| Author: Webmaster | Title: Doncaster Old Comrades Show 2004 |
| Date: 2004-11-28 20:42:41 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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Another year past, another season finished; and its time again to visit the Old Comrades Show at Doncaster. It’s daunting how circumstances change within a year, this time last year I was looking for a new loft and pairing up on paper. Whereas this year it’s a 200 mile trek to get home then onto the show, the last of the pigeons going down with me to the show and an empty loft! I might add that I haven’t left the sport but have left the country (England), venturing up into bonny Scotland for 4 years in university; so this is my sabbatical lets say!
Friday came and due so the journey started. Boy it was cold leaving St Andrews that day, with the thought of arriving at the tropical Hartlepool by evening what else could I do but put my toe down! Well so much for the route planner and the map-reader, taking a wrong turn only half an hour in and being, lets say semi-lost in Fife! Wasn’t too bad in the end, we found the Fourth and followed it to the bridge, right back on track, or so I thought! And it wasn’t the huge ice stretch near Kielder that put the brakes on our travels but an accident in the borders that added another 2 (and the rest) hours onto our journey.
The sight of home was on the horizon come nigh on 8 o’clock, and soon it was round to the loft. Funny seeing it that empty stood in the dark, absent the normal coo of the birds being disturbed; anyway the baskets came out and the inmates rounded up. Wow I never had this many birds left over did I, there were 21 in all and filled the last space my little car could find.
Oh joy, back on the open road; the last 90 miles to Leeds seemed to pass quickly, mind you I must have been on the phone for about 50 of it (hands-free of course!). Straight to the loft of ‘Mo’ aka my 21 friends’ new home, where they found a section to themselves, see I told them that it’d be the Ritz!
The knock came at 7, yes seven o’clock; that’s not a time a student is used to!! (Not having the pigeons does have its perks; i.e. sleep!!). Well no rest for the wicked, and we were back on the road, a brew at ‘t loft then down ‘t road ‘t trucker café for ‘t breakfast (see this being in Yorkshire lark rubs off!). At this point I realised what effect 7 am had caused me, yep, completely forgotten my pass to get entry to the show, and didn’t have a clue if my car was locked up back at the loft (great start!). Well anxious me arrived with the merry gang (Mo, Iv and the Loftmanager) at the more sensible hour of 9:30. Well already the car park was filling up and the queue was growing ever further down the street, waiting for the doors to open at 10.
Getting into the show wasn’t too much of a problem, suppose they knew someone carrying a 10 foot banner and an anxious smile wouldn’t be simply jumping the queue! The first person I bumped into (on the quest for the stewards room) was Mr RPRA himself, Peter Bryant, nice to catch up again since Blackpool in January; well I got the pointer of 'over there' (pointing in the direction of most things in the hall) and it was back down to Doncaster’s own Crystal Maze, and from the Aztec zone I hurried towards the other end of the hall, this must be the Futuristic zone I thought to myself as I came past a stand for what looked like an Automatic Loft, well the automatic drinkers that I saw anyway!
Down to work and the banner went up (on the balcony leading towards the room where the auctions were held), then hands turned to sealing the show pens that had finished being judged. Its rather odd being in the main hall before the doors are opened, a sort of eerie quietness, and the sense of space, quite different to the bustle of thousands of fanciers in the same space only 10mins into the future. Anyway enough daydreaming, and on went the pots for the water of each and every of the 2,000+ pens, followed by, you guessed it, water! Whilst putting the pot upon the pens, a near incident with a television camera (what a television camera!! No one told me of that or I’d have been on avoid the camera duty all day!) could have seen me out for the count!
Then came the highlight of the weekend, stewarding for the Best in Show. Wow what an experience, the cream of the whole show all in 30 or so pens for John Brown to agonise over which should be taking the silverware home. Well I can say without a doubt that these certainly were the cream and every one was a credit to the fanciers who have put 365 days of effort into these birds. There could only be one winner though, and that was a toughie but a lovely red hen took the honours, a strong mealy cock taking best opposite sex; the racers weren’t far behind by any stretch of the imagination and a corker of a cheq pied hen took the best racer.
Full results of the Doncaster Show, and more photos; click here.
After that the weekend seems to slip by pretty quickly, meeting fanciers from home and introducing my new found fanciers oops should call them doomen now that apparently I’m an honouree Scot!! Another highlight of the weekend was seeing my good friends’ Dave and Tommy’s good cheq hen get selected for the GB Team, representing the country at the Olympiad in Portugal next year. Added to the news that one of the pigeons I was stewarding for was St Andrews fancier’s D Harcus & Son, which took best yearling. All round I think it was a fantastic weekend, a credit to all who were involved behind the scenes a special thank you to Ray and Louise Bissett without whom I would have not had any part to play in the show of the year.
The weekend didn’t end there though; oh no! There was a whole other day to come back and enjoy it once again. Savouring the moment as it wont be another year until the next ‘donny’ show comes around.
Driving back saw a stop-off at Barnard Castle at the loft where the pigeon game all started for me. The loft of Mal Watts, master breeder none-the-less. It brought the fact home to me that me without pigeons isn’t really right, the place where is started, and visiting my now loft empty. I saw the slatey hen once again, one of the first pigeons I ever had, looking back a few years now. Mostly Mal’s setup is for his pride and joy, Indian Fantails, but he still has 30 or so of the ‘funny coloured ‘uns’ as I sometimes put it, which are racers from Kirkpatrick and Vandy fame. What a loft for colour; colours I’ve never seen before in pigeons, its seems as every time I visit there is some new hue, this time it was the browns, a great selection of chequers, bars and a dilute. It really is a marvel to see, I mean just look at the almond Indian fantail cock that’s in the picture, what a beauty.
Monday dawned and the rest of the journey through the borders and once again into Scotland. If you ever get the chance to take the ’68 to Edinburgh, do it, do it for heavens sake; quite possibly the most beautiful road I have ever driven on. You’ll see why when you get your driving gloves on and take the trip; but do try and keep your eyes on the road, it gets rather like the Nurburgring at one point, and no matter what we try and convince ourselves, none of us is Michael Schumacher!
Your Webmaster signing off…
| Photos of some of the Winners |  |  |  |  | | More photos and full show result; click here. |
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| Coo time for a brew!...Where next? |
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