The 1963 Club Show: two 1sts, one 2nd, two 3rds, NPA Certificate, Best White Cup, Best White and the trophy for Best White bred 1963. The Scottish Club Show firsts. One 2nd, three 3rds, Best Adult Jacobin and an NPA Certificate. The 1967 Dairy Show, NPA Certificate East of Scotland
There is a story as to how a splash hen was bred. The Guvnor had told me that we needed to get a good black cock. His thinking was that if we kept breeding white to white the father would get very hairy. On one occasion we went to Harrogate for the Club show, with the sole purpose of buying a black cock. We met two or three Scotsmen who had the best birds in this colour, but no one would sell! I think it was Norman Collie who asked if we had seen the black cock in the 'any variety' cock £10 selling class.
So we all trooped off to see this bird. It looked terrific! Why was it in this class? Did it breed? It had come from the north of Scotland. Jimmy Mundell, an international all-round judge asked who judged this class, which I looked up in the catalogue. 'Mr M' Jimmy said. 'If you don't claim that bird it will be gone by 2 o'clock!' So the Guvnor gave me the £10 to claim it. I waited by the office until it opened for claims. We had got it. I explained that we would be returning to Maidstone that afternoon. 'You will be able to take it after 5pm'. 'That's ok' I replied.
Yes it did breed. This good splash hen looked terrific in the New Year. I entered it in the Gold Cup show, which was held at 'Sim's Auction Rooms' at Borough Market, London Bridge. She won her class, best in the Jacobin section and runner-up to the Gold Cup winner, a white Fantail. (The entry was over 700.)
Harry Wheeler approached me at this show. He was the secretary of the Reading Pigeon Society. He asked me if I would send some Jacobins for their show. So I talked it over with the Guv. 'Please yourself, you have to get them ready,' he told me. I entered two, a white cock and the splash hen. I put them on the rail at Friday lunchtime, never to be seen again. I received a telegram from Reading on Friday evening saying that the basket had arrived empty. No sawdust or shavings!
It must have been two or three years after we bought the black cock that I was showing our Dalmatian dog at the British Timken Show in Northampton. We had been judged and I put the dog back on his bench. I decided to go to the refreshment marquee. When I arrived outside the tent, the judge referred to earlier as 'Mr M' was leaning against a guy rope. 'Hello Mr Lawrence' he said. We went in, got a cuppa and sat down. The first question he asked me was if the black cock I had claimed at Harrogate a few years ago had done me any good. (How's that for a memory!) My old friend Jimmy Mundell had not been far out with his assumption!
continues in the January 2011 issue of Featherd World
Part 1 of this article appeared in the December 2010 issue of Featherd World.
