November 2015 - Presidents Evening & Christmas Draw

Our chairman, Jim Lawrie, opened the meeting and welcomed everybody. Apologies were received from Graham Cornwall, Dee Boscoe, Shaun Thompson, John Mullen, John Clarke, Harry & Sue Wadley, Colin Ives and George Wilson.

Everyone was advised of the forthcoming AGM and told that they would be emailed the paper work etc.  Copies of the 2014 AGM minutes and general paperwork will be available at the AGM in January for those without Emails.

With that Jim handed over to me to explain the format for the evening, which was that we would start with the food brought by Brian Mansell on behalf of Graham Cornwall, who was unable to come as his wife was just out of hospital and couldn’t be left alone. So we started with the food and then I started the Christmas draw, which went on for some time.

With 50 prizes to award I summoned the help of anyone near me to draw the names out.  The winners drew their own prize numbers, which I had a bit of fun with etc to liven up the proceedings.

All of us there enjoyed the buffet very much, so many thanks to Brian & his team for all their hard work in arranging such a lovely spread!

Many thanks also to everyone that made it such a great evening. 

October 2015 - Members Show

The Members Show was well supported again this year with 81 birds benched!

Apologies were received from John Mullen, Colin Ives, George Wilson and Andrew McKendrick.

It was good to have Brian Duncombe, our Show Manager, working well with our judge, Pete Smith, with John Clarke assisting! Also, many thanks to all of the Clarke family; they were great with all the help they gave.

So ‘thank you’ to all who took the time to bring birds to the show; it was good to see you all and with everybody helping it made it a very enjoyable day for all.

After being booked in the birds were placed on the staging by all of our helpers, under the guidance of Brian Duncombe and John Clarke.

Once Pete had started judging he gave a very clear running evaluation, explaining the reasons for his choices, sometimes judging from right to left and then from left to right to make it more interesting!

That aside, the best bird won on the day, because the Judge is always right. We thank Pete for giving a full explanation on various faults on the birds.

We had a full ploughman’s lunch after the judging of the major awards, which generated lots of conversation on winning birds.

The major awards were made as follows, with the remainder on the attached sheet:

• Best in Show                           Alex Whitman
• Best Young Bird in Show       Jim Lawrie

All in all we had a very good day, with everyone helping at some stage, for which I would like to thank you all again.

September 2015 - EGM

The EGM meeting was called to order at 8.18 pm and everyone was welcomed by our Chairman Jim Lawrie.  

I then gave the apologies from Andrew McKendrick, Malcolm & Pam Freemantle, Colin Ives, George Wilson, George Suttcliff, Barbara Davis, Andy Poole and John Mullen.(9)

Present: (20)

Chris Angus-Smith       Tony Cash

John Gorrell                 Brian Duncombe

Graham Cornwall         Jim Lawrie

Shaun Thompson         Dee Boscoe

Alex Whitman              Brian Mansell

Will &Barbara Bien      Martin Terry

Derrick Ham                 Harry & Sue Wadley

John Clarke                  Ricky Watts

David Rice                    Delia Smith

This EGM was called to try and avoid going to an AGM in January with no prospective candidates coming forward to take on official duties / office to run the club. (As last year)

After a very lively start to the meeting, as you would expect at an EGM, it settled down to a very constructive meeting with lots of different ideas being put forward, which would allow the club to go forward into 2016 and beyond.  So having this meeting has helped to keep the club with all its history from closing down, like so many others.

The club is in a sound financial position, as discussed at the meeting, with the figures on a spread sheet that were produced by our treasurer for this meeting.

The Christmas draw has £403.00 after tonight’s takings, of which 20% will be taken to club funds as agreed at the committee meeting held on the 27^th February 2015 as we don’t have a fund raising bring & buy nowadays

 (We may do the draw again at our members show)?

