“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
LOFT VISITS IN SCOTLAND (PART 1.)
I was sorting through some old photos recently and found several that were taken when I did my first week-long tour of premier lofts in Scotland in the mid 1990’s. I travelled from the south west corner of Scotland across to the north east corner and then right down the east side, and visited some of the legends in pigeon racing north of the border. In the coming weeks I’m going to feature one or two of the very best lofts we visited in Scotland, the home of the long distance ‘doo’.
My late great friend, Albert Taylor of Eastwood, rode ‘shot gun’ on the Scotland trips and I must say we had some brilliant times together in the mid 1990’s. Albert 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.
Albert raced very successfully in partnership with his late brother Dennis and the 1990 season saw the Taylor Brothers 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 ten 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 outright 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 NRCC Lerwick and in 1998: 18th open NRCC Lerwick, 1st Federation Lerwick, winning over £1,200. A wonderful pigeon!
The late John Traill of Thornton.
Another wonderful Scottish long distance legend I visited on the same tour of Scotland was the late, great John Traill of Thornton. When John Traill passed away in June 2001, the sport of long distance pigeon racing in Scotland lost one of its greatest champions. I met ‘jock’ in the mid 1990’s, when I visited his Fife loft while on a ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tour with Albert Taylor and we found him to be a real gentleman pigeon fancier. He loved long distance pigeon racing, with the highlights of his 55 years in the sport being twice 1st open Scottish National Flying Club.
John was born in Balmalcom in Fife and when he was five years old his family moved to Ladybank. As young lad he had a pair of pigeons which were housed in an orange box screwed to the wall, but became first interested in racing pigeons at the age of 19, when made regular visits to the loft of his friend, Wullie Henderson. John purchased his first birds, basket and clock from Sandy Stevenson, the local cobbler in Ladybank, who was leaving the sport and top flyers at that time were Norman Dall, Jack Andrews and his old friend Wullie Henderson. John Traill liked to play Bowls and loved to dance, taking lessons in ballroom dancing at one time. The first club he joined in 1951 was the Howe of Fife Club in Ladybank and raced to a small 10ft.x 6ft. loft built by his Uncle Sam. John raced what he called the ‘Heinz 57’ strain and won out of turn at the club races in the early days, but all the time he wanted to acquire birds that would compete and win at the long distance. John’s early mistake was trying to compete in every club race and wearing the pigeons out. He moved from Ladybank to Thornton in 1965. His old original family are J. J. Baird of Liverpool (Barker strain), obtained from Wullie Henderson of Cupar.
On my visit John told me, he could trace his National winning family back to some of those original pigeons he had in 1951. He always raced on the Natural system and kept 25 pairs of racers and 8 pairs of breeders. John paired everything up at the same time, the first weekend in March, and told me he liked to wean all his young birds at the same time, so they were all the same age. When he was asked about the widowhood system, a distasteful expression came on his face and he told me, he would never entertain it for long distance racing. John’s great old 24ft. ‘L’ shaped loft was in a wire compound, with a lawn out in front of it and he said it was built with the pigeons comfort in mind. It was well ventilated, with wire bays and drop hole trapping, and he didn’t use deep litter, but had a few wood shavings scattered around the floors. John was a scrapper man and maintained you shouldn’t be able to smell pigeons in a loft, with dryness being essential to keep the birds healthy. He made up his own mixture of wheat, maize, beans and maple peas, which was fed all the year round, but a few weeks before the main 500 and 600 mile events he took out the wheat and added more maize. He didn’t like to train his birds when they were feeding youngsters, but would train cocks from 20 miles, if the weather was very good and he thought training yearlings early in the season was very important. During the season he would train twice a week and liked his long distance National candidates to have a 7 to 8 hour fly in a club race about three weeks before the main events. John raced his yearlings down to Fareham (350 miles) on the south coast, his two year olds over the channel to Sartilly and his old birds had to go all the way to Nantes (620 miles) and Niort (690 miles) with the Scottish National Flying Club. His favourite nest condition for sending birds to the long distance events was sitting 10 to 12 day old eggs on the day of basketing and never sent feeding youngsters. He didn’t like jumping pigeons long distances and started them in a 60 mile club race and built them up to 600 miles. The birds were fed in pots, in the nest boxes and he told me they always had corn in front of them at all times. He liked to see the hens sitting 10 days, low in the nest bowl with that staring look, and said that was the sign of a hen being keen and in good condition.
