THE RACING PIGEON 26 APRIL 2024
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phoned me up to see if I could meet his brother ‘Wull’ at the Forth Bridge as he had bred some youngsters for Kevin. I went and met up with Wull. When I looked in the basket there was a mealy with touches of blue on its wings, I took it out and asked Wull what was this about. He replied; ‘Oh this is a special one Joe’, it is red white and blue, the same as the Rangers. We laughed and laughed and I said to Wull, ‘It will never make the racing, it will be lost before then’. We named the mealy ‘JS’ after Jock Strang and it turned out to be a How to prepare for long distance racing. I quote from the article, written by Baker Brothers of Chesterfield away back in 1947 the year I was born, but believe me there is a lot of true and good common sense in this article. I hope some novice take notice. ‘After carefully examining each pigeon after the last racing season, with the moult finished we carefully examine each pigeon and dispose of any that do not come up to our standard. The moult indicated that the health of the pigeon, from now on we feed one meal each day with the birds given a full crop, with a slight purgative each weekend. But we cannot stress too strongly about regular times of feeding, so very important to success is regularity in times of feeding all the year round. The racers are allowed to rear one squeaker only each year, and then they are raced on dummy eggs, for we soon found out you cannot race and rear successive nests of squeakers, and win out of turn. The pigeons earmarked for the long distance races get slightly different treatment to coincide with date fixed for races, of later
very good pigeon indeed. Every time we timed him from a National race, we phoned Jock to tell him, for as an example as a yearling he won 23rd East Section 213th Open Cheltenham from a convoy of 3,780 birds. He then went on to win 20th East Section 130th Open SNFC Eastbourne 4,568 birds. He also won 11th East Section 65th Open from SNFC Ypres 2,347 birds; 27th East Section 37th Open SNFC Clermont with 1.741 birds competing and finally he won 107th Open SNFC Clermont from an entry of 1,622 birds. We are going to most important is the breeding of young from our stock birds, for we well know the loft would be put back two or three years by a setback during the breeding season. We leave all stock pairs along during incubation and rearing, and all squabs are weaned at from twenty-one to twenty-four days, when any not up to standard are quickly suppressed. We take no notice of wing condition of moult in our racers when basketing for marking, relying on general outward appearance to select our fittest candidates. Many fanciers will disagree with us in our method of selection, but our
Camelon Crematorium on the 19th April to pay our respects to Betty. Photos Everything is quiet just now and I’m awaiting the weekly results to start arriving to add to my weekly column, so if you wish your club or Federation to receive some publicity then send them to me by Tuesday of each week. One thing is guaranteed if I receive them, they will go into my column, and this will continue throughout the season if I receive them. Just now is so quiet, west wind on 13th April. Topping the Federation on this opening race was Graham Wardhaugh of Darlington with a yearling blue cock. His sire topped the Federation from Catterick and also won 3rd Federation from Billericay last year. Dam is from David Owen from Coldingham stock. Keith Howie had a great race winning 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th & 10th Open. With John Baillie in with a nice double winning 4th & 9th position. Grant French & Son of Haddington wins 7th open, completing the top ten are Mr & Mrs March of Prestonpans in 8th place. Prestonpans HS Winning 1st Club is Keith Howie with a two year old blue pied cock, he won 2nd Federation last year from Thirsk and he also won 20th Section 66th Open SNFC Brighton. His sire is a Vandenabeele from Graham Stewart. Dam of the winner is direct from Keith’s Champion ‘Blue Arrow’. Keith’s 2nd Club winner is a Vandenabeele bloodline, his dam is a full sister to ‘Blue Arrow’, this bird won 1st Club 2nd Federation from Catterick last year. Third Club is John Baillie with a blue cock bred by Freddie & Willie Robertson
however, I have found some old photo- graphs while going through old files, which brought back some happy memo- ries. I hope you enjoy seeing some old ‘superstars’ of days gone by. First one is of Michael Thomas winner of 1st Nantes receiving his trophy from Andrew Deans. The next picture is of Willie Wilson of Larkhall with Joe Murphy. Then we have Joe & Margaret Murphy receiving their trophy from Jock King. With the last picture of a relaxed George & Gareth Rankin of Larkhall with one of their winners.
