Review Of Scottish Central Combine Racing In 2016
When I first thought about writing this report I visited Robert Cormack of Winchburgh who has a lifetime of knowledge of the Scottish Central Combine. Robert was in fact twice the secretary of the Combine, once in 1956 for a year and in 1961 the secretary for another 10 years. Robert also won the Combine Channel race with his famous hen ‘Freckles’. Listening to Robert recount all the famous names in stories about Combine activities made me realise what a historic institution the current members are actually part of and that we should do everything we can to maintain its presence in our sport. Robert gave me the following potted history of the organisation.
The Scottish Central Combine has its beginnings in the 1920’s and actually started as a Scottish Combine for all Federations throughout Scotland. At one point the Combine was a rival in stature and prestige to the Scottish National Flying Club. Over the years as the Scottish Federations grew in size themselves, they left the Combine until only the Scottish Central Federation was left. At this time the boundary of the Scottish Central Federation strung across the Central belt of Scotland from Airdrie to the West of Edinburgh. As is the way of Pigeon men separate interests appeared in the Scottish Central Federation and areas broke off into individual Federations, creating the Midland, West Lothian, North West and the Scottish Central Federations. However these Federations never forgot their beginnings and maintained a form of unity by creating the Scottish Central Combine and arranged one race per year for all the Federations to race in. I believe the original race was from Granville in Western France that was then moved even further south on the same line to Dol. A Young Bird race was added, and then in the early seventies the Yearling Derby was introduced as well. These have been the main stay races for the Combine over the last forty years.
For the last 12 years or so as well as participating in the formal Combine races the North West and Scottish Central Federations formed a good alliance that led to the organisations transporting and liberating together when ever possible. This was not always easy and only worked due to some great partnership working between the two Top Tables led by people like Alistair McNaughton and Jim Jack from the North West and Ali and Jo Forrest from the Central. However in 2014 following a small review of the race programmes of the Federations across all of Central Scotland it was clearly established that for most of the season, as the race programme stepped out Southwards into England, each individual organisation was consistently liberating pigeons within at least 30 miles of each other. This work also confirmed everyone’s suspicions that nearly every organisation was not making best use of their own individual resources and were paying a high financial cost for this inefficient practise. The Committee of the Scottish Central Combine that is drawn from the Fauldhouse Club, who represent the old West Lothian Federation area, the Midland Federation, the North West Federation and the Scottish Central Federation all fully understood what had to be done and took the bold decision to arrange their 2015 race programmes so that they all had the same race programme from the third race of the season onwards. This enabled joint liberations and transportation when applicable. The changes worked almost immediately and the lessons learned from 2015 were acted upon in 2016 delivering increased numbers of birds flying home together with better returns. That’s the background of how the committee members from four organisations successfully united to make better racing for their members and reinvigorated the Scottish Central Combine. The other important story to be told is how these joint liberations created some very impressive performances by fanciers within the Scottish Central Combine as the 2016 season unfolded.
Winners Gallery:
Martin Conlin winner at the SCC Appleby liberation - Jim Jack winner at the SCC Ripon liberation - Angus and Allan Orr winners of the Wakefield and Newark liberations with Peter Keogh
John Boyd winner of the SCC Yearling Derby at Leicester - Lewis McCauley winner of the SCC Ypres Chanel race 2016 - Rab Hamilton winner of the SCC Liberation YB Appleby 2016
T Ogilvie winner of the SCC liberation YB Ripon 2016 - Peter Keogh 1st SCC Young Bird Open Wakefleid 2016
The first joint liberation with the Combine took place when 3,850 pigeons were liberated from Appleby in Cumbria at 9:15 am on Saturday 30th April 2016 into a no wind situation. North West Federation fanciers timed the first eight pigeons in the Combine, with the overall winner of the liberation being a Blue White Flight Yearling hen timed by Martin Conlin with a velocity of 1303.055, The winning hen now known as ‘142’ was bred in Martins stock loft with her sire being a blue ‘Van Loon’ cock gifted to Martin by Michael Currie from Moffat. Her Dam was bred from a pair of ‘Tony Mardon Van Reets’ gifted to Martin by Ian Miller from Grangemouth on his retirement from the sport. Both these gift pigeons were grandchildren of ‘Toey’. Ian purchased these ‘Van Reets’ from that great fancier from the Solway, Jimmy Dalgleish. At the start of this season the Yearling Hen would not take to a cock and was put in the roundabout hens end for the duration of the breeding cycle. She remained there while the paired birds went about their business. Once the racing pairs were split the blue hen became part of the hens team but she used to stay out when the rest of the hens were in after exercising somehow knowing the cocks would be let out for exercise. She then exercised again with the Cocks and on entry with the cocks she would never play up to them before being put back in the hen’s section. This always caused the hen to miss a feed until the following morning. On the Thursday of the race week again she stayed out waiting for the cocks but this time she started playing up to one with the cock going to ground between the lofts and calling to her which she duly obliged by following him this went on for ages so Martin gave up trying to get them in and left them to trap to the corridor. The Yearling Hen was put back in her own section after spending a couple of hours with this cock. On the night of basketing she was let through along with the rest of the hens where she eventually found this cock locked in his box with his own hen. She sat outside the box with no fuss for about 5 minutes then was basketed for the race. The following morning at the first liberation of the Combine this obviously really incentivized the Yearling hen to race home as she was timed to win 1st Club, 1st Federation and 1st Scottish Combine Liberation from 3,850 pigeons.
