Joe Murphy visits
W. Kinnear & Son
of Edinburgh
1st Open SNFC Le Ferte Bernard 2004
One of the highlights of being a scribe is visiting the classic winners and they don't come any better than the SNFC Gold Cup race winner, however when the same pigeon is also the winner of the Scottish Homing Union's top award The Dewar Trophy which is presented to the outstanding pigeon within the whole of Scotland it is a double bonus to visit and handle such a quality pigeon as 'Auld Reekie'. My son Kevin and I had the privilege to visit Willie and Barry on our way home from my loft report on Richard Combe. Mrs Kinnear (Pat) had made soup, sandwiches and cakes ready for our visit. This said volumes for this lady as she had not been very well lately and was in fact awaiting a hospital bed to undergo a triple heart bypass operation. As a matter of interest she obtained the operation but she developed a collapsed lung and then she then contacted a virus so this poor lady has undergone a very stressful time however I am glad to say that she is now on the road to recovery and back home where Willie and the rest of their family can attend to her every need. On behalf of Kevin and my own family as well as all the people who know Mrs Kinnear we wish her a very speedy recovery back to good health.
The Year 2004
This is one year that the Kinnear partnership will never forget as they joined the ranks within the history of the Scottish National Flying Club by achieving every fancier's dream of winning the King George Cup and the coveted Gold Cup. Let us go back to the Flightmaster Le Ferte' Bernard Gold Cup for a moment the race was flown on Friday 25 th of June 2004. The SNFC convoyer Tom McEwan liberating a convoy of 2,538 birds at 06.00am with no wind at the liberation site. The 684 members participating were competing for £33,345.87p in pools and prize money with the winner of the race guaranteed £1,000.00 first prize plus of coarse the famous GOLD CUP.
The SNFC had a fantastic race with many pigeons reported on the day and when you analyse the result you see that in the top 10 open positions there were winners from 500 miles in the south right up to Arbroath nearly 600miles on the day which is truly marvellous achievements by these outstanding quality pigeons. I have advocated for a long time that this race point was one of the best in France and after studying the results of most organisations that have used this site I have noticed that their winners are spread evenly over all there radius. This is how it turned out to be in the case of the 2004 SNFC race with 5 of the 7 section winners being in the first 17 within the open result. When you take into consideration that the north section winner was timed in at 06.30am the second morning to record 35 th open flying into the town of Buckie which, is near Banff a distance of 673 miles. This proves the top quality birds we have up here in Scotland and quite a number of non Scottish fanciers will wish they had birds of this calibre in their own lofts. We Scottish fanciers should be proud of the quality of our pigeons we have and the very high standards of velocities and results we achieve. The majority of our races are over within a matter of hours and on the odd occasion this may transpire into the next day but you can bet your bottom dollar that the race will be over by dinner time. Look at the results in the BHW or RP from the other classic organisations and you will see that some of them last for days with velocities down to walking distance. We Scottish fanciers should hold our heads up high as we have the very best of long distance pigeons up here flying in the top club within the land the Scottish National Flying Club.
Convoyers Report
Tom McEwan reported that this was the best morning he has every experienced as a conveyor in liberating pigeons. The convoy left within minutes and after handling my mate's pigeon the following morning which, was in very good condition. This is testament for the outstanding job Tom does while looking after the Scottish National pigeons. Jock Alston and his team of race controllers also worked hard and must have burnt the midnight oil to make sure the birds were off early on the Friday as it was good over the whole route. The weather reports stated that Saturday was to close in with rain and gales to cover most of Britain and any birds not home would be shut out until Sunday.
