President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd Patron: Mark Gilbert BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’s 50 ANNIVERSARY (Part 13). Geoff & Mark Gilbert of Windsor. open BBC Rennes (237 miles) 1997 / 1 open BBC Messac (255 miles) 2009. The fantastic performances of Geoff and Mark Gilbert have been well documented in recent times and this British Barcelona Club tribute is based on my visits to their lofts after winning London & South East Club races, several years ago. Mark now races withâ¦
Source: British Barcelona Club
President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd
Patron: Mark Gilbert
BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’s 50
ANNIVERSARY (Part 13).
Geoff & Mark Gilbert of Windsor.
open BBC Rennes (237 miles) 1997 / 1
open BBC Messac (255 miles) 2009.
The fantastic performances of Geoff and Mark Gilbert have been well documented in recent times
and this British Barcelona Club tribute is based on my visits to their lofts after winning London &
South East Club races, several years ago. Mark now races with brilliant success to his loft in
Winkfield and has recorded several National and International wins. His father, Geoff Gilbert, is also
a wonderful pigeon racer in his own right!
Geoff Gilbert Loft Visit.
The London and South East Classic Club sent a record 880 birds to Pau in 1999 and as convoyer at
that time, when I left the Sutton marking station with my record convoy I thought, judging by the
early weather forecast, that we would be liberating on the proposed day of the 550 mile race, but this
wasn't to be. On the proposed day of liberation we awoke to 100% low cloud cover and heavy mist
coming off the Pyrenees, with visibility being less than a mile. On the Saturday the weather was
much better with blue skies and sunshine, so I liberated at 05.30 hrs into a fresh north-west wind,
with no day birds recorded. A hard race it might have been, but our club is all about quality and
members clocked over 100 pigeons on the second day, with the early birds being clocked around
7am.
The winning pigeon clocked at 6.49am at the loft of Geoff and Mark Gilbert of Windsor. It was their
champion widowhood dark chequer cock, ‘The Narrow Cock’. This pigeon was a champion in the
true sense of the word having won counties prizes in Classic and National events including 10
open
Pau NFC on the day in 1998, 139
open Pau NFC, 340
open St Malo Young Bird National, 115
open Bordeaux BBC, 191
open Nantes BBC, 40
open Bordeaux L&SECC runner-up Best
Average Nantes and Pau in 1998 and 1
open Pau L&SECC. A fantastic pigeon! On the build-up to
his Pau Classic win, the Narrow Cock, had three training tosses, three sprint races, two Nantes races
and cast his first flight the day of marking for Pau. Geoff said at the time he calls him, ‘The Narrow
Cock’, because he had no body in the hand, but had a big heart. He had the very best long distance
bloodlines in him, being bred from Geoff Cooper and Ian Benstead pigeons.
Geoff has been in the sport for 60 years and says Geoff Cooper has been a great friend and advisor to
him for many years. The Gilbert's follow the Geoff Cooper widowhood and feeding method and he
even designed their 30ft. Petron loft for them. The tiled roof loft has three sections, two for
widowhood cocks and one for young birds and trapping is through sputniks and open doors. The
partners never kept more than six cocks in each section and their whole system was geared to long
distance racing. Geoff maintained he had always liked racing over the Channel, but only got it right
in the last few years and used the club sprint races for training. The Gilbert's paired up the first week
in February and the cocks reared a pair of youngsters before going on the widowhood system, on
their second round of eggs. They normally got three training tosses, three sprint races and then got
Classic and National racing, being rarely raced in Federation Channel events. They were fed on the
Geoff Cooper mixture and were never broken down. The hen was shown on marking night and was
given to the cock for a short time on his return from the race and the racers were never trained in the
racing season.
Mark Gilbert Loft Visit.
In the last few years Mark Gilbert has won just about every major accolade at National level and of
course his biggest triumph was winning the Dax International in 2004. He has been a leading force
in the L&SECC for many years, winning 1
open three times, including the longest old bird race
from Bergerac in 2006. It was one of the hardest Bergerac races of all time and the Gilbert loft won
it in great style recording 1
and 2
open on a velocity just touching 900 ypm.
