National  Modena Club 

of  Great  Britain

Presidents  Report,

John Ross

2019-2021 

 

I  was  very honoured  to  be asked  to  become  the President  of  our  great  Club.  I have  been  a member since  1992 and  qualified  as a  Modena  NPA  judge  in 2000, in those days under the rules  of the time,  you had  to  judge  on your  own at  the  Modena  Club  young  bird  show held  at  Newark  and  your  results  were  scrutinised  by  the  committee  before  qualifying  then you may have had  to  wait  2  years  to  formally  be allowed  to  award  NPA  certificates  as  the list  was only  updated  by  the  NPA every  2 years.   This was before the  internet and computers were commonly  being  used.  I have since judged  Modenas  in Scotland. England.  Wales  and  abroad in Norway  and Denmark.  

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I  have  seen the  English Modena  change  quite  a lot in my  time.  We used  to  see  450 to  500  Modenas  at  the club  show with  Argents,  Recessive Red,  Magnani and  Lavenders  always  on show, they are rarely  seen  now, although  Martin Smith, Dennis  Thornton and Junior  Nieve  Benson  are flying the flag  with  Argents.

I  think the overall  colour of the birds was  much better  then  than  today  but if  less colours are  being  kept  hence  the  gene pool becomes  smaller.  The  birds are larger than they were when I first started and at one point became too large in my opinion  but think we  have mostly  got  the  size  about  right now.  Looking  along  victory  row  at last years 2019  club  show  the birds  were  very uniform in size.

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Although there are less  pigeon  fanciers at  championship shows, with few younger people joining the hobby, In the  2019 /20 show  season   we had Modena entries of 124 at Reading, 103 at  BPSS  Barnsley, 88 at East of  England. 84 at  Lancashire, with  other  shows  such as Swansea  and  Suffex  in the 60’s  this bodes  well  for our club.  Other breed clubs would love these numbers and competition is still there  for our chosen   breed.  

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I  always  like to  take photos  of  the  winning birds  at  the  shows  and  have help  from  David  Iddon and  Sharon  Feeney  who  also  take photos  for me to use as  club  webmaster, something  I have  enjoyed doing  for many  years and still do.  The web site enables  fanciers,  home  and abroad, to  keep  up  to  date with  our winners .

My aim as  Modena  Club  President is to  ENCOURAGE and PROMOTE  the English  Modena   at every opportunity, as I have always done since becoming a member of the club and to  bring all our members  together in harmony.

Best  regards,  John Ross