Excitement
There is nothing to beat the excitement of a SNFC Gold Cup race and the anticipation of timing in a pigeon on the day from a 500 mile race is what we keep racing pigeons is all about for me anyway. Everyone that enters pigeons into these long distance races knows exactly what I mean and if they don't become excited on days like this then there is something wrong. The first pigeon we heard about in the 2004 race was to John Hodgson of Kirkpatrick Fleming when he timed in a yearling red cock at
18-52pm Then we heard of three very good pigeons that must have been together as they are very close both in time and distance wise and it was a very close thing between these 3 pigeons and end result was that Willie Kinnear and son Barry of Edinburgh were the outright winners of 1 st open with a velocity of 1153.35 with Jackie Blackhurst of Easthouses in 2 nd place flying 3 miles less and recording a velocity of 1152.73 and then we had Dave Burns of Kirkcaldy flying 572 miles and recorded a velocity of 1152.49 so you will see how close it was from this race point. All three birds lost time on the trap and their owners spent an anxious time until the final result came out. At this point I would like to express the Kinnear family's best wishes and congratulations to Jackie and Dave on 2 outstanding pigeons, anyone of which could have been the winner.
Auld Reekie
Willie and Barry have put up some outstanding performances over the past few years and have won the SHU Dewar Trophy for the bird of the year into Scotland 3 times plus they have also been runner up twice for this top award. Willie and Barry have also been 2 nd open SNFC Nantes with their good cock 'Poppy' and 2 nd open SNFC Sartilly with 'Back to Basics' more about these two champion pigeons later in the story.
The SNFC winner is now named now named Auld Reekie after the city of Edinburgh which used to be called this many years ago. Bred in 2001 this blue bar cock as a young bird was entered by us into the SHU 'One Loft' race where he managed to win 12th prize in the final race. This turned out to be a very difficult race recording a velocity of 583 yards per minute. Following the SHU race and knowing how well bred he was Barry purchased him back at the auction sale for £120. As a yearling he was settled back into his home environment being unraced that year. As a 2 year old he flew through to the inland national from Newbury. Then as a 3 year old he had 5 Federation races from Tow Law a distance of 94 miles out to Peterborough 260 miles, he won 2 federation positions from the 5 races being 11th federation from Selby 168 miles against an entry of 2657 birds. He also won 11th federation from Newark 216 miles against 2325 birds. He competed on widowhood in the federation races before he was repaired at the end of May. He then competed in the first SNFC national race from Falaise a distance of 505 miles to the loft in Gilmerton which is situated in Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh where he won 11th open against 1716 birds, being 15 hours on the wing. On his return from Falaise he returned to his eggs and as he looked so well Willie and Barry decided to double him back in a fortnight later into the Blue Riband race with the SNFC from Le Ferte Bernard a distance of 557 miles. He again homed on the day flying over 14 hours to win 1st section B 1 st east section 1 st open SNFC winning the Gold Cup in the Scottish National Flying Club from an entry of 2538 birds. He also won the Scottish Homing Union Dewar trophy for the outstanding performance pigeon flying into Scotland during the 2004 season.
Let's start at the beginning
Willie Kinnear started to keep pigeons in 1954 as a lad and raced pigeons in various guises without much success and he fluttered between racing pigeons and racing greyhounds. In those early days he had much greater success with the dogs than the doos! His son Barry became involved with pigeons from a very young age and started in the usual ways by assisting his dad in the cleaning out etc. In the late 1960's early 1970's whilst they always took part in the Channel races, Willie would go for a pint around 9 o'clock leaving Barry & his mother Pat in the back garden to await the arrival of the birds (none ever came - for a lot of years). It was around the mid 70's that Willie built a small loft for Barry and joined him as a member of the now defunct Inchview club, Barry still a schoolboy at this time went on to win the young bird average in the strong New Lothian racing pigeon club, which has in it the majority of fanciers from within the Pentlandhills federation. Soon after this the partnership of W Kinnear & Son was formed and all pigeons were and still are to this day raced in the Danderhall RPC which is a member club of the Pentland Hills Federation. Their first success in the SNFC came in 1982 when they were fortunate enough to win 142nd Open in the Gold cup race from Rennes with almost 6000 pigeons competing. Their timer was a red cock they named ' King Billy ' - the cock being named such as it was only 6 days previous to the cock winning that the future King of our country Prince William was born.
