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MEMBERS’ YOUNG STOCK, BARHEAD & RARE VARIETIES SHOW 2006

 

On Sunday, May 21st Somerset Budgerigar Society were delighted with the entry at their Young Stock and Barhead Show which was held at Bridgwater Sports and Social Club.  Over thirty club members attended including several who live outside the county from those present thirteen benched birds. For many of them it was their first experience of showing budgerigars.    Once again a Sunday afternoon meeting proved to be popular.  Eighty young birds were exhibited and the quality throughout all the sections was very high.  The judges, John Crooks and Sheila Burne, were asked to make allowance for condition in the Young Stock section where some youngsters had not fully completed their first moult.  They were also asked to take the future potential of the birds into consideration, which they did to great effect.  One of the hardest classes to judge was the spangle class in the Beginner Young Stock section where 11 birds were benched. The eventual Best of Colour winner, Tim Potter, won this class. However, once all classes and Best of Colours had been judged, it was the winner of the light green/greygreen class that took the title of Best Young Stock Bird in Show and Best Champion Young Stock Bird. This was a very bold light green hen benched by Brian Sweeting.

 

Brian also won the Best Barhead Young Bird in Show and Best Champion Barhead awards with a very stylish cinnamon cobalt dominant pied cock that was chosen by John from an impressive line up of Best of Colour winners.   Popular winners on the day were the new partnership Currington and Berrelly.  Matt and Elaine are newcomers to the hobby who did very well at their first attempt at showing. They exhibited some super young budgies in excellent condition and scooped both the Best Beginner Young Stock and Barhead section awards as well as taking a Best of Colour with a very powerful opaline light green hen in the Young Stock section. It was also the first show for Kevin Jones, who did very well taking the Best of Colour award for the best opaline blue series Young Stock bird.  There were three other new Beginners - Paul Chubb, Paul Wiggins and Tony Gray who all did very well.  However, the star of the day was the club’s newest and youngest member, Junior Cummings, who won Best Junior Young Stock Bird.  The bird also won the blue series Young Stock Best of Colour.

 

In the Novice section Dave Dudley won the Young Stock section award with a bold sky white dilute cock. This young bird also took the Young Stock Best of Colour Award.  In the Intermediate Section, Adrian Duck and Steve Rich fought many close battles with some excellent birds.  Adrian took the Best Barhead with a very wide greygreen cock.  This young bird was a little unlucky not to win Best Barhead in Show.  Steve took the Young Stock award with a very nice light green cock, which is sure to do very well later in the year at the championship shows in the west country.  Steve followed this success with four Best of Colour prizes.  Lutinos were Steve’s most successful variety on the day.

 

A full lists of the results follows below:

 

 

 

 

RARE VARIETIES SHOW AWARDS

 

Whilst John Crooks was judging the young birds Sheila Burne was busy sorting out the entries in the Rare Varieties Show.  They were sorted into sections and then judged for Best of Colour, subsequently the Best of Colour winners were judged for Best in Show. Twenty-three exhibits were benched and all Best of Colour winners were awarded a rosette.  As in the Young Stock Show, spangles had the largest entry with several good quality birds on display.  However, it was Adrian Duck’s grey green spangle cock that won the hardest-fought Best of Colour award. When she had completed her judging, Sheila gave a brief report on her decisions and gave a special mention to the very good slate, exhibited by Sue Burridge and a very nice dominant grey pied cock benched by Haydn Callow - both from the Beginner section and winners of Best of Colour rosettes.  At the end of the day it was the only Champion bird benched, a yellow face skyblue cock, that took the major award of Best Rare in Show.  This bird belonged to Brian Sweeting who had a very successful day taking all three of the major awards.

 

Best of Colour and section winners are listed below.

 

 

 

The Club would like to thank the judges, Sheila Burne and John Crooks, the ladies Jenny Callow, Sheila Chubb and Christine Wiggins who provided and served the refreshments, Lynne Hooper and Theresa Dudley for organising the raffle, George, Paul and Sue Burridge for once again organising the video and book library and commodities stall but above all, the exhibitors, some of whom travelled a very long way in dreadful weather conditions to take part.

 

Richard Hooper (President Elect) presented the trophies to Brian and congratulated all the colour and section winners.  Rosettes were awarded to all Best of Colour and Section winners.

 

All in all, this Sunday afternoon show proved to be a great success.  The event was a combination of keen competition and an enjoyable social occasion.  The fact that there were entries from five new exhibitors was the icing on the cake in these times when many clubs are struggling for survival.