The President & Chairman of the Spangled BBA, Stuart Forbes, welcomed members to the 2003 Spangle Day at a new venue in Wolvey and thanked members for attending and bringing birds for him to judge.

While the President was judging the show, B.S. President Gren Norris and his wife Pat gave a talk about their life in the hobby and in particular their experience with Spangles. Gren recalled that he bought his first Spangle from John Smith, a fancier from Colchester, Essex in the mid eighties. He found that he was unable to breed good normals from them even though they were fertile. He persevered with them for 4-5 years then sold out all the Spangles. John Smith had by then got some very good Spangles. When John packed up and sold out he let Pat have a good Spangle hen.

When their show team was stolen in 1993 the partnership were desperate for related stock; they were offered a Spangle hen that had come from a very good Grey Green. When they bred with the hen Gren had to change his views about Spangles as on this occasion the normals produced were as good as the Spangles. He was then convinced that there are two distinct types of Spangles; those which breed good normals and the other that breed inferior normals.

When Dolores Noonan gave up birds they bought her stud, which was based on their own bloodline. She, at the time, was producing some good Spangles and in particular a Double Factor Spangle White cock that the partnership went on to register a champion. Because Dolores was experiencing flecking problems Gren advised her to pair Spangles together to breed the Double Factors, which would hide the flecking.

Gren informed the meeting that only last year the partnership were able to breed the first normal of reasonable quality from a Spangle pairing which won them a best in show.

Spangles are the most versatile variety that they have used with feather quality, length of feather and tightness. The partnership uses Spangles with Lutinos (mainly Lutino cocks to dark factor Spangle hens) and have found that 50% of the Lutinos produced carry heavy feather down in comparison with very little down when Lutinos are paired up without Spangles as partners.

The partnership find that the best Spangles produced are those from Spangle to Spangle pairing which also improve the wing marking as well as the correct Spangle spots.

In responding to a question on judging, Gren said that most Double Factor Spangles show green/blue marking on the rump and back and these should be penalised. When considering the spots on Spangles Gren felt that he would sooner put up a Spangle with solid spots than one without any spots at all. Judging Spangles is no different from judging a class of Light Greens. A green without spots will never win a BIS but unfortunately you often see Spangles without spots winning BIS awards. When judging any variety of birds your bible is always The Budgerigar Society Colour Standards.

At the Annual General Meeting, Alan Moore was inaugurated as the new President and Chris Keeler was elected to the post of President Elect. Rod Clarke was elected the new Patronage Secretary and Bob Allen was elected to the committee. All other officers remained the same and were announced as: Life Vice President, G. Al-Nasser; Vice Presidents, S. Amos, J. Attwood, F. Canham, B. Heale, C. Heale, R. Molkentin, F. Silva, R. Stringer, R. Thumwood; Chairman & Treasurer; S. Forbes; Secretary, C. Wixon (98 Highworth Crescent, Yate, Bristol BS37 4HL. Tel: 01454 881334 e-mail marionwixon@blueyonder.co.uk); Vice Chair & Editor, Mrs. M. Wixon; Membership Secretary, J. Cosby; Publicity Officer, Mrs. J. Al-Nasser; Trophy Steward, Mrs. S. Clarke and committee member C. Thorne.