Biggest Influences
The principal inspirations to Willie and Barry in those early days were John Innes (of Innes Brothers) who were past SNFC national winners and also Geordie Bain who was the first winner of a gold award in the SNFC. John Innes gifted Barry around a dozen pigeons from his well established distance family (these are the same bloodlines that Mike Spencer of NFC fame flew) Barry was also gifted pigeons from George Bain whose son Graham played football for Edinburgh schoolboys along with Barry. These pigeons were blended together and without doubt changed the fortunes of Willie and Barry in the racing pigeon sport. One pigeon in particular, a blue hen turned out be an absolute gold mine and still forms the basis of the partners long distance pigeons to this day. This blue hen was bred from John Innes SNFC Gold Award winner ' Kingston Success' who in turn was a daughter of his good red hen 'Kingston Again' which in turn was a grand daughter of the 1967 SNFC Avaranches winner 'Kingston Treetop'. This blue hen when coupled to a pigeon from Geordie Bain bred the partners SNFC Gold Award winner ' Back to Basics '. George Bain was part of the Bain, Wallace & Spalding partnership that were well known names across the length and breath of Scotland. George Bain was on of the first of two fanciers to gain a SNFC Gold Awards in 1975 with a pigeon named ' Leslie Ross Cock '. This cock was bred by Leslie Ross direct from his famous cock 'Little Newton Lad' that won the East of Scotland 500 Mile club race from Avaranches. The positions gained by the 'Lesley Ross Cock' to win his Gold award were as follows - 157th Open Rennes in 1969, 36th Open Nantes in 1970, 96th Open Rennes in 1971, 202nd Open Rennes in 1972,194th Open Rennes in 1974 and 164th Open Rennes in 1975. Six times a winner from races between 500 and 600 miles. Another pigeon owned by George Bain which Barry received youngsters from was the ' Nitten Cock' in 1967 George observed an advert in the local paper that a loft was for sale in Newtongrange, and upon investigating discovered that the loft belonged to a young fancier called Mr Williamson. When George went to view the loft he took a liking to a 1964 chequer cock within the loft. He enquired about this cock only to be told that the pigeon had been 26th open Avaranches in the East of Scotland continental club winning with a low velocity the previous year. The outcome was that George paid the sum of £12.10 shillings for the bird. He then broke it to his loft and it went on to win 16th open from Avaranches in the East of Scotland continental club. The following season this same cock went on to win 30th open East of Scotland continental club and 72nd open SNFC Avaranches. In 1969 the cock was 99th east section in the SNFC Rennes national, the following year he won 150th open in the Rennes national. The following year this super pigeon recorded 174th open Avaranches on a velocity of 618ypm. As a 9 year old the cock was 212th open SNFC Rennes. As an 11 year old the cock went once more to Avaranches and was timed just outside the prizes. The cock looked so well on its return that it was doubled back to Nantes a distance of 606 Miles and with only 3 pigeons homing on the day into the south section the 'Nitten Cock' was timed at 9.22am second morning and missed the prize list by a mere 30 minutes.
It is little wonder the Kinnear pigeons continue to perform at the highest level at the distance races when they are founded on the quality of pigeons mentioned above from Messer's Innes & Bain.
Administration
Following the death of Charlie Graham in 1991 Barry became and still is the secretary of the Danderhall racing pigeon club, he is also a federation delegate and a committee member of the New Lothian RPC. These organisations are some of the most forward thinking and best run organisations in Scotland today with an example being the Christmas race which has been run each year for the past 11 years and has grown from strength to strength paying out in excess of £33,000 in pools and prizes over this period.
Although they enjoy long distance racing they also like to be competitive in all races and set their stall out to win from the first pre season race through the old and young bird season and onto the open races in October and then the Christmas Race. They have established two families of pigeons one for the long distance events based on the Innes/Bain pigeons as detailed above and have also developed a family of sprint/middle distance birds based on pigeons obtained from the Mr & Mrs Andy Gregson whose pigeon stud is in Preston and also the stud of Ian & Nigel Axe of Axlehome lofts.
