National Treasures - Marley Westrop

Patron :- Her Majesty The Queen - Founded in 1898 - PO Drew Callan brings the Pigeonnetwork Forum members all the latest news and race reports for the above prestiage organisation.
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willie reynolds
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Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2008 4:44 pm

National Treasures - Marley Westrop

Post by willie reynolds »

National Treasures- Marley Westrop.

This is the first in what I hope to be a series of loft reports on fanciers who have been members of the NFC over a period of time and who have consistently been putting birds in the clock from 500 miles plus during that time. It might be that these fanciers have been over looked because they will not have won a national but on reflection when you look at the performances they have put up and consider these against the backdrop of such factors as loft location, the distances they fly or the small size of the teams they compete with then we can come to view their lofts as little treasure troves of top flight performance birds.

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The legend and hero of mine, Mr Marley Westrop

The first loft I have chosen has been a household name for 5 decades now and in fact I had a picture of his most famous pigeon on my loft wall for years when I was a teenager. This fancier was a menace on the north road through to Lerwick with the NRCC before permanently turning south. The fancier in question is Marley Westrop who lives just outside Sandy in rural Bedfordshire. He is probably best known for the performances of the little black cock who carried the ring number GB83X03693, but is better known as The Rome Cock, this little gladiator flew north road for all of his racing life and was successful right through to The Faroe Isles a distance of 733 miles and only competed from one race on the South Road, mind you that race was from Rome, a distance of 916 miles. This dual performance from these two race points was enough to earn his the accolade of being in The Guinness Book of Records. The Rome performance is all the more credible when you bear in mind that at the time Marley was a dyed in the wool north road man, but he had no fear in lifting the bird in to the south road marathon event as he feels that a good bird will be able to handle being swapped about as they have excellent orientation ability…not something for the faint hearted but The Rome Cock certainly repaid his faith in him. This was a common practice of Marley’s and it highlights the quality of the stock as much as it does the faith of the man and he has repeatedly lifted birds in to long distance classic races on the south road with exceptional results including winning the Section in the BBC 4 times from the distance race points and a cupboard full of diplomas that reflect top drawer success in The National Flying club especially from Pau and more recently from Tarbes. To highlight the confidence Marley has in the ability of his birds let’s consider the bird that won the section from Palamos…this bird was a successful north roader who was selected and prepared for Palamos- a distance of 725 miles – by getting tossed from Yarmouth…which is 85 miles north east of the loft!!. This is most definitely unorthodox preparation but when you have unwavering faith in your bird then it shouldn’t matter where you train or race from. Marley also used the services of a truck driver who used to collect the fresh vegetables from his 70 acre small holding to be delivered elsewhere. He made a small one bird box with a hinged front that would hold one of his south road national candidates and during the season whenever the driver was due Marley would leave the box and pigeon for the driver to take and liberate when he reached the delivery point….to this day Marley isn’t exactly sure where the birds ever went to on these training chucks. When his club turned south it presented him with a more regular opportunity to train the birds on a more direct line, and training is what it was as he does not get a clock set for old bird inland racing but just sends them to get them toned and fit for the big ones. This change in direction has done him no harm and he has topped section H twice in recent years from Tarbes with The National Flying Club and is always in the shakeup especially if the race becomes a grinder.

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Typical examples of the long distance Marley strain.

The birds responsible for these feats of distance flying have in the main been moulded over the past 52 years with selection taking place purely via the basket and as with many successful small team distance lofts the top racers become the top stock birds. The basis of the birds goes back to 2 pairs of blacks that were obtained via a seed merchant who Marley used to buy his potato and other vegetable seeds off. They came from an old fancier in Essex who was also a client of the seed merchant; Marley never knew this old fanciers name but does remember that the birds were Harrison Logan’s. These quickly proved their worth and as the Marley bred around these and the emerging successful children he began to produce a family of reliable, hard day distance birds. Over the years he has brought in a few families to race against them and to hopefully be put in as a cross as his were quickly inbred due to the narrow bloodline base that he started with. Only a few survived the racing and selection with one of the most successful being the Krauth birds that have been incorporated in to the existing performance blood. Coming bang up to date he is currently trying a few Brian Denney birds which he has acquired from his good friend and National Flyer Pete Oliver from Bruntingthorpe. If these are still around in a couple of years then they will make in to the family. The current team are peas in a pod and mainly dark velvets with the occasional whiter flight and grizzle and all have exceptional feather quality. They are solid little birds, being on the right size of medium and fight for their boxes like little terriers.

