NORTH REGION SHOW Birdwell Village Hall 19 September 2004
Judge: Ron Gardner

I would particularly like to congratulate the Novice exhibitors on the great improvement made in the quality of the exhibits at this show. I do hope that this continues as you are the future quality chinchilla breeders of the future. The quality here was a quantum step forward from those I saw last year. It would seem that several have benefited from advice given and have sought to purchase better quality stock. I was very pleased and encouraged by what I saw.

I awarded only two firsts in the Novice section, one standard and one mutation. The standard went on to become Reserve Best Adult Standard Male, congratulations to Mr. Whitmore. This is the first time it has been possible for a novice to be given a special award and I have no hesitation in supporting the change in classification which allowed this to take place. Although only two firsts were given there were animals of quality which were not in condition and therefore suffered a drop of one or two places. Please keep up the good work.

The Young Standard Females were split into three colour phases, the mediums and med-darks contained animals of quality and it was the mediums which provided the Best and Reserve in section. Joyce Garvey won with a very nice medium well finished with clear blue strong fur, followed by Paul Spooner's animal which was also clear and blue but had slightly more open fur. The winner went on to become Best Young Standard and Reserve Best Standard Animal.

The Young Standard Males split into two classes, med-dark and dark.
Paul Spooner was again to the fore winning Best with his med-dark which was a well presented blocky animal with good fur type. This went on to be Reserve Best Standard Animal. Reserve in the section went to the Cook/Blakey partnership's dark which had silky strong stand up fur of correct colour but was not quite in the condition of the winner.

Best Adult Standard Female and Reserve Best Standard went to an excellent big blocky animal which was not in condition on the day but would give a better account of itself on another occasion, it oozed quality throughout and on that basis gained the awards. A super female of this quality should in my opinion be producing future champions, please don't over show her.

Best Adult Standard Male went to Paul Spooner who presented a top quality male not quite in best condition but with all the qualities necessary to become Best Standard and Show Champion; big, blocky, silky strong stand up fur which was clear and blue, a very nice animal. The Reserve was Mr. (sorry don't know your first name) Whitmore's slightly open-furred animal which had much the same quality as the winner but lacked in size by comparison.

The Novice mutation first winner was an adult Ebony of good quality and intensity of colour but lacking in size. It was not able to compete with the top Champion Mutations however.

RON GARDNER