Something to read from Les J Parkinson
A new season and often the same ground covered but we can also cover the same ground, and something will click with someone that hasn’t in the past. I like other scribes have been asked about the articles that we write and why do we do them, after all it is not a profession for scribes. Writing articles for the sport is mainly done for the love of racing pigeons. I think that is the reason why many scribes don’t last very long, it can be so time consuming, however there are some who have been around a long time and are the backbone of scribes in the pigeon world. Being a scribe in pigeon racing is more a labour of love for the sport that we all love so much. What makes being a scribe even better is the research, meeting fanciers winners or not and along the way learning all the time. That’s why scribes enjoy what they are doing, anyway what’s going on at the moment in the sport. On the subject of discussions, I was talking to Geoff Bebbington and he was saying that he is looking at pigeons differently for this fast approaching season. So, I asked what his plans were, he went on to tell me that he paired his stock birds up much earlier than he has done before. My next question was “Why did you pair them so early” the answer surprised me because he was telling me that he wanted some pigeons bred a couple of months before the early pairings used to do, with the earlier issue of rings they can pair in November. I knew the rings were being issued far earlier to come in line with the continental’s who get their rings by early December, but so early. I have mentioned it before, when I first started, I was struggling to get rings by the 12th January because I had paired up on or around the 6th December. You need to remember the winters were far colder and harder in those days than they are today. I worked on 12 days to seeing a pair of eggs in the nest, 19 days to hatch and about 8 days (which could be stretched) to ringing them. Do I think this is a step forward, definitely not, why do we want young birds hatching out in late November? There are a lot of big race winners just coming out of the nest in mid-March onwards, so why breed so early. One thing is for certain and that is you have to be keen, and I know all about that. You have to look after them for a few extra months and also feed them. What I do understand for the local fanciers is, there are too many races from the likes of Worcester and Cheltenham (below 100mls) for the Mid Cheshire area fanciers. If the young birds have had a few training tosses, then 100mls should be no problem to them. This also hurts the transport people because many leave their birds at home until the second Cheltenham, you can see this by the number of birds entered. I know there are some who say there is only the odd fancier who look at it like that. To those I say, “You need to wake up and look at the fanciers who miss the first 2/3 races” Looking at it in this area, you can see fanciers swapping their birds from one fed to another because they can get an extra 20/30mls into their birds, which to me doesn’t mean a thing, a few miles like that won’t bother a team of young birds.
Anyway, going back to what I started with, breeding early. We have seen fanciers breeding early and fanciers pairing up in mid to late February and still win more than their share as long as they put the work into their birds. The old established fanciers in my early days, paired up on or around Valentine’s day and still got their birds into the young bird National. Yes, some were heavy in moult, but they still did the programme, nowadays if they have a feather out of place fanciers would rather leave them at home. In my early days, fanciers became household names in the sport as they do today. Would they win today, of course they would, for one simple reason, they were dedicated to their pigeons in the garden. Also, in those days there were far more fanciers and birds being entered than there are today. Competition was as strong 40/50yrs ago as it is today even with far fewer fanciers and birds competing. Today there are fewer fanciers, but those fanciers are really trying to win and I believe there is a higher percentage of pigeons doing higher velocities than there used to be. The darkness system has also changed the way fanciers breed and race their pigeons; the problem is with that young birds are suffering with more health problems than ever before.
Over the years I have had many questions come my way and I have done my best to answer them. If you have any questions (Pigeons related) send them along and I can see what I can do. Not saying that they will be to your satisfaction, but I can have a go. “Hi Les, Just a thought, would it be possible for you to put your thoughts, perhaps a series of your thoughts? targeted to a maybe a new starter, or in my case, a potential 'old' new starter? Covering various aspects of the current sport, joining a club, buying stock, loft design, training, racing methods, healthcare etc. from your own experiences combined with those methods that you have encountered on your many loft visits. The sport has changed so much for even older ex-fanciers I feel it's daunting and no wonder the great sport is, sadly, shrinking. For example, times have changed so much that I don't even know if I need council or neighbour permission these days to erect a loft and/or keep pigeons, and if so, how many? Regards Keith. Cheshire”
The sport has changed but then everything in life changes as the years go by and as we get older time goes even faster, or we are slowing down and that’s the way it looks. I have always said that there are still fanciers coming back into the sport when they have reached their 50’s and looking for something to do.