Most Memorable Performances
I asked Willie and Barry what were their most memorable performances with the birds and obviously winning the Gold Cup in 2004 with Auld Reekie is the number one choice. However winning the SNFC Gold award with Back to Basics on his 2nd open Sartilly in 1996 was something special when you consider that the other 5 pigeons in the top 6 Open were all flying into the south section which is around 60 miles shorter than Back to Basics was racing too. Another performance that sticks in their minds was winning 20th open Rennes with Stan the Bam in 1991. He was timed in from Dorchester 361 miles on the Saturday winning 12th open he looked so good that Willie and Barry decided to send him to Rennes the following Tuesday and he came up trumps as he won 20 th open. A coincidence that happened on the return of Stan the Bam from Rennes was that one of Willie and Pat's other sons was practising with a video camera he had just purchased before going on holiday. As he was filming Stan the Bam landed on the roof he had given his all and was exhausted and sat for about 8 minutes before coming in. They tried everything to coax him in to the loft but to no avail unaware that this was being filmed Willie and Barry started to become stressed out and there are a few choice words captured on this 8 minute film which the family still watch to this day. These are the things that we as fancier remember and this is all part of pigeon racing. Like Willie and Barry said earlier there were many times over the years that they sat waiting for a pigeon without any success. However these are soon forgotten when moments like the above are captured either on film or in one's own mind's eye. Like everyone else I can remember when my top winners came and these moments will live with me until for ever. I have enclosed some photographs of 4 of Willie & Barry's top pigeons along with their performances.
Back To Basics -126th Open SNFC Rennes in 1994 with 3732 birds competing, 106th Open SNFC Sartilly in 1994 with 2274 birds, 66th Open SNFC Rennes in 1995 with 3656 birds entered, also in 1995 41st Open SNFC Sartilly with 1864 birds and then in 1996 he won 2nd Open SNFC Sartilly with 1501 birds competing.
He won the following awards Winner of SNFC Gold Award, Winner of 1st Place coefficient Euro Bird of the year, Winner of SHU Dewar Trophy and won over £10,000 in racing. I've mentioned the breeding of Back to Basics above.
Auld Reekie in 2004 he won 11th open federation Selby with 2685 birds competing then he won 11 th open federation Newark with an entry of 2277 birds. He was sent to the first channel race with the Scottish National and won 11th open Falaise 1716 birds competing and then three weeks later was entered into the Gold Cup race to win 1st open SNFC Le Ferte Bernard against 2538 birds. He won the following awards: winner of SNFC Gold Cup, and winner of SHU Dewar Trophy. Auld Reekie is a double grand son of Back to Basics.
Poppy
Poppy won 62nd Open Lille in 2000 with 1399 birds competing he was then sent back to win 5th open Nantes from an entry of 386 birds In 1999 he won 146th open Frome with 3827 birds competing the year before 1998 he won 99th open Frome from and entry of 4005 birds. In 1997 he won 49th open Sartilly from an entry of 1501 birds and then 2nd open Nantes with 392 birds competing. He won the SHU Dewar Trophy, was also Scotland's Own Bird of Year 1997 and again won this award in 2000. Poppy was bred by Sandy Popp who was the Pentlandhills Federation convoyer and gifted the cock to young Barry.
Stan The Bam
Stan the Bam was another outstanding pigeon who won 58th open Rennes in 1992 from an entry of 4501 birds he also won 20th open Rennes the previous year 1991 with 4476 birds competing. Stan the Bam was bred by the late Stan Smith who used to have a training wagon that took the federation members birds training every week. He was a big lovely chap and bred the cock for Willie and Barry and he was very proud of the performances Stan the Bam put up. As a matter of interest for a short time both Sandy Popp and Stan Smith were in partnership with each other racing their pigeons in the Pentlandhills federation.
