President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd Patron: Mark Gilbert BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’S 50 ANNIVERSARY (Part 20) Adrian Human of Petersfield. Champion ‘Ramsdean Reliance’ Spanish Diploma Winner! Adrian Human is only really interested in long distance racing and all the pigeon management is set up for the Tarbes and Palamos Nationals. His best pigeon is the champion blue chequer cock, ‘Ramsdean Reliance’, and he is bred down from the very best Davenport / Cattrysse bloodlines of Champion ‘Game Lady’. This brilliantâ¦
Source: British Barcelona Club
President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd
Patron: Mark Gilbert
BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’S 50
ANNIVERSARY (Part 20)
Adrian Human of Petersfield.
Champion ‘Ramsdean Reliance’ Spanish Diploma Winner!
Adrian Human is only really interested in long distance racing and all the pigeon management is set
up for the Tarbes and Palamos Nationals. His best pigeon is the champion blue chequer cock,
‘Ramsdean Reliance’, and he is bred down from the very best Davenport / Cattrysse bloodlines of
Champion ‘Game Lady’. This brilliant 600 mile cock was raced on the natural system, performing
best sitting ten day old eggs, and won the British Barcelona Club ‘Spanish Diploma’ winning 19
, 51
, 108
open Palamos (657 miles), and 16
open Barcelona (676 miles). He was recorded in
race time from the longest British Barcelona Club event five times and recorded 16
open
Barcelona as a ten year old. This wonderful cock has proved to be a champion in the breeding loft,
producing several premier long distance racers, including ‘The Bordeaux Cock’, ‘The Section Hen’
and a ‘Spanish Diploma’ winner for his father, Derek Human. A fantastic cock!
Adrian is from a very successful pigeon racing family, with his father, Derek Human, being a recent
NFC Tarbes winner and his grandfather also being a very good fancier many years ago. Adrian was
born in Alton, Hampshire and told me, ‘I have been around pigeons all my life, going to various
pigeon events with my father, such as Reading Cattle Market in the days when you queued for one to
two hours for NFC race marking. In 1991 I moved to a house next door to dad, I was working in
Portsmouth so started training his pigeons every day. At the time I kept British finches, which I
housed in several aviaries and a bird room. After a while working with my dad’s pigeons, my
interest was re-kindled and I changed to pigeon racing and built a new loft. My first pigeons came
from Louella and my dad. I joined Alton club for young birds in 1992 and won my first race from
Seaton and I went on to win every young bird race except one, winning the young bird average in the
club. I thought pigeon racing was easy, how wrong I was’.
Adrian races his birds on natural and pairs up the first sunny weekend in February, with his race
birds choosing their own mate. Training starts the second week in April, usually from Hayling
Island, about 15 miles south of the loft, moving to the New Forest about 30 miles down the road and
sometimes the birds are singled up. His Palamos birds are usually singled up late in the evening at
around 8pm. Adrian feeds ‘PLX’ mixture early in the season changing to ‘Irish’ mixture as the
distance moves up and Peanuts are fed quite heavily once the distance is over 250 miles. He says, his
favourite nest condition for the long distance events depends on the individual bird, as they are all
different. His present race loft is a 42ft Petron, with Hermes auto boxes and it was a gift from his dad
when he downsized his loft, when he moved into a new house. It is well vented with sliding ceiling
panels so the airflow can be adjusted and tells me he has used deep litter when time was short, but I
like to scrape out. The main family keep are Cattrysse, because over the years these birds have done
well for many different people. Adrian and Derek share the 20 pairs of stock birds, which are kept at
Adrian’s home and these are nornally paired up at Christmas. The stock loft is 16ft x 8ft, with a
massive aviary and the main feeding is Brian Wall’s ‘Breeding’ mixture. Adrian and his dad have
one youngster each out of each nest. New stock birds introduced only come in from good long
distance lofts who race small teams of birds, like Adrian. His best breeder in the stock loft is
‘Ramsdean Reliance’, as he has bred a ‘Spanish Diploma’ winner for his dad, and he is the sire of
many premier racers for the Human lofts. He usually keep 40 young birds each season and half of
them go on darkness, and once training starts they are fed on half ‘PLX’ and half ‘Young Bird’
mixture. They are usually parted before racing starts and allowed together on Friday lunch time of
marking day. They must have at least two Channel races, and must go to either BBC Lamballe or the
NFC young bird race.
