FOUR BRITISH MASTER PIGEON FANCIERS - Part 4
by Liam O' Comain
John McLaren
The subject of this article is the youngest fancier ever, I believe, to win the English NFC King's Cup in 1967, and his name - John McLaren. Apparently McLaren was always a dedicated fancier and he won England's premier trophy with 'Julie' who also as a producer was not lacking in this much sought after ability. Here I do not hesitate to state that this is one of the greatest fanciers that the island of Britain has produced since the coming of the sport to its shores. Not alone myself but many hold this opinion about a person who is a natural when it comes to the sport of pigeon racing. A man who dedicated himself to long distance racing about six or seven decades ago and whose family has won at all distances for himself and others over the years.
It should be noted that the Pau National win was not the first success of John McLaren for in 1955 when racing into Petersfield he scored 16th Open Nantes National at the tender age of 18 years. And through the years it is reported that he has won every club race through to Bordeaux, a distance of approximately 420 miles. In his day McLaren has had to compete against such notable fanciers as Les Davenport, F. H. Jarvis, Ron Mitchieson, Norman Southwell, to name but a few of Britain's elite.
Although setting his sightS on distance racing, in addition to his club successes this family has won numerous Fed, 2- Bird Championship and Open races at the short and middle as well as longer flights in its lifetime. Obviously much of the latter activity was the cutting stone so to speak upon which McLaren enhanced his natural ability in the husbandry of the sport. The end produce were thoroughbreds who continued to win including amongst other awards - Best Average all Nationals, the Young Bird National from France, and of course the much sought after Langstone Gold Cup, etc.
John McLaren then did what many have failed to do, he took up his tent and went and raced successfully at another environment at a place called Cowplain. His loft then had a wire mesh floor with a translucent plastic front beneath an asbestos roof. A radical, if not revolutionary, concept for the time but then McLaren was always the thinking type of fancier.
At Cowplain, McLaren concentrated on speedier pigeons for Channel races such as Nantes which saw him cross in some of the Vandenbroucke strain into his old family. This resulted in the loft winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd Section in the Nantes National as well as other good positions including 14th Open Pau National (520 miles).
John McLaren also raced from another residence, in a place called Horndean, with much success (his first year at widowhood), scoring 1st, 2nd and 3rd Petersfield and District Club; 3rd, 9th and 11th Solent Federation from La Reole (438 miles). Other success included 26th Open Young Bird National from approximately 10,000 of an entry but it was not long before another change of residence for in 1977 the McLarens raced from a builder's hut near to Portmouth. From there they won the Solent Federation trophy for Best Average all National Flying Club races including 3rd Section Nantes National with a bird of his Vandenbroucke family, also being in the first 30 of the Open Pau National with one of his old family. The latter chequer cock was an outstanding representative of the McLaren family for it scored three times from Pau and once Palamos (650 miles).
Whether of necessity or spirit, perhaps a combination of both, John McLaren was to move again, this time to South Africa. My research shows no sign of pigeon involvement in the African Continent but records reveal his arrival back in Petersfield in about 1980 where he built a loft and returned to his winning ways with pigeons of his past family obtained from friends. In fact, soon clocking a 29th Open Grand National winner. And this inspite of the fact that because of circumstances of work his birds were not receiving the attention that they should. For example, they were lucky if they received clean water once per week.
In the title of this piece I used the term 'Nomad' for it was most appropriate for our subject, for in reality John McLaren has moved 7 times in his pigeon racing career and inspite of this obvious upheaval he has continued to be a master of the sport of pigeon racing. In truth the concept of 'genius' could be applied with conviction to this artist of our sport for McLaren successes are too numerous to record here but include a 2nd into Britain from Barcelona at a distance of 670 miles in 1999, and the timing of a 10 months old late bred in the Open National at a distance of 520 miles on the day, still carrying her nest flights. Finally, John McLaren places the strongest emphasis on the importance of breeding in the long distance scheme of things in the sport and believed that he could win the Barcelona International if the wind was in the east. Who would doubt such a spirit when one considers his biography?
