THE RACING PIGEON 29 SEPTEMBER 2023
4
eggs for seven to ten days, when he and Ally separated the entire young bird team. She was in really good order, when sent to the National having gone through a total body moult with a full wing and was flying to the perch. The pigeon that was 6th Section is a further blue Vandenabeele hen that was worked on Darkness and managed in a manner similar to the Section winner. Stanley Boyd from Locharbriggs, Dumfries was 2nd Section. Stanley has had an interest in the pigeon hobby from schoolboy years. He originally joined Dumfries Social Circle in 1972, which at the time was a very big Club with almost 100 members. He subsequently joined Dumfries Flying Club and continues as a member of the Flying Club. He has been a long-time supporter of the National and over the years has gained a number of good posi- tions. In 1982 for example, he was 3rd Open Sartilly with a 2yo latebred cock, beaten by two Annan pigeons. He enjoyed a very good season with his old pigeons in 1982, gained 2x1st and 4x2nd in the club and 21st Open from Dorchester with Scotland’s Specialist Midweek Club. In the 80’s and 90’s, the SNFC competed from Niort on a number of occa- sions and over three consecutive years,
chose also to obtain examples of the Willy Jacobs family. He learned that when Gerald Delaney met Willy Jacobs for the first time in 2001 he only raced his pigeons out to 80 miles. Gerald has extended their capability, however, with them now winning out of turn at 300+ miles. They can now rightly be described as sprint/middle distance pigeons. Within the Squills advert we learn that Gerald “first bought these pigeons in 2002 with immediate success, winning Sections and Opens, Classics and several National. They are a super crossing family and fly best in head winds. When Willy Jacobs died in 2015 all his pigeons, 74 in total, came to the O’Roory Hill Stud. ‘The King of Diamonds’, ‘Ace of Diamonds’, ‘Jack of Diamonds’, Rough Diamond’, were all Ace pigeons for Willy Jacobs.” Working with these new introduction Stanley saw an immediate improvement in the performance of his pigeons. In 2015, Stanley won the SNFC Young Bird National from Buckingham with blue hen ‘Annie B’. Notwithstanding the fact that there was only a modest entry at the race from the Region, this game hen pulled out of the convoy and came across country to head the result into Locharbriggs, in the West Section of the Solway Federation. Stanley’s Young Bird National winner was bred by Gerald Delaney in the O’Roory Hill Stud. The sire of the National winner a Willy Jacobs x Jan Grondelaers, dam a Dirk Van Den Bulck x Danny Van Dyck. The pigeon that was 2nd Section from the recent YB National is Willy Jacobs blue chequer cock that was bred by Gerald Delaney in the O’Roory Hill Stud. Worked on the Darkness method, it took and commanded a nest box but wasn’t paired, flying to the box. It went through a total body moult and on basketing, had dropped his first flight. Prior to going to the National he had every race in the Federation programme other than the first race from Shap. Kenny Thomson from Lockerbie was 3rd Section. This was a very good pigeon on the day as Kenny is one of the longest flying competitors in the Solway area, residing in the village of Wamphray, which is situated seven miles south of Moffat. There is little doubt that the fanciers who participate in our hobby in the Moffat and Wamphray community are very brave as the surrounding hills are absolutely infested with predators. Kenny is the son-in- law of the late Stan Scott who previously competed into Wamphray. Stan was a very good fancier who actually won the Young Bird National in 1976 with ‘Wamphray Loner’ and then came out the following year and won the Section from SNFC Rennes. Stan, incidentally was the cousin of Ben Scott from Brydekirk, who was the first fancier in Scotland to win three SNFC Gold Awards. Following Stan’s death, the family continued to race the pigeons in Mrs Scott’s name. Within months Kenny’s twin daughters Laura and Lynne were taking an interest and they participated in our hobby with great enthusiasm. The twins then went to University to study Accountancy and the responsibility of managing the team was passed to Kenny, who had always been in the background assisting to care for the pigeons. Kenny and his family reside in the family home at Wamphray and he continues to race the pigeons into Stan Scott’s original loft. Notwithstanding the loft location, the team raced well and in 2006 and was 1st Section from the YB National. The Section winner was a home bred bronzed dark chequer hen, which was bred from a pair of Barkers that Kenny obtained from Jimmy Pryde from Gorebridge. A hen competing from a National went into Kenny’s loft at Wamphray. On reporting the pigeon he learned that it belonged to Jimmy, who allowed him to keep it and provided Kenny with a cock to pair to the hen. These two pigeons were the parents of the Section winner. They were paired in January and the young Bronze hen was worked on Darkness. The Section winner was appropriately named ‘Pryde of Wamphray’. Kenny was 4th Section 5th Open Marlborough 2011 with a 2007 blue chequer cock which had previously gained three
SOLWAY SOUNDS with Billy Wortley
News, views and results to 37 Hospital Road, Annan, Dumfriesshire, DG12 5JF Email address: wpwortley@btinternet.com
Members of the SNFC competed from the YB National from Upper Heyford on Saturday 9th September, with the convoy being released at 8.15am into a light south wind. The following are details of the leading arrivals into the Solway Federation area. The husband and wife partnership of Les & Ally Mitchell from Annan were 1st & 6th Section. Prior to moving to Annan, they resided in Edinburgh being members of Castlebrae Club in the Craigmillar area of the city and raced their pigeons into a compound of lofts that was owned by the club. At that point Les and Ally competed independently into separate lofts within the compound and shared a stock loft. Importantly at that time also the now partners competed independ- ently, but working with the same bloodlines. They actually resided on a small holding in a different part of Edinburgh where they oper- ated a successful cattery titled ‘Tower Kennels for Cats’ and kept sheep and a horse. Whilst residing in Edinburgh Ally won two Nationals in the same season, the first of which was from Littlehampton with the SNFC, the winning pigeon being 2yo blue cock ‘Castlebrae
