ERNIE SHAW - 'THE COOKSTOWN ACE'

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ERNIE SHAW – ‘THE COOKSTOWN ACE’

The early start – A loft location in Cookstown (Co.Tyrone) is not the ideal spot to expect success in the I.N.F.C. events. It is a long way inland and, if we look at the map, we find it is on the far side of Lough Neagh when looking from the coast. However, if Ernie Shaw continues to race as he has done during the past three seasons he will make a mockery of his position because in this very short space of time he has come close to winning two Nationals, the Penzance Y/B event in 1969 and the Nantes Classic in 1970. Many will feel that Ernie hasn’t received the due amount of publicity to merit such great racing achievements and it is hoped through this article to put some of that right.

He started keeping pigeons when he was still a school boy at which time he lived beside Barfoot Brothers who have been consistent fanciers throughout the years and it was from these brothers and the late Tom McKinney that he learned the tricks of the trade. At this time he was racing in the Coalisland Club, the ‘crack’ member being Dr Garvan. The birds that Ernie raced in the early days were McGugan Stassarts and Gits from Best of Lurgan and they proved to be very successful in both Club and Derby races. He remembers sending four birds to Penzance, a real hard one, with only three birds into Cookstown on the day, all belonging to Ernie. He also won the Open in the Federation from Arklow, over 2,000 birds, and when sending two birds to the Skibbereen Y/B Derby he won the club by about 2 hours. Despite these successes, Ernie gave up and sold out in 1950.

The Return - However, we all know that once bitten by the pigeon bug you cannot get it out of your blood completely and after a period of 15 years looking in from the outside, Ernie decided to start again. His aim was to do well in the National races and with this in mind he set off with his brother Norman (who had also started to race) one in Saturday in August 1966 to visit lofts in Belfast with the object of purchasing stock. The lofts he was to visit had been recommended to him but he never reached them. As the brothers approached the Horse Shoe bend, which is just on the Belfast City boundary, they noticed a pigeon loft close to the road, so decided to stop and ask for directions. The fancier they spoke to was R McAdam (father-in-law of the Glenavy ‘Ace’, Kirker Porter) a life-ling fancier of considerable repute. They informed him they were in search of good long distance stock but instead of directing them on into Belfast he advised them to turn the car around and head back to Crumlin, to the loft of Yarr Bros who, he said, had the best team of pigeons in Ireland. Ernie did not hesitate and told Billy Yarr how he had come to making this visit. After looking over the pigeons, Ernie had to agree, that they were a great team of pigeons. The out-come was that they acquired four late breds, two from Yarrs famous ‘Black Hen’ four times France and an outstanding breeder and two from his LBCH, winner of 12th Open Kings Cup. These birds are the foundation of the Ernie Shaw team. As well as the Yarr birds, a few were obtained from local fanciers, including an excellent pair from Tom McKinney which bred him an excellent racer.

Back to racing – 1967 was Ernie’s first season of his comeback and he raced Y/Birds through to Haverford. In this race the BCH bred from the Tom McKinney pair, was one of only four birds clocked into Cookstown on the day. Unfortunately Ernie had no clock for the first two races and had to travel 1.5 miles to the nearest one and but for this he would have won the Y/Bird Averages. In 1968, he took the yearlings along gradually but made the Y/Birds move, sending 9 to the Penzance Y/Bird National, 316 miles, clocking 5 and getting 8 on the day, the other one turning up a couple of days later. The McKinney hen which performed well from Haverford as a Y/Bird was prepared for France and sent to Dinard, which turned out to be an easy race. She was clocked at 4.37pm in such good condition that she was sent to Nantes a distance of 560 miles the next Friday to be clocked on the 3rd day, just out of the prizes. Next year, 1969, Ernie was top prize winner in the Cookstown Club, never out of the first six and runner-up for the O/Bird Average, Channel Average and Y/Bird Average. In the last two Y/Bird races he won 4th Open Penzance Y/Bird National (316 miles), only 25 birds on the day, and then ended by winning 1st Wexford just to show that the birds were really in form. The McKinney hen performed well again and after careful preparation she was clocked from Nantes, 2nd day at 12.05pm to win 53rd Open, only 99 in three days.

1970 was a great year with the O/Birds and he finished Runner-Up O/B and Channel Average also winning 5th Section, 8th Open NIPA Haverford with a Mealy cock, half-brother to the 4th Open Penzance bird. A full brother of the Penzance cock won 4th Okehampton and 6th Dinard as a yearling. Then came the greatest achievement of all, finishing 3rd Open INFC Nantes with 967 members sending 2,107 pigeons, Ernie timed a Blue Cheq two year old hen flying 560 miles at 9.40am on the 2nd day (772) with only 75 birds recorded in race time. The BCH has an impressive record to date flying all stages through to Penzance as a Y/Bird in 1968, 6th Dungarven, 4th Haverford and 5th Dinard as a yearling and earlier in 1970 she was 4th from Haverford and 3rd Okehampton, then to Nantes sitting 8 days. This hen not only races but looks well and actually won the Cookstown Open Show in December 1969 approx 200 birds. The Dam of his big winner “Shaw’s Special” is from Yarrs 12th Open Kings Cup Hen and the Sire is from Yarr’s Black Hen. I can add without hesitation that there is a par of French winning bloodlines in both pedigrees.

Methods – I have not yet mentioned the loft, about 32ft x 8ft and divided into 4 compartments, all of which are well ventilated. The success gained during the past few years has not induced Ernie to keep a large team of birds, only about 30. A good mixture is fed during the winter months and in the early part of the racing season but for the cross channel and National events the feed is beans and more beans. Ernie is of the belief that 99% of novices get carried away with “Eye-Sign” and don’t really know what to look for. They will often think that they have a good bird for breeding, simply because it has a full circle around the pupil, like a bicycle tyre but when examined the bird does not have a properly balanced body, a strong rounded back and good wing which are also very important. In other words, Ernie thinks all things must be equal. He believes that the best way to judge a team is to handle all the birds in the dark, switch on the light and examine the wing and then, last of all, the eye. He added that all the good Kings Cup and distance birds handled by him had good eyes but very different in colour and shading.

The wing – Ernie is a great believer in the wing theory and told me that whereas he has handled many long distance birds with vastly different eye colourings, nearly all of those birds had identical wings. Further to this, he adds that a 200-300 miler can have eyes identical to the 500-600 miler but their wings will be entirely different.

Advice to Novices - Buy four late breds from an up to date long distance family. Inbreed for 3 years and take the birds by the easy stages up to the 300 to 400 mile stage. If they are racing steady, obtain a good out cross that must be from a line bred family. Put the Y/Birds from the out cross back to the original stock birds and work on a family down through the 3 year breeding programme. Visit several long distance ‘aces’ and. If permitted to do so, examine their best birds, paying particular attention to the body and wing, particularly the latter, as there is a vast difference in those of the 300 mile and a 600 miler. He believes that if experienced fanciers would pass on more knowledge to novices the competition in the distance events would be much keener.

Greatest Thrill – Was on the Saturday night after he clocked ‘Shaw’s Special’ when his wife told him he was 3rd Open in the National but he was even more pleased when he heard that Billy McCluggage & Son had won the race. As an outcross he had introduced a Blue cock from this great fancier and the result had been most successful.