Actually, the old debate is getting tired. I could do well to let it rest, if it weren't for the fact that it has caused some senseless judging and even more senseless comments from those who are 'in the know'. This is recently.
Are there any Old English Game fanciers from the old school left in our ranks? Or am I the only one left who still remembers? I was young and keen when I started with these wonderful cocks. My mentors said that these birds are for handling. We caught our birds often - and always. We offered birds in the hand to all our visitors. We held them to appraise their bodies. We looked for muscle and corkiness. Anything with keel bones protruding were spurned. (We see far too many sharp keels present on our modern birds.) We placed our hands on the cock's back to feel for good shortness of back - and flatness. Yes, shortness and flatness! Oh, yes, and we used to pat the sides of the bird admiring the hardness of feather. Unfortunately, the new Old English Game fraternity seems to be looking for other things in the breed - perhaps prettiness, elegance, colour variety (prettiness), or they simply love poultry and find the Old English Game fowl easier to breed.
It is among these fanciers that the debate continues. I sat next to a fancier at a show recently who said that most of the birds on show were Carlisle birds. Granted, he is a cynic when it comes to the showing of the Old English Game, having been influenced by those who keep American pit birds and Spanish pit birds. But his comment got me thinking, how dumb! If I had asked him to show me a Carlisle bird and to define a Carlisle bird I would have been wasting my time, for no-one really knows our Carlisle dilemma, as that is already old hat.
The early Bells imports have been done away with long ago - by the early 80s they were already shunned. However, this was only after we had bred with them, thereby improving our birds in certain areas. With these we got better backs and improved feather. The off-shoot of these stood erect and 'lofty'. But there were also faults, like heaviness, stiff-leggedness (some goose-stepping) and legs tended to get a bit too long. Oh, yes, of course, the tail - it became a bit whippy! As hard as we tried with our improved stock we could not get the tails back. At this stage many threw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. They wanted none of this.
You can guess what happened next. Yes, you're right! A witch hunt ensued. People started talking ill of many yards. I know of at least two prominent fanciers who were spoken into getting rid of certain types of birds. In fact, they got rid of so many birds, they culled themselves out of the hobby. They are well-known personalities in the poultry world -or should I say 'were'. They're gone now. They're breeding parrots instead.
Read this article in full in the October 2009 issue of Feathered World
