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West of England Tumblers – Page 34 – Purebred PIGEON
Breed of the Issue - West of England Tumblers
MyTime InThe
NWOETC
By Jay Turner
C
ongratulations to the NWOETC on celebrating 50 Years
as a National Club. What a great achievement for such a
wonderful group.
My time with this club is short compared to a lot of members
but I would like to share some of my thoughts on my time here.
Bill Henderson helped me get into the club back in 2006. I
started mostly with baldheads but was soon lured into reds and red
mottles and then on to several other colors over the years. In those
early years the black family seem to have the deepest quality and
at times it seemed like everyone had them, everyone but me that
is. They were a very strong family with some of the best breeders
raising a lot of them. Needless to say, they were also winning most
of the larger shows, it was a very completive time for the NWOETC.
The club politics was mainly dominated by the very good
breeders on the west coast and rightfully so as the Southern Cal
club was very strong at that time. The northeast also had several
members and were putting on some nice shows as well. Later we
would see the rise of the New Mexico group and the Northwestern
group as well, some very good breeders in these areas.
Luckily for me we started a very nice group in the southeast.
Rick Stokes drove the wagon and at times we had over 10 very good
breeders in our area. This to me was the best part of this hobby. We
had some very fun lawn shows and area shows and I think this is
what made me stay with the breed and the club, it was a great time.
But everything changes and that is to be expected, some groups
get stronger and others fade away and I’m sure every national club
goes through the same thing.
At present I would say we have a pretty balanced group across
the country with the west coast still maintaining the most mem-
bers for any one
group. We have
been very for-
tunate to have
good leadership
in my time with
the national
club, men like
Jim Cooper,
Gary Severe,
Peter Tapia and
Two NWOETC Grand Master Breeders, one Superior Master Breeder and one Master Breeder
L to R: Bill Henderson, Jay Turner, Matt Matuska and Brian McCormick.
Matt Matuska have all made very good Presidents and now with
Josh Zilles at the helm we are in good hands. Larry Eastman, Terry
Brechbill and Chris Bossley all handled the duties as Bulletin Editor
and did great with that. Our bulletins have always been one of our
greatest treasures; no club is complete with out that.
During my time with the club, Chuck Zeller wrote and pub-
lished his book on West of England Tumblers and it was a wonder-
ful piece of work, no telling how much time went into writing that
book, thanks again Chuck.
Bob Christman has always handled our awards. The West club
prides itself on top notch awards and Bob has made sure that this
tradition has never fallen off, thanks to him as well.
As far as the shows go, the Pageant in California is still the
largest draw in the country, just a great show to attend. However,
in past years the NYBS in Louisville, the Premier in Salt Lake and
Pigeons on the Prairie in Des Moines have all drawn good numbers
and very good quality birds. Of course, the National show is still
our old stand by and we have been very fortunate that it has trav-
eled all over the country and is always well attended.
As for the birds themselves, I think our overall quality has
much improved over these past 16 years. I think the birds are more
uniform now as a group; rarely do you see very large birds with
huge heads and necks; nor do you see birds small and slight that
look like they could go into a kit box and hit a roll or two. We have
slipped up on some of our color quality but we have also had great
improvement in other colors. The adding of the Lemon color and
the addition of the barred mottles has made for some super nice
birds that have been completive very quick. The black family of
West no longer dominate the landscape of shows thanks to some
improvement in other colors. The Red family of birds have made
great strides the last 10 years and seem to be near the top these
days with the very beautiful black baldheads stealing the attention
at many shows as well.
So overall I would say that my short time in the NWOETC
has been very rewarding and very enjoyable and there is no doubt,
if giving the
chance I would
choose this
breed and this
fine club all over
again. Congrat-
ulations to the
NWOETC on 50
wonderful years
and here’s to
another 50 years
to come.•