NORTH ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP CLUB
by George Wheatman
Berwick Old Hens - September 2014
Mick Wilson
It is a refreshing experience when one of the true supporters of the North Road Championship Club wins one of the races . . . so it is good to put the spotlight on Mick Wilson who won the 2014 old hens race.
Sixty-two-year-old Mick, of Calverton, Notts, is a big fan of NRCC racing and north road racing in general and says he will defend it to the best of his ability against any opposition.
“NRCC racing is paramount to me,” he said. “It is the ultimate in north road racing. I am not afraid to say what I think, and I will defend it to anyone. Moreover, I will say that convoyer Steve Spinks has had an excellent season in the face of all the difficulties.
“I hope a lot more fanciers will give it a go. I am distributing some application forms and people are showing an interest. After all, if I can win, anybody can.”
Mick’s willingness to help the organisation in whatever fashion he can is recognised, and appreciated, by officers.
I suspect that Mick is being overmodest in that last statement for anyone who studies the NRCC results in detail will spot that his name crops up regularly with good timings, and, in particular, he has a reputation of being an excellent Lerwick flyer. And that is where much of his ambition lies, having been runner-up in the King’s Cup on one occasion.
The provisional result for the old hens race this year did not show Mick as the leader. Instead John Wheeler, of Alford, was the man whose hopes were raised but, closer scrutiny of the actual timings as opposed to the verification timings, showed that the winner was the Mick Wilson and Daughter partnership, of Calverton. The daughter no longer takes an active role, but is always ready to tackle loft chores when visiting home.
Winning bird is a two-year-old chequer hen which had also been to Lerwick this year and this will also be her ultimate destination next year.
Mick races completely naturally, and the hen had been sent to Berwick sitting nearly 18 days. Mick is not sure how long she was on the nest, but she showed no interest in her eggs when she came home.
Her winning velocity was 1264ypm.
She raced much of the programme this year and had previously shown her versatility by coming from Carentan, from the south, with the Midlands National as a young bird. “I just wanted to have a go at the national, and sent a small team which came in their own time,” explained Mick.
Mick sent seven to the old hens classic, and he had all seven home before he timed a young bird in the NRCC race held on the same day.
“It is the first time that she has won anything, but she has always been a reliable pigeon,” he said.
She has the blood of a really special pigeon in her veins as she is a great-granddaughter of a legendary chequer cock bird that was 2nd open NRCC from Lerwick. On the other side of the pedigree are the bloodlines of Roger Buckley’s King’s Cup winner from Lerwick.
Fearless when it comes to tackling Lerwick, Mick sent this dream pigeon to the Shetland Islands twice in one season. In the first race he won his section and was 37th open NRCC. Two weeks later he was competing in a two-bird race from the same Lerwick racepoint and, says Mick, was “third or fourth open.”
“He was a dream pigeon. You could always rely on him, and you always knew which direction he would come from,” recalls Mick.
The winner of 1st Old Hens
Thrilled as he is by his win in the old hens race, I cannot help but feel that his biggest satisfaction of 2014 is the performance of half a dozen yearlings which have flown Arbroath, Lerwick and Thurso with the NRCC this season. They had been prepared for this stern test by being sent to two races from Berwick as youngsters.
“They have done really well, and I am chuffed with them,” said Mick, who believes that his policy of flying only natural serves him well in the longer and harder races.
“Where a lot of people seem to have struggled to time in, I have had no problems,” he said. “I am looking forward to preparing these pigeons for Lerwick next season.
“My pigeons are all on natural. I love to see them pecking around the loft. I have no time for widowhood, and I think natural birds come good in the harder races. I don’t like messing about with nature. If you do, it always comes back to bite you.”
One thing that has hindered his natural system is the ever-increasing number of birds of prey in his area, peregrines and sparrow hawks, and he can no longer let them have the kind of freedom he would like. He has built an aviary in front of his loft so that his birds can bathe without fear of being attacked.
Mick, now chairman of the Notts Federation and Calverton Homing Society (where he says Georgie Bell is the ace fancier) has been in the sport for 50 years. As a 12-year-old he had to catch a bus to take his pigeons for marking with the Midland Homer club.
There is a strong streak of Busschaert running through his family. Some of his early birds came from Holmes and Turnbull after he had kept a close eye on their results and had noted that they were winning out of turn with natural pigeons.
He has also had pigeons from Roger Buckley, and bought others from the bereavement sale of NRCC legend, the late John Lovell.
Working as a plasterer at the moment, Mick has had to overcome a spell of bad health this year and was hospitalised for a spell with pneumonia, relying on family to look after his birds.
Luckily, he is feeling better now, boosted, no doubt, by his latest win. He will be happier still if more fanciers, newcomers or returnees, join the NRCC next season to sample the competition which, he says, is crucial to his enjoyment of pigeon racing.
Footnote: What is it with the name Wilson and the NRCC this year? Prior to Mick’s win in the old hens race, Roy Wilson, of Norwich, was 1st open Perth, and then another Mick Wilson, this one from Brinsley, won Section One and was 2nd open from Arbroath.
As Mick would say: “The Wilsons get about a bit . . .”
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