I have known Mark Gilbert for quite a few years now and his fantastic success with his pigeons has
never changed him, he is still the nice modest bloke he’s always been! He’s from a brilliant pigeon
racing family, his father being Geoff Gilbert of Windsor, who won 1
open L&SECC Pau a few
years ago. Geoff won Pau with his brilliant widowhood dark chequer cock, “The Narrow Cock” and
this pigeon was a champion in the truest sense of the word, having won countless prizes in the
National and Classic events, including 10
open N.F.C. Pau (on the day of liberation), 139
open
N.F.C. Pau, 40
open L&SECC Bordeaux and so no. A fantastic pigeon! At the age of 11 Mark
thought he would like to get involved with the pigeons, so began to pester his father who at that time
was flying in partnership with Terry Keys of West Drayton. Geoff told Mark to look after the stock
birds and he got the biggest telling off of his life when mixed up all the eggs in the stock loft! The
Gilberts flew for many years in a partnership with John Haines of Slough and they won numerous
premier prizes including 1
open S.M.T. Combine. Mark says that his dad is his best friend and must
take a lot of the loft’s recent National and International success as he is really his partner and works
in Mark’s Winkfield loft every day. In fact, he told me he couldn’t race his pigeons properly without
his dad’s help!
The 2004 Dax International was held in July and most fanciers thought the British success in the
2003 event was a “one off” and was unlikely to be repeated. But this wasn’t the case in the 2004
race, with two British fanciers storming home to win 1
and 2
open Dax International again. The
brilliant West Country ace, Brian Sheppard, came close to it a double of International winners, when
he clocked his widowhood cock on the day, to record 2
open International. Fantastic pigeon flying
by Brian, but it was someone else’s turn to win the International that year and the winning pigeon
was clocked at the Berkshire loft of Mark and Geoff Gilbert.
Mark Gilbert’s International winner was his champion blue Van Elsacker widowhood cock,
“Southfield Supreme”, clocked at 18.01hrs on the day of liberation, flying 514 miles from Dax.
Mark told me the Van Elsacker pigeons are a middle distance family, with the sire of “Southfield
Supreme” being bred by the Belgium fancier and his dam being bred by Geoff and Catherine
Cooper. This game cock is raced on a basic widowhood system, getting two 20 mile training tosses
before the first race and four channel races on his build up to the Dax International, including the
Nantes National. Champion “Southfield Supreme” has plenty of previous good racing form,
winning; 2003: 4
open L&SECC Tours, 21
open BICC Falaise; 2004: 16
open L&SECC La
Ferte Bernard and a blue pied sister to him has won 15 times 1
club and several premier positions in
the N.F.C. races.
In the July of 2003 members of the National Flying Club sent 2,739 birds to Pau for the blue Riband
race and because of adverse weather conditions at the race point, the convoy was taken back to
Saintes for liberation after a two day hold over. I was in Hampshire on a fishing holiday that
weekend and was very surprised to hear on the telephone that the National birds were liberated at
17.00hrs on the Sunday. Something I had never heard of before in my nearly 35 years in the sport.
At the time, a 17.00hrs liberation at 387 miles wasn’t something I could get my head around and
really, I heard the news with disbelief!
On my return from holiday I was given the great news that one of the sport’s gentlemen, Mark
Gilbert of Winkfield, near Windsor, had won the National, with a banger of a blue cock bred from a
hen he had purchased at Eric Cannon’s dispersal sale after his death in 2000. As NFC press officer at
that time, on the Saturday after the race I visited Mark’s home, and I must say it was a double
pleasure for me that day, firstly to see Mark’s champion blue cock, now named, “Night Flight” and
secondly to the Berkshire village of Winkfield, as many years ago, when I was a young lad, my
uncle owned a farm there and my brother, Phil and I used to work on it during the school holidays.
Wonderful memories!