Marley actually started in pigeons as a 13 year old boy in partnership with his 14 year old brother. His brother had started work and this allowed them to buy best quality maple peas to breed and race their birds on. History does not record the success of this early venture but it was halted when Marley was called up for national service and when he came out of the army in 1946 he started back up. He developed a good team based on the Fuller Issacson’s that were beginning to put him on the map but these were in time replaced completely by the Harrison Logan’s that were quickly emerging as a very good investment. The original 2 pairs cost Marley a total of £8.00 which was at the time almost the total savings he had, but it is evident that the intuitive stock sense that was to serve him well over the next 50 years was to the fore when he selected these birds.

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The young bird loft ready for the 2013 team.

Now here’s the thing that really grabbed me when I did the loft visit…all this racing is done to a 17 foot long loft that is constructed from old doors and has a box tin roof, which underlines that it’s what is in the loft that counts. That is the sum total of loft space that is available for the old bird team which this year consists of 14 pairs and 4 spare cocks. This is in fact the biggest loft he has ever had as before he relocated here after retiring from his small holding his loft only measured 14 foot. Marley will breed his young bird team from the very best of these and after a severe selection process that starts at the egg stage a small team of y/birds will be transferred to the 6x4 young bird loft which is the ideal size to allow Marley, who is 92 non the 14TH of March, to manage and catch the team. The young birds are never at risk of overcrowding as last year he only had a team of 14 which is the norm. This team is then trained well and entered in to competition in his strong 30 member club who compete in the strong Inter Counties Federation programme that takes them along the south coast and gives a good schooling for the demands asked of them later in life.

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The total extent of the old bird racing loft.

Once the old birds have reared they are split up and raced celibate to 2 sections. If hens pair to each other then Marley will use this to his advantage and in fact the grizzle hen that won the section from Tarbes had been paired to another hen and they had been sitting for a month and on the night before basketing he slipped an 8 day old youngster under her and then sent her off to the race. She rewarded his faith and observations by racing home to top the section and finish in the top 100 of the open. Marley is a big believer in the value of barley and when racing the birds are on 100% barley from Sunday until Wednesday and then they are fed increasing amounts of a good racing mix to lift them for the race at the weekend. As the distance increases the racing mix is introduced slightly earlier and the birds have a few more beans added as well as Marley is still very much ‘old school’ when it comes to the value of beans as a component of the distance pigeons diet. Believe me the birds clearly thrive on this approach and in fact the Tarbes birds go back a month later to compete from Bordeaux with the BBC, so his birds get 2 long distance races back to back so its survival of the fittest. He is not too worried about the amount of barley in their diet as he is of the belief it helps keep them calm and ticking over and allows the fancier to put the right amount of fuel in their tank for the job at hand, and he also feels that during the days spent in the race pannier they are getting fed top quality corn that will help their condition as well. He is a big fan of keeping the birds in tip top health all year round and uses his experience and knowledge with livestock and wildlife to help him achieve this and he uses natural products such as cider vinegar to achieve this.

Visiting Marley was a real eye opener, I have followed his results from the time I had the Rome Cock as a pin up in my loft and I was really looking forward to meeting on of my heroes. I was most definitely not disappointed and when you see the strength of depth in terms of quality you realise why he remains successful. Another top national flyer who accompanied me on the trip pointed out that Marley makes distance racing seem easy, which is true. But I feel that this is only because you have successive generations of top performers such as Supergirl, The Thurso Hen and of course The Rome Cock who have all left their mark on the present inmates. More importantly they are managed by a fancier out of the top drawer who has ultimate faith in the birds because he has constantly tested them against the best and at times against the odds, all this is underpinned by the belief that a good pigeon got in the right condition will get back from anywhere. Food for thought.

Right, that’s it from me.. if you have fanciers in your area who you think are undiscovered national treasures please pick up the phone and let me know. Or if you are the shy retiring type who doesn’t like talking to people (an uncommon trait in pigeon men I would have thought) then just email me. As always my phone number is 01926 817796 or email:weebu@hotmail.com

Drew Callan PO The National Flying Club.
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