BCV State Championship, Shield & Team Selection

The BCV Young Bird State Championship (formerly known as the “Frank Gardner” Young Bird Shield Competition)

The BCV, holds three Major Shield shows per year. All of the clubs are invited to enter a team to compete against each other for the Shield. These shows are the Adult bird completion in March, the Young Bird in May and the UBC competition in September.

Each club normally holds a club competition to pick their team of 3 birds in each of the 28 colour varieties a few days prior to the Shield competition. 

At the Shield competition all of the 3 birds from each club in each Variety (if 20 clubs enter 3 birds there could be 60 birds in the class) are benched and judged down to 30.

There are no exhibitor class distinction, all birds are in together Beginner – Champion. There are “Club Points” for these birds allocated to calculate the winning club.

However the birds that come 1st, 2nd & 3rd each receive Exhibitor points.

The main / major show out of these three Shield Competitions is the Young bird, as the team of 3 birds for the National competition, which is usually held one week later, is selected from the winners in each colour class. These birds can only be from the previous calendar year.

At the National competition, each of the seven state/zones enters three birds in each colour class. There are “State Points” for these birds allocated to calculate the winning state. The winning birds 1st, 2nd & 3rd each receive Exhibitor points.