“ON THE ROAD” WITH KETH MOTT
N.R.C.C. Lerwick winners! (Part 3.)
Albert and Dennis Taylor of Eastwood
One of highlights of the 2008 racing season for me was when I saw my ol’ mate, Dennis Taylor, in the BHW and to read the news that he had won 1st and 2nd open NRCC Perth with 3,374 birds competing. We go back a lot of years and to read that news was just brilliant! In recent years Dennis has raced his pigeons on his own after his brother, pigeon partner and best friend, Albert, passed away. In recent seasons Dennis has won many 1st Federations and has been premier prize winner several times, but to win the North Road Championship Club for the second time is the icing on the success cake. It would have been great if our Albert was here for the win and it’s nice that Dennis has named his latest NRCC National winner ‘Albi’ after his late brother.
Dennis has never looked back, winning every thing in front of him with his widowhood pigeons, since he took early retirement from his shop fitting job in the mid 1990’s. The two Perth pigeons came together, but Dennis wasn’t impressed with their time, expecting them faster in a strong North East wind and was happily surprised they were well up in the reckoning on his phone verification. The three year old blue cock, ‘Albi’, has had some good previous form winning 1st Midlands Two Bird Club Thurso as a yearling and was bred down from Frans Van Wildermeersch bloodlines, originally obtained from Sid and Kitty Reeves of Swadlincotes in the mid 1990’s. I visited Sid and Kitty, with Albert Taylor, when we were making a ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video and Albi liked their birds and obtained some stock from them, which the Perth National winner was bred down from.
Albert Taylor was a good friend and we travelled great distances together around UK, whilst making my 'Many Miles with Mott' pigeon videos. I first met him in 1995 when he rang to congratulate me on my first two 'Many Miles with Mott' videos, saying in his blunt way, that they were the best pigeon tapes he had seen. He said they had one thing wrong with them; they didn't feature any north road fanciers. My reply was that, if he could arrange some premier Midlands north road loft visits, I would come up to Nottingham for a week and feature them on our No. 3 video. The result was Albert arranging that video tour plus several other 'Many Miles with Mott' video projects and we became great friends. We had some great times together, going on several long video tours of Cumbria, Scotland and the Up North Combine areas together and we enjoyed every minute, of them. He had a big influence on the production of several of the videos and, when I finished after video Number 18, I know he really wanted us to carry on and produce even more.
He worked at a Nottingham brewery, as a clerk, all his working life and on taking early retirement several years ago, started writing for the Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Borders in the British Homing World. Albert and his brother Dennis had been in the sport since 1956 and before them, their father was also a pigeon fancier, from 1927 until the Second World War. Albert became interested in pigeons at the age of 15 when his father brought some fantails home and, with help from local fanciers, he started to race with gift birds. The brothers joined Eastwood & District FC and won their first race in 1958 from Lerwick (500 miles). The pigeon that won their first race was a cock that cost 15/- (75p) and it raced to a loft made of orange boxes and fish boxes, with lino on the roof! Dennis said that Larry & Michael Gaunt of Heage, their great friends, have been an enormous help through the years and a lot of their best bloodlines came from the Gaunt loft. An early mistake made by the Taylor Brothers was to send good birds to races they should never have gone to, just to keep in club averages. The 1990 season saw Albert & Dennis win one of the greatest races in north road racing, the North Road Championship Club Lerwick King's Cup event. The brothers were new members of the NRCC in 1990 and their winning pigeon, which they called ‘Tame Red’, won the King's Cup at their first attempt. This was after one of the longest holdovers since the early 1930s from this race point, some 10 days in the basket ‘Tame Red’, one of a. batch of 28 young birds bred for the brothers by .Larry & Michael Gaunt of Heage, was clocked after just over 13 hours on the wing. This champion cock was quite a character and was so tame he walked up Albert's arm and stood on his shoulder. ‘Tame Red’ bred many premier winners and only died a few years ago at 14 years of age. Albert always said his biggest thrill in his time in the sport was seeing the NRCC secretaries, Ian & Marie Johnson, walking up the garden to verify ‘Tame Red’ as he was probably going to be the out right King's Cup winner. ‘Tame Red’ proved to be a champion at stock, breeding countless premier racers, including the blue cock 03040, which won in 1997: 72nd Open Lerwick NRCC and in 1998: 18th Open Lerwick NRCC, 1st Federation Lerwick, winning over £1,200 - a wonderful pigeon.
