NRCC BERWICK YB’s Sections 17
By George Wheatman
The leaves are falling, the days are becoming shorter, the summer and the pigeon racing season are already a memory, painful for some, happy for others. So, perhaps, it is a good time to reflect on the North Road Championship Club exploits of 2017, starting with the most recent the young bird race from Berwick on September 9th.
Roger Hallsworth, from Selston in Section A, has already received accolades for his outstanding outright win a success that looks even more remarkable every time you peruse the result.
Remarkable, yes, because the remaining 29 birds in the first 30 were all in Section C, many miles from Roger’s location in the East Midlands, and all but two of these were members of the Alford North Road RPC.
Section C winner, Darren Perry, had six in the first 10, nine in the first 20, and 14 in the first 30. Some flying!
Other Alford members, Pat and Dave Evans, were 2, 3, 11 and 18; Mr and Mrs Bob Boulton were 7, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 21; and Bob Kellett was 8, 20 and 23.
All of these are quality fanciers with past NRCC open wins under their belt.
Pat and Dave won the old hens races of 2012 and 2015, and the Thurso open in 2016.
Mr and Mrs Kellett were winners of the Dunbar old bird race in 2011, while Bob Boulton won the old bird races from Dunbar in 2002 and Thurso in 2013.
Now we all know that you can’t beat Old Father Time but there are pigeon fanciers giving him a hell of a fight. One such man is Mr Boulton who, now aged 85, says he has had one of his best-ever young bird teams in 2017, despite disposing of his stock birds to cut down the workload, and this is through the generosity of good fanciers giving him youngsters, including Paul Dawson, Paul Whiting and Pete and Teri Rodgers. Bob felt it was his duty to get the best out of them, and he did not allow advancing years to get in the way of hard training and preparation. Now he is looking forward to racing hem as yearlings next year.
Bob’s advice to young retirees has always been: “Go to bed at night with a plan of what you are going to do in the morning.”
That could be adjusted to all pigeon fanciers to: “End one season with a plan for the next.”
Mention of the name Pete Rodgers prompts me to digress. The three-times NRCC winner (Thurso 1995 and 1997, Young Birds 1997) recently appeared on BBC Radio Lincolnshire and the Look North television programme as the sport’s advocate in the peregrine v pigeon debate, and what a good job he made of it. Calm, and unruffled he set out the facts from the pigeon fancier’s point of view, and comfortably held his own against a RSPB spokesman’s propaganda.
Ironically, after listening to the debate I read a newspaper article, by a respected commentator who, in the face of seemingly unstable leadership of some world powers, feared the out break of a third world war which, he conjectured, could be fought in cyber space. My thought was that, if all modern communications were destroyed, who would come to the rescue to carry messages? Not Percy Peregrine, for sure!
But back to the NRCC 2017 young bird national from Berwick. Yes, it was remarkable that Roger Hallsworth’s “loner” squeezed in front of all those well-positioned, top-class fanciers. Well, actually, it wasn’t such a tight squeeze. The margin was 11 yards a minute (1647 compared to 1636), something significant in a fast race.
This young hen was obviously determined to go her own way, and sufficiently well prepared to be able to do it into Section A so far west of the other front runners. Just the sort of single-minded youngster all fanciers would love to have in their loft.
Section B was won, fittingly, by Spalding’s Martin Lewis, a strong and consistent supporter of north road racing, a vice-President of the NRCC, and his section representative on the management committee.
Martin is not in a battle with Father Time yet he is only 74! but he has wrestled with health problems and, amazingly, has managed to maintain a high level of performances despite having to undergo four-hour sessions of dialysis three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, sometimes adjusting the times to meet his pigeon racing commitments.
His section winner is a blue Lambrecht cock, hatched in February, and flown to the perch. Martin did not put his youngsters on darkness this year, and they were beginning to fall to pieces a little bit before being sent to Berwick. The winner had four flights to go.
Martin introduced the Lambrechts from Paul and Jayne Newbold’s PJ Lofts stud, and has been well pleased with them. This follows other successful introductions from Paul, having done well with Hermans and Hugo Morris from this source. More recently he has introduced Jos Thone lines.
Having started in the sport in 1957, he joined the NRCC a year or so later and has been a member ever since, and has been rewarded with a number of good positions, and has always been regarded, in particular, as a good distance flyer, with creditable Lerwick positions to prove the point.
Martin has had another good season with both old and young birds with the strong Spalding club which boasts 19 members despite the fairly recent decision of some fanciers in the area to turn south.
He likes to keep his team fresh, by introducing a few new birds each year and, it seems, that this policy has enabled him to stay with the front runners for 60 years. That’s a long time.
Winner of Section C, and runner-up in the open result, plus all those other positions already mentioned, Darren Perry, of Alford, cannot boast the longevity of Martin. He is only 30, but seems to have been around a long time, and already has under his belt a succession of major wins. He won the young bird national in 2014, has twice also been runner-up, and has become a name to look out for in all NRCC races of recent years.
His section winner was a grizzle cock bird of Janssen x Wily Tass lines which had flown much of the young bird season, having been bred in January and subsequently placed on darkness.
Darren thrives on the stiff competition provided by the strong Alford club and had 100 per cent returns in this race, having sent 44.
He says he is now trying to develop a long distance team to add to his already strong all-round collection of birds.
Not only is pigeon racing his hobby, but also his living these days as he is helping out at PJ Lofts.
Winners of Section E were the Fitzjohn Brothers, alias Gordon Fitzjohn, of Thorney, near Peterborough.
Gordon Fitzjohn, winner of Section E.
The partnership originally included four brothers, who started in the sport as young boys, but, at the age of 83, Gordon is the lone survivor in the fancy after 65 years.