Ripon in North Yorkshire was the location for the second Scottish Central Combine liberation. At 12:30 hrs on Sunday 8th May 2016, 4,239 racing pigeons were liberated into sunshine and a North East wind. It was good to see that the winning pigeons across the Combine organisations all achieved similarly high velocities and made easy work of the 150 or so miles home. In fact all four Combine organisations were represented in the top six positions but once again it was a North West Federation fancier who timed the bird with the highest winning velocity out of the Combine liberation. Jimmy Jack a.k.a. ‘Jacko’ from the Lauriston Club timed a Blue yearling Cock a bit out in front of all the other leading pigeons on a velocity of 1757.090 for the 158 miles 1678 yards home. This young Cock was flying natural to overdue eggs and was so keen to get home to his nest Jacko never saw him until he was on the trap and into the loft in the blink of an eye. The Sire of the Cock was from Bruce McKenzie from Dundee with the Dam obtained at the clearance sale of Andy Thomson another Dundee fancier.
On Saturday 14th May 2016 the Scottish Central Combine continued its race point journey southwards and at 08:30 am 3,270 Combine pigeons were released into a light North wind at Wakefield. This gave a race from the Eastern side of the Pennines in West Yorkshire of approximately 180 miles to the centre of the Combine area. Initial reports from fanciers at clock checking showed it had been another hard race with plenty of birds to come. But as the day wore on the birds started falling in and at the end of the day losses appeared minimal across the board. Reports from other areas showed that nearly every organisation that had been racing from the same area in the same conditions, experienced a similar type of race. The Combine liberation winner was Angus Orr and Son Allan from the North West Federation who actually timed three yearling Widowhood Cocks within 3 minutes to win 1st, 2nd & 3rd at the Lauriston Club and the South Section of the Federation and 1st, 2nd and 5th overall in North West Federation. The Combine winning pigeon’s velocity was 1232.765. These three pigeons were all related, two being brothers and their cousin. All the birds were direct Soontjens x Van Loon pigeons from the famous Ollerton Lofts of Kevin Lawson.
At 08:00 am on Sunday 22nd May 2016 2,443 Scottish Central Combine pigeons were released at Newark into a light South West wind for the fourth Combine liberation of the season. For the second week in a row it was Angus Orr and Son Allan who timed the pigeon with highest winning velocity from the Combine liberation. In fact the Orr partnership was 1st and 2nd Combine liberation and North West Federation with two pigeons that trapped together on the same velocity of 1372. The bird taking second place topped the Federation and Combine liberation from Wakefield the week before. So in two back-to-back races the Orr pigeon raced its heart out and came out on top of 5,271 birds.
