President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd Patron: Mark Gilbert BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’s 50 ANNIVERSARY (Part 4). Dennis Ward of Epsom – Thirty seven years on! open BBC Rennes (235 miles) 1977. This week we are going back over 35 years to look at some of Dennis Ward’s early success! Two Surrey fanciers took the two premier prizes in the British Barcelona Club in 1977, with ‘Jubilee Lady’ winning 1 open Palamos for Joe Bradford of Sutton, and ‘Stormy Lady’ winningâ¦
Source: British Barcelona Club
President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd
Patron: Mark Gilbert
BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’s 50
ANNIVERSARY (Part 4).
Dennis Ward of Epsom – Thirty seven years on!
open BBC Rennes (235 miles) 1977.
This week we are going back over 35 years to look at some of Dennis Ward’s early success! Two
Surrey fanciers took the two premier prizes in the British Barcelona Club in 1977, with ‘Jubilee
Lady’ winning 1
open Palamos for Joe Bradford of Sutton, and ‘Stormy Lady’ winning 1
open
young bird Rennes for Dennis Ward.
When I visited Dennis’ Epsom loft two weeks after the Rennes event, the young birds were just
finishing one of the hardest seasons the sport had seen for many years. Dennis had come from
‘Beginner to Champion’ in just three years, as he had only started up in the sport in 1975 and his
Rennes win was true to his good form that season, winning several good positions, including 1
club
Niort and 1
club Weymouth (young bird). He was then, as he is now, a small team man, wintering
about 30 birds in his neat 16ft. loft and some things never change, as he used bob hole trapping in
those early days too. The old birds were hopper fed a good mixture, with training being intense
before racing started and he gave them two 20 mile tosses every week during the racing season.
When I visited his loft, he had 13 old birds, of which 11 had flown the English Channel and told me
every pigeon had to race.
The first bird I handled on my 1977 visit was his Blue chequer hen, Champion ‘Stormy Lady’, and
she was small and appled bodied. She had two races prior to her Rennes win, from Weymouth and
Wadebridge, when she was Dennis’ last pigeon home both times. Her full performance was 1
section A, 1
open B.B.C. Rennes (velocity 1395), winning the princely sum of £46 and lifted
Harkers Trophy, Sopp Trophy and the Section Winners Tankard. Her sire had won 1
club
Weymouth and her dam was Dennis’ best young bird in 1976, liking the hard, punchy races. Her
dam was obtained from Mr. Durham of Sutton and she won several good prizes, including 2
club
Plymouth. ‘Stormy Lady’ was a Burger / Krauth cross and on handling her I noticed how well she
was feathered for that time of year.
Dennis broke his novice status in 1966 when he flew young birds in the old Chessington Club, but
gave up after that season because he couldn’t afford the up keep of the birds. Dennis told me at the
time, that he raced his birds on the Natural system and was a firm non-believer in the Widowhood
system, as it seemed very unnatural. How times have changed! On that visit to his Epsom home he
said he thought it was very wrong that the same people do all the work at the local pigeon clubs and
maintained the work should be shared out more evenly among the members.
The members of London & South East Classic Club sent 1,264 birds to Cholet at the end of June
2006, for their first race from France after the ‘bird flu’ ban was lifted. On hearing that Dennis
Ward, a fellow Esher club member had won the race, I gave him a phone call to see if he fancied a
write up to record his latest success. I’m shocked to say that Dennis and I go back nearly 40 years, to
when I wrote up his B.B.C. Rennes winner in 1977. When I was sorting out the photos for this
article I was amazed that I’ve now been photographing pigeons for over 40 years, with Dennis’
‘Stormy Lady’ being one the first champions I ever snapped. Where has the time gone?
The London & South East Classic Club took its new transporter to France for the first time and I
must say the birds returned in ‘mint’ condition, which is full credit to the classic convoyers. The
convoy was liberated at 06.00hrs. in to a North East wind and a good hard race resulted, with a few
empty perches at the member lofts that night.
Dennis Ward won the race with his two year old Staf Van Reet blue chequer pied hen, ‘Marilyn’s
Girl’, named after his wife Marilyn, and she was sent to Cholet sitting 12 day old eggs. It was a
double success for the Ward loft on that Saturday, with her sire, ‘Bad Boy’, winning the very strong
Surbiton club from Messac on the same day as she won the Classic. The handsome blue chequer
cock, ‘Bad Boy’, was one of a batch of 18 youngsters purchased from Louella Pigeon World in 2000
and has proved to be a ‘gold mine’ for the Epsom loft. ‘Marilyn’s Girl’ was only lightly raced on her
build up to her Cholet win, getting four inland races, and her dam, another Staf Van Reet, was
obtained from the Ewell partnership of Les and Mark Duffell. On handling this game little hen the
day after her Classic win, I noted she had cast her third flight before the race and her main
outstanding feature was her nice silky feathering.
Dennis raced his ten pairs of old birds on the roundabout at the start of the 2006 season and repaired
them four weeks before the Cholet Classic, to fly on his normal Natural system. He has a 20ft, four
section loft, with the old fashioned bob hole trapping and scrapes out twice a day. Dennis feeds a
‘breeder’ mixture and likes racing every Saturday, long or short, with his favourite races being from
France, and maintains his birds perform best from the Channel and hard inland races. The old birds
are paired up in January and Dennis tells me, he has no stock birds, with 90% of his team being Staf
Van Reet. The racers get regular training from Milford (25 miles) and maintains he never goes any
further down the line. He keeps about 25 youngsters every season and not being in favour of the
darkness system, races natural to the perch. The young birds get a 12 training tosses before the first
Federation race and must fly the programme. Dennis says he likes young bird racing and a good
education when the birds are young sets them up for life. Dennis is a great worker for the sport,
being secretary of several clubs in past seasons and was secretary of the Epsom Downs club (London
Federation).
Well that just leaves me to congratulate Dennis on his major achievements. Well done mate, two
winners, 1
open BBC and 1
open L&SECC.! It’s great to see one of the sport’s workers at the top
of the race result sheet.
