By Nigel Wycherley

Borders Branch Show 2004 - Whitehaven
A wet and windy trip up to the Fantail Club's Borders show at Whitehaven - I must stop having a curry on the Friday night before travelling to a pigeon show! Although it is a very early start, the scenery once you reach the Lake District is stunning and the trees in their beautiful autumn colours make the long journey pass more quickly.

I always look forward to attending this show as it is the first opportunity of the show season to see our friends from the North West of England and Scotland.

I had the pleasure of judging some of the classes this year, which I had been looking forward to for a long time.
The quality of the birds I judged ranged from excellent to poor with a few birds still showing signs of the moult and there were also lots of empty pens.

Roger Goode kindly assisted me as my steward. Many thanks to Roger and everyone else who fetched and carried the Fantails to and from the walking pens. I hope I didn't get on your nerves too much lads.

The first colour I judged was Black, not very many which was disappointing. An adult hen of Roger's took the NPA Certificate as she never stopped showing and was in better show condition than the others. An adult cock of the Davidsons will, once moulted fully, be very competitive.

Continued in 'Feathered World' November 2004 issue