UK - The Great Yorkshire Show - Prize Winning Animals and their Owners.

Brian Brock, accident damage assessor, pigeon fancier and judge from Leeds.A former president of the National Pigeon Association, Brian Brock has been keeping pigeons since 1946, when his sister bought him a pair from Leeds market for his sixth birthday. Today he owns more than 70. There are hundreds of different kinds of pigeon, though they can be categorised into racing and fancy breeds. Judges assess them on such attributes as eye colour, feather composition, firmness of body and presentation. 'The flat-cap image of pigeon breeding has long gone,' Brock says. 'There are all sorts of people in the pigeon world - managing directors, owners of some of the biggest stores in the country.' He concedes, however, that as a pastime it is declining in popularity, partly because of electronic entertainment. 'I think kids might well be getting out of an Xbox what I used to get out of pigeons; they live by it, just as I lived by my birds. 'For me, the pigeons are a way of closing off from things. I sometimes sit for four or five hours, just watching my birds. I have a relationship with the individual birds, and you learn to read a pigeon's temperament. They are like athletes, you see, they have off days.'

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Brian Brock, accident damage assessor, pigeon fancier and judge from Leeds.A former president of the National Pigeon Association, Brian Brock has been keeping pigeons since 1946, when his sister bought him a pair from Leeds market for his sixth birthday. Today he owns more than 70. There are hundreds of different kinds of pigeon, though they can be categorised into racing and fancy breeds. Judges assess them on such attributes as eye colour, feather composition, firmness of body and presentation. 'The flat-cap image of pigeon breeding has long gone,' Brock says. 'There are all sorts of people in the pigeon world - managing directors, owners of some of the biggest stores in the country.' He concedes, however, that as a pastime it is declining in popularity, partly because of electronic entertainment. 'I think kids might well be getting out of an Xbox what I used to get out of pigeons; they live by it, just as I lived by my birds. 'For me, the pigeons are a way of closing off from things. I sometimes sit for four or five hours, just watching my birds. I have a relationship with the individual birds, and you learn to read a pigeon's temperament. They are like athletes, you see, they have off days.'