The first formal Scottish Central Combine race of the season was the ‘Yearling Derby’. At 9.30 hours on Saturday 28th May 2015, the 806 Yearlings that had been entered in the Scottish Central Combine Yearling Derby race were liberated within the convoy of Scottish Central Combine Pigeons at Leicester. The birds raced into a Light North East wind for the majority of the way home approximately 260 miles to the centre of the Combine area with £875.00 in pools and prizes waiting for the winners. John Boyd, from the Bo’ness Homing Society in the Scottish Central Federation, timed the winner of after 5 hours 19 minutes and 57 seconds. The velocity for the 256 miles 282 yards home was 1409.101. Johns winning bird, a roundabout Cock, was purchased at the Bo'ness Homing Society young bird sale last year after being donated by the Fife partnership of Turpie & McCord from their stock loft. The Sire of the winner is a Gabby Vandenabelle cross Eagelson Busshaert carrying the ‘Jester and Carrie’ lines of M and D Evans and the Eagelson lines of ‘Greedy’ a notorious award winner and ‘Northern Lass’ the Derby winner for J.Eagleson and Son Ballymena, Northern Ireland. The Sire is the only pigeon John got out of the Vandenabelle hen, as she was 10 year old when he bought her and this Cock has now bred good winners with 3 different hens. The Dams side is Norman Black and Sons Northern Ireland with an Eagleson cross again. These pigeons have served Turpie & McCord well over the years. The Combine winner flew the six Scottish Central Federation young bird races to Ripon and was always steady to the loft. This year he was paired at the beginning of March and allowed to sit ten days on eggs before being split from his hen and put on the roundabout system. He has raced every week in the Federation and was again steady to the loft always getting better each week cumulating in this performance from Leicester. 2nd Combine was David Jamieson with a Welsh rung pigeon on a very close velocity of 1409.054. 3rd Combine was Tom and Kate Manger from Bo’ness with 4th Combine Peter Keogh from Winchburgh who was last year’s winner of the same race. 5th Combine and 1st West Lothian Section was the partnership of Alistair Mackie and Robert Wilson from the Fauldhouse Club. Club mates Drummond Son and Hilditch who recorded a velocity of just under 0.200 yards a minute slower for 6th Combine quickly followed them. 7th Open in the Combine and 1st in the North West Federation section was the partnership of Duncan Cowan and Jim ‘Chuck’ Berry with a Grizzle Hen. 8th Combine was D.H Ogilvie with Mr and Mrs Graham 9th Combine. 10th Combine was Peter Keogh with his second bird to be timed giving him the two bird average Trophy for the race for the second year in a row. 3rd West Lothian Section and 18th Combine was John Hadfield from Blackburn, 1st in the Midland section and 43rd Open was M & J Miller, 2nd & 3rd Midland Section was John Hendrie and Sons with pigeons at 46th & 62 Combine respectively. Despite the Yearlings racing into a dreaded North East wind, overall it was a good fast race with some fanciers timing in a lot of birds.
The final Old Bird race for the Scottish Central Combine was the formal ‘Channel Race’ that was also an optional duplication race within the SNFC Ypres race. At 06.45 am on Sunday 3rd July, 2016, 162 Combine birds flying for £570.00 in pools and prizes were liberated into sunshine and a light South West wind from Ypres in Belgium. It turned out another hard channel race with the birds taking slightly longer than usual for the nearly 450 miles back to Central Scotland. 1st Open in the Combine and 1st North West Section flying 446 miles in 12 hours 3 minutes 1 second for a velocity of 1087 was A McCaulley & Son, Avonbridge. The partnerships winner from Ypres was a Yearling cock that was sent to the race sitting overdue eggs, having been raced on a type natural/semi widowhood method this season. Lewis (the Son) said that as a youngster he was nothing startling, winning only one decent prize in the Armadale Club from the Catterick race when he was one of eight the partnership had arrive together. The winner raced the full young bird program and returned on the day from the SNFC young bird national just a couple of hours off the pace. He has been a consistent pigeon this year having raced the full Almond Valley Federation program to Billericay winning some good club and Federation positions. The Cock had a good ten-hour fly from Billericay, twelve days before the Ypres basketing, so was just left to do his own thing in the build up to the race coming and going from the loft as he pleased. His Sire is an old favorite in the loft that was a gift from Steven Dalgliesh of Ecclefechan, although he was actually bred by John Crook of Caldercruix. John had the best of Steven, Graham and Jimmy Dalgliesh’s bloodlines and when he passed away a lot of the birds returned to the Fechan. Lewis is very grateful to Steven for gifting him this super old cock as not only has he bred a few handy birds, he’s a real character in the loft. The Dam of the section winner was a gift bird from Gordon Hastie and his late father Phillip, of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Lewis became friendly with these fanciers through a stray pigeon of his entering their loft a few years ago. The sire of this Hen is the Hastie’s good dark Cock that won 2 x 1st and 2 x 2nd (beaten by loft mates) in Border Federation races between 400-480 miles. The mother is herself is a top stock Hen and actually the dark Cock’s Auntie. These birds contain the bloodlines that have kept the Hastie family to the fore for decades and include in their ancestry Jimmy Swan’s famous ‘02’ which was 5th and 8th Up North Combine as well as Johnston & Thomas’ ‘Red Bourges Cock’ 2nd Combine. Interestingly with a link back to the beginning of this report, Lewis said that is was 14 years since he took his first Combine position and that was from the Lille race in 2002 when he was 2nd Open beaten by Robert Cormack with his Lyrona Dainty hen. Since that time Lewis has been 3rd in the Combine Channel race so it now nice to see he has finally claimed top spot. Lewis’s father has previously been 2nd, 3rd,4th etc.. In the Combine Yearling Derby and Lewis himself has been 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th in the Combine Young Bird race in the past. 2nd Open and 1st Central Federation Section Jim Smith, Polmont. 3rd Open and 2nd North West Section was Bryan Stewart, 4th Open and 2nd Scottish Central section was Rab Henderson from Bo’ness. 5th Open and 3rd North West Section was D H Ogilvie and their loft Manager Norrie Marsden, 6th Open was Bryan Stewart again, 7th Open and 3rd Scottish Central Section was Alex Cockburn from Ratho, 8th Open and 1st West Lothian Section was John Hadfield from Blackburn who was also 2nd West Section 12th Open with his second bird on the night. 9th Open was John Thomson from Bo’ness and 10th Open was Shanks and Grant flying to another loft in Bo’ness. 3rd West Lothian Section was James Burt at 14th Open. 1st in the Midland section was Iain Gibson at 38th Open and 2nd was Clark Brothers at 41st Open.
