Russians invade Abingdon!

The Russian Blue Breeder’s Association 22nd Championship Show took place on the 6th October 2007 at The Guildhall, Abingdon. It was our third year at our ‘new’ venue after many years being held at the Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon. Our entry was up on last year with 77 cats, in additional to our Resplendent Russians, we had some Sensational Snowshoes, Lovely La Perms, Terrific Thais and of course our Heroic Household Pets. Marlene Buckeridge was our very able Show Manager with assistance from Dot Thomson and myself – our husbands all did more than their fair share as usual, of course!

Naturally, we hope that our show will get bigger and better every year and in addition to our larger entry we had a larger than usual gate, which was good news for our raffle and, judging by the smiles on their faces, we can assume that the other stall holders had a positive day, it seems it was certainly worth them getting up at the crack of dawn on an early autumn morning.

One of our committee members, Val Price, sadly passed away suddenly in January this year and we missed her at the show taking her usual place heading up our rosette table. Val has shown cats at every show since our very first one back in 1982 and we know she would be smiling down on us all! We were lucky to have some of Val’s family in attendance, with Val’s daughter Allison Savage showing her cat Sashova Zavidovich, who did her proud with the number of rosettes on his pen and was made up to Premier. The work Val usually undertook was ably taken over by other members of the club. The Russian Blue Breeders Association is a small club and we know each other, we’re quite a little family in a way!

We had a class this year with all entrants being judged exclusively on temperament, in memory of Val, and her son and daughters were proud to present a shield to the winner, Shoelina Nina Milkina owned by Mrs J. Fleming, incidentally she also went on to win Best in Show Kitten.

We had a Visitor’s Choice vote this year, where visitors get a chance to vote for their favourite cat, it was won by Judith Noble’s kitten Larksong Militza.

I must mention all the valuable support given by Aimee and Keith Thomson, Dot & Bob Thomson’s grandchildren, Aimee was stewarding for the first time today and Keith did a fantastic job helping everyone and anyone. It’s nice to know that the future may well be in very safe hands!

To drum up support from visitors two of us went into Abingdon town centre wearing a grey cat costume and traditional Russian dress to hand out flyers for the show. It certainly caused a few smiles and pointed fingers when they made our way through the melee of shoppers in the High Street.

We were very pleased to say that the day went, largely, without a hitch and we were even able to close the show a little early at 4:30pm. Planning is obviously already underway for next year, so pop it in your diaries now – Saturday 4th October 2008.

©Robert Fox

Results:

Last year's show