North of England Gloster Club 10^th November 2024.

49^th Annual show.

                              Incorporating the Old Varieties Canary Association                

 Northern Area Patronage Show.

The North of England Gloster Club (N EGC) show was held in Bomarsund Sports and Social Welfare Centre on November 10th 2024. The joint venture with the Old Varieties Canary Association (OVCA) again proved successful for both exhibitors and visitors.

An entry 353 canaries of which 234 were Glosters, and 119 OVC, Lizard canaries and AOVC graced the benches. As usual refreshments were available for exhibitors and visitors throughout the duration of the show as well as a free coffee/tea and sandwich to all exhibitors.

The judges were;

Kevin Stoakes and Sandy Hay– Gloster Canaries;

Joe Coakley – OVCs, Rares & Lizards.

Austin Middlemiss  AOVCs.

Patronages.

Patronage was received from the National Council for Aviculture, International Ornithological Association, International Gloster Breeders Association, Old Varieties Canary Association, and the Scots Fancy Specialist Club.

Three special Presidents Award (PA) rosettes were up for competition:

The John Scott PA– Best OVC/Lizard was awarded to Donald Skinner – Reid, U/F Scots Fancy hen.

The George Storey PA – Best Champion Gloster was award to Neil Burton & Paul Reay – U/F cinnamon corona hen.

The John Martin PA – Best Novice Gloster was awarded to Malcolm Lowe – U/F buff consort cock.

Champion Gloster.

Leading the way in the champion corona classes was Burton & Reay’s U/F cinnamon corona hen which also won the IGBA club show earlier in the season.  A wonderful example of the modern Gloster – short and round with a perfect crest, nicely coupled wings, short piped tail, smooth polished feather and balanced in size. It went on to take the George Storey PA Rosette for Best Gloster, best champion, best u/f and best cinnamon awards. Neil and Paul also took fourth to seventh best champion corona with an u/f TPD hen, u/f buff cock, u/f TPD cock and a fltd TPD cock. In the consort classes the partnership took second, third and fifth with an u/f TPD hen, an u/f buff cock, and a fltd TPD cock.

George Nicol led the way in the consort classes taking best champion opposite head, best opposite head, best buff and best fltd in show with a fltd buff consort hen. George also took the best yellow  with a consort hen, best white with a corona hen and best AOC Gloster with a corona hen.  He also annexed the fourth, sixth to eighth and tenth best consorts as well eighth and tenth best coronas.

Rob & Ian Wright took the second best champion corona and best TPD award with a fltd hen.

Kevin Anderson and Pete Roome took the third best corona with an u/f buff hen and ninth best consort with a fltd TPD hen.

Adrian Short took the best Grizzle award with a corona hen.

Novice Gloster.

Malcolm Lowe took the leading novice award and the John Martin PA Rosette  with an u/f TPD consort cock and best novice opposite head with an u/f TPD corona cock.

Malcolm also took the best u/f, best buff and best TPD awards with the two leading novice Glosters. He also annexed the best novice cinnamon and second best consort with a hen and best white and sixth best consort also with a hen. He also took fourth and ninth best novice consort.

Jim & Liam Proudfoot took the best novice fltd award with a buff consort cock, and best novice yellow with a consort cock. The partnership also took second to fifth best novice coronas and third, fifth and seventh best novice consorts.

Kevin Featherstone took sixth best novice corona with a fltd buff corona hen, and eighth best novice consort with a fltd TPD hen.

Donny Bailey took the seventh best novice corona with a white corona hen.

Best Junior was awarded to Charlie Roome with a corona hen.

The OVC/Rare /Lizard Section.

Donald Skinner-Reid took the coveted award for best OVC and the John Scott PA Rosette awarded to the leading exhibit from the OVC and Lizard sections with an u/f buff Scots fancy hen.  Donald rounded of a good day by annexing the best Belgium and second best OVC with a fltd hen.

Third best and best novice OVC was awarded to Billy Spoors with an u/f North Dutch Frill. Billy also exhibited a fine team of Lancashire canaries displaying good style and length.

Kevin McCallum exhibited the leading Padovan, Parisian and South Dutch frills, and the best crested canary with a crest bred cock.

Lauren Thompson took the best novice Belgian.

Kevin Featherstone took the leading novice Scots fancy with a white cock.

Barney Owston was awarded the best Rare with a variegated Raza Espanola.

The leading Lizard was a classic non cap gold hen benched to perfection by R & I Wright; this hen displayed good rowing and spangling with a good even  colour through- out.

In the blue and natural Lizard sections Paul Hutchinson took the award for best with a broken cap cock and a gold hen respectively.

AOVC Section.

In the AOVC a keenly contested Norwich section saw Adrian Short lead the way with a well-received yellow hen which took the award for best AOVC.  Alan Jones exhibited a strong team which pushed the leading birds.

Best Irish was award to Barney Owston, and best novice Irish Laurel Thompson.

Best novice AOVC and best novice Fife was awarded to Paul Hutchinson.

Thanks extended to.

The club wishes to thank Rob & Ian Wright who donated a splendid pair of Glosters for the raffle, to Sam Guy for donating bags of seed for auction, and a thank you to everyone who donated towards the raffle and club specials.

Thanks are also extended to Steve, Paul, Jim, Liam, Stuart, Chris, Donald and Kevin who took on the steward duties, to Sharon and Angela for gainfully selling raffle tickets, and a special thank you to Rob Wright for carrying out the presentations on behalf of the club.

The NoEGC also wishes to thank Bomarsund Sports & Social Welfare for the use of the excellent facilities, and thanks were also extended to Claire for facilitating the refreshments at the show.

Norman Wallace. 21/1/25