Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship Club
P & T HAGUE OF SHEFFIELD
by Chris Gibson
Paul and Tony are part of a large pigeon family and in years gone by a very successful one at that. Paul is well known in the area for having been loft manager for several successful lofts on the infamous Darnall allotments over the years, helping some of them to become Top Prize Winners in that top club. Tony has also had his fare share of involvement with the birds over the years too, but has really got the pigeon bug since this brotherly partnership was formed in 2008.
Paul in the cocks' loft
The brothers began their racing career as P&T Hague racing young birds to a brand new loft that was built on Paul’s back garden on the Arbourthorne estate in Sheffield, only a stone's throw away from our own loft. From this loft they competed in Gleadless HS in the Stocksbridge Federation. I must admit when I used to see their young birds exercising I new that they would take some beating, they really did rip the sky apart. And what a start it was for this new partnership. Winning the young bird averages taking plenty of club prizes and their fair share of Federation prizes, also winning young bird of the year and finishing the season being third highest prize winners. Not bad just racing young birds alone. Not to mention winning two breeder buyer competitions winning over £300.
In 2009 the lads started where they had left of in 2008 winning plenty of club and federation prizes and another breeder buyer, scooping another £300. At the end of 2009 a local allotment became free which was closer to Tony’s home, and the decision was made to relocate and rebuild a new loft on the allotment. This made things easier for Tony to travel to the loft on his mobility scooter as Paul’s address was a couple of miles away. The location is also better for the birds and with the Headquarters of Woodthorpe HS, their new regular club, being just across the road it really does enable Tony to enjoy every aspect of the sport including a beer on Friday night.
2010 YB of the year
A super setup was built, complete with a large sitting cabin that is equal to a room in the Savoy. To this loft the best young birds from 2009 and the best yearlings were broken in, so nothing much was expected of them in 2010. However, I feel that like most of us they underestimated the ability of good pigeons. As already mentioned, Woodthorpe HS was joined as well as the Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship Club, in the young bird section only.
The team of broken old birds and a good team of young birds achieved super results ending the season being runner up Premier Prize winners in Woodthorpe HS also being runners up in the points leagues too and again scooping the Young Bird of the year trophy and yet again winning the young bird averages.
The Little Cheq Cock
As mentioned, 2010 was Paul and Tony’s first year as members of the Championship Club racing young birds only and as expected they took their share of the prizes. In the Championship Club the lads won 1x4th 1x5th and 2x6th picking up over £200 in pools and prize money, not a bad amount for just four prizes. It just go’s to show what a great club this is and I know that Paul and Tony are hoping to be competing with the olds too next season.
They generally start the season with around 18 pair of widowhood race birds as cocks and hens are raced, and 50 young birds are reared for the team. Eight pairs of stock are also housed. Old birds are exercised both morning and evening and are fed on Gerry Plus in the early part of the week with some Red Band and Hormoform mixed in, then V/L Super Widowhood is fed towards the end of the week with added peanuts.
The birds are kept healthy with the usual preventative medicines and are prepared for races with various supplements during the week and carbohydrate loaded towards the end of the week also.
Some pigeon - The Little Cheq Cock
Plenty of training is given to the widowhood team before the start of the season and one or two tosses will be given during the season also. The young birds are just about raced on the same system of total widowhood with a little more training being given to the young ones with them going as often as possible with the help of Paul’s wife Julie and Tony’s wife Sue. Lucky lads you are!!!
Since the partnership started in 2008 with young birds they have won over 40 prizes in the first four at club level including 11x1st with plenty of good federation positions included in them up to 2,500 birds competing. They also won both young bird channel races in 2009 and 2010.
Just to prove the quality of pigeon that Paul and Tony have, here are the results of the best cock “Little Cheq Cock”. This cock was gifted to Paul and Tony along with other young birds by myself and brother Darrell (D & C Gibson) to help get them started. Bear in mind that this cock won plenty of prizes as a young bird and picked up the title of Young Bird of the year in Gleadless HS; he also won the clubs Breeder buyer winning £200. As a yearling he carried on performing well, winning prizes. Then in 2010 he was broken to the new loft without any problems and also went on to win several prizes, in fact he won one club race by over six minutes from Salisbury finishing 17th Federation 2,000+birds. In total this super cock has won in theclub, 4x1st, 3x3rd, 1x4th and in the federation he’s notched up the following: 4th, 9th, 12th, 17th, 18th, 19th from up to 2,000+birds. The “Little Cheq Cock” has also won a total of over £500 for Paul and Tony and I sincerely hope that he continues this kind of form for them in the in 2011.
Another good cock - 2xst 2x2nd
Paul and Tony are two of the most enthusiastic fanciers you could ever meet, spending hours on the loft enjoying the birds and making coffee for other local fanciers that call on for a chat on a regular basis. Hence I nicknamed the loft of P & T Hague “Coffee Lofts”. Congratulations to you both on the last three years of success. I really hope that your success continues for years to come. These lads are what the Championship Club is all about, not content with winning just about all there is to win at club level, they want to step up a level and compete against the very best in the area from other clubs within a large radius. 5 against 5, best against best, with very little or no advantage and for big money. Thanks for the coffee lads!!!
P&T Hague would like to thank the following fanciers for the help, advice and gifts of birds that they received to get them started: D&C Gibson, Gary Jones, Dennis Trow, Dennis Weston - all from Sheffield and S Gill & Son of Castleford.
Thanks for reading
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