Adrian’s father, Derek Human and I go back many years, starting in the early 1980’s when he had
his wins in the Central Southern Classic Flying Club and he came to my home in Claygate to have
his young bird champions photographed, and I covered his successes in the fancy press. Derek is a
very likable guy, who has always got a smile on his face and along with his pigeon racing son,
Adrian, is always up for a laugh. I for one was over the moon to hear the great news that he had won
the greatest prize in long distance pigeon racing in the 2007 season, 1
open N.F.C. Tarbes Grand
National and did it in fantastic style. His wonderful champion, ‘Any Distance’, won 1
open Tarbes
(540 miles) with 3,477 birds competing and won the strong Section B. by 133 y.p.m. clear. A
brilliant performance at the highest level! This game five year old Cattrysse blue chequer hen was
sent to Tarbes feeding a nine day old youngster and has won a N.F.C. Certificate of Merit Award,
previously winning: 8
section, 70
open N.F.C. Bordeaux and 11
section, 71
open N.F.C. Pau.
Champion ‘Any Distance’ has had a brilliant racing career, winning other premier positions
including: 1
. section, 16
. open N.F.C. Chale, 15
section, 251
open N.F.C. Fougeres and 19
setion, 369
open N.F.C. Sennon Cove. A champion racer in the truest sence of the word, winning at
at the very highest level and as her name surgesses, at any distance! Derek says she was sent to
Tarbes in her favourite nest condition, feeding a baby, and the squeaker she was feeding when she
won the National was donated to the N.F.C. Young Bird Auction and raised £470 for the club. In the
early part of the season she was seperated from her mate to hold her moult and then was sent to the
very hard C.S.C.F.C. Cholet race, where she scored in the first few in the open result, and then was
repaired so she had a youngster for the Tarbes National.
Adrian told me about the early days and said, ‘I have always had an interest in the long distance
races and the first birds I had in the beginning were the Cattrysse and black Krauths. When I first
started with young birds, all those years ago I had a great start, but it didn’t continue. It was my lack
of knowledge not the birds! My first ever training toss was a disaster, taking 40 young birds from
two miles and I let them go, and watched them go over my loft and away towards London. Three
hours later I had one pigeon back and by the end of the second day I had them all back in the loft.
My first loft was brick built, with a tiled roof out of material I managed to acquire from various
sources’.
Adrian is a builder and always has been since leaving school. He says, ‘my wife will feed the
pigeons while I am away and let them out if I ask her, and one time she clocked a hen from San
Sebastian, which ended up 13th open from a disastrous race. My son, Jack, likes to go to pigeon club
and has a few young birds to follow, which I usually loose for him! My best performances are; 1st
section, 8th open BBC Bordeaux, 2nd Section, 5th open BBC Bordeaux, 5th section, 46th open NFC
Bordeaux, 8th section, 47th open NFC San Sebastian, 5th section, 11th open BBC Bordeaux and my
best achievement in pigeons is my ‘Spanish Diploma’ winner ‘Ramsdean Reliance’, whom has gone
on to win a Gold Salver for four times Palamos, and a Crystal Vase for four times Palamos at 10
years old. He holds no offices in the sport, but likes to help at marking stations. Adrian maintains,
the management of the sport has its downsides, but it is in a no-win situation with most pigeon
people and thinks the sport has progressed despite there being fewer members. He thinks fanciers are
more dedicated and professional these days and tells me the top fancier in his area must be his dad,
putting up phenomenal performances with only a very small team of pigeons. Two other fancier he
rates very highly is Dave Wells of Bordon who can get pigeons from any distance with no fancy
methods and Jimmy Wearn whose dedication is beyond belief! Late breds are only taken from the
best racers and parts his pigeons after the last young bird race to get the moult under way. There you
have it, Adrian Human, the British Barcelona Club 600 mile specialist!