Mark sent three birds to the Saintes / Pau National, flying 394 miles from Saintes and clocked
Champion “Night Flight” at 07.13hrs on the Monday morning to win the National by almost
400ypm. This game blue cock was paired up on 1
December, being parted after rearing a pair of
youngsters. He was repaired on 1
April and after sitting eggs for five days was put on the
widowhood system. On his build up to his Saintes / Pau National win he had several short inland
club races, several channel races, including Dax (530 miles) with the L&SECC, when he recoded
open. Prior to the 2003 season had been only lightly raced, having three races as a young bird
and three races as a yearling. Champion “Night Flight” is bred out of a direct Bernard De Weerdt red
chequer cock and he is a full brother to the Belgium Champion’s 4
open Dax International winner.
The Grand National winner’s dam, a blue hen, is a direct daughter of Eric Cannon’s Champion
“Culmer Bess”, when mated to the “77” stock cock, who is a half-brother to Champion “Culmer
Channel Queen”, being bred out of “Culmer Producer”. Champion “Culmer Bess” was Eric’s fourth
N.F.C. Pau Merit Award winner, recording; 6
, 26
, 170
open Pau, 47
open Saintes / Pau and was
the highest priced pigeon at Eric’s dispersal sales, being sold for £2,300.
Mark had lived at his present address for only five years and Champion “Night Flight” was a broken
pigeon, having flown out as a young bird to his previous house. He is only really interested in races
over 500 miles and races 90 cocks on the widowhood system. Mark and Geoff are great friends with
Geoff and Catherine Cooper of Peasedown and the Winkfield loft is managed on the Cooper’s
methods. Mark mixes his own Geoff Cooper long distance corn mixture, which is made up of three
parts maize, one part wheat, one part Red Band and nearly two parts protein. The racers are paired
up in December and after rearing two youngsters are parted again, to be repaired in April. They are
put on the widowhood system after sitting their eggs for about five days and are given two 20 mile
training tosses before the first Federation race. The cocks have food in front of them all the time,
being fed in the nest box pots and are never broke down at any time during the racing season. The
short inland races are used to get the race team fit and they are given about three or four weeks off
before the main 500 mile events. The widowhood hens are given to the cocks at 5 o’clock on the
evening before marking for the 500 mile race and tobacco stalks are thrown on the loft floor. Mark
told me that “Night Flight” had built a massive nest before he went off to the marking station for the
Grand National. The very smart 74ft. loft has seven sections, all housing widowhood cocks and is
built to Geoff Cooper’s design. In fact, Geoff came up from his West Country home to help erect it.
This wonderful structure is 3ft. off the ground, has a pan tiled roof and a slatted floor, and the birds
are trapped through open doors and into “super” traps. The widowhood hens are housed in an open
flights on the back of the main racing loft and I must say how well they looked, being out in the
fresh air and weather. The main loft is cleaned out every day and the flights once a month. Mark’s
25 pairs of stock birds are housed in three converted stables and are paired up the same time as the
racers, so their eggs can be floated in the race loft. The main families in the stock sections are Eric
Cannon and Bernard De Weerdt. The stock loft house ten direct Eric Cannon pigeons, all obtained at
Eric’s dispersal sales and 30 direct from the Belgium ace, Bernard De Weerdt. When bringing in a
new stock bird, Mark maintains it has to be out of the very best National winning lines. He has no
special type, but likes a smaller pigeon in the hand.
He had 150 young birds, when I visited the loft in 2003 and all of them were put on the darkness
system. They are given about eight training tosses before the first race, but once they start racing
they are not trained anymore and are raced through the full programme to the Young Bird National.
The youngsters are housed in a big two section loft, with a wire flight on the front. The two sexes are
kept apart all week during the racing season, being allowed to run together on the afternoon of race
marking. This is a semi-widowhood system, with the young birds running together for a few hours
after clocking. I would like to finish this week’s article by congratulating Mark and Geoff Gilbert on
their brilliant success over the last few seasons!
