President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd Patron: Mark Gilbert BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’s 50 ANNIVERSARY (Part 3). Joe Bradford of Sutton. open BBC Palamos (672 miles) 1977. This week I’m going to feature a very special long distance fancier, who I first met in 1977 when he won 1 open British Barcelona Club Palamos, Joe Bradford of Sutton. Joe has been around pigeons for many years, serving his apprenticeship under his father, Joe senior, who was a great fancier in hisâ¦
Source: British Barcelona Club
President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd
Patron: Mark Gilbert
BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB’s 50
ANNIVERSARY (Part 3).
Joe Bradford of Sutton.
open BBC Palamos (672 miles) 1977.
This week I’m going to feature a very special long distance fancier, who I first met in 1977 when he won 1
open
British Barcelona Club Palamos, Joe Bradford of Sutton. Joe has been around pigeons for many years, serving his
apprenticeship under his father, Joe senior, who was a great fancier in his own right. His father was an ‘ace’ at the
long distance although he also won inland, so young Joe had a burning love for the 500 mile plus pigeons, which he
found were few and far between. Young Joe did most of the loft chores in the early days and in 1952 he went into
partnership with his father. In 1954 the partners won 1
club, 4
Federation, 6
London S.R. Combine Libourne and
won the longest old bird race five times in six years, from 1954 to 1959, totting up a 3
and 4
the other year. Joe did
his National Service from 1957 and on his demob in 1959 he had a chance to race partly on his own, as his father was
working away from home, only getting home once every three weeks. Joe won 1
club Poitiers and 1
, 3
and 4
club Bordeaux, with some positions in the Federation and Combine. In 1962 Joe married Vera, and in 1966 he started
racing on his own at the present address.
Joe’s main family was Joe Shore of Northwich with crosses from birds obtained from the late Frank Cheetham of
Pontefract. He purchased eight birds direct from Joe Shore and two of these originals were in the Bradford stock loft
for many years, one was considered to be the sire of the loft. It was a handsome blue with a wonderful violet eye,
which handled medium with a long cast. His sire and dam flew Pau for Joe Shore; the violet eyed cock bred most of
Joe Bradford’s best birds and was the sire of ‘Lucky Lad’ and grandsire of Champion ‘Jubilee Lady’, the 1977 B.B.C.
Palamos winner. This great stock cock was paired to a Shore dark chequer when he bred ‘Lucky Lad’ and his brother,
which was the sire of Champion ‘Jubilee Lady’. ‘Lucky Lad’ spent 1977 in the stock loft and did not go to Palamos.
Joe told me that the cock had flown Palamos four times, recording: 1973: 169
open (arrived home with his back
ripped open), 1974: 41
open, 1975: 33
open, 1976: 3
open and after that he didn’t have to prove anything to Joe.
In fact, he rated his champion blue cock the best bird he has ever owned, with ‘Jubilee Lady’ a close second. Unlike
his sire and dam, ‘Lucky Lad’ was a very nice handling pigeon, being medium in size. Joe said his pigeons were not a
nice type, but what they lacked in looks they make up for in courage.
Racers and stock birds were paired up about 12
March and one week after the first round of young birds were taken
away the racers started training. The Palamos candidates only reared one baby and racing started at the third event
from Exeter, then into Rennes and onto the big one, Palamos with the British Barcelona Club. The main target each
year was the Palamos race and work on the birds for this event began more or less after the moult in the year previous
to the race. Joe’s loft was in a small wire compound to keep out our four legged friends and give the birds some peace
and quiet. The loft was self built, ‘L’ shaped and was over 40ft. long, including a corn store. The floor was concrete
and the loft was nice and light with laminated windows in the roof. There were 21 big nest boxes in the racing
section, although no more than 15 pairs of racers were kept, and between 35 and 40 youngsters were bred each year.
The loft was cleaned out twice a day and the water could be changed as often as seven times a day in the breeding
season. Joe said most diseases start through the drinking water. The birds were fed on beans all the year around with
linseed. Trapping was through drop holes and the young birds were given a small aviary on the top of the loft until
they were strong on the wing. The youngsters only got exercise in the evening, until they started to run, then they
were let out in the mornings. He trained the youngsters later than normal and started them at the third young bird
event from Seaton. Their first toss was at about 20 miles, then in stages down to the coast, then at many points along
the coast, through the season. He thought that this was an ideal start in life for a young pigeon and the best were sent
to the N.F.C. Young Bird event and the B.B.C. Rennes race.
Joe’s champion blue hen ‘Jubilee Lady’ was a small, nice type pigeon and she sat in the hand like a tennis ball. This
great hen was bred in 1972 and her full performances were, 1972: 7
club Avranches, with only nine birds home on
the day, she came home very battered, 1974: 4
club Seaton and into the N.F.C. Pau open result, 1975: 1
club, 2
Croydon Federation (2,064 birds) Exmouth, 143
open B.B.C. Palamos, 1976: 21
open B.B.C. Palamos, 1977: 1
section, 1
open B.B.C. Palamos. A true champion! Over 1,000 birds were liberated at 07.30hrs in a light variable
wind at Palamos on Friday, June 24th, 1977 and Joe said his hen came like an inland pigeon, timed at 13.40hrs on the
Saturday. She was sent sitting 24 day old eggs, having a chipping egg placed under her the night before basketing,
and in fact, the egg hatched only minutes before Joe basketed for the journey to Winchester for marking. She was
bred from a full brother to ‘Lucky Lad’ and a Frank Cheetham hen, which Joe said she takes after for type. Her
grandma flew Pau four times for the Cheetham loft, being in the section result three times. The most birds that Joe
sent to the Palamos event were six and in 1977 he sent four and got three. He was opposed to mid-day liberations in
the long distance races and said the birds were not on the wing long enough on the day of liberation. He thought
Palamos was the ‘Number One’ race, as the birds fly all the day of toss, then they have to get up and come again the
next day.
The Bradford loft was 2
open B.B.C. Palamos in 1970, with a 1964 bred Gits red chequer cock which hatched from
a gift egg from Joe’s good friend, Ernie Parker. This cock’s full performance was outstanding, recording 1
club
Exmouth, 2
club, 30
open Combine Le Mans, 2
open B.B.C. Palamos (found on the loft) and had flown most
channel race points, including Bergerac. The Parker red cock was of medium size and apple bodied, with a nice
strong back and looked well for an old pigeon. Joe liked a small to medium pigeon and said, ‘you don’t see big
marathon runners’. He rated the Fear Brothers partnership of Clandown the best long distance fanciers of the 1970’s.
He told novices to go to a good consistent fancier for their first stock and said Joe Shore was clocking 12 pigeons in
race time every year from Pau. Frank Cheetham’s record was second to none, when he was looking around for a start
with long distance pigeon racing. Joe maintained that there is too much money in the sport with the money side fast
overriding the performance side of racing. He said performance first and the money is the bonus.
Joe’s wife, Vera, was a great help with the birds and she timed in a lot of the Palamos pigeons. She, in fact, clocked
Champion ‘Jubilee Lady’ for her 1
open Palamos win. Joe said she was a good, reliable stand in for clocking their
when he was at his work. I hope you have enjoyed the Joe Bradford story, he is still racing pigeons today with
outstanding success!