He has been a member of the NRCC for many years and, in the eighties, was within a bad trap of winning the King’s Cup in a fast race from Lerwick. After the frustration of trying to persuade his reluctant bird into the loft, he eventually finished third open, a good enough result for many but one which he knows could have been even better. That was the year when ice skating stars Torville and Dean presented the prizes in the heyday of NRCC racing.
Over the years there have been many good club and NRCC results, and this year’s young bird national brought another pleasing race, taking first section by 25 minutes and also finishing third and fourth section. A small loft man, Gordon sent seven birds and had them all home on the day, again reflecting the good returns from this race.
Because he had to attend a wedding, he was not able to time the bids himself but ex-fancier Dave Shirley a previous winner of the famous People newspaper yearling race welcomed the birds home.
Section winner was a blue chequer hen which had flown most of the young
bird programme. She was sent sitting her first-ever eggs.
Gordon started the season with 19 youngsters and finished with 12, leaving with a total of 29 birds in the loft.
He trains his birds as and when he feels they need it, but they have plenty of tosses before racing starts. He administers no supplements and relies on a good mixture, sometimes dressed with cod liver oil, and clean water.
Lerwick has always been one of his favourite race points but whether he will be targeting success from the Shetland Isles or, indeed, any other races next season is dependant on a decision he makes this winter.
Gordon, who has a five-minute twice-daily cycle ride to his loft which is at his brother’s home, is wondering whether the time has come to retire from the sport and continue to enjoy his other big love, looking after his garden.
Whatever he decides, Gordon will have many memories of his racing days which include the time when Peterborough had two clubs, Woodston and City, which had more than 40 minutes each.
He has now been retired from work for 18 years, having managed a company which carried out repairs to heavy plant.
Among the star competitors in the NRCC at the moment are Andy Woods and Kevin Batch, especially since they joined in partnership two years ago.
Woods and Batch Loft 2, won the opening old bird race of the season from Dunbar under the management of Andy. Then it was Kevin’s turn (Woods and Batch Loft 1) in the young bird national, when he won the strong Section F.
Indeed he was also second, the velocities being 1509.819 and 1509.145), before Andy turned up with third section on 1507.340.
Kevin’s section winner and runner-up were both cock birds, and the pencil blue winner was sent sitting ten days. After the loft had recovered from an attack of young bird sickness, both pigeons had about half a dozen races in Kevin’s successful young bird season.
Joining in partnership with long-standing friend Andy has, if anything, increased the competition between them. “We both do our own thing,” said Kevin, “and I think it has geed us both up. Andy had a very good old bird season, and I had to work really hard with the young birds.”
Within five minutes of the arrival of his first two birds, it was hammering down with rain, he said, and later arrivals were soaked. He had 20 home of the 22 sent.
Kevin is a 55-year-old self-employed plasterer and has been a fancier since the age of 17.
Over the years he has had mainly sprint and middle distance pigeons, and nowadays birds from the top lofts of Leech Brothers, of Hebden Bridge, and the incomparable Wall, Lunt and Green feature prominently in his team.
Kevin admits that he finds it difficult to resist introducing new birds on a regular basis and, as a result, he has a bulging stock loft.
“I am always looking to get that special pigeon,” he said. “Andy is much more ruthless with his birds than I am.”
Herman Ceusters and Lambrechts feature prominently in the team.
Plaistow, in East London, is 304 miles from Berwick, and is the home of the father and son partnership of F Dawkins and Son, Fred and Keith.
And what a performance they produced in the young bird national, timing their first four birds inside a five-minute spell and taking the first three positions in Section H, plus also being fifth.
Fred and Keith Dawkins, NRCC Berwick young bird Section H winners.
They sent eight, had five on the day, and eventually had 100 per cent returns.
The first bird was a blue pied cock and, having been on darkness, all were flying to the perch. In fact the first three were cock birds, and the fourth a hen.
This is the fourth time that they have won their section in this challenging young bird race.
The first two came together, and the young bird was basically bred around their own family which, as I have reported in the past, has an enthralling history of its own and has its origins in birds from arguably the greatest London maestro of them all, Alf Baker.
It was just the third NRCC of the season in which the Dawkins had competed because they missed sending to Fraserburgh, Lerwick and Thurso.
They have, however, had a successful season in other competitions, including being top prizewinner in the Distance Club.
Section I is another long-flying section and the winners here were Mr and Mrs Barry Laws, of Ipswich, no strangers to success with the NRCC.
Barry and Jane Laws, of Ipswich, winners of Section I in the NRCC young bird National.
They had a fine race to take the first three places in their section on velocities of 1328, 1327 and 1325, followed by another on 1306.
The first timer was a third round young blue Van Reet hen bird, followed by two Soontjens and then another Van Reet.
Barry, now 73 and retired from a working life that had embraced the widely different skills of baking and electronics, has had section success from a number of NRCC racepoints over the years, having returned to the famous old north road club after having a spell on the south road.
Distance of Berwick to the Laws’ loft is 285 miles and, of the 27 birds sent, 20 came on the day and there was an overall return of 25.
This was another fine performance by Barry Laws, supported in the background by wife June.
PRESENTATION
All the NRCC winners from the 2017 season will receive their prizes at the annual Day of Champions on Saturday December 2nd. This has become a popular event at an excellent venue, Springfields Exhibition Centre, Spalding, and it is hoped that there will be another good attendance to pay tribute to the winners.
While planning this event, officials are also looking further ahead to next season and one of the plans being discussed is to drop the Fraserburgh race, and replace it with another race from Perth.
Difficult races from Fraserburgh over a number of years have prompted this plan, and no doubt this will be a talking point among members when they gather at Spalding.
The NRCC annual meeting will be held at Grantham on Saturday December 9th, at 2pm.
