FERGUS ELLEY OF NEW ZEALAND
Fergus will be keeping Elimar readers up to speed about various aspects of the sport in New Zealand.
AN INTRODUCTION - MAY 2012
Hi Elimar readers, I’m Fergus Elley of Onewhero, New Zealand, a 50 minute drive south of central Auckland.
I’m an aspiring racing pigeon writer. Like many of you, I have kept pigeons as a young boy. When I was a teenager I got involved in racing pigeons in West Auckland by joining the Henderson Club for a few years. Back then I knew very little about the art of pigeon racing. The only club race that I won was when I went away to a school camp for the week and my father Don, a Presbyterian minister looked after them, dewormed them and hardly let them out. Mind you, the club had over 40 members back then in the mid 70s. I also remember winning the junior prize from the roughly 500 mile Henderson Classic race in which Paul and Dick Brons got the only bird on the day. My preparation was mainly to lock the birds up (someone had told me to do that), but I probably took them too literally and may’ve done it for 3 weeks! They probably needed a rest, as I think I raced them every week apart from the Federation races.
Back then, the birds went down by rail, whereas nowadays it’s nearly all by road plus the Cook Strait ferry vehicle transport service between the North and South Islands. We had some very hard races in my boyhood, with weather forecasting not being what it is today.
When I started racing again in West Auckland in 1990, my main aim was to be as good as Paul and Dick Brons of Henderson Valley in the 70s. I knew that if I could get anywhere near their level of performance that I wouldn’t be popular. I think that I achieved my aim while I was there!
As a teenager of seventeen I went to Massey University in Palmerston North here in New Zealand to train to be a veterinarian. Unfortunately, in less than 2 years of working as a country veterinarian my health failed completely. It was 3 years later, in 1989, that I saw the late Geoff Groves in Henderson while shopping and really felt a strong conviction to speak to him. He said that he had recently had a major heart problem and I ended up catching the pigeon bug again after seeing his birds. As a consequence I raced some late round youngsters at his place with him in the 1989 Young Bird season. He was ex-air force and was a very disciplined pigeon fancier.
The next year I started out on my own whilst still living in West Auckland. In 1991, I was officially diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. The specialist said that it may have been triggered by a very bad case of glandular fever as a 16 year old. However, being young and having been a top high school athlete, especially at 800 metres and very sporty playing rugby and cricket, I managed to persevere for many years with suboptimal health, going on to achieve academically with the Bachelor of Veterinary Sciences degree.
I am indebted to the ‘mighty racing pigeons’ for being my friends and solace for 23 years now and I highly recommend the ‘pigeon pastime’ for anyone with any form of health disability. It helps you be active and gives some structure in life and it is very good for the mind, emotions and spirit.
The social side is a great stimulus, too. In the 80s, I was a Church attender but now the pigeon clubs are a bit like my ‘parish’ and a lot of good friendships have been forged, like that with kiwi friend, Brian Batchelor of Elstead, England.
I have won many decent races the past 23 years. This includes twice Open Federation, Dunedin to Auckland (around 700 miles), both smashes. I’ve also won Timaru to Auckland Open Federation 3 times (currently a mere 560 miles to me, but previously 590 miles), always by a good margin.
I am mainly interested in the races from the South Island to Auckland now, Invercargill (750 miles to me) being the furthest. The shortest South Island racepoint is Ward (330 miles to me), the next Christchurch (450 miles to me).
I have won the annual Christchurch to Auckland Federation Old Bird National Open race 3 times now and won either East or the West Section many times (I used to live in the West Section, at 3 different locations in 13 years). Whilst in the West Section I had a club refuse me membership, even though I’d been a member there for 8 years. That was after buying our first house. Other West Section fliers who lived a lot further outside the club boundary than where I shifted to had been allowed into that club. As a consequence I made a real determined effort to win as many Classic races as possible and in one year won 11 out of the 13 West Section Classic races on offer as far as 500 miles!!
However, we have moved on from these things, the past is the past. Not surprisingly, at the time I knew that I had most of the opposition beat psychologically. Looking back now I see it all as a great achievement and really a tremendous compliment.
Unfortunately my illness has slowly progressed. Now I can’t drive very far. Although my wife will usually train the birds if I ask, much of the results nowadays are achieved by merely racing and loft flying.
In late October 2011, I started a racing pigeon blog and see that now as a great opportunity to give back to this great sport, while at the same time upholding the welfare of the ‘mighty racing pigeon’. The blog can be viewed at ferguspigeonman.wordpress.com
Some of the articles there will be on this Elimar site in due course, either in full or edited form e.g. ‘Mac does it again’ is already there. In a nutshell, Mac Armstrong of Auckland has won the Auckland Racing Pigeon Federation (ARPF) Invercargill to Auckland race 4 years in a row (780 miles). I will pen a second article on Mac’s techniques for this Elimar site in time.
I race in the Pukekohe Club which is affiliated to the ARPF and the National governing body, Pigeon Racing New Zealand (PRNZ). Both of these organisations have websites. Currently we have 9 members and the average size of clubs throughout New Zealand isn’t much more. In the greater Auckland area there are 7 clubs with around 60 members in total. The East section’s north to south boundary is over 70 miles which presents a challenge. There are at the best about 500 racing pigeon enthusiasts in New Zealand with 36 clubs affiliated to PRNZ.
Well how’s that for an introduction? Hope you enjoy my future articles on this site from ‘down under’.
Fergie.
