THE Malta trip I mentioned last time turned out to be extremely enjoyable. Excellent birds, hospitality and weather: what's not to like? There was only one flight a week from Newcastle Airport, so Muriel and I went over on a Thursday, two days before the show, and returned the following Thursday. That gave us a few extra days to soak up everything the island has to offer and the beautiful weather. Up here in the North East, basically, when it hasn't been raining the sky has been uniform grey, so a week of blue skies, no rain and a temperature of 21-26°C lifted the spirits.
I had judged in Malta once before, but this show was run by the Maltese Gloster Association and my friend Pino Trovato from Italy was co-judge. We werewith plenty of light. Judging stations were set up so that exhibitors could watch. Under show secretary Mark Cilla, the organisation was a well-oiled machine. The system differed slightly from ours, in that the cage labels had a fold-over section to conceal the exhibitor name and class number from the judge.
