Dennis Ford of Blaenavon

THE DREAM SEASONS OF DENNIS FORD OF BLAENAVON

By Gareth Watkins

“I have been reporting on the sport now for 34 years and have visited many of the top fanciers both in the U.K. and indeed Belgium. Many of these fanciers have enjoyed a succession of excellent seasons’ racing but in all this time I cannot recall one fancier achieving the level of success in one season on differing routes at all levels of competition to match those achieved by the subject of this report during the 2007 old bird season”.

That’s what I wrote almost exactly a year ago at the end of June 2007. Well I have to say that, if anything, the 2008 season has proved to be even more successful for this quiet and unassuming man of Gwent. Take for example this year’s National results with the Welsh SRNFC :- 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 12th Open Messac; 1st section 10th Open Lessay; 2nd Open Tours; 1st Open Saintes; 3rd Open Tarbes.

Then we come to the reason for my return visit to Blaenavon - 1st OPEN BICC Tarbes 608 miles beating the 2nd open winner racing to Surrey, by 75 ypm and flying 40+ miles further. What makes this performance even more remarkable is the fact that the BICC convoy of 405 birds were liberated with more than 12,000 birds entered from all over the continent and these had the advantage of a westerly wind throughout the course of the race. Dennis’s little hen was flying to the most westerly location of the whole convoy and some 120 miles west of the 2nd Open winner!!

The winner of this epic race is a medium sized, extremely well muscled red chequer hen. When I handled her some 48 hours after her return she simply oozed vitality and her muscle tone was remarkable given that she had raced every inch of the 608 mile course from southern France just two days before.

She was raced through to Lillers 250 miles as a youngster and as a yearling she was only raced as far as Picauville. This year, as a two year old, she was given Falaise, Alencon and Saran with the BICC and Gwent Greater Distance Club in preparation for her Tarbes performance. As with all the Ford racing team she was raced on the round about system - more about this later in the article.

There is an interesting story surrounding the breeding of the Tarbes winner, now appropriately named “Annie’s Girl” after Dennis’s wife Anne. It goes like this – Anne was always complaining that Dennis only had blues and chequers with no “pretty ones” i.e. reds and mealies. As a result Dennis went to the Welsh Trust Show at Aberdare and bought the first pair of red squeakers that he came across. The squeakers were £60 the pair with pedigrees, but Dennis being Dennis, he managed to get them for £50 without pedigrees, and was told by the breeder, Mike James of Gloucester, that they were Van Hees. Anne was then gifted a red chequer squeaker by John Smale from Abergavenny and this turned out to be a cock and was subsequently mated to the red hen of the £50 pair to breed “Annie’s Girl”. There is another interesting fact regarding the “Smale Cock”, sire of “Annie’s Girl” – his sire a chequer cock, containing the bloodlines of Fishlock & Harding’s Thurso National winner “Westra Eddie”, along with “Gillian” John Smale’s Thurso National winner and Queen’s Cup Winner, plus 1st International Lourdes and 1St National Crieff. This cock was sold to a fancier “up north” only to be rejected as not good enough!! He was returned to John Smale who put the cock on the road and subsequently won 10th National at 280 miles as a young bird. He is now grand sire to a 1st Open BICC Tarbes winner so he can be aptly named the “Reject Cock”. To get back to the “Smale cock” sire of the Tarbes hen “Annie’s Girl”, his dam is a mealy hen on loan to John Smale from John’s Irish friend Liam Fitzgerald. This mealy hen in turn was bred by Eddie Froggatt from his hen that won 3rd Open NFC Pau. Confusion on John Smale’s part caused an error in the breeding details of the sire of Annie’s Girl as first published. John does tend to get excited when talking about his pigeons!  

Dennis Ford retired from his job with British Aerospace some time ago and is now a “professional pigeon fancier” spending most of each day with his pigeons in and around the well appointed cabin on the allotments. Quietly spoken and deep thinking he has been a successful fancier for more than forty years. I can remember highlighting the superb long distance performances of the then T.Ford & son partnership when I began writing for the Gazette in the early 1970’s. Performances such as 1st Open  Lerwick 1971, 7th Open National when only 12 birds were recorded in race time. This was the race won by the legendary “Jeannette” raced by the Fear Brothers of Pontypridd. In 1973 the partners won 1st Open Elgin and 1st Open Lerwick, 3rd National to confirm their stature as top class long distance fanciers. Dennis’s father Tom passed away in the early 1990’s and for a number of years Denis kept his father’s name on the partnership in the hope that he could win a National race in his honour. However in 1997 Dennis’s mother convinced him to compete simply as Dennis Ford and guess what? -  the very next year 1998, he won the first of his EIGHT Nationals to date, this from Messac. Since that initial National win Denis has gone on to win National races from Crieff on the north road in 2002; Chale with young birds in 2006 ; Picauville 2007 when the loft was 1st , 2nd ,4th & 6th Open and Lessay again in 2007 plus Messac, Saintes and Tarbes BICC in 2008. Add to these outright National wins 2nd Open National on five further occasions plus the breeding of 1st National Thurso for Mr & Mrs Webber & Davies and you have one of, if not THE best racing record in the history of Welsh pigeon racing.

The 30-mile journey from my home to the Ford loft in Blaenavon takes in the grandeur of the Welsh valleys and their former industrial history. Beginning with the Rhondda mining communities, the traveller passes near the site of the Merthyr ironworks, before by passing the Ebbw Vale steel works and on to Blaenavon and the heritage park that is Big Pit, a mining museum that showcases some of Wales’ industrial past.

The Ford lofts are only a stone’s throw from the Big Pit site and are situated on an allotment high on the hillside facing down the valley to the south. I say allotments in the loosest sense as in reality the site is a well maintained scenic garden with all manner of flowers bordering an immaculately maintained lawn. In addition to the range of lofts Dennis has also set up a well stocked hidey hole complete with microwave oven, refridgerator [plus beer] ,television and telephone – a real home from home. When you consider that Dennis is at the loft at five o’clock each morning and spends most of each day there throughout the racing season, then these creature comforts can be regarded as essentials and not luxuries!! Many’s the time that Denis has shared his early morning toast with the resident robins.

There are two main racing lofts one a 32 ft x 9ft structure with 5 sections and the other 28ft x 8ft two sectioned affair, these house the 19 pairs flown on the roundabout system plus the young bird team of approximately 50 – 60 babies. The youngsters are raced on the darkness system and Dennis’s results would seem to indicate that this has had no adverse effects on their long term racing performances. The youngsters also have access to a large aviary and spend most of the day in this when not at exercise.

Ten pairs of stock birds are housed in a separate loft with aviary attached and these are mated along with the race birds in early February. The racers are allowed to rear a nest of youngsters before being put on the roundabout system and if fit every pigeon is raced weekly throughout the season in accordance with DEFRA guidelines. The old bird race team, both cocks and hens, are exercised twice daily for one hour on each occasion. With this home exercise there is no need to resort to the training basket once racing is underway. The cocks and hens are allowed together for a short time on basketting night and Dennis is not worried if some of the pairs tread. On their return from a race the pairs are allowed to remain together for an hour or so before being separated until the following week’s race.