The Queens Cup Winner 2015 ALAN REED, BLACKWOOD.
By
Ian Evans
The Gazette of June 1975 included an article written by ‘Gatch’ of an up and coming star from Wales. The fancier in question was non-other than the legend Mr Alan Reed of Blackwood. The report gave a great insight into Alan’s Management, Birds and achievement much of which remains the same today. Since then Alan has won eight national and has put up some truly fantastic performances. Taking into consideration my opening statement and the content of the rest of the article it will be surprising to most that Alan has not received wider press coverage over the past 40 years.
The Lofts
Alan moved to his current address in 1962 and a loft was erected not long after. The current old bird loft has been present for over 50 years although it has received a facelift which included a new brick built frontage. Alan races cocks on widowhood (no hens are raced) and the old bird loft contains three partings, two with 12 boxes each and a smaller section with a few boxes which at the time of our visit included some late bred cocks which Alan intended to race in 2016. In addition to the widowhood loft another loft is used to house the widowhood hens, young birds and a few pairs of stock with the majority of stock located in a different loft.
Old Bird Racing loft Young Bird racin
The Birds
Alan currently houses pigeons from a number of origins with Koopmans, Frans Zwols, Lefabre Dhaneans which have been ever present since the 1980’s making up the majority of the stock and racing team. New introductions last year include Hereman Ceusters and one young 2015 cock was present in the widowhood team that had taken 2 x first club and one second as a young bird.
The System
Alan likes to keep things very simple and races the traditional Widowhood system. The cocks are paired so that they race the early club races on large young birds. They are exercised and fed to appetite twice daily in hoppers on the floor, although a little seed is occasionally given in the boxes. Alan creates his own mixture from three well known widowhood mixes. The cocks are generally exercised for one hour twice per day in all weather. However, Alan did admit that in recent years he has become more lenient. Training takes place as and when Alan feels they need it. Prior to the race Alan likes to show the hens but did state that on occasions he has not done so, with little noticeable difference in performance.
His young birds seldom exercise well around the loft but get plenty of training starting with short tosses of a mile or two. The young birds are raced on the darkness system and expected to race each week.
A view inside the widowhood loft
Performances
Alan’s successes over the years would be too great to list here and so I have just included an highlight of Alan’s national wins and other notable achievements.
1980’s 1st National Nantes, approx 340 miles
1980’s 1st national Guernsey,
1980 - 1st National Thurso 480 miles ,
1997 - 1st National Orkney, 515 miles
2001 - 1st National Bonn, 457 miles
2001 - 1st National Ostend, approx 300 miles
2006 - 1st National Ramsgate, 203 miles
2008 - 1st National Bonn, 457 miles
In addition to the wins listed above Alan has been second national on a number of occasions including from Lerwick, Elgin, Crief and Maidstone and topped the Welsh combine from Carlisle young birds with 21,000 birds competing.
As stated, the above results are just a summary of Alans achievement. In one year he topped the section in the federation and nationals on 10 separate occasions, some record!
Olympiad Pigeons
Alan has twice had pigeons represent Great Britain at the Olympiads the first being in 1975 at Budapest and the second in 2009 at Dortmund.
Olympiad certificate 1975 Olympiad certificate 2009 The 2009 Olympiad pigeon
I asked Alan what was the best pigeon he raced to which he replied it would be impossible to pick one but he did however recall with some fondness a Dordin cock he raced in the 70’s and 80’s which won multiple firsts and even won at the age of 10 years old from Shrewsbury 80 miles !!!!
To give the reader a taste of the calibre of pigeons Alan has raced I have included a summary of the performances of WHU 2006 N 05849, selected for the British Olympiad Team at Dortmund Germany 2009 winning 39th Sporting Class middle distance. This cock contains the lofts top Lefabre Dhanean blood.
2007
Ramsgate 200 miles - 2nd Club, 4th section 563 birds, 9th Federation 2,022 birds.
Huy 377 miles - 1st Club 1st East section 1,147 birds 2nd National 2,685 birds 2nd Combine 5,239 birds
2008
Lillers 258 miles - 12th Club 48th Section 1,242 birds 57th National 3,545 birds
Huy 377 miles - 3rd Club 15th East Section 734 birds 18th National 1,683 birds, 22nd Combine 3,327 birds.
Bonn 457 miles, 1st Club 1st East Section 650 birds 1st National 1,422 birds 1st Combine 1,069 members 2,777 birds.
The Queens Cup
The Queens cup is awarded annually by the Welsh Homing Pigeon Union.
The Queens cup winner of 2015 put up some truly fantastic performances. This 2013 blue cock raced well as a yearling taking a number of minor prize cards but it wasn’t until he was pushed a little further in distances as a two year old that his potential was realised. His prizes included 4th National 412 miles and two weeks later 3rd national 515 miles. Leading up to this point the cock raced consistently taking part in the majority of the federation race programme and was conditioned using the traditional widowhood method described above. The cock was contains mainly Koopman blood and his father was a top racer for Alan and was amongst the first four pigeons when Alan took 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th federation.
The 2015 Queens Cup winner
Conclusion
So there we have it a much deserved and much overdue report of the outstanding achievements of a 79 year old Champion. Alan has not only won nationals from three different routes, North, South and East but has also won nationals in three different decades and has come close to winning a national in a fourth decade, including second national Maidstone young birds in 2014. Alan’s competitive character has kept him at the top for well over 50 years. He likes to win whether he is playing golf, pool or racing his pigeons.
It was a pleasure to visit Alan to learn more about him and his achievements and an honour to be able to write this brief report about a living legend of the Welsh fancy. Well done Alan!
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