South Western Zebra Finch Club Annual Summer Show.

Yet another brilliant event was hosted by the club at its regular venue at Kennford on Sunday 11^th August. For a show which started out as ‘A bit of fun for members’ has seen it progress into expansion from all exhibitors of all three sections showing  in the same class to find the best of each colour and those going forward to Best in Show with a ‘rundown’ to 7^th place to having three exhibiting section with Best Champion Breeder, Novice Breeder and Junior Breeder awards with also each section having both Adult Exhibits and Breeder. Then 4 years ago Bengalese entries were accepted as were Foreign.

In this year’s event there were 2 Champion exhibitors who between them staged 23 entries, 10 of which were Adult and 11 Breeders. In the Novice section 5 exhibitors benched 37 entries of 18 Adult and 19 Breeders. Unfortunately, there were no Junior entries but there were 15 sales class entries.

In the Bengalese section 13 entries consisting of ‘Self Bengalese’ and ‘Variegated’ and were exhibited by 3 members.

Two exhibitors staged 5 Foreign Bird entries of 3 Grass Finches, a Silver Bill and Gouldian Finch.

Judges on the day were Patrick Moore from Weymouth judging Zebra Finches and Andy Nethercott cutting his judging teeth on Bengalese and Foreign.

Best in show was awarded to Andy Cole’s Adult Chestnut Flanked White (CFW) pair, which also took the colour award for CFW and the Haith’s Seed sponsorship of rosette and seed voucher. His Normal adults were 2^nd best in show and his Breeder Normal pair were awarded Best Champion Breeder and placed 7^th Best due to no entries in the Penguin or AOSV classes.

3^rd and 4^th placing went to the Paintain and Cannan Partnership with adult Pied and Dilutes respectively.

5^th and 6^th placings were awarded to Novice exhibitor Alex Norris with his adult Fawn and Breeder White which were also Best Novice Breeder. He also took the Best Foreign place with his Grass Finch.

In the Bengalese section Adrian Wills took the ‘Best overall’ award with his very well-matched pair of Fawn and White which also took the Variegated Bengales award and the Haiths Seed sponsorship rosette and seed voucher.

Ian Mitchell took the ‘Self Bengalese’ award with a striking pair of Self Chocolate.

In his closing speech, Chairman Paul Paintain thanked all those who attended and noted the distance some had travelled from Wales, Bristol and Camborne Cornwall. He also thanked Andy Cole for sponsoring the rosettes and Haith’s Seeds for their generous sponsorship and wished everyone a safe journey home.