Joe Nov1

NEWS FROM SCOTLAND

Reports by Joe Murphy

Fanciers at the 'Help the Heroes' sale

Last Sunday Margaret and I travelled through to Gartcosh Works Social Club for the sale of pigeons for ‘Help the Heroes’. This was being organised by Terry Markwick who is the Country co-ordinator for Argyll & Bute. Terry had already been over to Ireland and collected pigeons for the sale and this took him 3 days then he travelled from the east side of Scotland over to Ayrshire in the west finishing up in Lanarkshire collecting pigeons for the sale. The work this man puts in is nothing short of miraculous and I take my hat off to him for all his hard work. When we arrived there were a few fanciers present and this venue is first class as it provided meals, tea and alcohol for anyone who wished refreshments. As I was auctioneer for the day I had a look round the birds prior to the sale checking out the pedigrees and there were some outstandingly well-bred pigeons on offer. Before the sale commenced Ingrid from the ‘Help the Heroes’ support group said a few words regarding this charity and thanked everyone for attending and supporting this cause. By now there was a good company of fanciers (see photo) and the pigeons went quite briskly but I have to admit they were going for only a quarter of their true value. Still that is the name of the game nowadays and people went home with a few bargains. The amount raised from the sale was over £3000 with the raffle money still to be added to the total. Terry was a little upset when he told me that a certain person had put a remark on a webpage chat site regarding expenses being paid out and as I have said Terry gave up 3 days of his time going over to Ireland and all the running about he has done prior to the sale so for someone to make remarks is well out of order.

Items on sale

Scottish Stray

Last week I told you about Ralston Graham’s pigeon being reported in Germany. Well Hans wrote back to me regarding my reply and said, ‘Hello Joe, we think that we will put the pigeon in our breeding loft and can you please ask Mr Graham if he can send us the family tree for the pigeon and the owner’s card?’ So I contacted Ralston and he has transferred the bird to him. Hans is over the moon and sent a message saying, ‘Thank you very much for what you have managed to do for us, it is great and we wish you all good for the pigeon sport and wish you the best, Hans-Werner Meyeraan’. I’m always glad to help fellow fanciers.

2013 Losses Survey

Received an email from fellow scribe Brian Woodhouse who writes as ‘Woodo’ under Capital News in the pigeon press. He says, ‘This year 2013 as we all know has been horrendous for losses of young birds up and down the country with no clear reason for this. I’m therefore attempting to gather information from around the country to try to shed some light on why these losses occur and as a scribe wonder if at all possible if fanciers in your area could give me in percentage terms the answers to the following questions:-

• What percentage of young bird losses fanciers had off the shed when they start to range away from their lofts? What percentage of losses fanciers had during training?
• What percentage of losses fanciers had during early, mid or late racing.

Another important item: as well known scribes for your area, I would be interested in your opinion as to why these losses occur. I would appreciate any help you are able to give me, yours in sport Brian Woodhouse.’So if SCOTTISH fanciers would like to answer these questions and email me their replies then I will forward to Brian and hope we can come to some conclusion on why the losses have been so bad in 2013.

Elephant Grass 

This week I cleaned under my grills as the birds are nearly through the moult with only the odd flight to be thrown. As you can imagine, underneath the grills was full of feathers and it was not long before a large bin was full. One of the reasons I’m telling you this is I have a mouse trap under the grills in the corner. It has been down for ages and even when I put the Elephant Grass down I left it in place. Now I remember John McGee (Barcelona One Loft) telling me that when he first went to purchase this Elephant Grass the lad at the farming supplies told him that he had never had mice at the Elephant Grass. They had made holes in the bales of shavings, made nests in the straw but had never gone near the Elephant Grass. Well I can confirm that this product has been down on my loft floor since the beginning of the year and when I looked into the mouse trap it was empty. So the proof of the pudding is in the eating and I can recommend this product to other fanciers with no hesitation. By the way I have 2 mouse traps in my sheds and have caught mice in these but none in my loft.

Good Birds  

I noticed in last week’s pigeon paper the SNFC list of trophy winners and on reading this I noticed the Gold and Silver award winners’ names. I have covered quite a few of these but did notice some names I had missed out so on checking the results will try to rectify this by highlighting these good birds over the next few weeks. These are father and son partnership with the first having been winning in the SNFC for the past 2 years and they have won a Silver Award.

A McCalley & Son of Avonbridge: Black pied hen SU 09NW 3946

The second pigeon belongs to J Ferguson & son of Broxburn: Chequer white flight hen GB 07 F 33885

Joe's Joke

Subject: Farmers Birth Control (A Good One)

There was these three girls who were getting married and they all met at the marriage counsellor’s office to discuss the options of having or not having a baby right away.
There were two city girls and one farm girl. The counsellor asked them if they planned on having a baby right away or were going to wait a while. They all said that they had discussed this with their potential husbands and had all agreed to wait a while. Well, the counsellor asked the first girl what type of birth control she planned to use. Her answer was, “The rhythm method”. “That will work,” said the counsellor, “but only if you keep a good record.”
He asked the second girl what system she planned on using. “I plan on using birth control pills” she said. Again he said, “Yes that will work as long as you don’t forget to take them”.

