Les J Parkinson latest news
Imagine.
A hot summers day and the self-employed builder and pigeon fancier is on his way home on the hottest day of the year so far. Thoughts are on a cold glass of beer and having the pigeons out for their evening exercise. He arrives home and the first thing on his mind was a cold drink which he gets and sits in the garden in the glorious early evening sunshine. Paula comes home and joins him and as he sits there and says that the pigeons have been gone for 45mins. As time goes by Geoff is thinking where they are, before hearing an amorous cock calling in the loft. He starts thinking to himself what is going on in the loft, the cocks should all be out exercising. No more to do he strides across to the loft and only them realises he never let the cocks out in the first place. When he called me and told me I could not help but laugh, “Thought you would like that he said” it certainly did Geoff. He finished by telling me at last they were in the sky, an hour later than they should have been. That reminds me of the day Denis Gleave put the pigeons in the boot for a training toss while Gill went shopping. A few hours later Gill returned home to a bewildered Denis asking where she had let the pigeons go. She looked at Denis telling him she forgot and they were still in the boot. After that, every time she took the pigeons Denis made sure her handbag was in the boot with the pigeons.
A few weeks ago,
I wrote about and included some eye sign photos that created a response. For their own reasons, most people who take an interest in eye-sign would rather keep it too themselves because it is more than likely down to the negative attitude that most have towards them when they bring the subject up in normal conversation. Eye sign is an interesting study especially in racing pigeons, that is if fancier keep an open mind on the subject. I once had a conversation with Dr Atherton on why he looked into my eyes of patients when they visit his surgery. He was telling that you can diagnose various health issues through the eye. He also said that in the medical profession the subject was taboo with some Doctors, like pigeon fanciers they did not all embrace the subject. I suppose it is the same as everything else in life whatever you do there are always those who think they no better. In these unusual times the papers are full of different views, they cannot all be right, if fact many come over as not having a clue. If they were in power whatever they did would be contested by others, a case of swings and roundabouts.
This is an email that I received a few days after the article was in the BHW. Stewart. Hello Les. I have just read your column as I was attracted by the lovely eye sign photographs. Years ago, I was a real eye sign fanatic and have just started to take up the interest again. After looking at the eyes I would definitely be waiting with every confidence for numbers 13 and 15, I would class them as great racing birds. (Les. I had a call from Bill Carney and the eyes, he said 15 included again this week as a reminder, was a top breeder and 13 an excellent racer) Stewart. No, he has not evaluated my loft but I was present when he done Ron Brookes and Alan Daniels lofts. I took notes on his comments and was utterly amazed at the accurate detail given. Ron gave him a 4-year-old bird with a 6-year-old ring on it, he gave its month and year of birth correctly. The most bewildering moment was at a show that I had attended, Bill asked me if I would steward for him and I explained that I had entered birds so could not, he spoke with the organisers (Murphy's) explaining that he would not be influenced and really did want me and Alan Daniels to assist him. He asked that we kept the birds coming at a good pace and we did. When Alan handed Bill one of my cock birds Bills comment was that he would love to own and race that pigeon, and similar comments for the other two actually stating that they had come from the same loft. I did a lovely job of keeping a solemn face. At the finish of the judging Bill announced that he was going to give 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes to 3 pigeons that had flown 500 miles on the day earlier in the season. One bloke in the room gave Bill some sarcastic comments but along the pens he went and announced his order of merit. Another bloke argued that he could not accurately do such a thing, Bill said ask the winners. When the winner came into the room he confirmed Bill was correct as did the guy that was 2nd, my bird was 3rd, I had not spoken with Bill since clocking it until the day of the show, how did he know, but the best bit still to come. After the show Bill invited anyone to have their pigeons evaluated, what a queue, at the end Bill said what about you Stewart, you said that you had a bird that you wanted me to look at for you. I said, "it's ok Bill I heard the comments you made when you looked at it when judging" he said "is it that old pied cock in the pen over there Stewart". How could he know, it was in the eyesign class (not a card winner) and definitely not related to my other entries. It did go on to breed me a section winner in the CSCFC from Nantes, spooky. My observations have come from my association with a variety of fanciers over 50 years, your practical experience certainly proves the point and I will remember that. I have a lot to learn about 500 mile plus racing but have been a quick learner after my initial 12-year apprenticeship before I won a race. I was the most popular club member until I won two weeks running, no amount of effort helping at the club could help. That is all forgotten now and they have asked me to start flying again, this time around it will be club racing for training and not sending to them all. Regards, Stewart”
Still with my emails with Stewart. LJP. A few years ago, I wrote in an article saying that it was about 70% fancier and 30% pigeon for the sprint races and the other way round for the longer races, probably more 80 - 20 in favour of the pigeon. I say that because our best Pau/Tarbes pigeon a dark w/f cock was something special. He had a few races in his first 3yrs on the road including twice Angouleme with the Middlewich 2B over 500mls finish 7th & 6th in consecutive years when this was one of the best clubs in Cheshire. He was also 3rd section and just outside the first 100 from Bordeaux National around 600mls. When he was 4yrs old he had his first race from Pau and after that I was going to stop him. The following year I left him at home not even training him, then something unusual happened, on the day before basketing he was ranging the sky on his own which told me he was ready to go to Pau so I sent him and he had a good race. After that he only went in the basket for that race until he was 10yrs, that told me that it was mostly the pigeon, he never even had a training toss. I got the idea from Mike O’Grady who sent a hen straight to Angouleme with a good result many years ago. In my earlier days I was like Stewart, I did not want the races past Nantes 412ml. Then for no particular reason I wanted to clock in from Pau and was pleased to be 45th Open 684mls. Another race I got a great deal of satisfaction from was the Grand National race when I was 27th Open Tarbes, I did have other top prizes in these races, but those were the two that gave me so much satisfaction. The best in the National was 1st section L 3rd Open St Nazaire 408nls beaten by two pigeons flying 177mls less than me, that day I was also 3rd and 33rd Open with two more in the first 100 sending not many more. I must add that studying the eye had to a certain extent something to do with my decision to send pigeons to the longer races. What I do think to myself now is how much was it down to what I saw in the eye or the fact that this was an exceptional pigeon, I like to think a bit of both. These were early days for me with distance racing and I often think to myself “How good would this cock had a top-class distance fancier had the pigeon in their loft. However, I still think that the further the distance the more it is down to the pigeon and not always the fancier. Taking percentages into account there are not a great deal of pigeons that can race in the 600ml races compared to sprinters.
