The History Of The 'Black & White'

Many older members will remember the “Black and White” show held annually as a joint venture between the WHWT Club of England and The Scottish Terrier Breeders and Exhibitors Association.

The shows were very well supported and were sponsored by Buchannan’s, the makers of Black and White Whiskey. You can imagine that the prizes were highly valued.

Unfortunately in the early 80’s, Buchannan’s withdrew their sponsorship as Black and White Whiskey was no longer sold in the UK though it has continued as an export brand. Partly as a result of this, the annual show ceased.

Many exhibitors were sad to see the show disappear and so a few of us looked into forming a club to support the two breeds. We were much encouraged when in 1986, we saw a trophy on offer to the BOB WHWT at the West Midland Terrier Society which had the following inscription – “presented by the Midland Counties Scottie, Cairn and WHWT Club”.

A number of us were intrigued by this inscription and set about what proved to be a fruitless search for the history of this club. It soon became obvious that it had been defunct for some considerable time. Enquiries made to the Kennel Club about the possibility of resurrection of the club but they replied that as it had been some time since the club had operated and that the last officers and committee were unknown, it would be better to form a new club of the same name.

Subsequently we discovered that the original club had operated during the late 1930’s and was briefly resurrected after the war but seemed to disappear by the 1950’s.

An Inaugural meeting was called for Friday 6th February 1987 and was well attended with representatives from all three breeds. Completed forms for the registration of the title and the agreed constitution were sent to the Kennel Club. The proposal to form the club was advertised in the Kennel gazette in May 1987. Any interested clubs and societies were given time to object to the proposal.

At the end of October 1987 the Kennel Club advised that objections had been lodged by several Cairn Terrier Clubs. It was suggested that the best course of action would be to proceed with the application for Scottish and West Highland White Terriers only. The committee agreed to this course of action.

In January 1988, the Kennel Club wrote asking for all the information which had been sent in February 1987. Copies were made and sent to Clarges Street. On April 19th 1988 we were informed that THE MIDLAND COUNTIES SCOTTISH TERRIER AND WEST HIGHLAND TERRIER CLUB had been added to the Kennel Club register.

The first show was held on Sunday February 26th 1989, at Arley, Nr Coventry. Selecting judges for this first show was given much thought. We did not want to select people who already awarded C.C’s in each breed but we did want well known people who would draw a good entry. We settled on Geoff Corish, well known to all, to judge Scottish Terriers and Maureen Micklethwaite to judge West Highland White Terriers as neither of them awarded C.C’s in that breed at the time. The very famous Terrier Handler, Albert Langley agreed to judge BIS and the Junior Handling.

The Show was a great success and attracted 60 Scottish Terriers and 103 West Highland White Terriers. This sort of entry continued up to the mid 1990’s when unfortunately open show entries began to decline generally.

In 1999, the club held it’d 10th Anniversary Open Show bringing 2 overseas judges to officiate. Mrs Lillian Brown from Denmark judged the Scottish Terriers whilst Mrs Yvonne Andersonn from Sweden judged the West Highland White Terriers. There were 43 Scottish Terriers and 81 West Highland White Terriers. Ava Platt was the B.I.S Judge.

Hopefully the 20th Anniversary show will attract a bumper entry.