Dennis Taylor’s main racing loft is 32ft long, with open-door trapping and four sections, all for widowhood cocks. I was very impressed with how light and roomy the sections were: Loft white is used on the floor, which is cleaned every day. Dennis races both widowhood and natural systems and maintained that the widowhood cocks win more prizes for him each season. Dennis is a retired shop fitter and was the main loft manager when the brothers raced together and really enjoys pottering around and cleaning out. Albert always told me he thought old birds start racing too early and young birds finish too late, in the year. Dennis insists that young birds should have more short races and fewer long ones, as they are still on the learning path.
The second racing loft houses the natural racers, stock birds and young bird team. Most of the Taylor’s' pigeons originate from Larry & Michael Gaunt, but there are also Verheyes, Lefebre Dhaenens, Jan Aardens and Bras Penning, which have been highly successful. The old birds are paired up in February and Dennis breeds about 70 youngsters each season. The two lofts are built well off the ground, which he thinks is very important in good loft design, to ensure that they stay dry and well ventilated. The widowhood cocks get only four training tosses before the first race then are flown out around the loft twice a day. The young birds get about 10 training pitches up to 50 miles before the first race, then one midweek toss during the season. The Taylor brothers tried the darkness system for one season but didn't like it. Back in the mid 1990’s Albert told me his favourite condition for birds was for them to be sent natural to the long-distance races, sitting 12-day-old eggs. Dennis mixes several Belgian corn mixtures together to form his own racing corn and maintains that the birds benefit from every single thing in the mix, rather than feeding them just one grain. He uses more maize as the distance increased. The lofts are scraped out 365 days of the year and Dennis says that deep litter may be alright for some fanciers but was not really for him.
Albert was a great lad and a 100% pigeon man. He was a great friend and is being sorely missed. Dennis is still racing with out standing success, recording many firsts in the club and Federation every season, and has won the NRCC for the second time. Well done mate!
John Lovell of Lincoln
One loft that I had great pleasure in visiting was that of the late, great John Lovell, a fancier I had admired for many years. John must have been the greatest long distance north roader of all time, winning five times 1st open and three times 2nd open in the mighty North Road Championship Club. John won the N.R.C.C. “King’s Cup” from Lerwick three times, the last time in 1989 with his good blue chequer hen, “Shetland Ede”. This Albert Bennett / Van Bruaene hen was raced on the natural system and won £3,057 when she lifted the “King’s Cup” from Lerwick. John also won the N.R.C.C. from Perth (twice) and 2nd open Lerwick (twice), plus 2nd open Perth. He hadn’t really raced in the Federation since 1989, flying only in the N.R.C.C., but previous to that was top prize winner in the Peterborough Federation for nine years on the trot.
John was in the sport for over 60 years, only breaking for five years to do air crew duty in the R.A.F. and always raced North Road. He raced only the natural system and liked hens for the long distance races. His 48ft. racing loft was set on a hillside overlooking the wonderful city of Lincoln and had seven sections, four for old birds and three for youngsters. John kept 40 natural racing pairs and paired them up on 26th February, to ensure that his birds were on their first set of eggs for Perth and the second set for the “King’s Cup” event from Lerwick. He fed his own mixture and increased the maize content just before Lerwick. The old birds had only one training toss per week, but flew well around the loft, which had open hole trapping, and sand on the floors. John’s stock loft was 18ft.x 6ft. with a wire flight, and the nest boxes inside were the size of race crates. This small loft housed six pairs of stock birds, which were mostly outstanding retired racers. John’s main families were Albert Bennett / Van Bruaene and Geoff Kirkland, which were crossed together with phenomenal success. He paired his birds on the eyesign method and had his first insight into the method from his friends, Jack Humphrey and Hugh Ambler. He kept about 40 young birds each season and started training at ten miles, going through stages up to the Humber, 33 miles, before the first race. All the youngsters raced through to the N.R.C.C. Berwick race, which was a flight of 186 miles to the Lincoln loft. John Lovell, one of our greatest fanciers!
Two premier North Road Championship Club winning lofts this week.
If you need to contact me, I can be on telephone number: 01372 463480.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com).
