sex’ at the 2018 RPRA Southern Region Show.
Well that our article for this week! I hope my readers have enjoyed looking back at some of the history of the RPRA Southern Region Show over the last two weeks. A Merry Christmas from Betty and me to all our friends in pigeon racing and showing world. Have a great time! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com).