1st Open NIPA O/Bird Inland National Rosscarbery
National Success for ‘Birthday Girl’
The town of Banbridge in Northern Ireland has produced many National winners over years including a winner of the race I am about to report on, won in the 1990’s by Jim Carson & Daughter who happen to reside only a few hundred yards for this years successful winners that being Joe Smyth and sons David and Andrew who fly with the highly successful and competitive Drumnavaddy Invitation they have been confirmed as winners of the NIPA O/Bird Inland National Rosscarbery flown on Sunday 24th of May 2009.
Upon hearing the news, my father as Press Officer for the mighty NIPA made arrangements for him & I to visit Joe and sons David & Andrew to compile this report. I hope this year to bring you reports on all the National winners both with the NIPA and INFC as soon after the event as I possibly can.
It is roughly a 14 mile journey from my home in Lisburn to the Smyth semi detached family home situated in the Primrose Gardens area of the highly populated and vibrant town of Banbridge. Upon arrival I could see by the amount of activity at the house that confirmation of the National success had spread quickly and during my couple of hours at the Smyth Lofts many fellow fanciers were calling to congratulate what is a very highly regarded and admired partnership in Northern Ireland racing circles.
President of the NIPA Diamond Carson (L) pictured following verifying the National winner for Joe Smyth and son David of Drumnavaddy Inv.
How pleasing also it was to see the current NIPA President Diamond Carson at the loft to verify the winner now named ‘Birthday Girl’ and without delay David Smyth part of the award winning partnership and current Secretary of the Drumnavaddy Inv Club had the National winner in his hands and what a class pigeon she is for only being a yearling. The Cheq W/F Hen of a small to medium apple shaped frame was in superb condition and was timed on the day at 12.26pm flying 223 miles and this makes it her third Club success of 2009 to date having previously scored 1st Club, 23rd Section G Tullamore with 2,296 pigeons competing and 1st Club Clonmel (2) finishing 35th Section G against 2,735 pigeons. From the O/Bird Inland National as well as winning the Club, Section and Open with 907 members sending 7,602 pigeons she also collects a red card for topping the Bann Valley 2 Bird Club.
When firstly arriving at the family home I was met by Joe and son David and was informed when starting my questioning, that I would be better holding off until young Andrew Smyth returned from work as he was the ‘Pigeon Man’ and had all the details in regards to my questions on the tip off his tongue, I hadn’t long to wait and how right they were.
The National winning 'Birthday Girl' named after Joe Smyth who celebrated his 66th Birthday the day the pigeon was confirmed as the National winner.
The National winning hen ‘Birthday Girl’ was bred from a Frank Sheader Soontjen Cock coming down from the lines of the Doherty Cock/601 this super Stock Cock has bred quite a number of exceptional pigeons over the years going as far back as 2003 when he reared the partnership a pigeon to finish 2nd Section G finishing 6th Open Talbenny Y/B National. He has also bred a super racer for the partnership known as the ‘65’ Cock who was a winner of numerous prizes including 2 x1st’s this pigeon has in turn bred a few good pigeons including one to win from Fermoy this year. The Sheader Cock was mated to a Van Loon/Janssen hen bred from a pair of pigeons sourced from Mick McMurchie of Scotland and now would be a good time to mention that the loft timed a second yearling Cheq Hen that has finished 13th Open collecting £172 and she is bred direct from a couple of McMurchie pigeons.
Of course this is not the first success for the Smyth partnership consisting of Joe celebrating his 66th Birthday when I called and assisted by sons David 43 and 31year old Andrew between them they have only one combined answer to racing pigeons successfully ‘Hard Work’ and I would have to be perfectly honest and say shame on me for not covering this partnership long ago as their weekly results are awesome to say the least in all areas of competition and having visited and compiled reports on Ace lofts all over the country, what I encountered at the Smyth set-up was nothing like the picture I had fixed in my mind based upon their exceptional racing record going right back to when they first started to race in 1980. Outstanding performances worth a mention include winning the Y/Bird version of the Rosscarbery Inland National this was achieved in 2003 winning the race that day on a velocity of 1926ypm lifting the Herbie McVeigh Cup Herbie being a former President of the mighty NIPA. The pigeon timed that memorable day was the best of the Bertie Fletcher FVW pigeons and how fitting it is that they will be lifting the Bertie Fletcher & Son Cup for winning this O/Bird Inland National at the Annual Dinner due to be held as normal in November.
Other Open success’s for the Smyth team included 1st Open Arklow in 1996 with some 27,000 pigeons competing, the winner that day was once again a Fletcher FVW, also a 1st Open NIPA Tullamore in 2001 with a Louella Busschaert. When hearing about a few different families I enquired from Andrew what families were kept at stock, to which he said that they have a tendency to buy when the right pigeons became available regardless of strain, currently they have a nice collection of Jos Thones from Ian Stafford, Vandendebelle’s from Red Star Lofts, a nice collection of Soontjens from the Sheader Camp and of course the basis of the loft that being the FVW of Fletcher and these have been topped up with a few good ones from Clive Yates to make up the numbers. One of the more recent Stock success stories has to be the Van Loon/Janssen pigeons sourced from Mick McMurchie of Scotland; these whether kept on their own or crossed have proved an instrumental part of the current success story. There are no restraints on the number of stock pigeons kept as these are housed at David house in a number of spacious lofts.