BICC Marking Barnton
As most will know from my notes, I speak to Geoff Bebbington quite often mainly because he like myself thinks a lot about the way forward. Geoff was telling me that he has spoken to officials at the BICC and they have given the go ahead for a marking station at the Barn Owl, Banton, Cheshire. This could be a benefit to the club because it is in a very good position and easy to get to. The location is by the M56 junction with the M6 making easy access. Geoff has bought a trailer to transport the pigeons to one of the major marking stations. There has always been a lot of interest in this part of the country for the longer National races and as Geoff said this gives a lot of options to enter such races. The initial idea was to start this marking station in 2021 but there is already a lot of interest shown so Geoff is working on this season if practical. The one thing such ideas need is actual support so if you want to enter now's your chance. I feel that it would suit more fanciers moving to the Nationals for the channel events, there could be some good races available. We could eventually have a programme where the local clubs and feds had regional marking stations and only competed in National races when it comes the channel races. Do I think it is worth joining the club and racing if you live in this part of the world, yes, I do without a doubt? There is so much to be gained in this club via the International scene and I am sure if enough from the North west competed in the club often enough, we could find an International winner. My view has always been “If you compete often enough the conditions will suit you one day” I often hear fancier say when asked about competing. “My pigeons are not good enough” To me that’s an excuse, if they had a go, they had a go they would get top results that they would not have expected. If you don’t have a go you will never know.
Adverts
Just sitting here typing away while watching the 4th test when the HSBC advert came on with the pigeon on the basket, which then returns to his front door. Pigeons are used quite a lot for adverts or TV. We were once in Belgium when the late Hans Verschuren took us to a TV set with a basket of pigeons to be used in Belgium’s top TV series. We went to an old factory and liberated pigeons from behind a wall as the actor went across camera. We have seen this happen a few times on films or a TV series.
Winners
A subject we all like, in many cases if it’s about themselves, might sound a bit cynical but that’s the way many people are and not only in pigeon racing. I would think many scribes are in the same position, they get asked this type of question. It would be interesting to see a survey of scribes on this subject; I say scribes because they are the ones who are looking at performances and results and they generally visit more lofts than the average fancier. There are of course different categories, sprint, middle distance and long-distance races. We could also look at how many members and birds each organisation sends. Having said that many clubs only have a few members sending not a lot of pigeons. We would also need to look at the next level such as the fed results to see if the winners of the small clubs feature in the fed/combine results. When it comes to teams working together the point that has been made to me many times is just that, “They win because they are a team working together, not all of us have a team around us” It is a fact that there are good teams of fanciers about and not all named on the membership lists and results. However, they are good and if they are friends and work together, they get top results. Most will know that I am a friend of Ray Lunt from what was the highly successful racing loft of Curtis-Wall-Lunt. I know for a fact that many fanciers said their success was down to there being a team of three working together. The partnership dissolved and in 2019 Ray raced a new team of pigeons on his own. The first race was a poor one but after that normal service resumed and that was on his own. Will he continue to win so well on his own in the coming season, we shall have to wait and see. For anyone who knows the CWL set up will know that they raced their pigeons to the lofts on the edge of the field. When Ray started on his own in 2019, he raced to a double decker loft by the workshop. That left the previous racing lofts free and this year Gary and Alan are returning to racing from those lofts. This is going to be an interesting season on the farm, which will no doubt see more competition between the two racing lofts now as compared to one in previous years. Also, that means there will be more competition for the North West lofts to compete against. I am not talking about him as a friend but as a pigeon fancier in his first season on he own he flew a really good pigeon with his last result being winning the North West Classic Club from across the channel, also winning the Gold Ring race against some tough competition. Over the winter months we have seen sales where have been advertised as the best in the country. I am sure that no one can claim this when it comes to the sprint to middle distances races because there are some good fanciers about. I must say that I would back