Members of the Following Organisations
Willie and Barry are members of the Danderhall racing pigeon club which has 29 members flying to 17 loft locations on average they send about 350 birds per week. They are also members of the New Lothian RPC and the Pentland Hills Federation as well as the best club in the country the Scottish National Flying Club. They are also members of the Edinburgh & Lothian's Social Circle. They are the only loft in Scotland to have won the SHU Dewar trophy on 3 different occasions. The Edinburgh & Lothian's Social circle was established in 1996 and in the 9 seasons it has been running they have won 7 x 1st prizes against some of the top National flyers in Scotland.
Management
The pigeons are all put on widowhood in early April and raced on this system
up to the 220 mile race point Following this race the distance pigeons are then allowed to repair and race from the Channel races on a purely natural condition.
The pigeons whilst on widowhood are relatively lightly trained with the emphasis being put on motivation, however upon repairing the pigeons they are trained rigorously from what some fanciers would think are excessive distances.(Washington down the East Coast and Kendal down the West Coast) each of these locations being around 120 miles from Edinburgh.
All pigeons are vaccinated against PMV, dropping samples and throat swaps are sent for analysis each year between the time the youngsters are separated and the racing season beginning. Pigeons are only treated if this analysis shows any signs of problems.
The Pigeons were treated once 3 years ago for Coccidiosis as the analysis showed a slight count no other treatments have been administered recently.
Main Results over recent years.
SNFC - Open Positions in 1 st x 50 won in Channel Races since 1990:
Since 1990 Willie and Barry have won a total of 84 SNFC diplomas these include the following:
1st Open La Ferte Bernard - 2004 - 2538 Birds
2nd Open Sartilly - 1996 -1501 Birds
2nd Open Nantes - 1997-392 Birds
5th Open Nantes - 2000-386 Birds
11th Open Sartilly - 1993-2448 Birds
11th Open Falaise - 2004-1716 Birds
14th Open Nantes - 1994-678 Birds
19th Open Reims - 2003-3168 Birds
20th Open Nantes - 1998-475 Birds
20th Open Rennes - 1991-4476 Birds
21st Open Vire - 2000-1441 Birds
21st Open Niort - 1995-474 Birds
21st Open Sartilly - 1995-2364 Birds
22nd Open Niort - 1995-474 Birds
24th Open Sartilly - 1995-2364 Birds
25th Open Nantes - 1999-561 Birds
31st Open Sartilly - 1998-2042 Birds
32nd Open Lille - 2000-1399 Birds
41st Open Sartilly - 1995-1864 Birds
49th Open Rennes - 1999-2862 Birds
49th Open Sartilly - 1997-1501 Birds
50th Open Rennes - 1998-3019 Birds
50th Open Sartilly - 1993-2448 Birds
I think readers must agree that the above is very impressive and when you consider that this is against the best lofts and fanciers in Scotland it makes it all the more magnificent.
Federation Positions won in first 3 over the last 5 seasons since season 2000
This excludes positions won in any midweek or additional open races and is purely from the 17 or 18 old and young bird races in the standard federation programme.
1 st x 6 times 2 nd x 8 times and 3 rd x 9 times they have also won the Old Bird Average the last 2 seasons 2003 & 2004 in the Pentlandhills federation competing against some of the most dedicated members in Scotland
Lofts
The loft was built exclusively by Willie and is a modern structure which is a total of around 40 foot long and split into 3 sections (1 for sprint/middle distance old birds, 1 for distance old birds and 1 for youngsters. There is a second loft 12 foot long which is separate from the main loft and houses a further 20 youngsters. The lofts are internally tilled with ceramic tiles which, allows the partners to keep meticulously clean. The lofts also have a camera system installed which allow observation of the pigeons from the comfort of their lounge through the main television set. The two old bird sections have a total capacity of 56 nest boxes although these are never all utilised and they tend to start the racing with around 40 racing old birds. Willie and Barry are great believes that over crowding of a loft makes it very difficult to bring the best form into your pigeons.
