BATH 19.10.2002

A very cold start to the day but lovely sunny weather later. Our judges, Andrew Bryan (Syrian) and Sue Washbrook (Dwarf), had nearly 100 Syrians and 33 Dwarfs to tackle respectively. The show was well attended by members and the public.
My thanks to our judges, book stewards, Mark who was dragooned into judging the pets, the sales team, raffle sellers, pen stewards and Rosie who helped me in the kitchen, and ALL who helped to clear up so quickly at the end.
Special thanks must go to Wendy Barry who took over as show sec on the day as my arms wouldn't stretch from the kitchen to the show sec table! I hope all that came enjoyed the day as much as I did.
I took the advantage of issuing a Diploma in the Dwarf section as it was being judged by a NHC judge.

Chris Logsdail

My thanks to SOEHC for inviting me to judge. The last time they asked me to judge at their Bath show I forgot to turn up - it took a long time to live that one down.
There were just 33 Dwarf hamsters to judge. A mixed bunch but on the whole the standard was average - very nice.
Campbells.(7 normal and 2 albino) The Campbells displayed super thick winter fur with lovely furry feet. Type was generally good but colour was rather pale and a few had very white belly fur. The 2 albinos in the class were lovely and white but extremely small.
Winter Whites. (4 normal, 4 sapphire, 2 pearl) Over the two classes the standard was quite high. The animals were generally oval shape with classic "Roman" noses. Fur was very good but colour was the main fault. The sapphires were either browning or pale, the normals were dark but they often had thick uneven stripes especially in the neck area. The NHC standard for pearls says that the animal must be white with light and even ticking of colour. No mention is made of a stripe. The pearls in the show had heavy patchy ticking and a very distinct stripe.
Chinese. (5 normal, 2 dom. Spot) The normal Chinese displayed good colour, type and fur. The dom spots were down on colour and type. The NHC standard says that the spots should be sharply defined and evenly distributed over the top surface of the animal. This is hard to achieve but not impossible. The 2 dom spots had brindled spots and a pale colour.
Non - Standard (7 hamsters) A mixed bunch but fur was excellent on all of them. It was interesting to see the different types of mottled - 1) collared 2) spotted 3) collared and spotted. I don't know much about the genetics of the mottled but it would certainly appear that there are at least 2 separate genes involved in producing the pattern. Is anybody out there working on mottled genetics?
My thanks to my book steward , Kathy, I hope we have you hooked on hamsters now. Also thanks to my pen steward, Esther. Congratulations to Duncton Hams B.I.S. (Chinese) and Jean Tye Reserve B.I.S. (Winter White).

Sue Washbrook