Never A Dull Moment: A Champion First Season!

Now firmly an ex-novice, DONALD SKINNER-REID looks back on the past year with his exhibition Scots, Belgians and Gibosos and addresses the high and low points of that time.

CANARIES

THIS article isn’t an ego trip. It’s a genuine reflection on my first year exhibiting my Scots, Belgians and Gibosos at champion level.

In the rules of the Scots Fancy Canary Specialist Club (SFCSC), a novice exhibits for five seasons as a novice and then moves up to champion level. During the show season of 2016, a well-known judge said to me that I should exhibit at champion level anyway. But, being a lawyer, I like to stick to the rules! The birds were good enough to compete with champion birds; that was the judge’s point, and he was right because I was winning best Scots even though I was exhibiting in the novice classes.

I did not expect, however, that the transition would be a foregone conclusion. When assessing best, the novice class winners are then competing for this award against the champion class winners – just by using maths, the results ought to have been less certain.