'Homer' NIPA Press Officer pictured with Joe Smyth and sons David & Andrew following their National success from Rosscarbery.
Over recent seasons they have amassed a fantastic total of 6 x1st Section Success’s plus more second’s than space would permit me to list including runner-up in NIPA Open’s, they have come close on so many occasions just to be pipped on the winning line, this perhaps was the reason for Joe refusing to elaborate on the pigeons details to much on the phone with my father the night before his National success was confirmed, having had Open success taken away before when rumour was he had won. Fully understandable and how fitting it was that the National confirmation came through on the day that Joe was celebrating his 66th Birthday.
Joe before moving to the Princess Gardens area of Banbridge flew pigeons for a time in the Milltown Club with a varied amount of success, the biggest achievement gained during that time was the many legendary fanciers he came into contact with and the fast majority and remaining ones to this day remain good friends. As for flying one of the special ones that Joe recollected on was finishing 10th Open in Nantes in 1972 with a pigeon bred by good friend and incredible racer Jack Nummey of Milltown, Jack was very fortunate/unfortunate to come runner-up in the most prestigious race we compete for that being the Kings Cup just not once but twice. Will also when reminiscing on the past add in that one of the biggest achievements for Joe when moving to Princess Gardens was finishing 13th Open from Lerwick in 1985.
Getting back to the task in hand and that being the 2009 National success for Joe, David & Andrew, as previously mentioned above with scribing on a regular basis on the top fanciers and seeing a lot of similarities with the many lofts/systems I had envisaged that the Smyth lofts and system would be something similar, how wrong I was. No big amount of money spent here on top of the range feeding or more importantly supplements, little or none at all are used by the Smyth team. One rule they have for the pigeons and something the majority of us if it were possible would buy ‘Time’. Unlimited hours in the loft, is the order of the day, water changed twice per day and lofts cleaned twice per day.
The O/Bird team which number around the 40 mark are raced on Widowhood this being both cocks and hens with four Sections used to hold them, the cocks are Fed in their own boxes with the hens hopper fed. I ask Andrew if he noticed a difference between racing cocks and hens both on Widowhood he went on to explain that most weeks they send both with 50% so far this season the first pigeon to the loft was that of a hen. He does concede that there is far less work with the hens in comparison to the cocks with much the same level of success.
They are let out twice per day starting at 9.00am and 6.00pm and are trained separately with the hens flying for around 30mins without extra pushing, the cocks on the other hand when in form will fly for an hour, sometimes electing to light on the loft to take to the skies once again. Feeding is a combination of three widowhood mixes which are blended together and similar to other class fanciers the amount of this is very much dependant of the job in hand, wind conditions etc. They receive pigeon tea on return from racing with a light feed of depurative used for a number of feeds at the start of the week, the number of times this is fed is lessened as the distance increases, the depurative feeding is replaced with the mixed widowhood corn. Grit is available at all times and Red Minerals are added to the loft once or twice per week. The only other supplement used by the boys is Battles Tonic, previously they used Johnston’s Tonic but found the poultry one called ‘Battles’ was far more economical and results seem to suggest it is making a bigger impact.
Training commences around 3 to 4 weeks before the start of the season of course very dependant on the weather, the widowhood pigeons are paired around the Blackpool weekend and treated for everything during the early stages of pairing they will rear the 1st round which would have been replaced by the eggs from the stock lofts which are paired at the same time, one with a maximum of two rounds are all that is reared each year with the youngsters getting vaccinated when being moved. The widowhood pigeons would then lay up once again and subsequently separated after 10 days with the cocks continuing to sit out the eggs for as long as they want. Once they have all upped from nesting then the loft is cleared and the season has begun. As mentioned above training starts around 3 to 4 weeks before the first race and will continue even when racing starts and again the level of tossing is very much dependant on their work rate around the lofts and racing already competed in with respect to head or helping wind conditions. One question I opted to ask was in regard to the amount of yearlings raced, with Andrew admitting that he considers the yearling stage the best time to race both Cocks and Hens on Widowhood, firstly the cocks get wise after the yearling stage and secondly the hens aren’t as keen to mate to each other when yearlings. Also he shows the hens to the cocks sometimes during the training tosses mid-week just to keep their memories fresh.
The main racing loft to which the National winner was timed into.