Preparation
The pigeons are kept on a deep litter of shells and sand collected from the beach throughout the winter months, this is removed through the spring and summer when the lofts are kept spotlessly clean and they are cleaned twice per day. They keep 8 pairs of stock pigeons which are all either direct sons/daughters of winning pigeons or indeed winning pigeons themselves which have been retired. At this point I must say that I handled the sire of Auld Reekie a chequer cock who had one of the best eyesign pigeons I have ever seen. It was a pity that it could not have been photographed as to me it would show fanciers who believe in eyesign what a top quality breeding eye was. I have raved about this cock to quite a number of my mates and was very impressed with this pigeon. They generally breed around 60 youngsters and aim to have around 40 - 50 well trained prior to the first young bird race. All youngsters are raced through to the last federation race in the programme and then all are sent to the young bird national. They then compete in the 4 additional open races held in September / October as Willie and Barry are great believers that the more education and experience you can provide them as youngsters the better pigeons they will become. All yearlings are raced to the coast with a few being selected to compete from over the channel. All 2 year olds and older from the distance family must compete from over the channel to gain a next box for future years. Their other family of pigeons are only raced as far as the coast and then stopped for the year. Although their family of long distance pigeons still manage to produce pigeons which continue to perform at a high level they are always on the look out for quality pigeons to try in as a cross. In recent years the odd pigeon has been introduced from other successful SNFC lofts such as Richard Combe & Dale Newcombe with a daughter of Dale's Gold Award winner Kardale Style being the most recent introduction to the National
Birds and a Son the Pentland Hills Federation President W & B Dunsmore's good pigeon 'Peanuts' being crossed with the Gregson birds.
Feeding
Pigeons are all fed the same mixture which is a mix of Verselle-Laga Super widowhood and Swainson's Emperor which are mixed at differing % depending on the distance the birds are racing from. This feeding is hopper fed and always available to the old birds, the youngsters are fed the same mix but in a more controlled manner. Red skin peanuts are also introduced to the feeding after the 200 mile mark to increase the fat intake. A self developed conditioning seed and supplement is also fed sparingly.
Training
Willie has run his own Television Aerial / Satellite installation business for 40 years and is still active in this today.
Barry works for a major Brewing company and has the opportunity to train his pigeons on his many trips to Newcastle & Manchester. As a matter of interest the majority of Barry's colleagues either travel by train or plane and they wonder why Barry chooses to drive down to these venues. As pigeon fanciers we all know the reason's which is Pretty Obvious!!
Conclusion
When Kevin and I left the Kinnear home to make our way back to Fife we both spoke about the contentment and the environment we had witnessed on this loft visit. It was more than obvious that the partnership have their racing system spot on. The pigeons love their home and it showed the way they walked about us even with strangers about. The lofts were spotlessly clean and the birds looked in tip top condition and this was before the racing season had begun. Like my visit to John Barnett I noticed that the Kinnear's had the bags to feed their pigeons in and therefore had food in front of them at all times. Kevin was so impressed that the next day he sent away for bags to install into his own loft. What can I say about Willie and Barry other than they are 2 very dedicated pigeon fanciers. Although both working full time they are professional in their approach to pigeon racing. Yes they want to win form the first race right throughout the season, however if they don't then they look at the big picture and analyse Why? It could be that on the day they were beat by a better pigeon if so they will accept this and shake the hand of the winner. However if they are 5 or 10 minutes behind the winner then they want to know why. As you will see from my short loft report on the partners they have improved over the years with the ultimate prize winning the Scottish National Flying Club in 2004. However I have a funny feeling that we will see their name for many years to come as they are so dedicated to their team of pigeons and although they have reached the top so to speak they are not prepared to sit back on their laurels and take the plaudit's they want to improve. That is why I think they will be a name that will appear on the SNFC results for many a long year. To Willie and Barry both Kevin and I thank them for their time and effort in assisting us with advice to Kevin and to me for supplying the information on the story. To Mrs Kinnear (Pat) we again thank you for your hospitality and we wish you the best of good health for years to come.