The McAlpines
The McAlpines were one of the most feared strains in the history of pigeon racing in Britain. John McAlpine started in the sport in the early 1890s and his base derived from the Stanhopes of Barrett, Baker, Whitmore and Toft. In the 1912 Scottish National from Rennes a distance of 545 miles the McAlpines took 7th place. In the disastrous race of 1913, with only 14 birds timed on the day, Johns birds were 3rd and 6th National. In the 1914 race, the McAlpine loft clocked 3 birds in the first 30 out of only 6 birds sent. In that smash of 1914 it was a black chequer hen that took 3rd place. The same hen took 19th place again and her ring number was 6638 and she was inbred to J. L. Bakers, 'Little Wonder', a pigeon that was destined to play a crucial part in the forming of the McAlpine strain.
Then, the to be well known Dr. Anderson bought John McAlpine’s complete team of birds with McAlpine as his loft manager who looked after birds during Andersons war time service. There were races during the war from inland race points but after the war the S.N.F.C. returned to the European mainland and once again held the national from Rennes where in a race when only 2 birds were timed on the day, Andersons birds were1st, 5th, 11th, 16th, 19th and 23rd.
Anderson was to make many trips to Belgium and on these trips John McAlpines son, Willie, accompanied him where they often visited the famous Dr. Bricoux of Jolimont and across the border in France visited another champion, the great Paul Sion. Many of the best racers and breeders from these masters found their way back to Scotland to enhance the quality of Andersons lofts.
Using the best of the imported pigeons as crosses into the lofts the Anderson family was formed. Alas after innumerable successes and because of bad health Dr. Anderson retired in 1948 but before he left he gave the McAlpines the pick of his loft. They carefully selected from the old Stanhope family and only the best of the Sion, Bricoux and Le Fijnen bloodlines. Out of these bloodlines came great Surp 50 13315, the Barcelona Blue who flew 7 times over 500 miles then as an 8 year old sent to Barcelona 1036 miles, breaking the British 1000 mile record in 1958.Even a grandson of this great pigeon flew Barcelona confirming that blood will tell. And when we think of other outstanding marathon flights into Scotland by others for example Jim Moffat and D Forsyth the the records show the influence of the blood from the Armadale lofts.In fact all of the Forsyth pigeons came from the McAlpines.
There were many other great pigeons and great triumphs over the decades under the expert know how of both John and Willie McAlpine and the strains achievements was honoured in 1992 when Willie McAlpine became Scotland's Fancier of the Year. Many Scottish national winners contain their bloodlines. Sadly on the 7th December 1994 at the age of 86 Willie McAlpine passed away but the legend continues for the birds of the unique partnership of father and son McAlpine are still talked about wherever fanciers congregate and there are those who claim a continuity of bloodlines. If so, then they possess a goldmine in pigeon stock terms.
The Marriotts
The pigeons under consideration is that of the late Fred Marriott of Birmingham, England, who many believe has not received its rightful status amongst the great families of racing pigeons.
Marriott began racing pigeons in 1899 and flew both the North Road and the South Road into England and in due course prior to his clearance sale in January 1956 on the South Road he was Ist Open in both 1924 and 1925 NFC races with Triumph and Repetition, plus 2nd Open 1929 with Nap, to be followed by 6th 1907, 11th 1936, 15th 1937, 1st 1940 (with Premier), 5th 1948, and many other other positions over the years of his involvement. On the North Road Marriott was 1st, 4th and 5th Open Lerwick with the NRCC 1920, 1st, 3rd & 25th in 1921, 3rd 1922, 10th 1923, 2nd 1934, 6th & 7th 1953. Of course there were also many successes at Federation, Combine and Club levels.
The base of the Marriott pigeons was a cock called Dreadnought, who was bred in 1908 containing the bloodlines of Marriott's old Bordeaux Cock and Toft's winner of 1st NFC Bordeaux 1899. The Bordeaux Cock was from an unnamed Belgian source and a full sister to Jumbo who flew and won from Granville, Rennes and Marennes in three consecutive years, plus 6th Open NFC San Sebastian in 1907. W.C. Moore bloodlines were also involved including Barker's Marcia with traces of Gits, Debue and Plentinckx blood. In fact the pedigree contains a mosaic of well known fancier names prominent in the sport of the time. Dreadnought himself was not particularly outstanding as a racer although winning prizes from Ventnor, Granville, Rennes and Marennes. Marriott however as an astute observer saw his potential as a breeder and retired him As a stock bird Dreadnought earned his laurels but Marriott mysteriously disposed of him in 1915 admitting later that he had made a great blunder. He apparently had sired winners with any hen he was ever paired with. Of his many winning offspring perhaps the greatest was the famous Lerwick Hen who in 1920 won 1st Open Lerwick and in the following year won the King's Cup outright for Marriott by repeating what she accomplished the previous year. This great racer also contained Moss bloodlines.
