Tribute to Bob McDonald of Fraserburgh.
I was very sad to hear of the passing of Bob McDonald on the weekend of the 2nd September. Bob was one of the all-time ‘legends’ of pigeon racing in Scotland and was such a nice man. The sport of pigeon racing has lost another one of its great champions! Although I have admired Bob McDonald's Ko Nipius pigeons for many years, I only met him for the first time on my video tour of Scotland in April, 1997. Bob had been in the sport for 75 years at that time, starting up with a gift pair of fantails at the age of seven. He told me some of his friends had racing pigeons and he soon caught the bug. Through the years the McDonald loft had won countless 1st Federation prizes and Federation averages. Bob said his biggest thrill was when he recorded the first bird to be clocked from the Rennes SNFC race (660 miles) on the day to win 1st section and the same bird was 4th North section the previous year, doing 700y.p.m. He liked to race at all distances but maintains that, if he could win every race up to 500 miles and didn't get a bird from 600 miles, he would be very disappointed. The furthest he had flown is Niort (784 miles) and says the more you put into pigeon racing, the more you can take out.
Bob had a wonderful set-up in Fraserburgh with the pigeons being raced on both widowhood and on the natural system. Two families of pigeons were kept, one of which went back to 1947 and was still winning today. He purchased the Old Crippled Cock from the late James Mill in 1956 and this family had filled the loft with winners for many years, including only bird on the day from 600 miles. Bob first saw the Ko Nipius pigeons at the 1965 Olympiad and went straight over to Holland to purchase a few pairs. They were Jan Aarden based and flown on the widowhood system, to win the short distance and were outstanding in the long-distance events. The Ko Nipius were still bred pure in the McDonald loft and have won everything in Federation racing for Bob. They are wonderful looking pigeons and have won at many classic shows, including Best in Show at Edinburgh and Best in Show at the Old Comrades.
KEITH MOTT (September 2017).