John Traill had many premier positions in the S.N.F.C. through the years, with his best being: 1995: 20th open S.N.F.C. Niort, 80th open S.N.F.C. Rennes, 1996: 1st, 8th open S.N.F.C. Niort (690 miles), 1997: 11th open S.N.F.C. Rennes, 1st, 30th open S.N.F.C. Nantes(620 miles) and he also won 2nd open S.N.F.C. Nantes (620 miles) and 1st open Fife Federation Dorchester (400 miles). He won numerous positions in the first thirty open in the Scottish National Flying Club. His National winners were: CH.’TRAILL’S SPARK’, dark chequer cock, winner of 1996: 1st open S.N.F.C. Niort (690 miles, liberated at 06.00hrs and clocked 10.20hrs next day), 1995: 27th open S.N.F.C. Niort, 1992: 1st open Fife Federation Dorchester (400 miles). CH.’NANCY’, the frill blue chequer hen named after John’s wife, Nancy. She won in 1997: 1st open S.N.F.C. Nantes (620 miles) and in 1996: 8th open S.N.F.C. Niort (690 miles).
The main stock pair was a blue chequer hen bred down from the old Traill family and before being put to stock, she was a useful racer, winning many major prizes including 2nd open Federation. John told me she was the dam of the loft! Her mate was a handsome blue chequer pied, being produced from a gift egg from Keith Cochrane, and he was bred down from the Eddie Newcombe bloodlines. This wonderful stock pair bred the Niort National winner, CH.’TRAILL’S SPARK’. When John introduced new stock he preferred to bring in a good hen, bred close to good 600 mile winners and out of a consistent loft. He didn’t have many crosses over the years, but some successful ones were from Dennis Dall, Bobby Carruthers, Keith Cochrane and J. & J. Keir.
The loft normally had about 50 youngsters for racing each year and these were fed on a first class young bird mixture, with no maize. They were raced natural to the perch and if the weather was good, John would started to train them three weeks before the first Federation race, which was about a 60 mile fly. He started to train them at one mile to teach them to come out of the basket and worked them up in stages to 40 miles. All the babies were raced through the Federation programme, but if he fancied one or two, he had no problem about stopping them at the 100 miles stage. He told me he had tried the nest bowl in the corner trick, but had more success racing them to the perch on the natural system. The Traill young bird team were never put on the darkness system and liked them to have as much fresh air and sunshine as possible in their early life. John liked to race his youngsters well, as he maintained it was important for good experience and would keep them in good stead in later life.
John’s work was a driver on the railway and told me, he had great support from his wife, Nancy with his pigeons and his family as a whole were very interested in his hobby. He was president of the Thornton Club and Fife Federation for 23 years. A well respected fancier! John would like to see a good eye on a pigeon, but always relied on handling and feather quality, and would quickly discard any bird that didn’t come up to his requirements in the hand. When he judged handling shows, he soon turned the class over, being very quick to returning undesirables back in to their pen. John used to advice novices to go to the premier local fancier to obtain their starting stock, have plenty of patience and establish a winning family by testing them well in racing. John Traill established a line bred family without going to close, he never paired brother x sister or father x daughter, preferring half-brother x half-sister or grand sire x granddaughter matings. His main aim was test any crosses to the full, before let it in to his loft. John would take the odd late bred off any special pairs for the stock section or for breeders for his friends. John always maintained the season started when the young bird races finished the season before! Nest boxes came out of one end of the loft and fitted out with perch for the hens to winter on. The cocks remained perched on the front of the closed nest boxes in the other two racing compartments and the young birds remained together for another month, and then separated for the winter. During the moult the birds were given a good quality mixture and a bit of linseed every two days. They got plenty of regular exercise and baths in the resting period.
Well that’s it for this week! I hope my readers have enjoyed this look back at these Scottish winning champions of yester year. We will be looking at some more very soon. To view some old video footage of some of these fanciers and their birds go on to my YouTube channel. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters on telephone number: 07535 484584 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com).