In the Young Bird racing the first joint liberation of the Scottish Central Combine took place on the 6th August 2016 from Appleby in Cumbria that is around 100 miles into the centre of the Combine. At 07.45 hrs that morning 2,898 Scottish Central Combine Pigeons from the Fauldhouse Club, Midland, North West and Scottish Central Federations were liberated into a light North West wind. Despite the winning pigeons doing reasonable velocities for the distance there were large losses across Combine with reports of Peregrine Falcons chasing the Combine pigeons not long after they were liberated. The winning pigeon in the Combine liberation was timed by in the North West Federation by Rab Hamilton from Stirling. Rab timed a Blue Cock on a velocity of 1404.885 to also beat the 953 Federation birds.
The second Young Bird joint liberation for the Scottish Central Combine took place on 13th August 2016 when 1,793 pigeons, (a little bit over half the numbers that were liberated at Appleby the previous week), were released at Ripon in North Yorkshire at 08.00 am into a West wind. Once again the North West Fanciers took the top positions out of the liberation.
This week it was D H Ogilvie from Stirling who had the highest velocity of the liberation recording 1156 for the 166 miles home to the Bannockburn Club in Stirling. Their winner a Blue Cock also won the North Section in the Federation. D H Ogilvie was also 8th and 9th Federation. 2nd Combine liberation and Federation was last weeks overall winner Rab Hamilton with a pigeon winning the Clackmannan Club.
The Official Young Bird Open race for the Scottish Central Combine was flown on 27th August 2016 when 510 Combine pigeons were released at 8.30 am from Wakefield into a North West wind. The winner was Peter Keogh from Winchburgh with a Blue Hen now named Pomona Queen is bred from a Colin Crowe pigeon which took 5 top 20 positions in the Central Federation as a yearling then topped the Federation in his first race as a 2 year old before returning injured and being retired to stock. The dam is a mixture of Peters Crowe, Virtue and Bosworth stock with Pomona Performer being the grand father ( 2 x 1st Fed, 3rd, 2 x 4th, 5th, 2 x 8th, 12th plus other positions including 3rd Region D SNFC Billericay all as a yearling and two year old. The winner was flown natural and had a few short tosses before every race in the Central Federation programme before the Wakefield race. She was send sitting 3 days which obviously made her very keen on. 2nd Combine was Gordon Mackenzie from Broxburn with a Red chequer Luc van Hock cock bred from birds via John Smith of Duz Work fame. 3rd & 4th Combine was John McNeill from Broxburn timing 2 darkness grandsons of Sanny’s Memory. 5th Combine and 1st in the North West Federation was Rab Hamilton of Stirling quickly followed by another Stirling loft, DH Ogilvie for 6th and 7th Combine. Chick Devine was 8th Combine, DH Ogilvie timed another for 9th and Jim Jack from Lauriston was 10th Combine.
That’s the high level view of the winning Pigeons and Fanciers from the joint liberations and formal races within the Scottish Central Combine in 2016. Looking back at the history of the Combine described by Robert Cormack and its beginnings in the 1920’s such a structure for racing pigeons is possibly required now more than ever before. Hopefully the progress made in bringing together organisations and fanciers in Central Scotland for the betterment of the sport can continue. The framework to do it has been proven to work and I’m sure it could be added to, amended and improved to help manage the challenges and changes coming to our sport over the coming months and years.
Norman Dixon MBE
Scottish Central Combine Secretary.