Ray against anyone from 60 to 320mls and he has even won at 500mls, many years ago I know but he has done it. When it comes to the long-distance races, I would back Mark Gilbert, he is the master. Yes, we know he has a big team but as I have always said, “Whether you have 1 or 101 they are not going to win if they are not in the right condition for the job” and Mark knows how to get them in the right condition. Also, what Mark does is send numbers to races as preparation for other races, they are not always sent to compete in that race, that is what makes him so good. Now that Mark has semi-retired, he is also going more into the sprint to middle-distance races. There are good fanciers wherever you go in any country, it’s unfortunate for some that there are not as many in their area, so the competition is not as good. We must remember one thing about pigeon racing and that is, there can be say 3 fanciers in one club sending 40 birds to a race, but they can all be good fanciers trying to win. We can also have a club with 20 members sending 400 birds, but they might only have one top class fancier in the club. Members and birds do not always mean a lot, it’s the quality of fancier and birds that you are competing against. Anyway, no matter what we scribe’s write about pigeon fanciers it is never going to suit everyone. There is far too much jealousy in the world, and most is generated by the social media, I have had a couple of goes at it but found out it is not for me, Kim uses it a lot. I keep most of what I see written about me and often look at some of it and have a laugh to myself about how other people see me. Getting back to what I was writing about, winning fanciers and the competition that we have in our own area. Where would I have liked to race pigeons, well there are plenty of areas where there are plenty of birds to compete against but when you talk to fanciers from such area’s they generally have one thing in common. “It all depends where you live in that area” that is because the position of our lofts in comparison to the members we are competing against makes a difference. I am quite happy to have raced to Middlewich. Many years ago, we had one of the best in the country to compete against, the late Denis Gleave, he was a master from the first to the last race. It is competing against such fanciers that makes us try harder, yes Denis was beatable as is everyone if we try hard enough but keeping it up is another matter. When you are looking at clubs with winners, one of the best I saw was the Sandbach club who had a few top-class fanciers who were always trying. Who was the man to beat in the club, it had to be George “Stubby” Stubbs but not by much, George always had something to say and plenty of stories to the many who listened to him, and they were worth listening to? Jack Bate was another fancier in the club who was a bit more reserved, nevertheless a top-class fancier. I was at a show once where Jack was judging, there were 4 classes with a similar number in each class and he finished well before any of the others. Being interested to know how he judged and was so quick I asked the question to which he replied. Something like, long time ago remembering it all, “When you look at a class of pigeon you can pick your winners out straight away. When judges take a long time, they lose track of what they are looking for” Whether he was right or wrong is up to the individual, but I am inclined to work on first instincts are generally the best. I remember being asked to judge and I said to Elizabeth, you judge them there’s no-one about. She judged them and I made my notes, then when we had finished, I looked at what she had picked against what I had. She was quicker than me probably because I changed my mind, when I had a quick look through, guess who was right and it wasn’t me.
Mid Cheshire Fed.
Word is the fed are doing well and increasing in size all the time and the provisional race program for the coming season is. 18th April Worcester. 25th April Cheltenham. 2nd May Mangotsfield. 9th May Wincanton. 16th May Yeovil. 23rd May Kingsdown. 30th May Carentan. 6th June Mangotsfield. 13th June Fougeres. 20th June Mangotsfield. 27th June Messac. 4th July Cheltenham. 11th July Carentan. 18th July there is no race. Young birds 25th July Worcester. 1st August Cheltenham. 8th August Mangotsfield. 15th August Yeovil. 22nd August Cheltenham. 29th August Mangotsfield. 5th September Yeovil. The Fed are continuing to hold their Breeder Buyer Race with the sale taking place on Sunday 29th March 2020 at the Rudheath Social Club, Northwich with penning 12 till 1pm. The race will be the last federation YB Race from Yeovil on the 5th September 2020. The fed has paid out over £4,000 paid out in the last 4 years. The program is an improvement on the last few years and hopefully there will be more birds entered in the shorter races. I think this series of races will help the majority who like to compete in the longer National races. It is hard work keeping everyone happy with the race programme but there are advantages with the old birds as well as the young birds. Be interested to see how they go on.
Les J Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ. 01606836036 Mobile 07871701585. Email
