Show News - 2001

by Carol Lutz, Show Secretary

On Saturday, 10th February 2001, 41 exhibitors brought 87 Burmese cats and kittens to Forestville in Sydney for the Burmese Cat Society of Australasia’s 33rd Annual Championship Show – The Whiskas Celebration of Burmese. Exhibits and exhibitors came from all over NSW and from Canberra to compete in this prestigious event.
The show was a three ring open Australian style event, where the judging was carried out in front of the public. Our judges included Karen Moore (NSW), Fiona Cooper (NSW), Allan Raymond (QLD), David Purdue (SA) and Val Hurry (NSW).
While the overall numbers of exhibits was down on previous years, there was plenty of stiff competition, especially in the adult classes. There were 7 brown studs entered in the show, and of these, 5 competed on the day for the challenge. We also had exhibits in all of the ten colours for the first time in quite a few years.
After last year, when we had lots of kittens and 8 litters, this year was a little disappointing. There was only one litter entered. Unfortunately, not all the kittens in the litter were at the show, so there were no litters eligible for the judging.
The best male, female and desexed kittens and the best male, female, neuter and spay cats in each ring competed against each other for a place in the top 10 Burmese in the show. Rhondda Watson was the judge for this difficult task, and awarded supreme exhibit to Sunbury One Night Only, a beautiful brown stud cat bred by Rae Auland and owned by Ian and Carol Lutz.
A regular feature of the Burmese Cat Society Show is the special classes honouring the veteran Burmese cats, those over 7 years old. This year saw 14 golden oldies competing for awards in age, coat colour and head type. One exhibitor entered 5 golden oldies. There was also a class for the best brace of veterans. (A brace is defined as two cats owned by the same person). Rhondda Watson was delighted by the exhibits and awarded the Best Golden Oldie award to Double Grand Champion Bajimbi Lilac Indecision, a 7 year old lilac stud, bred by Bambi Edwards and owned by Ian and Carol Lutz.
This year we also ran members classes, where we challenged Karen Moore to pick the best members kitten, entire and desexed cat. This was a free class to all members, but you needed to enter it on your show entry. The best members exhibit was Gold Double Grand Champion Fioric Lucky Shadow, a cream neuter bred and owned by Fiona Cooper.
Another special class saw 26 Burmese cats and kittens compete for the award of Supreme Purrsonality exhibit. One of the Society’s foundation members, Madge Craig had the challenge to choose the friendliest exhibit. After meeting so many purring Burmese, she settled on a winner: Corbetti Rainbow Chevy, a chocolate tortoiseshell female cat, owned and bred by Debbie Nugent.
One of the Society’s lifetime members, Doris Burnage, was called on to judge the special lucky 8 competition. Eight exhibits, selected at random from all the exhibits that missed a best in show award, competed against each other in this round robin competition. The lucky winner was a brown baby litter kitten, Ladyburm Lady Brownsilk owned and bred by John and Ruth Cantrell. All eight exhibits in this competition took home some lovely trophies.
This year the Society also had a special exhibition area for My Special Burmese exhibits. This attracted an interesting entry of 7 cats. Doris Burnage was asked to choose her favourite exhibit and chose a lovely chocolate neuter, GL DB GD CH Rosepark Hi Jinks, owned and bred by C Atkins.
The display of rosettes, ribbons and trophies filled the stage at the front of the hall, and Brenda Gorrie, Chris Buckley and trophy stewards worked hard delivering prizes and awards throughout the day. The ribbons and rosettes, from America, (thanks to Diane Smith for ordering them again) were in the society’s colours of brown, blue and cream, with the veteran ribbons in teal, burgundy and silver. Trophies and prizes were varied and numerous in number and included sponsorship from Whiskas, exelpet and International Animal Health Products.
As part of the celebrations, the Burmese Cat and Kitten of the Year awards for 2000 were presented throughout the day. These awards saw the owners of the top Burmese cats and kittens from 2000 being honoured. The Pebs Brown Simba Cat of the Year was Gold Double Grand, CCC of A Grand Champion, ACT Double Grand Champion Kandid Aroha Lady; a lilac female owned by bred by Deirdre Slacke. The Desexed Cat of the Year was Gold Double Grand, CCC of A Champion Incazo Simply Special, a brown tortoiseshell spay owned by Ian Dunn and bred by Ian & Carol Lutz. The 2000 Member’s Breeder of the Year was Deirdre Slacke of Kandid Kattery.