Stewart. “That has given me food for thought, I'd better not wear them out in the preparation. My observations have come from my association with a variety of fanciers over 50 years, your practical experience certainly proves the point and I will remember that. I have a lot to learn about 500 mile plus racing but have been a quick learner after my initial 12-year apprenticeship before I won a race. I was the most popular club member until I won two weeks running, no amount of effort helping at the club could help. That is all forgotten now and they have asked me to start flying again, this time around it will be club racing for training and not sending to them all”
Always remember the old saying, “All roads lead to Rome” the problem is pigeon fanciers can be stubborn and stick to the same path all their lives’ when they could adjust what they are doing and add more satisfaction to having pigeons in their back garden. There is more to having racing pigeons that cleaning them out, exercising and sitting watching them in the garden. Keep an open mind on them observe them and you will add to your interest in racing pigeons.
Photo’s
When I was sorting out photo’s for the articles, I selected quite a few and most I have used so here are the last that were taken from my selection. The first one is of the legendary Eddie Newcombe from MacMerry. When we went on this visit, he did not want us to come home, I think we saw nearly all Edinburgh that week. What we did find was some genuinely nice eating places and even take away filled potatoes , the first time we had tried them, had a few since. We were there over the weekend and I was surprised how light it was getting towards midnight. Eddie kept saying we cannot go until there is no chance of a pigeon arriving, they have been known to drop in extremely late at night. I suppose when you think about it, we have had pigeons drop in near enough darkness down here, not been that late though. At that time, I used to hear how tight the Scot’s were, not the case they were very sociable people and they made our trip worthwhile. Sadly, that was the only time we visited these lofts, but a trip not to be forgotten. We did manage a visit to Eddie’s loft’s when he was out in Malta, a much different loft set up than he had at MacMerry. Terry Sherratt at Shavington had a good loft set up with the race team on the top floor of the double decker loft at the bottom of the rather spacious garden which was a particularly good place to keep pigeons. Terry had a generous size stock loft, with an aviary the full length where he housed pigeons from Geoff Kirkland's Bauwens, Desmet Matthys and Santens birds. He has Haeltermans from his good friends Frank and Anne Tasker, and Andre Diericks direct from the sprint champion in Belgium. There were about 40 pairs of stock birds housed at the time being paired up at the end of January with a high protein mixture to keep them in the right condition. This is the stock loft where many winners were bred including “Champion Digit” son Dave’s M.N.F.C. winner. We now move on to the lofts, or one of the lofts of the Houban family who were genuinely nice people to meet. I was amazed at how many lofts they had in such a small area. They were all well looked after and there was a pan and brush for each section. Everywhere was so clean they must spend a lot of time with the pigeons. Their most famous pigeon was Jonge Artiest winner of 7 x 1sst etc. They had a good line of pigeons that saw some good winners here in the UK. Luc Sion had a cracking two story loft but there were not a lot of pigeons housed in each section. Luc always believed that they need space and do not want to be overcrowded because if they were, they were not always content. Luc has put up some particularly good National performances going out to the longer events. We have visited these lofts a few times and taken other fanciers with us. There was a scary moment when we went, they had a dog that was more like a donkey. Lastly a quick look at the biggest loft set up that I have seen, this is the home of the Norbert Norman family. This was one of the most well-equipped lofts to cover all sorts of races that I have had the pleasure of visiting. There are some lofts worth visiting just to see the vastness of it.
Legendary Eddie Newcombe Loft
Luc Sioen Lofts
Norbert Norman lofts
Terry Sherrat Lofts
Les J Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ. 01606836036 Mobile 07871701585. Email
