MORRIS & PUGH
of Maerdy, Rhondda
1st Welsh South Road National Flying Club Carentan 2011
by Gareth Watkins
Robert Pugh and father David
Although the partnership is still named Morris & Pugh, Kenny Morris passed away in 2006 and the birds are now managed by Robert Pugh and his father David but Kenny’s name is still retained as a mark of respect to a very good friend and top class fancier. For a number of years the partnership also included Jim Whitcombe but Jim has now left the partnership. One of the loft’s top performers in recent seasons is the superb racing machine “Licensed to Thrill”. This terrific Janssen cock won 1st club, 1st Fed, 1st sect, 2nd National 2,690 birds; 1st section 1st Open Welsh Combine 5,427 birds from Lillers and two weeks later topped things off with a 1st Club, 1st 2 Bird Club, 1st Fed, 1st section, 1st Open National 1,035 birds; 1st section 1st Open Combine Brussels 2,906 birds. All this as a yearling! However, he showed his class as a young bird when he won 1st club, 3rd Fed 1,100 birds; 3rd section 11th Open National 1,165 birds and 3rd section 12th Open Combine 1,830 birds from Lillers 270 miles.
Licensed to Thrill
As you can therefore appreciate, these fanciers are no strangers to success, as they have won many top Fed, National and Combine positions over recent years including 2 x 1st National, 2 x 2nd National, 2 x 1st Combine plus 6 x 1st Fed since 2009. So it was no surprise when they clocked a “good ‘un” in the Carentan National.
Although the vast majority of birds housed are of Red Fox and Ponderosa Janssen origin, the Carentan National winner was bred in the very first nest of youngsters reared by a pair of birds obtained from Marc Verheyde in Belgium and selected by the partners on a visit in 2009. Now named “Nancie’s Girl” after Robert’s grandmother, the yearling blue hen was sent to the National on roundabout.
On a recent visit I handled a number of the partners’ top pigeons, which are housed in a range of lofts sited in a compound at the rear of father Dave Pugh’s home. The stock lofts are extensive, measuring some 72 ft x 8ft divided into seven sections with a 4ft aviary running the length of the fronts of each section. This loft houses 84 pairs of mainly Janssen based stock which includes the new addition of 16 pairs of long distance bloodlines. As mentioned earlier, the Janssens are from two main sources – Red Fox Janssens via the late Aneurin Williams augmented by further additions from Ponderosa UK. These have been successfully line bred over the years and conform to a specific type being just on medium size.
The 140 young birds bred in 2011 are housed in a 20ft x 12ft loft which faces down the valley to the south east. These will be raced on darkness and will be expected to race the programme through to Lillers 270 miles on the south-east route and Carentan 200 miles due south. The 2011 old bird team amounted to 110 birds housed in two lofts with accommodation for 57 pairs. Forty old birds were earmarked for south road racing and 70 for the south-east route with all old birds raced on the roundabout system.
The usual routine is for all the birds, both racers and stock birds, to be mated in late December/early January depending on the weather at the time. When the old bird racers have finished their domestic duties they usually get up to six training tosses out to 30 miles before the first race and thereafter receive approximately two tosses per week from the same distance throughout the old bird season. As far as exercise is concerned the racers are allowed to do as they please for one hour twice each day – they are never forced to fly.
Feeding takes the form of a light high carbohydrate seed mixture in the morning with Hormoform added and the evening feed is a slightly heavier sport mixture marketed by Vanrobaeys with both the old bird and young bird racers receiving around 1 ½ ounces per bird per day. In 2011 Robert has also experimented with the use of farm straights such as beans, peas, wheat and barley.
As mentioned earlier the youngsters are raced on the darkness system and are allowed to remain together throughout the season with the result that some youngsters pair up and if so they are allowed to sit eggs and rear their babies. They, like the old birds, are allowed free exercise periods twice per day and are allowed to come and go as they please with no forcing.
The Maerdy club in which the partners compete weekly, is one of the most successful in the Rhondda Valley Fed as the club finished the 2011 old bird season as top points winners in the Federation. With weekly competition of this standard it is little wonder that the partnership of Morris & Pugh have become so successful – this and the fact that in Robert Pugh, aided and abetted by his father David you have two very able and competitive fanciers.
