THE RACING PIGEON 27 OCTOBER 2023
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performance in Scotland. Importantly, she contained the best of the channel winning bloodlines of Tommy Gilbertson. On the dam’s side of the pedigree of the pied hen one could see three exceptional pigeons. She was a ggd of ‘Jackie’ that was 1st Club, 1st Fed, 2nd Cumbria Combine Nantes, 534 miles, ggd of ‘Hollie that was also 1st Club, 1st Fed, 2nd Cumbria Combine from Nantes and ggd also of ‘Jay Bee’ that was 1st Cumbria Combine from Niort, 604 miles. On the sire’s side of the pedigree she was a grand daughter of a chequer hen that was 1st Club, 1st Fed, 10th Cumbria Combine Nantes and ggd of ‘Frankie’ that was 1st Club, 1st Fed, 4th Cumbria Combine Nantes and 1st Club, 1st Fed, 1st Cumbria Combine Nantes. Consider also the partners’ mealy cock ‘Ashgrove Tom’ that was 1st South Section 25th Open Roye 2019. Sire is a mealy stock cock that contains the best of Tommy Gilbertson bloodlines, being bred direct from the partners No 1 Gilbertson cock, which was sire of ‘Elaine’. Gordon Grant from Gretna competed in partnership with his father ‘Lofty’ and together they achieved more than their share of success. They won the Rennes National in 1988 with blue hen ‘Sarkfoot Dream’ and the Nantes National in 1994 with ‘Sarkfoot Tony’. In 1995 and 1996 they won two consecutive YB National with ‘Sarkfoot Jack’ and ‘Sarkfoot Stormaway’ and recorded their fifth National win from Cheltenham in 2012 with ‘Westgill Lady’. ‘Lofty’ regrettably died in 2015 with the pigeons then being raced under Gordon’s name. Some months before he died, ‘Lofty’ suggested to Gordon that he make contact with Tommy Gilbertson and obtain several
was 3rd Section 3rd Open Tours 2008 and identically bred to a blue hen that was 5th Section 7th Open SNFC Chenoise 2003. Sire was a mealy cock that was obtained from Tommy Gilbertson. Dam was a dark hen that raced from Liege in 2001. Maternal grand dam was a dark hen that was very well bred. Her sister was 1st Section 3rd Open Nantes 1998 and 9th Section 17th Open Nantes 1999. Another sister was 3rd Section 12th Open Nantes 1997, whilst a brother was 4th Section 23rd Open Nantes 1993. Dam of these pigeons was a blue pied that scored from three Nationals. She was a daughter of the loft’s ‘Doonhamer Darkie’, which was 1st Section 3rd Open Nantes 1985 when he was paired to a hen bred from the dam of the same ‘Doonhamer Darkie’ when she was coupled to a son of the partners’ 1981 Gold Award winner. Sire of the dark hen was an unrung stock cock from Tommy Gilbertson. Maternal grandsire of the mealy cock was a red cock that was 3rd Section 6th Open Niort 1996, the sire of which was the cock that sired ‘Doonhamer Lynne’ whilst the dam was the Red hen that David Osborne obtained from Sammy Little from Dumfries, who purchased it from John Ellis from Wellbank. Dam of the 3rd Section Ancenis was a Dark hen that was obtained from Tommy Gilbertson. Graham & Steven Dalgliesh from Ecclefechan are two very accomplished fanciers who have won out of turn over a long number of years, setting individual pigeons up for the job in hand. Like all good fanciers, however, they don’t ‘rest on their laurels’ and are always trying to improve. In former years they worked with SVR lines, which were more than capable
received from Tommy, which prior to David and Rosemary receiving him had been a very good racer for Tommy. Sire of ‘Doonhamer Lynne’ was a red cock that had been retained for stock, which was bred from ‘Doonhamer Darkie’ when he was paired to a red hen that scored from Rennes and Nantes, which was in fact bred from a full brother of ‘Doonhamer Darkie’. Year after year, the loft continued on the winning way, they were for example, 3rd Section 3rd Open Tours in 2008 and let us again consider the breeding of the winning pigeon. It was a mealy cock, which was identically bred to a blue hen that was 5th Section 7th Open SNFC Chenoise 2003. Sire was a mealy cock that was obtained from Tommy Gilbertson. Dam was a dark hen that raced from Liege in 2001. Maternal grand dam was a dark hen that was very well bred. Her sister was 1st Section 3rd Open Nantes 1998 and 9th Section 17th Open Nantes 1999. Another sister was 3rd Section 12th Open Nantes 1997, whilst a brother was 4th Section 23rd Open Nantes 1993. Dam of these pigeons was a blue pied that scored from three Nationals. She was a daughter of the loft’s ‘Doonhamer Darkie’ when he was paired to a hen bred from the dam of the same ‘Doonhamer Darkie’ when she was coupled to a son of the partners’ Gold Award winner. Sire of the dark hen was unrung stock cock from Tommy Gilbertson. Maternal grand sire of the mealy cock was a red cock that was 3rd Section 6th Open Niort 1996. Sire of the 6th Open Niort was the cock that sired ‘Doonhamer Lynne’ whilst the dam was the red hen that David obtained from Sammy Little from Dumfries, who
Section 50th Open Nantes, 3rd Section 5th Open Nantes and 17th Section 126th Open Nantes. In 1985 the Nantes convoy was liberated at 6am and David and Rosemary timed at 9.09pm from 550 miles to be 1st Sect 3rd Open with dark chequer cock ‘Doonhamer Darkie’, which was previously 92nd Open Sartilly. ‘Darkie’ was out of a dark chequer hen that was
Derik Nordon’s ‘Cathella’.
