The Scots Fancy show season always starts with two big bangs. The first is the Northern Counties Scots Fancy Canary Club [NCSFCC] show, now styled as the Southern Show of the Scots Fancy Specialist Club, held in Carlisle in association with the Northern Gloster Fancy Club, the Zebra Finch Society and this year the Lizard Club.
The second bang is the National Exhibition held at Stafford where the Scots are exhibited within the Old Varieties Canary Association (OVCA) section.
The big news this year is record entries. At Carlisle, 79 Scots were exhibited by 9 exhibitors from Champion, Novice and Junior.
At Stafford, 74 Scots were entered, another record, from 12 exhibitors, again Champion, Novice and Junior. That entry was 25% of the OVCA section at the National and comprised some classes of 8, 10, 11 and 22 exhibits, figures no-one has seen since before 1914. For the first time in years, there is competition within the Novice section which is excellent news.
At the NCSFCC show the winner of Best Junior was Lauren Wight. The Best Novice was John Marshall and Best Champion and Best in Show, Donald Skinner-Reid.
At the National, Gordon Alexander, for the second successive year, won Best Scots with John Marshall again Best Novice and Lauren Wight Best Junior.

This is my winning bird at Carlisle - the rosette is from the USA Old Varieties Canary Association.

Gordon Alexnader with his second successive win at the National Exhibition, 2018.

I was delighted to win Best Giboso Espanol at the National Exhibition.