from Coatbridge. The Mick McMurchie hen was a Marijke that contained the lines of ‘The Godfather’ on the sire’s side and ‘Zoon Tips’ on the dam’s side. The G W & P McAloney cock was a Vandenabeele that was bred from a son of ‘Joe Jones’ and a daughter of ‘Golden Gabby’. The second National, which Ally won in 2016 was from Billericay with the SNRPC. The winning pigeon on this occasion was yearling blue cock ‘Castlebrae Harry’, which prior to going to the National, won Pentland Federation from Newark. This pigeon also contained superb bloodlines, being a Vandenabeele, bred from stock introduced from G W & P MacAloney. Contained within the lineage is M & D. Evans ‘Jester 74’, that was bred from ‘Jester’ x ‘Carrie’, which were responsible for hundreds of winners. ‘Castlebrae Harry’ went through the programme as a youngster with Pentland Federation and similar to the Littlehampton winner, was managed on the Celibate system described. Les and Ally moved to reside at Annan some three years ago, their new home being a beau- tiful bungalow in an area of the town named ‘Back of the Hill’. The house is located in an idyllic setting, overlooking the Solway Firth and thereafter the Cumbrian Fells and is situated circa three hundred yards from the Solway estuary coastline. Pigeons are housed in an impressive 40 feet long loft behind their home containing six compartments that was built and erected by Tranter Lofts, the loft similarly over- looking the Solway. Les told me that Tranter Lofts personnel arrived at 7am and departed at noon with the shed being erected. Not only does Les race pigeons but he also plays bowls, being a member of the local Bowling Club and during the winter months, he plays indoor at Carlisle. The basic family that he and Ally are working with is Vandenabeele. The two National winners are in their stock shed with their bloodlines running right through the current team, including the two pigeons that featured in the prize list from the recent National. It should be explained that a percentage of the young bird team were worked on the Darkness method with the remaining youngsters being worked on the conventional system. If in good feather all members of the young bird squad continued to race through the programme but were stopped when they broke into the moult and then put by for the following season. The Section winner is a blue Vandenabeele hen that was bred in February and worked on the Darkness method. Prior to going to the National it had all races in the Federation programme to Stafford, with the exception of one early race when the race date was changed. In the early part of the season Les and Ally let the entire team of young pigeons run together until they begin looking at each other, when the partners separate the sexes and then work the respective cock and hen teams on the partners’ well proven Celibate method. In the case of the blue hen, she was one of the first hens in the team to look at a young cock and actually layed. Les told me that he has a sand dressing on the loft floor and the hen actually layed on the sand. He allowed the blue hen and her ‘mate’ to sit the
Stanley timed with the leaders to be 8th Section 25th Open, 8th Section 35th Open and 4th Section 5th Open. When he was 5th Open the pigeon was up on the night from 620 plus miles. It was a chequer w/f hen that was purchased at the Clearance Sale of Sammy Little from Dumfries. It had been one of the stars in Sammy’s loft, having won in the club several times and had also won the West Section of the Fed from Cheltenham. She raced from Sartilly in 1987 and was timed on the second day to be 2nd Section 18th Open from a very difficult event. Having purchased the pigeon and moved it several miles to a different location, Stanley tried her from Rennes in 1990 when she homed in the morning and then doubled her back into Sartilly when she was 54th Section 160th Open. He targeted her for Niort the following season and in preparation she had three Inland races to Mangotsfield. She went to Niort covering a four day old youngster and was up on the night to be 5th Open National. Having explained that the winning pigeon from Niort was a quality pigeon purchased at a Clearance Sale, our readers should under- stand that Stanley has on several occasions purchased superb individual pigeons and ‘got’ races out of them. He, for example purchased a performance pigeon at the Clearance Sale of McKay Brothers from Ecclefechan, which subsequently scored for him on three occa- sions from the channel. In former years he acquired examples of the Grondelaers family from Terry Lodge at Top Lofts and when the Top Lofts pigeons were sold, he made contact with Gerald Delaney at the O’Roory Hill Stud, to obtain further examples of the family and Stanley Boyd photogtrpahed with his 2nd Section YB National.
Les & Allison MItchell.
Henry’. It flew the young bird programme in 2014 and as a yearling went to the Portsmouth with the SNFC. In 2016 it was coupled at the gateway to the season, reared a pair of young- sters and was then separated from his mate and worked celibate. He thereafter went through the programme on the system with the Pentland Federation. The system was such that the cocks and hens were housed in their respective compart- ments, cocks in the section containing the boxes and hens in the section kitted out with vee-perches. They were loft exercised twice a day and following exercise, re-entered the respective compartment within which they were housed, they only seen their mate for minutes before departure to a race and for minutes again on return. The National winner being ever so well bred from a hen obtained from Mick McMurchie from Fife when paired to a cock obtained from G W & P MacAloney
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator