Fred Bloor & Son of Charlton Mackrell
By Les J.Parkinson
(From the Elimar archive)
Having had a good look through the archives on winning fanciers that I have in folders I am bringing a few out for fanciers who may not have been around at the time. I am starting off with one of a fancier who was ever present in the Nationals for many years, Fred Bloor. When I first started racing pigeons in 1969 I used to read every book and magazine available and also study the results to see who was doing the winning and where they lived. When you first start in this game you do look and listen to everything and very often think to yourself why did so an so say that about that particular fancier when he has the results to prove that his or her pigeons are good enough to do the job that is asked of them. After a couple of years I started to look at the sport in a different light and compare distances, winds, locations etc. and judge for myself whether or not a fancier was good enough with the performances that they achieve. In this game you soon learn to make your own judgement, having said that I know a good many who after many years in the sport still cannot make a decision for themselves but that’s another story. For this report I am more interested in one of those fanciers whose performances stood out and have been written about many times since with many a new light being shone into the depths of the performances and systems of Fred Bloor & Son of Charlton Mackrell. Fred has been very prominent in the National results since I can remember and no doubt long before that. Fred came up to Manchester to present the prizes for the North West Classic Club which was the first time that I had met this prominent fancier from down South. Fred is of course a native of the North West where he very successfully raced with his late father and in 1957in partnership with his father won the Lancashire Combine. It was 15yrs later 1972 they won it again at a time when they were also gaining the top honours in the then prestige’s Manchester flying Club which was some 50 years ago and Fred has continued winning today. Got side tracked there on me first meetings with Fred which was at the presentation after which I arranged to call in and see his set up while on a trip to the Bournemouth show. I along with Elizabeth and Ray & Jackie Lunt we called to see the lofts that have put up so many excellent performances and like myself Ray was impressed with what he saw and can therefore understand why these lofts are winning so much at all levels of competition. Over the last ten years plus most of what has been written about Fred Bloor has mainly been re-vamped from an article published in 1986 mostly pointing out the capabilities of Fred Bloor and his excellent Pau performances. This was a time when Fred was finding it hard going because of ill health and therefore set one target which was Pau with the reason being that he would not have to spread his energy out over a long spell so his efforts could be 100% Pau orientated with the NFC. Fred’s idea of Pau changed when in 1989 when the club went to a mid-day liberation at which time he quickly realised that this would be a retrograde step for the NFC in every way. At that time Fred was on the committee of the NFC to vice-president where he had served for 10yrs so had the experience to asses any situation with the club and therefore made his thoughts very clear that this change would be the downfall and eventually the demise National FC. Fred is a firm believer that most people are not satisfied with the overnight race because it creates too much of a lottery. It seems now that the idea is to send as many as you can and just hope that one lands in a good position on the night. The element of the lottery comes into being if your pigeon is on the top of a block of flats and nobody disturbs it the pigeon is there until the sun rises and the weather gets slightly warmed up. Whereas the other guy whose pigeon is in the farmyard he gets the bucket clanging round the yard and he can be up shortly after five and is making a good job of it. In other words it’s just a mockery and a lottery so he started to look at the CSCFC where he was only occasionally competing. Anyway Fred’s point is that because of the changes he lost the interest and enthusiasm for what should be a genuine Blue Ribbon race with the NFC and his interests returned to the Classic which he competed in well with many excellent performances including winning the race in 1995. As Fred’s health improved and the Pau race not so high on his agenda Fred decided to race more on a regular basis and enjoy racing the pigeons more on a weekly routine. What we must remember is that when you prepare yourself for one race the pigeons are never in the right form for weekly club racing. Then there is the other point if the weather is against you that one race can become meaningless and the whole season becomes a waste of time because if there is a strong westerly wind then the pigeons go well wide of the area. At the end of the day the weather is the jockey and with the systems living as we do in a maritime climate you do not know what the weather is from one day to the next. Fair enough we do have good weather forecasts which is not a science forecast, it’s a prediction with the best will in the world it seems to be more wrong then right around the Pau weekend particularly when it’s the vital weather that’s needed for racing pigeons. Having said that this was another reason why Fred started to think he had better start looking at other races because as every fancier is well aware the element of sprint and middle distance racing is getting all the publicity and bringing far, far greater money than anyone can imagine. Fred does not believe in all honesty that these pigeons are worth the money that is being paid for them. They certainly do not re-coup the outlay out of racing that is made on the original purchase, the income comes when they sell them three years later. Fred’s view is that at this time they are putting another pile of crap on the market because seldom have they won the amount of money that the auctioneer reputes that they are worth so Fred fails to see where the sports going for the middle distance and sprint racers. Having said that Fred started to prepare the pigeons in a different way and proved without a shadow of doubt that his family of pigeons can hold their own with all the fancy high priced strains and anybody who cares to race them. What you have to remember is that in the West of England and the South of England in these open sprint races which Fred is particularly successful in most of these competing fanciers’ pair up in December and November to prepare themselves for the early sprint races of the season. Then along comes Fred Bloor and makes a mess of their early breeding theory with his February mated birds and particularly with the yearlings which are only being tested for future work at Pau. This work is not serious work because Fred treats it as fun and when it comes to the open races and you’ve got the Van der Farts and the Van der Whatnots and Fred Bloor goes and puts his little team down and he’s first and second in a very Prestige’s race open race. Good heavens above there’s no publicity and no mention of it and Fred just cannot believe it and yet the third and fourth placed birds which come from a Dutch or Belgium family come to other races are good pigeons. Yet the week before when Fred Bloor won there was no publicity that is where Fred believes the sport is totally unfair. The 1997 program, which Fred had laid out for himself, was to start in mid April and carry on straight through to 543mls into the third week of July and then continue with the young birds the week after through to early September. Fred does not believe in racing the young birds to the end of the program because he is a firm believer that when they have had sufficient races which only the individual fancier can see and to judge for themselves he knows in his own mind, or do they? when the pigeon has had enough, if they do not realise then that is where half the losses come from. Because when the pigeons have gone over the top you might as well stop them but unfortunately it appears that fanciers do not realise that they are not machines and half of the young bird losses come about because they are over the top, we can discuss that further in another part of the story. However just going on a bit with this part Fred is a firm believer that bad training methods by the owner’s also insufficient training, poor stock quality, young bird sickness which is active but not noticed by the owner until it is too late. Watering systems on transporters and poor ventilation when stationary are all problems for the youngsters as is clashing.
Going back to 1997 Fred started off at Newton Abbott on the 26th April and the West of England were flying three inland races and these warm up events are before they go across the channel with the first race of the season being from 54mls in which Fred took 4th 5th 9th 24th 49th Open against 7,440 birds and this continued throughout the season. Whatever race was running Fred gave then a good example of his pigeons and gave a lot of people a lot of worries in the National when he finished 99th open with a four times Pau pigeon who had been there on very hard races with the mid-day liberation. He flies it like a joke and he comes back as far as Fred is concerned as if it were a joke and when you compare him with “Hawkit” who’s fifteen and a half hours against a North East wind on the day to win with a 5.30am liberation flying straight into the setting sun when there’s just 9mins before it goes off the horizon. Fantastic feat nine o’clock at night he’s timed fifteen and a half hours only four birds on the day. That is what racing from Pau is all about but unfortunately people who have not experienced this do not know what they are missing. A few high lights of the racing career of Fred Bloor 7 Son include 1st Open Pau NFC 541mls on the day, 1st Open C.S.C. 543mls only 4 birds on the day, 2nd Open Pau C.S.C. 543mls only 6 birds on the day and beaten by decimals, 4th open Pau C.S.C, 10th ,26th 34th, 38th, 72nd Open Pau N.F.C, 37th , 71st Open Pau C.S.C. plus many other positions. 3rd Open Nantes NFC winning a Ford Fiesta Car, 1st Open Reddon W.O.E winner, 1st Open Nantes W.O.E, 2nd & 6th Saintes W.O.E & the microwave oven, 2nd Open Dax C.S.C W.O.E. all noms winner with a 23 month old late-bred, 2nd Open C.S.C. Rennes, 6th Open C.S.C. Rennes, 4th Open Guernsey C.S.C., 5th Open C.S.C. Bergerac. “Olympic Gold” winner of 1st Sec 1st Open Pau N.F.C., this fine pigeon had scored twice previously from Dax 513mls. Prior to winning Pau she won 1st club 26th Combine Plymouth 4,202 birds, 9th Sec 18th Open C.S.C.F.C Saintes 378mls. “Olympic Gold’s” Pau performances netted 4 RPRA awards. Breeding is mainly the old “Gits” lines which originated from Ed Clayton and H.A. Turner and with one of the grand parents being bred by Pol Bostyn. Her Dam was 88th Open YB National 334mls. The Sire a Gits cock a winner himself but retired to stock early. He was a brother to the famous “Niort Hen” 4 times 500mls and a meritorious award winner. She won the Oldham Fed on one occasion by two and a half hours bred and raced by Fred Bloor & son of Charlton Mackerall. The mother of “Olympic Gold” was taken to Somerset as a young stock pigeon after a brilliant performance in the National. After a few months of captivity she escaped and returned to Lancashire 180mls north to find no loft at the old address. Some eight weeks later being very tired she returned to her new home in Somerset making a round trip of 360mls in the winter. This is what makes a top class pigeon and one who has passed on her incredible capabilities to her offspring as a quality mother of a Pau National winner. Some 20yrs ago I collected an eight week old youngster from a Mr Potts of Beverly, I kept this pigeon in for 12 months and he slipped past me to return to Beverly. I of course went over to collect him with Len Yoxall who purchased a few stock at the same time. Some months later this cock off the number one stock pair once again got passed me and was reported with a damaged wing on the Pennines and he was a cock who bred a few good pigeons. Looking back at the Pol Bostyn pigeons Fred kept these going by purchasing at the record breaking dispersal sale after Pol’s death and they are still prominent today. Going back to those early days and to highlight just how good a fancier Fred Bloor is we can look at the early 70’s when with only 11 pigeons he was 2nd club 16th fed Niort501mls on the day with only one entry.22nd Open Lifeboat race Rennes 373mls 4,300 birds. 6th North Sec Gt Northern Saintes, 9th Open Northern Counties 2-B Saintes. 18th Lancs & Yorks CC Pau,. The year before there were many other wins incl 1st Lancs Combine Avranches, 1st Oldham Fed only bird on the day from Niort and the NW RPRA meritorious award. What you must also remember is that Fred was the only fancier to time in all Nat races Lancs & Yorks with those 11 pigeons and the following year only one of three fanciers to time in all National races at Nantes, Pau & Avranches. The West of England Combine is no easy task and again many great performances including 1st Plymouth 7893 birds, 1st Truro 4480 birds, 11th Exmouth 8108 birds, 4th 5th 48th Plymouth 6568 birds, 5th 6th 9th 24th 49th Newton Abbott 7440 birds, 1st 2nd 18th 26th 42nd Newton Abbott 3335 birds, 15th Rennes 4184 birds, 17th Nantes 5086 birds, 10th Saintes 2381 birds, 24th 26th Plymouth 8025 birds, 15th Truro 7125 birds, 8th 17th Truro 5008 birds, 1st 3rd 4th 5th Plymouth 6061 birds, 3rd Newton Abbott 7483 birds, 12th Plymouth 5335 birds, 27th St Malo 3946 birds, 12th 13th23rd 24th Penzance 4034 birds, 1st Penzance 3060 birds, 26th 28th Plymouth 6508 bird’s, 1st 3rd Plymouth 7671 birds, 24th Plymouth 5787 birds, 26th Truro 4346 birds, 8th Newton Abbott 5616 birds, 23rd Truro 6030 birds, 13th St Malo 5301 birds which in total are a good set of results that any fancier would be proud of and remember that they are not club results but Combine positions. Racing pigeons from Pau has always been Fred’s goal that is until the NFC moved the goal posts and as we said earlier or when it is disturbed by the weather you feel bitter. It’s a bit like the ice skater who has trained for month’s and even year’s but when it comes to the Olympic games, he’s there and he has to be accounted for and he makes one dreadful mistake and it costs everything, he falls over, he has to get up and make the best of it. This is what you have to do with pigeons, there’s no use selling the stock you’ve got to start again because nine times out of ten that’s the way to failure, you have got to look at it and think “where did I go wrong, was it really the weather, did the conditions not suit”. Do not make excuses but trim your system and get more professional and at the end of the day these flying athletes have got to be treated in this way and this is what Fred cannot get through to people that is criminal to start a marathon race at mid day, no human athlete would ever attempt such a feat. You cannot mess about, they are targeted, they are focussed and at the end of the day the “Origin” of the breeding will come through. The second pigeon we got from Pau in 1997 to finish 145th open which a lot of people would be happy with against 3,500 birds in the NFC is a prime example. His mother is a four times Pau pigeon and a multiple prize winner along the way who incidentally lives in Spain now. His father was twice a Pau winning pigeon so has got all the credentials to be a good Pau candidate but unlike most fanciers you see this pigeon only had one race as a youngster. In 1995 he had two races and he broke his keel so was left alone until 1996 when he flew Plymouth and made a total hash of it and ended up in the wires again which would make him useless in mast fanciers eyes. So in 1997 Fred decided that it would be his year and sent him to Rennes then on too Nantes before going to Pau and duly does the business which are his horses for courses. Now how can a pigeon with a track record like that score at Pau with the elite 500 plus milers, because it is not now a true race, because it’s a lottery that’s why and that’s an example of pigeon’s that have lost their true calibre and we are not gaining by having this type of race each season with the NFC. People are ending up with pigeons like this fella, there’s no way that you can class this pigeon as a Champion, he might be a homer and he might one day score again, which Fred is quite sure he will. The point Fred is making is be patient and the rewards will come. The Nantes National was a fantastic day for racing pigeons with the light winds across in France and the winds in the channel but then the South West winds picked them up. Before we knew it we’ve got pigeons going through Somerset and Hampshire and all the Southern Counties at 60mls per hour. Then we were thinking “Oh dear” here we go again but when you get them and he comes reasonably on line doing 67mls per hour with a velocity of 1911ypm you are elated, it’s the best you can do, enjoy it as a National competition. No matter where you are in the race you’ve done well and enjoyed it, this is the spirit in which the National should be run in or in any other race of this calibre. This pigeon does a velocity of 1911ypm when Fred’s pigeons are normally at their best at anything under 1400ypm, so as you can see Fred was very delighted in fact looking forward to the next race which was Saintes with his team of pigeons. In 1997 the Saintes race was on the Saturday which is normally the Pau weekend which makes a hell of a difference in preparation to the pigeons especially when you are starting your season off and you have got to map out where you want the condition to peak. Naturally in 1997 we had to extend it a bit to bring in the Pau race being the last OB race of the NFC calendar and with this in mind Fred sent a youngish team to Saintes which had won in good competition. The first pigeon was 2nd section 8th Open; the next pigeon was the Red again a multiple prize winner and finished 36th Open against 5,500 birds. On the same day with the West of England Combine an incredible thing happened Fred Bloor took 1st & 2nd 54mls against 3,350 birds with a nest pair. Now here is the incredible thing, not only are the two cocks brothers to multiple Pau pigeons but they are also half brother to the pigeon that was 4th Open Pau with the Classic, these two pigeons were also 1st & 2nd Combine Plymouth 79mls 1996. Note the West of England Combine is approx. 70mls across from Minehead to Shaftsbury and 90mls deep with 427 members 36 clubs with these pigeons recording vels. of 1528 & 1401ypm. The 1997 season saw Fred finish 3rd in the N.F.C three old bird race averages which shows that he can still keep up with the best. What you must also remember is that Fred does keep the hens on the road and many of them have put up very creditable performances over the years at all levels of competition. Now what value are a pair of pigeons such as these breeders of top quality National pigeons and also what value are the stock pair that bred them. As you can appreciate a nest pair of pigeons that can win top the combine two years running are rare, there are few and far between the nest pairs that can achieve this type of performance. There again these two cocks were only raced once, they only had one as young birds. You see these are records, true records and Fred is not trying to say that they are record breakers because all he is concerned about is getting on with the job at hand. As pointed out earlier if they had been of some modern day known sprint strain they would have been worth a fortune and Fred would have been on all the papers. Fred fails to see how some scribes arrive at this petty jealousy which seems to exist within the sport. Going back to the races and the season that was set out, after Saintes there was a three week break to Pau where Fred had 10 out of 10 with the best being 99th Open which finished a very successful OB year for the Chorlton Mackerell lofts. With the three performances Fred had to be somewhere in the running for the averages but when it comes to the NFC YB race Fred rarely sends because he feels that it is just a waste of time as the wind dictates where the winner is going to be and he is not a great believer in young birds to the bitter end. If you think that by training young birds or by sending them to the bitter end you are giving them some extra experience for the future you are wrong. All you will do to a young bird team is ruin them for the future, there are exceptions to these rules because generally young birds that have been thrashed do nothing later in life. Fred’s idea of racing young birds is with 50 youngsters flying into the South West route which is down to Penzance racing 8 weeks and enjoying whatever success comes along. He has done this for the past six years where he has broken all the records that there are. You must remember that Fred is a firm believer of looking to the future for the young birds as with the Saintes pigeon “215” he was 3rd Open against 7,000 birds as a yb, he did nothing again and was not asked to do anything as a yearling. Then he was back on the road as a 2yr old and obliged with 8th Open Saintes, this is what pigeons are about, “Honest Racing”. Fred does not think we give pigeons enough time to mature and it is amazing how some fancier say that they are fast maturing pigeons and all that rubbish. Deep down if you are looking at middle/long distance racing you have got to give the pigeon more time to mature. When you fly across Country from the position Fred is in the West Country it’s a suicide route and if you want to go to Dover you are more than likely to loose two thirds of your birds. Obviously the Combine will also suffer then because the birdage soon drops and before you know it everyone wants to go back to the Penzance route. Unfortunately there is an element in the sport who thinks that if they lose two thirds of their birds those that that are left are the best, well you can rest assured that is not the case. There are people who say that they do not want pigeons back in boxes, here again that’s rubbish, some of the best pigeons Fred has have come back in boxes, they made a mistake, do we never make mistakes. Did we never do things irrational, did we ever have time to put a situation right in later life that we wish we had never done when we were wrong? That’s what these pigeons did but unfortunately there are these clever people who think “He’s come back in a box, he’s no good, neck him, that’s bad news” both for the people who pick it up and the fancier. The cost does not come into the question of reported youngsters. A friend of Fred’s only this last season had five reported in one week which cost him just over £50 which meant that he could not afford to enter his birds into the Classic which is another isolated problem that some fanciers come up against. When you are looking at young bird racing and what your intention’s are you need eight weeks of fun not punishment and finish up with worn out pigeons. You can rest assured youngsters that have had two or three races and have been stopped cannot be compared to those that have had eight or ten races because they are so fit, they are beautiful when they have moulted through. Here again we do not put them on a shelf to be looked at, they have been put on the shelf to do a job later in life, this is what Fred fails to get through to people. An example would be the Pau National winner, a six year old hen who in the first year of her life never won a race but when you consider what she did in later life Fred was repaid. When you look at “Hawkit” some people would no doubt say that he is one of the best pigeons in the Country, in Fred’s eye’s he is after doing that fifteen and a half hours on the wing 543mls on the day into a North East Wind from start to finish for which he also won 4 RPRA awards. When you consider that that pigeon only had one race as a youngster compared to the many thousands which are flogged and do nothing later in life, these are the facts that Fred has to go off. Take “803” who was 10th National, 54th National who also had one race as a youngster which was from Plymouth. Her sister was an equal performer; she won one race as a young bird. The lofts have been standing for many years although they have had several alterations along the way with the racing loft being some 42ft long with 5 compartments and as can be seen from the photos Fred is keen to have a full length landing board. What Fred did say was that when he put the apex roof on the pigeons did not race the same and there were four very lean seasons but as with all good pigeon men he sorted the problems out and returned to the winners table. For Fred the flat roof on a loft keeps it warmer and more cosy which is better suited to the birds which in turn breeds contentment and the bigger urge to return from the races and there are not a lot of birds housed in each section. These lofts also have a good corridor which adds to the air space that each bird has available; one of the big advantages is that they are not overcrowded. The stock loft also has plenty of room with a good aviary to allow them space both in and out of the loft which again keeps them satisfied and more content to breed the goods. Also the class of birds in this stock loft are of the highest quality. What I did notice was that the eye sign in these lofts is amongst the best that I have seen and something that Fred is keen to keep at its best. Fred first took to eye sign after reading the S.W.E. Bishop book after which he applied the same principles which was way back in 1959 so has proven a point. This is not the be all and end all because Fred still believes that they must have the right framework, body structure and intelligence to be a winning team. What you must do is not build your loft on the eye sign or you will lose track of what you are aiming for in a winning team of pigeons. However I do agree with Fred that there is more to the eye sign theory than many wish to believe which is mainly because they do not know enough about the subject and cannot be bother to do any studying in the first place. Perhaps sometime in the future Fred might get a few eye sign photos taken of the top winning pigeons which would make an interesting article with so many breeders and winners of pigeons at the distance and of course being a good family. Some fanciers idea’s though do appear a waste of time when you consider that some fanciers want to breed double the pigeon’s to in turn lose double the pigeon’s. Then when it comes to the end of the season and there is only ten left in the loft they think that’s a good excuse to go out and buy another strain. By continually doing this a fancier is never going to build a strain and know what the pigeons require to get the best out of them mainly because they are caned to death as youngsters. When Fred starts to breed he is thinking three year’s in advance, next time he is racing those pigeon’s he might be thinking. “Well the pigeons are seven or eight years old”. So he then decides to get a couple of son’s or daughter’s off them with thoughts of them going into the stock loft after slightly racing them to make sure they are sound. When he test’s them they’ve probably been to Pau but not with any great belief that they had to do Pau, if they get . If they get half way there which is Saintes and they have a bad Saintes and they come back injured or something happens they can still go to stock. They have been principally bred for stock and this is the way that Fred eliminates a large percentage of the poor pigeons that one could breed. We all breed a few poor pigeons, in fact most people breed a pile of crap anyway, but when he is given an opportunity to have some decent pigeons nine times out of ten he will throw them away because he will not play the waiting game. He or she will not have the patience to go through the procedure and adopt the system that the pigeons have been flying on. A typical example of that is that Fred often gives a few pigeons away to a friend and fancier have come to me and asked me to breed them something different to fly Pau, yes no problem providing you do this and this. Then three, four or five years later the man rings and say’s Yes the pigeons did Pau, oh Excellent he’s done Pau twice, he’s done this and that about five times, but he has not scored so really he is no good to us. Now look at it logically, the pigeon has done his job but the fancier hasn’t done his job which is learnt how to prepare the pigeons to fly these races. That is where he has come unstuck, whether you buy pigeons from Fred Bloor or you buy them from the Continentals, without using their system you are never going to get anywhere. Then you talk about systems you have got to know exactly how those fanciers prepare them and race them. Fred would like to think that we could adopt these Continental pigeon’s but we certainly do not adopt their style of racing that’s the biggest problem that we have got in this Country. The management of our sport are not in tune with what the fancier’s really want and at the end of the day that is why the sport is going down the pan. Fred very often does not take too much notice of inquiry’s but in 1993 he had an interesting one from Minorca brought a good relationship with Antonio Benejam who visited Fred with some of his Minorca fellow fanciers including Dr Rocca who provided the transport with his own aeroplane. He is a pilot of 21yrs standing and a pilot instructor who was also amazed at the 140mls of water he crossed from Brest to the English coastline and therefore appreciated the difficulty of racing pigeons into the West Country. These fanciers wanted to settle a new family of pigeons onto the Island after they had no success with earlier introductions. A lot of the older original strains had died out and he was finding that the modern day continental pigeons, which are in the press today for sale, could not face the climate of the Island. They have the problem of the water and with the pigeons from both Belgium and Holland having no water to contend with they were finding it hard going and because they were mediocre pigeons for the job at hand there were phenomenal losses. The fanciers are not up to the standard that we would like to think we are in this country, the older fanciers who were racing have died down and the new fancier has come along and he does a lot of reading. He sees it all on a video and believes that is all you have to do, well we all know that is not the case; it’s only a fraction of what you have got to do. Anyway going back to the inquiry Fred had which he took seriously and Dr Rocco became a friend of Fred’s brought a group of fanciers over in his own Cherokee (light aeroplane)and they stayed three days. They selected pigeons and were mainly interested in the Pau lines with those that they purchased being 3 or 4 times to Pau and although at that particular time Fred did not want to sell as many as he did they promised that they would follow my guidelines that I had stated. The choices of the fanciers did surprise me, this was the inexperience of selecting what I would have said were typical stock birds but they didn’t look at that, they thought that once a pigeon had won and scored at Pau that it would be guaranteed a similar success. There is an element of truth in that, but one has to remember that some pigeons are born to race while others are born to breed. Often two are not compatible, it’s more often the case that the sister or the brother of the Champion will be the actual reproducer and to get people to believe this is very difficult, But only when you’ve actually been able to breed for over fifty years a family as Fred as do you take notice of the actual notes you have made, your father has made and notes that even your grandfather has made which can go back to the turn of the century. It is then that you suddenly realize that there is a pattern, you look at the theory, you look at all the genetics theory of today and there is a definite pattern that the sire of certain pigeons male or female will pass on to the offspring often missing a generation and its up to the individual fancier to do his homework and finds a suitable mate for him or her which will enhance the performances of the offspring, once again this is a really good theme for another story to this chapter. Going back to the Minorca fanciers, when Fred got the pigeons out to Menorca there was one thing that he did not realise and that is they do like the futurity type racing whereby you breed four pigeons or as many as you wish and you send them to these races. Entry fees of around £10 to £20 each which can take in places like Argentina, Taiwan, many of the Belgium’s and the Dutch also send their pigeons along with a few English fanciers. But these fanciers in Minorca do enjoy having a go at these particular races as do the Spanish and Portuguese. Antonio Benejam had bought pigeons from Fred and he sent one of the first youngsters that he bred these stock to the futurity race at a cost of £10. Fred could not believe that he was prepared to throw his first youngsters from a pair into a race of this type which did not make sense to Fred and he put it down to inexperience. However he entered the youngster and it came 4th and won £1,000 with Antonio also buying the youngster back for £70 so he had a terrific weekend. When you consider that this particular pigeon that Antonio had sent was not from Pau pigeons and was actually one from a pair that Fred had selected the year before. So this proves a point that the inexperience of him being a novice who had left it to the master to select the stock which have bred some good pigeons out there. The first pair that Fred had sent over had produced a pigeon for a third party who actually raced the pigeon and again Antonio won £1,000 and a nice cup. This is a terrific start to a new colony of pigeons on the Island of Minorca, Dr Rocco has also had the same kind of success, in fact has had three fantastic years with these pigeons. On a return trip from Argentina Jos Thorne asked Dr Rocco (who was 13th in the race) the origin of his pigeons he said they were from Fred Bloor in England which was a terrific coupe for Fred because he had been to Jos Thorne and not bothered to buy any pigeons. Jos held his hand up and said that the English pigeons did beat the Belgium’s on this occasion that is the basis of the story. The pigeons have put up many outstanding performances and in 1997 Dr Rocco got the best average 5 entries in one of these races with only the five entered. Fred is not sure what the cost was but he does know that he had four of the five in the result winning something like £2,500 with the Fred Bloor and cross pigeons. On the actual racing in Minorca the first race of the season is from Majorca which is a distance of 50mls mostly over water. The first race won by a novice fancier who has been in the sport for 8ys is Paco a professional rabbit breeder and he produces most of his rabbits for the hotels and the people of the Balearics. Fred reckons he has about 3,000 and from what I can gather it is very hard work. Paco had a terrific first race of the season being 1st & 2nd on the same velocity of 1500ypm which is extremely fast for that part of them. When Fred was there in September 1997 Paco showed him some pigeons and what you have to remember is that they are starting a new colony out there and to give them a good start Fred let them have the best one was a half sister to “Olympic Gold” from the same father as “Powerhouse II” who had bred several pigeons and over the years Fred has been telling Paco what to do with certain pigeons which resulted in everything coming out right. The pigeons he showed Fred in September were 5 sons from the hen and they had come out extremely well and Fred said that he would like to take one back to England and Taco told him he could take his pick. It was one of the five brothers that won the first race of the season with a younger pigeon from the same pair being 2nd. It goes to show that there is a set type and a set quality and with good fanciers they can win. The race wins that these pigeons are winning is giving Fred a lot of satisfaction because they are competing against the Belgium and Dutch pigeons in the Ciudadella Pigeon Club. The Belgium’s are particularly influential out there and also the Louella Lofts and the famous Van Geels go there which gives you some idea of the competition they are up against. Fred has served in many positions over the years and has had a good spell as a delegate with the National F.C. committee but reading between the lines he was far too outspoken for some and it did not go down very well at all, There again that is the man Fred Bloor if you have something to say you say it and with his vast knowledge it would do a few good to listen to what he ahs to say. Fred also believes that the sport is not going forward as well as it should and the fact that the sport is being suppressed and not publicised enough. Over the years I have spoken to many fanciers who feel the same way and I for one believe that the sport needs some big changes right through to take the sport forward before it is too late and they need to get rid of the old ways of jobs for the boys. A few other points included that Fred feels strong about the way most of today’s scribes are so obsessed with blowing their own trumpet for personal gain, He feels that the editor should put the green pencil through the articles when this continually happens! Fair comment! If a fancier has a good result, be honest and let the fancy know that he has sent 60 of the 160 competing in the race which would bring the context of the result into perspective. I must admit that I agree with Fred on this one because it happens on a regular basis. On the RPRA Fred has to say, on lib sites, “We expect a convoyer to have a toilet and washing facilities at each site, any local fancier would be suitable to check facilities for wires etc. All liberation’s should be counter signed and witnessed plus the condition of the weather, endorsed by a further witness, also arrival times should be registered” On young birds, “Corridor flying should be compulsory at Combine and Federation levels, program’s should be submitted to the RPRA if outside the corridor control. This would not affect National Classic and Open races”. We have had a lot to say on the 1997 season because this report was started after the 1997 Bournemouth show and then circumstances did not allow Fred to put in the time to finish that article. However when you once again look at the seasons racing which is now 1998 Fred has had another cracking year with many top positions at National and Classic level with the results being well published in the fancy press. As Fred said “The 1998 season was a terrific success continuing in the same vain as previous years feeling very confident towards the end of the season with the crowning success at Bordeaux”. Taking everything into account the visit was well worth it and as I said earlier Ray and myself found the birds to be well worth viewing. Thanks to Fred’s good lady Janice who kept Elizabeth and Jackie busy so that we could spend time looking at the birds and loft of a top winning Pau family of pigeons that can also show them the way home from the sprint races. It is the land races that give Fred a lot of pleasure because he is still winning against all the top widowhood men who are seen so often to be the best in the area but Fred’s still beats them but his sprint performances are not very often mentioned. In other words, a family of pigeons that we would all like to have in the back garden. However to build up a family of pigeons of such quality is beyond many fanciers because there is an art to breeding, an art that Fred has perfected over the years to make one of the great National families in the Country and they also rely on such fanciers as Fred to supply them with the winners. Once again thanks to Fred & Janice for their hospitality on our visit. I shall leave the last words to Fred for you to think about, “Winning genes are found in all athletes and pigeons are no different. Scientific facts and family trees will prove a point”