He then asked the farm girl what system she was planning on using. Her answer was, “The bucket and saucer method.” After a short delay, he told her that should also work. He asked them all to come back in one year on a specific date for a follow up on how things were going.
They all met again one year later and the two city girls were pregnant. Only the farm girl was still slim and trim. Well, the counsellor asked the first girl what method she used and what went wrong. She replied, “I used the rhythm method but somehow got my notes mixed up and, well here I am, going to have a baby.”'
He asked the second city girl what method she used and she replied, “The birth control pill. But we were camping one weekend and I didn't have my pills with me and as you can see, I too am going to have a baby.”
He turns to the farm girl. “I vaguely remember you were going to use the bucket and saucer method. Now I must admit that I don't have a clue what the bucket and saucer method is. Will you explain it to me as I see it has worked well for you?”
She replied, “Well, we always make love standing up, and since I am quite a bit taller than my husband, he stands on a bucket turned upside down. Now as we are making love, I watch his eyes, and when his eyes get as big as saucers ....
“I kick the bucket out from under him”.

Obituaries

Johnny Park of Aberdeen. My good friend Dave Pirie phoned to tell me that Johnny had passed away on Friday 18th November in Aberdeen hospital. Johnny had not been well for a while (terminal illness) but being the fighter he is he kept going for as long as he could. Johnny and his wife Mary have been great workers for the club, federation and the sport of pigeon racing in the North East of Scotland with Mary being the federation secretary. They also flew a ‘good doo’ and have won many national positions over the years. I first met Johnny away back in the 70s when he and his great pal Davie Rose also from Aberdeen used to come down to the Edinburgh show as well as other functions held in the central belt. They were the ‘salt of the earth’ and if they could not do you a good turn then they certainly would not do you a bad turn and their birds were sought after at sales. To his wife Mary and their 2 daughters we send our heartfelt condolences at their sad loss.    

William Henderson of Cardenden also passed away last week after a short illness, His mother died when he was a young lad and he lived with his father in Balmalcolm. His father, who kept canaries, obtained some pigeons for Wull (as he was affectionately known) and a loft was built and he started up in 1947 when he was 19 years old joining the Howe of Fife club. Wull started his working life as an apprentice joiner at Houston’s in Cupar, where he suffered a very serious accident when a large piece of wood flew off a machine and hit him on the head and he had to go to the hospital in Edinburgh regarding his injury. On one of his many check-up visits to hospital Wull had birds at the SNFC Nantes race (1955) and Jock Traill agreed to watch out for the birds for him. At this time, fanciers had to ’phone into the national club secretary with their bird’s time which had to be within an hour of the bird’s arrival. Jock became very nervous and excited when one of Wull’s birds arrived home and Mina (Wull’s wife) had to help him get the ring off the bird’s leg, then Jock had to run down the road to the ‘phone box shouting at everyone who spoke to him that he could not stop as ‘Wull had a bird home’!  When Jock got back to the loft, another bird had arrived and he had to go through the whole process again! Wull would have won the 2 bird average in the SNFC but, unfortunately, he had not put the 2 crosses on his entry sheet. Wull joined Cupar club in 1956 and the first time he competed in the SNFC Gold Cup race from Rennes he was 31st open on the provisional result (which he has kept in his wallet throughout his life and was found there last week). He was later disqualified in the above Rennes race as he had not controlled his clock despite his father saying that he thought he should do something with the clock. This pigeon, however, was the dam of 9117 and 9131 who both won prizes on the SNFC Rennes result in 1956 when A Galloway of Leslie was the winner of the Gold Cup. A red cock, 9117 was a very early pigeon but Wull was at work and was not there to time him in. However, he won over £500 with both these birds being on the SNFC result and this went towards helping Wull and Mina buy a market garden at Tarvit in Cupar.

In 1968, Betts the Builders bought him out as they wished the land for a housing complex and the family moved to Kingseat near Dunfermline where Wull bought a piggery and joined the local Crossgates club. His next move was to Lochgelly with the purchase of the Victoria Bar and his final move was to Cardenden where he flew in Cardenden Homing Society with his daughter Maureen as Henderson & Daughter. When the club folded he and Maureen joined Lochgelly HS and have been members ever since.

Wull himself was the top national flyer in Fife during the mid-1950 early 60s and many top fanciers of the day, such as Jock Traill, John Anderson, Frank Walker and Jock McKinnon owed their success at least in part to Wull. Brian Kinnear from Pitlessie, a top fancier nowadays, went about Wull as a boy and Wull being a joiner built Brian’s first loft alongside his own.  

Wull enjoyed music and his favourites included Jim Reeves as well as Scottish country music, particularly accordian playing from the great Jimmy Shand.

To Mina his wife of 60 years and their 3 daughters Joan Maureen and Wilma plus their husbands Alan, Ronnie and Roy respectively also their grandchildren and great grandchildren we send our heartfelt condolences at the passing of a great character. My thanks to Catherine and Mel Jarvis for obtaining details on Wull.

Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or to my NEW EMAIL ADDRESS at;  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE.

© Compiled by Joe Murphy