always. Winning 1st Federation is Castlebrae Club Secretary Robert Sammels who timed his two year old hen on 1571. The sire is a De Bishop gifted by F & W Robertson in 2019 and the dam a Busschaert x Soontjen. She has been a good hen previously a winner of 5x1st Clubs and 3rd Open in the Danderhall Xmas race in 2023, she is also a full sister to 1533 the winner of 2022 Xmas race, so as you can see good winning lines. Well done Robert. Second place goes to W Kinnear & Son with T Nolan & Son winning 3rd, 10th & 11th places. Freddie & Willie Robertson are 4th & 5th with Helen Aitken & Sons taking the next two places, followed by L Affleck in 8th spot. Brown & Black win 9th Open.’ Photos Robert Sammels’ Pentlandhills Fed Winner. ‘Kardale Style’ winner of SNFC Gold Award bred and raced by the late Dale Newcombe. As a matter of interest his sire was a son of ‘Fortune Lady’. My next photograph is of ‘Bonnie Lass of St Vigean’s’ who was bred and race by the late Bill Dorward of Arbroath racing pigeon club. Last but not least is my old pal Walker Kennedy of Dunfermline with his good friend the late Eric Fox of Bakewell, who was a top NFC fancier. Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or Email to joejmurphy1@ gmail.com REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE or log onto www.elimar pigeons.com www.fancierchat.co.uk www.pigeon-chat.co.uk who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland . Walker Kennedy of Dunfermline and Eric Fox of Bakewell.
‘Kardale Style’.
Champion cock had not thrown a flight when he returned from the Boudreaux races. This will confound the critics, who say a pigeon only starts to show his best form when it starts to moult. We would like to mention to our novice friends to make sure first they have the right pigeons to work on, good fancier-ship will not produce results, you must have the right tackle. Our simple methos on the right pigeons will produce results’. I hope someone gets something from the above as it is straight forward and good common sense.’ Weekly Results If any club wishes to have their weekly results published in my column, I require them by Tuesday of each week, as I have to have my column typed and forwarded to the paper on Wednesday. If you wish to have your Federation or club winners photo included in the column then please send it by email along with your result. Or fanciers themselves can forward their photography to me personally; remember to give me some details on the pigeon. East of Scotland News from Tom McEwan regarding the first race of the old bird season for 2024. The convoy was liberated at 7am into a
Robert Sammels’ Otterburn winner.
mating. These mating’s, as was our champion cock was allowed to rear one youngster to nine days when it was taken away from him and put under feeders. He was then allowed to go to nest again, and sent to Bordeaux sitting seven days, and had not reared a squeaker up fully in his life. Or method of training, in common with the majority of fanciers, are in stages of from five to forty miles, with old and young birds. Our Champion cock was given three tosses alone at 150 miles, which we feel sure these single up tosses teach then to be self-reliant when competing in the long races and the flocks split up. No mysterious potions, or pills, are ever used, they only impair the pigeon’s digestion, strict cleanliness in the loft, fresh water at each feed, best grain available, plenty of basket training, with an occasional tonic, is routine work with us. What we consider
‘Bonny Lass of St Vigeons’.
of Edinburgh from their Hereman-Ceuster bloodlines. Tom expressed the wishes and thoughts of all club members by saying; ‘It is very sad that John Bird from Prestonpans won’t be with us to enjoy the start of the sport he loved’. Pentlandhills Federation News from Andy Miller. ‘Here’s the news of the first old bird race of the year; which kicked off from Otterburn on 13th April, with a distance of 56-68 miles for the members. Liberated at 07:00 in a WSW wind, the leaders made short work as
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