CHRIS GIBSON
Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship Club
B&C Brelsford & Son, Champions of the Championship...!
Brian and Christine
I’m not sure really where I should start with this loft report, on what is for me the best loft for miles around and is certainly up there with the very best in the Derbyshire and South Yorkshire region. This loft is that of B & C Brelsford & Son of Woodhouse in Sheffield, the Premier Prize Winners of Championship Club in 2010.
I spent some four hours at the loft with Brian and Christine and to be honest I wrote absolutely nothing down as we spent the time handling the birds and chatting in general as opposed me asking my questions. One thing I can tell you about the Brelsfords is that nothing except absolute quality gets a perch in their loft. Quality pigeon after quality pigeon passed through my hands, all very much like peas in a pod, a family blended together over many years. The main blood that runs through a lot of the Brelsford birds is that of the old original Van Reets that they had many years ago. These maybe watered down from the originals but the mixture of other top winning blood has only enhanced the family.
Main race loft
Ever since me and brother Darrell (Daz) first came into the sport when we were just kids the name Brelsford was the one that stuck in my head as it was the name on everyone’s lips, and I soon began to realise just why. In 1999 me and Daz came back into the sport having had a break and became good friends with Pete and Len Smith of Darnall. We used to visit their loft on the allotments on a regular basis and often watched the birds arrive on race days when we hadn’t sent and what a sight it used to be with up to 600 birds being sent from the allotments. Back in its heyday Darnall HS used to send 1,000+ birds and even in 2005 the Brelsford’s last season racing in Darnall, the club was still sending more than some small Federations. Whilst racing in Darnall HS, which they did for many many years, they were Premier Prize Winners no less than 14 times and were runners up plenty of times too. They also won the coveted Sheffield Gold Cup on two occasions 1980 and 1999. Brian seemed quite proud to tell me that in 2004 they broke the record for the largest number of points ever won in a season in Darnall HS. However, in 2005 their last season with the club they won even more and broke their own record.
Inside the widowhood loft
As already mentioned 2005 so the end of B&C Brelsford at Darnall and saw them join forces with their son Brin who had a loft in the Woodhouse area of the city and, I might add, was also one to watch never being too far away from the top of the result sheet. The partnership of B&C Brelsford & Son was formed with the best birds from Darnall being broken at Woodhouse and guess what, yes they were the Premier Prize Winners in Woodhouse HS in their first year and with the broken pigeons in their team. They had gone from being at the top in the biggest club in Sheffield to being at the top in what is, in my own opinion, the strongest club in the Sheffield in two consecutive seasons.
Having spent years establishing a good team of birds that have won all before them at club and federation level Brian made the decision to concentrate more on the specialist clubs and 2007 saw the start of their domination in the NMCC, in particular the North Section being Premier Prize winners in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 with 2008 seeing them also being over all Premier Prize winners. The loft has also had some fantastic result in the MNFC and NFC.
Some of the widowhood team
It is a real team effort at the Brelsford loft with all three of them having their own sections to manage with Brian taking care of the widowhood cocks while Brin manages their hens with Christine having her own little loft of 9 cocks. This has been nicknamed by Brian and Brin as the “Pets Loft” much to Christine’s annoyance. However, these are far from pets, with several of them being winners in Woodhouse HS also with some good federation positions.
Several of the top performances at the middle to long distance in such clubs like NFC, MNFC and NMCC have been achieved by their hens. These are housed in a section to the far right of the main widowhood loft, and as with most peoples widowhood hens they are locked up individually to ensure they don’t pair together. After exercise they are fed on the floor before taking a drink, after which Brin taps a cane on the floor; this indicates that the hens are to leave the floor and perch up. A set of folding dowelled doors are then closed in front of the perches and this is where they remain until their next exercise period or until its time to see the cocks on a Friday.
The main team of cocks are the responsibility of Brian and it was clear to see that he has fantastic relationship with them that was assisted by a pocket full of peanuts that the cocks were prepared to fight him for. During the season the cocks are fed in their boxes (feeding will be touched on later).
A top racer and breeder
We never spoke about who has responsibility of young birds but I guess this work load will be shared as is the stock loft. We did spend time in the stock loft handling some of the top breeders and retired races. There was no talk of this bird is a Van this or Van that just top quality pigeons paired best to best, and it shows.
As far as medication is concerned all the usual ailments are obviously kept down to a bare minimum and are treated as and when the need occurs, but judging by the loft environment I guess this is not very often. When I asked about supplements I was shown the finest array of products - “Tesco’s Finest” that is. Not many actual pigeon products are purchased as Brian believes that for some reason pigeon products are just far to expensive and you can buy the equivalent down at your local supermarket. SMA Baby milk powder is used instead of expensive vitamins, basic vegetable/rapeseed cooking oil is used on the corn and thin bleach is often used in the water on Sundays to help clear their system out after being in the crates as apposed to the broad-spectrum antibiotics that most people use. As far as supplements are concerned that was about all I managed to get out of Brian and Christine. They did have a bottle of Impact from GEM in the cabinet that Brian said Brin likes to give to the hens towards the end of the week, but other than that there was nothing. Well from what I saw anyway...!
NMCC North Section Trophy
Feeding wise the standard method is used with the birds receiving a lighter mixture at the beginning of the week building up to full widow mix at the end. The birds are not fed sparingly and receive as much as they wish giving them the fuel they need to exercise well around the loft to help build muscle and get them in tip top racing condition. In this article you notice there is no stats and figures relating to how many 1st or 2nd etc they have had as they would be simply too many to write down, plus they are not ones for keeping records of such results as they are not really a selling loft so don’t feel it necessary. The Brelsford’s just want their birds to win and win at the highest level. They know just how good their birds are and don’t need to keep pieces of paper and records to prove it.
The following is a very small snippet of their achievements in recent years. 14 times Premier Prize Winners in the biggest club in Sheffield then moving to the most competitive/strongest club in Sheffield and being Premier Prize Winners in their first year and then there is two times Gold Cup Winners, Premier Prize Winners of the NMCC 2008 plus NMCC North Section Premier Prize winners 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and to top it of Premier Prize Winners 2010 of the Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship Club. Top class flying by top class fanciers, that no one can dispute.
I’d like to thank Brian and Christine for a wonderful four hours looking around their lofts and I sincerely wish all three of you all the very best for the 2011 season. Thanks for reading.