We then had a raffle and Jim thanked all members and closed the meeting, wishing all a safe and easier journey home then the one getting here.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday 17^th October for the Members Show: (Sales class to be added with £1 entry fee)

After all the conversation and gestures, could next years top table / officers look like the table below?

July 2015 - Pairs Competition

The meeting was called to order at 8.06 pm and everyone was welcomed by our Chairman, Jim Lawrie.  I then gave the apologies from Andrew McKendrick, Pam Freemantle, Dee Boscoe, Shaun Thompson, Alex Whitman and John Mullen.

With the birds benched we elected David Rice to do the judging as ‘pairs you would put together to overcome any problems in the birds and to achieve the type of young you would like’, whilst we dealt with some club business. 

I then gave a brief of the format for the evening, which was asking everyone to pair up 4 pairs of birds as if they were the only birds in their stud and then keep their judging slips on them until asked in part 2, when we would compare their pairings with David Rice’s pairings.

After 25 minutes David had finished judging the pairings, so all started to judge and we also had the tea break and general chat at same time.

I then put David’s pairs together and asked David his reasons for his pairings and to give us his comments regarding the quality of the birds benched and the faults and good features that were in front of him.  David explained why he had chosen his pairings.  By trying to balance both the good features and the faults he gave his ideas for improving the birds, bearing in mind that he didn’t know the background / pedigree of them.

We had breeders there from top champions like Malcolm Freemantle to beginners like Derek Ham (who is still building up his stud) so it was nice to see the interaction between them all.

The winners of the evening were the members who attended the meeting.  I then said we were sorry to hear that Clive Mayers, a long standing member of Northdowns BS, was moving away to Gloucester, as he would be missed!

Well done to all of the above on having a good eye for pairing up and thanks for bringing your birds .We then had a raffle and Jim thanked all members and closed the meeting, wishing all a safe journey hom

I look forward to seeing everyone on Friday 18^th September for the EGM to discuss the clubs future! (Early because of BS Club Show)

June 2015 - Ray Piper

The meeting was called to order at 8.04 pm and everyone was welcomed by our Chairman, Jim Lawrie.  I then gave the apologies from Andrew McKendrick, Mike Ball, John Gorrell, Pam & Malcolm Freemantle, Alex Whitman and John Mullen.

Jim then introduced our speaker for the evening, Ray Piper, who is the Chairman of Havant CBS and has kept all sorts of birds in his time in the hobby.  His present stock is of aprox 200 birds of all varieties (or so his better half said who travelled up with him for support!).

Ray started by telling us about his life in birds from his childhood to the current day, which was very interesting regarding the types of birds he has kept over the years.

He brought along with him 4 of the species that he keeps now; a Gouldian Finch ,Silver Java Sparrow, Gold Breasted Waxbill and Fire Finch, which were all in very good feather condition and beautiful in colour.

After discussing the birds and explaining some of the pitfalls in breeding some of them, he then started the slide show of his own birds that he keeps now and breeds from. This went on until the tea break, with lots of comments from members, some of whom kept or used to breed some of the birds shown in Ray’s slides.

Once again, we all showed our appreciation to Ray for a very entertaining evening and for not taking any expenses.

Thanks also to all the helpers in the kitchen with the washing up etc, which made life a bit easier for Chris Angus-Smith.

I would also like to thank all of those who brought birds along tonight and to Geoff Dell for being the Judge. (Very Good birds on show).

After Ray had left we went on to talk about the budgies that Geoff had judged, with most agreeing with his assessment of the birds.  I was asking members various questions regarding the quality of all the birds, including the bird placed last which was a Cobalt hen and all agreed they would take it home, which shows how good they were.

May 2015 - Young Stock Show

The meeting was called to order at 8.04 pm and everyone was welcomed by our Chairman, Jim Lawrie.  I then gave the apologies from Andrew McKendrick, Paul Gover, Alex Whitman, John Mullen, Clive Mayers, Graham Cornwall, Ricky Watts and Alan Joyce. 