obtained from Frank and Tommy Gilbertson when paired to a latebred red chequer cock, which was out of red chequer hen that was 5th Section 9th Open Nantes 1979, 138th Open Nantes 1980, and 17th Section 74th Open Nantes 1981, when paired to her own grand sire, with the bloodlines once again being ‘Gilbertson’. The red hen, the paternal grand dam of ‘Doonhamer Darkie’, was dam of a blue chequer pied hen that was 56th Open Rennes 1979 and 2nd Section 16th Open Nantes 1982. The red hen was also paternal grand dam of red cock ‘Darkie’s Brother’, which was 4th Open Scottish Specialist Club Yearling Derby from Dorchester in 1983 and scored twice from Rennes and Sartilly. It should be further noted that the red hen, paternal grand dam of ‘Doonhamer Darkie’ was one of the two pigeons that gained the E R Williamson Trophy in 1979, the other being the pied hen that won the Section from Sartilly in 1981. Move forward to 1995 when the partners entered their name in the annals of the Scottish National Flying Club. The SNFC convoy was liberated at Niort, along with a convoy from the North of England at 5.45am into a NE wind with David and Rosemary timing their 5yo blue w/f hen ‘Doonhamer Lynne’ at 10.03pm to record a velocity of 1119ypm from 622 miles. She was the only arrival into Scotland on the day of liberation and headed the result by 140ypm. Importantly, notwithstanding the fact she had to encounter the Cumbrian Hills in the gloamin’ as she made her way home, she was right up with the birds from the North of England, with which she had been liberated and were flying circa 110 to 150 shorter distance than the Dumfries pigeon. The Niort winner went to Stafford as a youngster, to Dorchester and Mangotsfield as a yearling, to Sartilly as a 2yo and to Rennes as a 2 and 3yo. Dam of ‘Doonhamer Lynne’ was a dark chequer hen that was 5th Section 21st Open Yearling Race from Appledore 1985, 6th Section 34th Open Race, and was subse- quently 29th Open Nantes. The dark hen actually bred another hen that was 10th Section 26th Open Nantes and 6th Section 25th Open Nantes. She also bred a dark chequer cock that was 10th Section 21st Open Nantes. The dark hen, dam of ‘Doonhamer Lynne’ was out of a latebred hen introduced from Tommy Gilbertson when paired to a chequer pied cock, also
Graham & Steven Dalgliesh’s ‘Ashgrove Elaine’.
Gordon Grant’s 3rd Section Buckingham.
latebreds. Gordon spoke to Tommy, who invited him to visit the loft at Carlisle where he received 28 eggs and seven youngsters. Examples of these acquisi- tions can be seen in the following text. The first National of the 2019 season was flown from Buckingham, Gordon timed with the leaders to be 3rd Section, 15th Open, the winning pigeon being a 2yo mealy cock that was bred by Tommy Gilbertson. Having previously explained that Frank Gilbertson obtained progeny from ‘Johnny’, the Kirkpatrick owned by Will Robertson, Tommy Gilbertson has studiously retained a line of strawberry mealies, which contain these bloodlines to complement the Buckley’s and the mealy cock that was 3rd Section Buckingham, was from this line. Some weeks after the Buckingham National the members of the SNFC competed from Maidstone with Gordon Grant being right at the front to be 1st Section 1st Open. The winning pigeon was a 2yo blue chequer pied cock that was indeed once
of winning in inland competition but they believed they could be bettered at the Channel and chose to move the on and introduce proven Channel winning lines. One loft from which they obtained stock was from Tommy Gilbertson and through the new acquisitions a number of real quality pigeons emerged including a super 2008 blue pied hen that was named ‘Elaine’. In 2010 she went to Bourges and was 5th Section 14th Open. In 2011 she went to Tours and was 2nd Section 3rd Open National. In 2012 she competed from the Gold Cup race from Alencon and was up with the leaders to be 9th Section 27th Open. Importantly, her position from Alencon secured for her an SNFC Silver Award. Graham and Steven then decided to double her back into Clermont and in difficult conditions she was timed in the morning to be 1st Section 27th Open National. At the close of the 2012 season she was awarded the SHU Dewar Trophy for the pigeon considered to have achieved the best combined Channel
purchased it from John Ellis from Wellbank. The success story continued unabated, in 2016, for example, the partners stepped forward at the annual SNFC Presentation to receive The News of the World Trophy and the magnificent Ellsworth Challenge Trophy with the former being for best average from Reims and Ancenis, which are the two prestige races in the club and the latter being for best average from the same two races with Nominated pigeons. We now move forward to the Ancenis National in 2017, the event proved difficult with no arrivals on the day of liberation. J & I Alston from Ravenstruther in South Lanarkshire won the National with a superb pigeon in the morning, which headed the result by 50ypm. Once again David and Rosemary featured in the result being 3rd Section, 7th Open. Once more let us consider the breeding of the winning pigeon. It was a 4yo blue cock, which was a full brother to a hen that was 8th Open Ancenis 2016. Sire was a mealy cock that
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