As the Editor for a time of the British Homing World it has been said that Fred Marriott was in the position of obtaining pigeons from the best fanciers of his day. Whether or not it was his position as the editor of the BHW which helped him in his ambitions as a racer there is no doubt that a perusal of his pigeons pedigrees show an array of the names of the leading fanciers and their outstanding pigeons of the time. This would imply I think an outcross approach to the production of pigeons capable of bringing the bacon home so to speak and a study of the Marriott technique would tend to confirm that he relied more upon outcrossing rather than anything else. That as a fancier the possibility of procuring so many good pigeons led to a situation in which the appearance of good racers was inevitable based upon the concept of luck or fate alone. There is no escaping the truth however that Fred Marriott was one of the elite fanciers of the 20th century but whether one could safely state that what he produced was a strain is questionable according to others. Based upon the 'Marriott phenomenon' however there are those who contend that the traditional concept of a 'strain' and what constitutes one requires to be re- assessed.
Slabbinck
When my late father raced into a valley of the Sperrin mountain range in the 1950s (into the town of Limavady, County Derry, Ireland) I recall him purchasing a beautiful blue bar cock from a fancier who was retiring from the sport because of his need to emigrate to Britain (I think Oxford in England) to seek employment. Yes, those were hard times and many good folk were forced because of economic circumstances to seek their fortune across the water so to speak. That person was Laurence Duffy and the cock was always referred too as the Slabbinck-Cattrysse or 'Duffy's Slabbinck-Cattrysse'. Well half a century later I am in a better position to talk or write about M.L.Slabbinck because of my research for information pertaining to this great pigeon racer.
Slabbinck was, if anything, an outstanding fancier of supreme consistency and this unfortunately ensured that he was barred from competing in some areas of pigeondom. Even clubs apparently deliberately folded up in order to get rid of him. Of course such unsportmanship will always be around, a belief confirmed by contemporary letters to our pigeon press from fanciers being unable to gain membership to certain clubs for no valid reason other than what?.
M.L Slabbinck was a Belgian national who arrived in England as a wounded soldier in1918, obtained while fighting for the Allies in the first World War. After recuperation he so loved the land of the rose and its people that he decided to remain on in England where in due course he brought some of the best bloodlines from his native Belgium. As a widowerhood flyer he raced from the short to the marathon distances with great success into Templar Mead and in breeding Slabbinck used eye sign in his pairings, once stating 'I've visited all the crack Belgian lofts, including the great ones such as Cattrysse Bros, Devriendt, Van Der Espt, Vandenbroucke, Williquet Bros, Nachtegaele, Desmet etc., and I assure you that all their breeders are mated according to eyesign'.
Slabbinck was a good judge of a pigeon and he realised from his years in his native country that one had to have the best of bloodlines if one was to succeed in the sport. That is why he went for the best and ensured that approximately 15 pairs of stock pigeons were second to none. They were mainly of the Cattrysse strain and some others carefully picked by himself.
Based upon his sound decision Slabbinck went on to build his strain which became the envy of many fanciers in Britain and abroad. Which resulted in the purchase of representatives of the strain by others whose successes in due course enhanced the name of the Slabbinck strain.
To pick one representative racer from the Templar Mead lofts I have in mind a blue cheq cock which in 1959 won 8th Open Pau Grand National. The mother of this pigeon was very well known as a breeder of big winners and was called the 'Duchess Noterman hen'. Near 12 years when she mothered the 8th National winner known as 'The Steken'. The sire of 'The Steken' was 'Zoot' bred by Vandenbroucke-De Weerd of Belgium and interestingly also an 8th position National winner from Angouleme. This brief reference illustrates the quality of the inmates of the Slabbinck colony and like exiles before him and since, and here I have in mind the late J.W.Logan and the Patrick Bros, to succeed at the distance one has to procure the very best of bloodlines and hope that one is born with a good sense of husbandry or is totally determined to nurture it into existence. Slabbinck I believe was born with it and as a strain maker he added to the history of British based pigeon racing.
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