I missed the National Exhibition again this year but fortunately Andy Beesley, the Secretary of the Lizard canary section, recorded the event and sent me judge Chris Jordan’s report:
“The show season started again at Stafford with the English National Exhibition. There were 71 birds entered, of which 65 were on the show bench in the Lizard Canary section, a good number for one of the first shows of the season . Judging started in the Champion colour-fed section with a good clear cap gold cock from Andy Beesley taking the first class and going on to be 4th Best Champion Colour-fed Lizard. Rob & Ian Wright took the next two classes with good birds from a very fine team with Grahame Davis taking class C4 with a nice broken cap silver cock.
Class C6 the winner was again from the Wright stud with a good clear cap silver hen which also took 2nd Best Champion Colour-fed Lizard. Keith Johnson down from Falkirk won the non cap gold cock class and also won 3rd Best Colour-fed Lizard, making it well worth the trip. Andy Beesley brought a good team and took the clear cap gold hen class and also had a number of runner up places in other classes.

It was clear that the bird of the show was another Wright bird, this time a non cap silver hen winning her class with good colour, breast work and spangles. She had shone all day, ultimately taking Best Colour-fed Lizard, Best Champion Lizard, as well as Best Lizard Canary. She went on to win 2nd Best Canary in show. A further point worth noting is that this is the fourth consecutive year that the Wright partnership have taken Best Lizard Canary at the English National and their 2022 winner went on to win Best Canary in Show with another non cap.

The novice colour-fed section was dominated by Nick Rayson’s team of birds taking four class wins and the top three places for colour-fed Lizards. Best Novice was Nick’s non-cap gold cock with a junior member Toby Ashpole being 4th Best Novice colour-fed Lizard in the section with a good clear cap silver cock, this bird also being voted Best Junior Canary in Show and eventually Best Junior Exhibit.

The Natural (non-colour- fed) birds in the Champion classes saw Noel Sidney with three class wins and also taking Best Champion with a clear cap silver cock and subsequently Best Natural Lizard in the section. This was followed closely in the Champion classes by Rob & Ian Wright’s birds.

The Novice classes saw a new name at the National with Mick Tiffany taking two class wins and the top two Novice places. Mick also won 2nd Best Novice Natural, with Paul Hutchinson securing a class win as well. The Best Lizard canary in the Natural (non colour-fed) section was Noel Sidney, then Mick Tiffany taking 2nd and 4th Best, whilst Rob & Ian Wright took 3rd Best and Paul Hutchinson 5th Best on the day.

A good standard of birds all round with some good teams of birds and good to see some new names doing well, also we had a new junior exhibitor in Reggie Poll taking a creditable place in a class of eight birds.

So with Toby Ashpole takingBest Junior in show and Rob & Ian Wright winning 2nd Best Canary in Show it looks well for the Lizard canary on the show bench for 2024. “
Chris Jordan (Judge).
Footnotes:
- My thanks to Andy and Chris for their photos and report respectively.
- For those who may be wondering how Toby competed in the Novice section yet won the award for Best Junior, the LCA’s Rules allow for Juniors to compete in the Novice classes if there are no separate classes for Juniors at a show. This does not compromise their Junior status.
Magnifique lizards de très bons oiseaux félicitations j’ ai arrêté l’élevage de lizards mais je crois je vais recommencer bravo
I would like to say ,well done young toby ,
I have for many years hated the colure fed canarys and in resent years more so ,as breeders seem to colure feed every bird they have , and in my opinion for the worse,
However after seeing these gold lizards being colure fed , the lizard markings shine through and look stunning
So I have to eat my words but only on this accation ,
Well done that man for producing some stunning colured none capped lizards