Jimmy
Greer - Irish Old Bird National Winner 2004
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To
win a National is something that few of us ever
do but to win an Irish National implies good
management and a super racing pigeon. That necessary
combination ensured that Jimmy Greer of Portglenone
won the Blue Riband of Irish distance racing
for 2004. Readers I assume will be aware of
the national competitions into Ireland where
a maverick maritime climate plays tricks with
our birds as they battle across two seas as
well as hundreds of miles of earth configurations.
The worst of the latter configurations ensuring
the generation of much fear for our brave thoroughbreds
as they are the habitats of winged predators.
It being acknowledged as one of the toughest
if not the toughest route that pigeons have
to face.
This
years winner wherever I have travelled is a
most popular one and the result confirms that
he is a dedicated pigeon fancier. In fact this
is not the first time for the Greer lofts to
have scored at the tough Irish Nationals for
Jimmy is well nigh 50 years at the sport and
although scoring at all distances he prefers
the long and marathon distances. Apparently
Les Sables in France which has been a Waterloo
for many brave Irish pigeons is a favourite
liberation point for Jimmy. A beautiful black
chequer hen known as the 'Les Sables Hen' in
the past flew from this race point ( 613 miles)
on three occasions including recording 51st
Open Irish National for the Greer family. Part
of the bloodlines apparently going back to the
strain of the great Robbie Stoddart of Scotland.
Jimmy
was first introduced to the sport by a fancier
called John Smith from his home area. He has
happy memories of those days for as a young
boy gathering turf on an Irish bog the venture
brought him into the joy of pigeon keeping and
racing. For upon the invitation of the kind
Mr. Smith Jimmy saw his first race arrival and
as he said himself 'I was hooked'. Another influence
upon the young mind was a family of fanciers
from the same locality called the Reid Brothers
who specialized in distance racing. Thus the
seed was set early and in due course its growth
over the decades would bring the King's Cup
to this well liked member of the Cullybackey
pigeon club.
As
time passed the Greer family was being built
by a master of pigeon racing husbandry and because
of Scottish family connections Jimmy would have
made trips to that other domain of the Celts.
Those visits were to prove fruitful within the
context of pigeon racing for he met the late
Alan Geddis and in becoming a friend of this
very good fancier in due course six youngsters
were to arrive from Scotland. One of which was
to become the sire of 'Rachel' the 2004 National
Winner and contained bloodlines of Aarden/Janssen
and via Geddis's baselines blood of the old
Mason '1210' strain of Scotland. The dam of
the national winner is of Norbert Sierens bloodlines
and arrived at the Portglenone lofts as an egg
from Belgium.
Rachel
is a two year old blue bar hen who covered the
distance for the national prize in 13 hours
and 27 minutes at a velocity of 1149 yards per
minute. The race was from Messac in France and
the distance 527 miles. This fine looking hen
was not raced in any channel races prior to
her win but had a few inland races upto 253
miles. As a yearling Rachel had flown Penzance.
She was sent sitting 16 days on eggs and had
four tosses, twice at 40 and twice at 100 miles.
The rest is part of pigeon racing history.
by: Liam O Comain
