6th October – National Exhibition 2019 – Lizard Canaries

It is rather early in the show season for Lizards to be fully moulted and ready for the show bench but nevertheless there were some impressive birds in the 55 that were benched. In the colour fed section there were 39 Champion and 10 Novice birds. For the first time this year the LCA put on classes for natural Lizards and there were six novice birds benched in these classes. It was truly a national show with Lizards from Scotland and Wales, as well as many regions of England, on display.

Judging is always a challenge but in working through the classes a number of birds started to stand out. A clear cap silver cock from Andy Williamson showed itself to be a worthy contender with good ground colour, breast work and spangle. It won in a class of seven birds and went forward for consideration for one of the specials.

The next stand out bird was a clear cap gold hen with a rich ground colour, good breast work and good spangles from Andy Williamson. The hen was a very steady bird and showed herself well. A class of broken cap gold hens was also a strong class, all showing a nice ground colour and good breast work. A bird from Carlos took first place in the class.

A new name, Mr G Davis, took a class win with a broken cap silver hen. The hen was a good coloured bold bird with good breast work and spangles. In my view she would have been worthy of third best champion in show.

In the non cap silver hens class one bird stood out straight away. The hen, one of Andy Williamson’s birds, had excellent ground colour and showed her straight spangles and good breast work well and she deserved the Best Champion Lizard award. Another one of Andy’s birds, a clear cap gold hen took the Second best Champion award.

Overall, a good display of champion birds. In the novice classes, some very good colour fed and natural Lizards were benched and they were not outshone by the champions.

In the colour fed classes it was nice to see a new name on the novice scene, a Ms Toni Owen entering her first show and acting as steward too. Overall in the colour fed classes there were some very good birds, particularly in the clear cap gold hen and the broken cap gold hen classes. The eventual winner of Best Novice was a Tony Horton colour-fed clear cap silver hen. Tony also took Second Best Novice with a natural broken cap gold hen.

The contest for Best Lizard was between Andy Williamson’s non cap silver hen and Tony Horton’s clear cap silver hen, both colour-fed birds and showing themselves at their best. After due consideration, Tony’s clear cap took the top honours.

Chris Jordan
LCA Panel Judge

Best Lizard in Show – Tony Horton (colour fed clear cap silver hen)

Best Champion – Andy Williamson (colour fed non cap silver hen)
Second Best Champion – Andy Williamson (colour-fed clear cap gold hen)

Best Novice – Tony Horton (colour fed clear cap silver hen)
Second Best Novice – Tony Horton (natural broken cap gold hen)

Best Novice Natural Lizard – Tony Horton. (broken cap gold hen)

National-2019-Lizard-winner-Tony-Horton