EAST DOWN COMBINE
with Clifford Browne
Annsborough Duo Win EDC Fanciers Of The Year
Anyone who follows the results of the East Down Combine cannot have failed to notice the regular appearance of the Annsborough father & son partnership of D Croskery & son in both the Open and Section results which this year has led to them winning the East Down Fanciers of the Year award with 1486 points . The partnership has been racing in this name since 1988 and consists of Dominic, a sprightly Octogenarian and his son Dolan, ably assisted by Doley’s Mum Josie. Prior to 1988 Dolan’s brother Mickey (who now races in his own name to his own loft, also very successfully) was in the partnership which was D Croskery & sons and this went back to the early ’70s and prior to that Dominic has had pigeons since he was a boy so there is a long history of pigeons in the Croskery family. I mentioned the other key member of the team working quietly behind the scenes Dominic’s wife Josie who does a lot of the everyday chores with the birds and ensures that a regular timetable for the birds is maintained. That then is a little about this partnership now more on their birds, systems etc and we will start with the loft.
The all timber racing loft is 28ft long and is divided into 4x7ft section and painted throughout in a light green paint, there are 2 sections for Old Birds and 2 for Young birds with the stock birds being housed at Jimmy McCabe’s who is an uncle and which are the stock birds of both the partnership and brother Mickey with the Young Birds being transferred on weaning to the racing lofts.
An Old bird racing team of around 40 is usual with 45 Young Birds being reared for themselves ,although many others are reared for sales etc as their birds are in big demand.
The Birds which I handled ,regardless of the strain were all of a very similar type being medium sized and beautifully balanced and mainly Blues. Blue cheqs , pieds with one or two reds, mealies and odd white and ash.
The strains and families were as follows ;De Klak, Manderlarze , Walter de Rijck, WillyThas, Bolton Janssen and Busschaert and the partnership were greatly indebted to their great friends John Joby and Robt Kirkwood for the top class birds they had obtained from them over the years .
Before moving on to look at how this partnership manage their birds a look at what they have achieved and 2016 was an exceptional year with the two star performers being two brothers called “Notorious 1” and “Notorious 2” and which I will refer to as N1 and N2 from now on and what a pair of birds these turned out to be both yearlings the sire of these pair is a Manderlarze from John Joby which was a Fed winner for John whilst the dam is a Walter de Rijck hen also from John Joby and this pair in addition to producing N1 and N2 were also responsible for Breeding brother Mickey’s Skibbereen Derby winner but the performances of N1 and N2 were outstanding in 2016 when both as I said were yearlings and their results were as follows
N1 ----3rd club Tullamore 2015 8th club Pilmore Beach 2015 as a young bird
then in 2016
1st club Tullamore
1st club, 2nd EDC 2 bird, 15th East section 16th Open EDC. 1st Thurles.
1st club , 3rd EDC 2 bird, 18th East Section 21st Open EDC. Fermoy.
1st club, 1st EDC 2 bird, 3rd East Section 5th Open EDC. 2nd Thurles.
4th club Derek Wishart classic.
“Notorious 1“, was also Old Bird of the year in the EDC 2 bird club
N2
7th club Clonmel 2015 as a young bird
2016
5th club Tullamore beaten by nestmate.
4th club Thurles beaten by nestmate.
8th club Fermoy
2nd club, 5th East section 10th open EDC. 2nd Thurles
2nd club, 2nd EDC 2bird , 3rd East section 5th Open, 2nd 3bird channel championship 1st Talbenny
1st club 1st EDC 2 bird, 3rd East section 5th Open 2nd 3bird c,championship 2nd Talbenny.
6th club 4th EDC 2 bird, 2nd 3bird c,championship.
And look at this for a performance -winner of double meritorious I.H.U. award.(now that is hard to do )
7th club 7th EDC 2 bird, won by loftmate
Now these are just the performances last year of two exceptional birds but this loft has a tremendous record over the years which includes over 10x1st Open EDC, East Section Fancier of the Year several times , 9 times Fancier of the year in the former South Down Fed ,winning the Joe Ringland Classic , and in addition they have also been 3rd open in the Portsmouth National, 7th Open in the King’s Cup and winners of an INFC Hall of Fame Diploma . At club level they have won the YB average in 18 of the last 21 years and have been over 80 times in the prize money in the club and in 2016 they won all the club averages ,so you can see this is a very competitive loft .
LOFT
So now a little about how the Croskerys have achieved these results and starting with the loft which as I mentioned is inside painted a light green as it was felt that this colour was beneficial to the wellbeing of the birds ,timber in construction it is cleaned twice daily and limed during the racing season and once per week in the winter time . Deep litter is not in use in this racing loft but up the road where the stock birds are kept the floor has a deep litter of Easy bed.
Management Systems
The racing team are paired up around the middle of February with the stock birds going together around Christmas. Racers are kept together until about the 3rd race when they go onto Roundabout and with a racing team of around 36 to 40 birds this means that each section houses 18 to 20 birds. After being confined to the loft during the winter months ,exercise before racing commences is for both Cocks and Hens twice a day and each time they are expected to exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes ,roadwork is given when it is felt necessary but for Old birds it is not as regimented as for the Youngsters which are placed on the darkness system one week after they are weaned ,a system which they having been using now since 1996 and they stay on this until 4 weeks before the first Young Bird race . Hours of Darkness are 8 to 4 .Training young birds starts once they are off the darkness and starts with very short tosses building up to Newry some 18miles away and then is increased to 3 or 4 times a week from Slane some 40 miles .
Feeding
The Birds are fed to their need which means they get what is required for them to do the job to hand .Old Birds in the winter are fed Kirkwood Breeding Mixture and during the season Gem Breeding Plus and interestingly no seeds are used ,not even to trap the birds but they are encouraged with peanuts which once they acquire a taste for them they do love. Young birds are fed Gem Europa Classic and again some peanuts.
Medication
On the subject of medication birds are vaccinated for Paramyxovirus, wormed once per year. Regularly treated for the prevention of Canker and for this they use a number of different Canker treatments and they are treated every 4 to 6 weeks .The birds are given vitamins twice per week with any other medication being given if and when required and advice Doley tells me is always readily available from his great friend Rod Adams.
The Future
The Croskerys like to be competitive in all events from the first to the last and as we have seen have been successful from start to finish. This year they intend to work their breeding around these two super cocks using the Bull system but on previous occasions they have used Father to Daughter and Brother and sister pairings always striving to improve what is a very successful team.
Doley wanting to put something back into the sport he loves is just entering his second season as EDC race Controller -never an easy job ,especially with our weather and we wish him continuing success in this .
It was a most enjoyable morning spent in the company of these gifted Fanciers and I thank Dominic, Josie and Doley and Mickey for the hospitality shown and end this by wishing the D Croskery & son partnership continuing success with their lovely team of pigeons.
******************
