61st World Show

The 61st World Show was held in the Ethias-Arena, Hasselt, Belgium from 23-1-13 to 27-1-13.COM-UK conveyors Richard Lumley and Gary Mann took a total of 170 birds to this wonderful show. A total entry for the show, (23,543 birds!) was a wonderful sight. COM-UK which is now the team that we take our birds with won a total of 9 medals which is more than we got in Spain in 2012. IOA exhibitors had a good show winning 5 out of the nine medals, For me the highlight was the Lizard boys Rob Bunting from Kings Lynn continued his success with a silver medal Lizard Gold and ‘Mr Lizard’ Stan Bolton shocked everybody with a bronze medal with a Lizard Blue, the first ever person from the UK to do this, so well done Stan. Bernard Howlett won Gold with a Phaeo Green Finch, first time exhibitor Geoff White won a bronze with a stam of White Irish Fancy’s and Brian Hogg won a Gold with a Lancashire Coppy canary. Two exhibitors Peter Sardena from Gibraltar got 91pts for one of his birds but unfortunately it was placed fourth and Willie McKay from Scotland got a fourth place with a stam of his fifes, he was so near a medal because there were 27 teams of stams in the class so to get the same number of points as the bronze medal winner is no mean feat. I wish to thank everyone else who showed but did not win anything and I include myself in that because for me it’s the taking part that counts. We had a lot of members scoring 90 pts. but it’s just that little bit of luck you need. Overall I felt this was one of the better organised shows I have been to, they did everything they promised and lifted 24,000 in five hours, no mean feat. My only complaint would have to be the lighting in the hall, it was pathetic, yes it was that bad, if you wanted to see the new colours I hope you had a torch with you.

Rob Bunting with silver medal	Stan Bolton with gold medal
Gala dinner	UK COM president