NORTH ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP CLUB
Looking back at Lerwick . . . No 8
By George Wheatman
Tame Red is a legendary winner of the King’s Cup from Lerwick with the North Road Championship Club, racing to the Eastwood (Notts) loft of H Taylor and Sons back in 1990.
This week Dennis Taylor, the sole survivor of the partnership which once included his father and brother, recalls the joy of that triumph.
Memories of the race and the winning bird are as clear today as they were 26 years ago.
Dennis remembers his first meeting with the plum red cock bird that was to become a member of the north road’s Hall of Fame. It was when he opened a basket of young birds he acquired from Larry Gaunt, a top fancier from Derby.
“This one flew out of the basket and walked up my arm to my shoulder,” said Dennis. “That was why he was called Tame Red. He would drop out of the sky onto your hand or shoulder.”
Tame Red had not won a race before he went to that 1990 Lerwick, and he picked a hard one in which to break his duck.
Basketed, as usual, on the Wednesday, they were not liberated until the following Friday. Other organisations were on the Shetland Islands waiting for the weather to clear, and when the window of opportunity came along they were all released together before there was any chance of conditions deteriorating again.
Dennis recalls that the liberation was at 7-45am, and his brother timed Tame Red at quarter to seven that evening to record a velocity of 1112ypm. It was the best pigeon of all the birds competing from Lerwick that day, and it was the only one of six the Taylors sent that arrived home.
There were 3, 728 birds competing with the NRCC that day.
“When they came to verify the winner, that was the most exciting bit,” says Dennis.
Although Dennis races only widowhood cocks these days, the partnership was flying natural when they won the King’s Cup, and the winner was sent sitting.
Tame Red bred some decent pigeons subsequently, including a blue cock bird which was an early second day timer when there were no birds on the day in 1994 when Alf Chamberlain and Son, of Kirby Muxloe, were the winners on a velocity down to 868ypm.
Dennis Taylor
Seventy-year-old Dennis also had another NRCC triumph in 2008 when he won the open from Perth, from an entry of 3, 374 birds with a pigeon called Albi, after his late brother. He was also second in the same race after having two birds come together.
Unfortunately, the retired shop fitter will not be competing from Lerwick this year as the mass exodus to south road racing, he says, has left him with little choice but to follow the competition.
He has only a handful of his north road racers left, and made virtually a fresh start to begin his south road career by buying 40 young birds from twice NRCC Lerwick winner Frank Bristow. He raced this team of mainly Ceuleman and Wily Thas pigeons from the south in the 2015 young bird programme, and has a team of 26 yearling cocks to fly on widowhood this year.
Tame Red was never sent racing again, and died at the age of 14.
Royal connection
Bill Bearder, of Nottingham, is an NRCC member with links to royalty. Winner of the King’s Cup from Lerwick in 2004, he is one of only three fanciers to have done the Lerwick-Fraserburgh double.
W Bearder and Son, to give the loft its proper title, was top of the result from Fraserburgh in 2012. A Bush, of Tibshelf, also won from Lerwick (1948) and Fraserburgh (1944).
The third double winner? His Majesty King George VI. The royal lofts won from Lerwick in 1951 and from Fraserburgh in 1941.
So Bill and his three sons are keeping company of the highest calibre.
Their Lerwick win was hard won in a south west wind from an entry of 2, 347. Velocity was down to 939ypm.
Star of the day was a barless mealy hen, four years old at the time, and carrying the name of Bill’s Pride. There were three birds home on the day from this Lerwick race, but Bill’s Pride was about incredibly early the following morning to be timed in at 4-31am to oust any of those day birds from the winning position.
She was no fluke winner, having shown her ability on numerous previous occasions, including club wins from Lerwick and Thurso.
She still has pride of place in the Bearder loft, although she has not laid in recent years. Keeping her company, however, are a number of her descendants that have made their mark on the racing scene.
Grandchildren of Bill’s Pride have done particularly well, and there is no doubt that she has passed on the ability for her descendants to deal with difficult conditions.
The 2012 Fraserburgh race won by her great-grandson, Mozzy, already a serial winner by that stage, was one of those difficult, indeed controversial, races which are said to have decimated some lofts of numbers of their best pigeons.
W Bearder and Son
The Bearders are no strangers to success. Indeed they have won out of turn for many years, but Bill recalls that the feeling in winning the King’s Cup was “brilliant.”
Bill’s Pride, however, was not always his favourite pigeon. “She was an awkward little sod,” he recalled, remembering the times when she landed on the chimney pot rather than trapping when she came home from races.
“But she didn’t waste any time in trapping when she came from Lerwick,” he said. “She went in like a bullet.”
She was raced on the natural system, and was best when sitting 14 days. “She would fly round like a cock bird, all on her own,” said Bill.
Thanks to that now ageing old lady, Bill and his sons, Bill junior, Steven and Wayne can still enjoy memories that only a handful of fanciers experience, memories that come from winning the King’s Cup.
Wally the winner
Wally is a dark chequer Wildermeersch cock bird, and was two years old when his big day came in June 2009.
“I shall never forget that day,” said his owner, Rob Walton, when recalling the day he won the King’s Cup.
Rob lives in Ollerton, and is another of the top Nottinghamshire fanciers who add quality to the competition in the NRCC.
There was a two-day holdover to this 2009 Lerwick, and Wally was timed at 6-45pm to record a winning velocity of 1175ypm. A loftmate, another two-year-old chequer Wildermeersch widowhood cock, was timed at 7-19pm to take third open.
Wally never raced again and was put into the stock loft, and is still there, having produced some useful offspring.
The pigeon that was third open was asked to try conquering Lerwick again the following year, but fell by the wayside.
“That is Lerwick racing for you,” said Rob. “You have to send your best if you want to succeed, and you have to be prepared for the likelihood of losing good pigeons.”
So excited with his performance that day, Rob could not sleep and was still awake to welcome an early second day bird. He had good returns from his team of ten which he reckoned was the best he had ever sent to Lerwick.
He is another of the past winners who will be competing in the NRCC’s 100th race from Lerwick this summer, and hoping for a repeat of that special day in 2009.
CLICK HERE: Looking Back at Lerwick No..9
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