Source: Historic archives of NAC yearbooks
National Angora Stock Show to be held on Sunday 26th May 2019, at the usual venue: Wyken Community Centre, Westmorland Road, off Belgrave Road, Wyken, Coventry,CV2 5PY.
- Judge Mr Alan Cargo.
- The AGM will be held at 1pm lunchtime at this stock show on 26thMay.
- All proposals to be sent to myself or Lesley Hordon.
- My contact details are angora.bunnies@btopenworld.com.Tel 01233 732194.
- Address: 19, Farm Road, Hamstreet, Ashford, Kent. TN26 2JA.
- Lesley Hordon’s contact details are : 37 Harrowby Road, Leeds,West Yorks. LS16HX
- e mail: skyrackangoras@hotmail.co.uk, tel : 01132 304400.
- The next dates and stock show venues/judges will then be decided at the AGM so please put in your proposals and preferences.
- Remember the venue is to be within 70 mile radius of Coventry.
- The club stand should also be at the following Fibre Festivals, dependant on being accepted by the festival organisers.
- You are welcome to join us for a chat and to do some crafts at the club stand.
- Volunteers to help man the stand are also needed. Please let Lesley know if you can help.
Source: Historic archives of NAC yearbooks
Bradford small livestock show held 20/21 January at Doncaster racecourse
Although there were six adults and one U/5 rabbit were entered only two adults and one U/5 were at the show.
Due to the gap between entering and the show date, it is not always possible to predict what a rabbit might do in that time, some chew, some get stained through excess wetting, and if you feel your rabbit is not up to scratch you dont take it.
The National Angora Club Products Competition
There was a very good entry this year, with two beginners producing excellent work.
The breed standard of the national club.
Body Coat
- Clipped down to a maximum of one inch, pure colour, fine texture, even and dense all over
- A coat of 1 – 2 inches is permissible in the case of coloured Angoras
- 15 points
Furnishings
- Head, feet, legs, face, ears and tail
- 15 points
Head
- Broad, short skull, broad flat nose, large eyes of correct colour, dense crest, long fringe, thickly wooled along line of jaw
- 10 points
Ears
- Erect, short, tapered, well wooled, fringed and tufted
- 10 points
Body
- Short coupled, back arched, chest deep, broad and prominent, powerful shoulders and loins a good size
- 25 points
Legs and Feet
- Straight, good but not coarse boned, heavily wooled with short nails
- 10 points
Condition
- Firm flesh, clean well nourished and well groomed
- 10 points
Carriage
- Alert and upstanding, masculine in appearance in the case of a buck
- 5 points
Total Points 100
Weight
- Ideally not to be more than 7½lbs.
Serious Faults
- Narrow wedge head, low head or ear carriage, plain long ears, no furnishings, bad condition
Points awarded when judging Angora Stud Buck and Brood Doe
| Standard of Points | Points | |
| 1 | Body coat | 15 |
| 2 | Furnishings | 15 |
| 3 | Head | 10 |
| 4 | Ears | 10 |
| 5 | Body | 25 |
| 6 | Legs and Feet | 10 |
| 7 | Condition | 10 |
| 8 | Carriage | 5 |
| Total | 100 |
Subscriptions are now due for 2019. New members are £7, existing renewals, juniors and seniors are £5. Anyone is welcome to join the National Angora Club who is interested in angora rabbits.
You might think that I should be the last person advising “show” people on grooming ideas, but the top exhibitors have kindly shared some very surprising ideas with me which you might find interesting. When embarking on a new hobby, career, or interest the thing to do is go to the top, and thats what I have done. Club members have been very generous in sharing their secrets for the benefit of all who read this article. To begin at the beginning, the question put was “ what is the tool most important to you for grooming?”
I’m going to try and take you through the grooming until they are adults. I personally start grooming my babies about 6 weeks old,where I take them out and sort out the knots behind their necks. Then at 8 week to 9 weeks I take them out regularly, which is normally every other day, and I check behind their ears and at the back of their tails, this should normally only take you about 10 minutes.
Angora wool products
The Products section – by Patsy Hirstwood
Clipped wool
Products begin with Clipped wool, and the main thing to watch here is that one does not ‘double clip’, this simply means that one must not have any short hairs amongst the long wool, for this immediately puts the entry at a disadvantage no matter the quality or colour of the wool.