Showing and Judging

A new member’s first exhibiting experience

by [log in to see names] | Jul 8, 2025 | Showing and Judging | 7 comments

Being a new member of the club, I was invited to share my experience of Meldreth Summer Cup Show. This was not my first time attending a show, though it was certainly the biggest I have been to, and the first where I have exhibited mice. It was also the first show...

Keeping Mice—45 years on

by [log in to see names] | Apr 24, 2025 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

The article in the NMC News, about myself, from the early seventies, sparked quite a few memories. After acquiring my first Dutch mice in 1969, I made rapid progress in breeding some decent show mice, these did a lot of winning. In those days it was possible to make...

The Road to Success

by [log in to see names] | Sep 11, 2023 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

In 2019 I decided to bring to an end my career of gamekeeping and working for the landed gentry. I progressed and set up my own business to become self employed in garden maintenance and pest control. My lovely, patient and very sup- portive partner Jane and I moved...

From The Archives

by [log in to see names] | Jul 3, 2023 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

In 1934 there was a long-drawn-out debate in Fur and Feather about show cages. A number of prominent fanciers weighed in on the argument.The first article in this year was from J Wilton Steer, titled “Mice Show Cages”. This question of show cages keeps cropping up....

A Look Back to 1981

by [log in to see names] | Jul 3, 2023 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

After my mother’s death last year, I found an old copy of NMC News among her papers. It is an early edition (number 9) and dates from November 1981. The mouse fancy was originally served by Fur & Feather magazine, but when it stopped including mice, we needed to...

[From The Archives] What Makes a Good Steward?

by [log in to see names] | Apr 4, 2023 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

This piece first appeared in Fur & Feather, 2 July 1970, author uncredited. It was written before the days of block entry. -Ed Everyone knows the importance of the judge, but without his righthand man, the steward, the judge is greatly handicapped. A conscientious...

Is Size Important?

by [log in to see names] | Mar 1, 2023 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

Just a small note on [log in to see names]’s article on size. In my view, you enter your mouse in order to obtain the judge’s opinion, which you have received. You may know the mouse’s age, the mouse may know its age, but the judge doesn’t. He/she can only go on the...

Bradford Championship Shows of The Past

by [log in to see names] | Feb 1, 2023 | Showing and Judging, NMC History | 0 comments

With no show reports to publish, and this being the month after Bradford Championship Show, I thought I would compile a few of the past results from that show, out of interest. Ed 2002Best in Show was Joe Bennett with a Siamese, BOA Bob Chappell with a Black Tan....

Does Size Matter?

by [log in to see names] | Feb 1, 2023 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

Imagine the scenario … you have planned your breeding to target a particular show and your young mouse is seven weeks and five days old. It is a very good size for an u/8 class. However, the judge compares it side-by-side with a six-week-old classmate and throws...

House of Mouse

by [log in to see names] | Dec 1, 2022 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

Recently Stephan asked on the Facebook group for photos of mice with faults. These are to display on the club website. Sadly for me but not the website, I have a plethora of faulty stock. I have started taking and forwarding a few pictures for the website and thought...

Rejoining the NMC

by [log in to see names] | Oct 2, 2022 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

I rejoined the mouse fancy in November 2019, exactly 50 years after I first joined as a teenager, in 1969. Back then there were many more shows, which generally speaking were very well supported. I see from my 1970Year Book, the entry for an ‘average’ show was between...

Remembering the Shows

by [log in to see names] | Jun 6, 2022 | Showing and Judging | 0 comments

As a teenager I was always interested in keeping various small animals. I had hamsters, cavies, ferrets and by the age of eleven was breeding New Zealand White and Himalayan rabbits for meat production, which I sold to a processor, when they reached 4 pounds, at about...