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New venue was a winner, says S&R show organisers

The main organiser of the recent 2011 Specialist and Rare Variety Open Show, Ghalib Al-Nasser, has paid tribute to the success of the event’s new venue at Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire.

Mr Al-Nasser has organised this event for the past 22 years and describes it as the number two national show in the budgerigar year. He said: “You just never know what you’re going to get with a new venue and so we were delighted with the way everything went. We had some knowledge of the venue because Northamptonshire BS use it. We also used their wooden staging.”

There was an entry of 697 with a total of 535 birds benched by 54 exhibitors and the show attracted its usual contingent of foreign fanciers with visitors from Norway and Sweden coming for the first time. The entry of rares increased to 72.

Mr Al-Nasser said: “We normally have a lot of overseas visitors, with folks from Belgium, Germany and Holland being regular attendees, but we were delighted to welcome this year two fanciers from Norway and one from Sweden.”

Mr Al-Nasser and wife Janice were also in the rosettes, winning the adult dominant pied challenge cup with a cobalt cock and the adult challenge cup with best yellowface.

“It’s always nice to win, after putting in some much hard work. It’s the icing on the cake. We were very pleased to get among the major colours,” Mr Al-Nasser said.