Another famous dog to make an indelible mark in fox terrier history was CH. TALAVERA SIMON whose ancestry can be traced right back to Old Tip. Born in 1924, it is fair to say that every wire fox terrier living today can trace his ancestry back to Simon - a truly great dog in every sense of the word.     Irving C. Ackerman wrote in his book "The Complete Fox Terrier".... 

An amusing letter from Simon's owner, Captain Phipps, tells something of the dog's early history.  The Captain was riding in the spring of 1923 when he encountered a man exercising a very beautiful young wire bitch which he tried, unsuccessfully, to buy.  The man was A.J. Foster and the bitch was Kingsthorp Donah which, the following year, was destined to be bred to Ch. Fountain's Crusader, which mating produced Talavera Simon.  

Captain Phipps went to view the litter of five whelps but was unable to persuade Mr. Foster to part with any one of them. He subsequently went to see them again when they were around 5 months old by which time they had developed into a pack of incorrigible little fighting tigers. He still wished to purchase one but the owner would not sell.  Eventually, Mr. Foster approached Captain Phipps and offered to sell any one of the pups - not because he was anxious to part with them - but because they had developed into such demons that there was no doing anything with them and it seemed inevitable that they would all die fighting.   When the Captain was choosing his puppy he hit upon Simon, not as an outstanding specimen, but as a rather likely youngster and one that both he and his wife considered, perhaps, a shade better than the rest. His eminence was not anticipated and he was even permitted to risk his life on the roads whilst exercising behind Captain Phipps' horse.

As Simon matured he was exhibited with indifferent success. Not only was the dog not ready but his demonic behaviour spoiled whatever chances his good structure might have given him. His first championship show was at Windsor in 1925 where he behaved so badly in the ring that he could not be fairly examined by the judge and was rightly defeated. It was at this show that Captain Phipps turned him over to Bob Barlow in an effort to turn a devil into a dog.  By whatever legerdemain great handlers posses over their charges, within the space of a few months Barlow had transformed Simon into not only a fox terrier but a gentleman after which he never looked back either in the show ring or at stud.

A letter from Captain Phipps written in the summer of 1937 assured Irving Ackerman that the "old dog" was still fit and very active.  Although the Captain says he personally never considered Simon a really great show dog, he achieved his British championship status in competition with the best dogs of the day and when his progeny began to appear and his marvellous qualities as a stud dog became obvious, the shrewdest of the British breeders began to enter their best bitches in Simon's date book.    It does not detract one whit from his rightful reputation as a stud force to be reckoned with that he had been bred to the greatest bitches:  no stallion, however great, can consistently produce fine progeny out of indifferent females, but Simon had the opportunity and he made the most of it.