Peter Merritt, our judge for the evening, started judging the birds at 8.35pm, after explaining how he was going to judge them and that he would make some allowance because of condition, as some of the birds this year seemed to be in-between moults.

Because it was a young stock show the classes were grouped together ‘cock and hen’ to simplify the judging and Peter said that condition was not paramount, as it was a members young bird show. Also, reclassification would happen if required, as no one would be wrong classed.

Whilst judging Peter explained what features he was actually looking for in the birds and said that when there were two very similar birds it was difficult to place them first and second, as you needed to take into account all of their features / faults. He also stressed that birds entered deserved the time to allow them to perch.

As the judging went on Peter kept up a running commentary and ensured that everyone could see what he was doing. He asked for questions and comments as he was judging and also when he had finished.

After the break I announced the winners of the evening with Jim Lawrie taking Best Young Bird and Shaun & Dee Boscoe for Best Young Bird Opposite Sex.

Peter then started to explain about the birds and the faults and the reasons why they were placed where they were on the benches.

Our thanks to Steve Cox, for assisting Peter Merritt and to Brian Duncombe, our show manager, for keeping a keen eye on the proceedings. 

Thanks also to all the helpers in the kitchen washing up etc, which made life a bit easier for Chris Angus-Smith.

Our congratulations to the main winners of the evening:

• Jim Lawrie : Best bird in show – Grey Green Cock

• Shaun & Dee Boscoe : Best Opposite Sex -  Grey Green  Spangle Hen    
• Jim Lawrie:  Best champion –  Grey Green Cock 
• Colin Ives:  Best intermediate – Cin Sky Hen
•  Best Novice - N/E
• Shaun & Dee Boscoe: Best Beginner –  Grey Green  Spangle Hen    

I would also like to thank all of those that helped with the setting up and removal of the trestles, plus other jobs, which makes life a lot easier.

April 2015 - Mick Freeborn

The police arrived late am and by that time I had posted it all on facebook, also emailing all the breeders on my contact list, so some kind of action could be put into place regarding birds being offered to breeders / trades people etc.   Mick said when he came back he noticed a show cage on the floor with 7 birds in it and, on checking, noticed that 4 of them were bred off his Pied line, which was one of his best lines.

After lots of various false calls / claims he started to think he didn’t want birds anymore and was still in a state of shock after having them for over 50 years or so.

Then it was time for the BS show in Doncaster, which he & Steve Cox always work with the entry of birds and he was still in the same frame of mind regarding the birds. He then met the BBC southern TV crew, who followed him around talking to him about the fact that he couldn’t stop keeping birds.  With that plus the offers of birds from various breeders he started to come round to the idea of starting again as a new beginning with all different bloodlines.

With the split from Linda at this time he had decided to move to Chandlers Ford with his daughter, who brought a log effect type cabin / bird room which he started to fit out.

 We then had John Gorrell join me at the top table to talk about the miniatures’ he had brought along and how he acquired them. He goes to Cornwall a lot, as his outlaw lives there and also Maurice Roberts is not far away who he visits often.  He gave Maurice 2 Green cock birds and came away with 4 pairs of miniatures’, which he has been breeding (all types of varieties coming from them).  

Maurice showed one of the green cocks at the BS show as his bird was not fit and won the red dot, but couldn’t be awarded the “CC” because John hadn’t used a BS ring.

I then asked Clive Mayers to join me to give us all an update on Terry Smith. Clive said he was doing well and he might be having a new birdroom closer to the house so it would be easier for him with his frame to manage, as the existing one is making life too difficult. Clive is going to see if he can get Terry to one of our meetings soon!

Once again, we all showed our appreciation to Mick, John and Clive and others for contributing to the Open Forum format for a very entertaining evening that we all had.

Our thanks to all that brought birds along for the evening, Martin Terry, John Gorrell and Dee & Shaun.  

The evening then concluded after the raffle and all were wished a safe journey home.