The racing lofts are all of wooden structure with flat roofs with the main loft measuring some 30ft x 7ft with the centre of the loft used as a corn store, in all the family race the old birds to four sections and the youngsters to a couple of sections. They are raced on the Darkness system and this has been the case for the last 12years. The youngsters will be separated once they come of darkness which is around the 3rd of June normally to coincide with the Penzance O/Bird Classic. Training will commence shortly afterwards starting at 6 miles to which if coming well will see this liberation point on six occasions, they will then be upped a further 7 miles which is the North side of Dundalk, they will stay here for some time with up to four tosses per week, plus the freedom of the loft morning and night. Feeding is something similar to the Widowhood pigeons, a total of three good Y/Bird mixtures combined. They will have this in the evening with Total Diet fed in the mornings after exercise. Cider Vinegar is added to the diet once per week and the Battles Tonic twice per week. Also when the youngsters are separated both Sections are allowed to come together on a Friday before basketing for a race. This they have found to give just one extra bit of that cutting edge. I did enquire if they used pick stones or any other tit bit, pick stones have no hard and fast rule with none being used in the racing lofts as yet in 2009, peanuts are used daily and these are hand chopped by the lady of the house. No fancy systems and no fancy products or supplements just solid hours of companionship in the loft daily with the scraper never to far away, like wise with the drinkers, kept clean at all times.
The following are some NIPA Section G and Open results achieved by the loft since 2007.
O/Birds 2007
Tullamore – 4th & 15 Section G 114/2,347 finishing 10th & 57th Open NIPA 1,192 members sent 25,350 pigeons; Velocity 2096.
Roscrea – 4th, 5th & 24th Section G NIPA 125 members sent 2,905 pigeons; Velocity 1340.
Clonmel – 1st & 20th Section G NIPA 126/3,033 finishing 44th Open NIPA 1,277 members sent 28,928 pigeons; Velocity 1737.
Rosscarbery O/B Inland National – 21st, 24th, 28th & 35th Section G NIPA finishing 120th, 132nd, 165th & 204th Open 860 Members sent 6,762 pigeons; Velocity 1665.
Roscrea (2) – 2nd, 6th & 11th Section G NIPA 61/735 finishing 2nd, 7th & 12th Open NIPA 529 Members sent 5,920 pigeons; Velocity 1397.
Mallow 5 Bird – 6th & 19th Section G NIPA 51/227 finishing 11th & 95th Open NIPA 534 members sending 2,272 pigeons; Velocity 1343.
Y/Birds 2007
Roscrea – 32nd Section G NIPA 105/2,806 finishing 104th Open NIPA 1,061 members sending 26,474 pigeons; Velocity 1639.
Clonmel – 29th Section G NIPA 91 Members Sent 2,556 Pigeons; Velocity 1217.
Pilmore Beach – 34th Section G NIPA 88/2,047 finishing 161st Open NIPA 846 members sending 16,880 pigeons; Velocity 1472.
Fermoy – 5th & 33rd Section G NIPA 70/1,120 finishing 25th Open NIPA 715 members sent 11,440 pigeons; Velocity 1264.
Fermoy 5 Bird – 2nd Section G NIPA finishing 6th Open NIPA 327 members sent 1,369 pigeons; Velocity 1264.
Rosscarbery Y/Bird Inland National – 9th Section G NIPA 42/343 finishing 40th Open NIPA 536 members sending 4,143 pigeons; Velocity 1802.
O/Birds 2008
Roscrea – 15th, 34th & 35th Section G NIPA 108/2,329 finishing 75th & 165th Open NIPA 1,184 members sending 23,557 pigeons; Velocity 1766.
Clonmel – 2nd Section G NIPA 108/2,618 finishing 5th Open NIPA 1,191 members sent 26,149 pigeons; Velocity 1890;
Pilmore Beach – 25th & 40th Section G NIPA 119/2,889 finishing 75th & 124th Open NIPA 1,232 members sent 27,039 pigeons; Velocity 1386.
Rosscarbery O/Bird Inland National – 15th & 19th Section G NIPA 94/808 finishing 211th & 222nd Open NIPA 797 members sent 6900 pigeons; Velocity 1478.
Pilmore Beach (2) – 19th & 20th Section G NIPA 114/2,305 finishing 154th & 158th Open NIPA 1,168 members sent 21,745 pigeons; Velocity 1157.
Fermoy – 6th, 13th, 20th, 21st & 22nd Section G NIPA 56/649 finishing 30th, 90th, 128th, 131st & 138th Open NIPA 475 members sending 5,657 pigeons; Velocity 1510.
Mallow 5 Bird – 3rd, 5th & 9th Section G NIPA finishing 6th, 15th & 35th Open NIPA 561 members sending 2,411 pigeons; Velocity 1465.
INFC Yearling National – 128th Open 829 members sent 4,173 pigeons; Velocity 828.
Y/Birds 2008
Tullamore – 6th Section G NIPA finishing 6th Open NIPA 296 members sending 7,998 pigeons; Velocity 1592.
Roscrea – 25th & 28th Section G NIPA finishing 63rd & 67th Open NIPA 1,043 members sending 26,568 pigeons; Velocity 1445.
Fermoy – 28th Section G NIPA 46/932 finishing 67th Open NIPA 677 members sent 11,099 pigeons; Velocity 1256.
Rosscarbery Y/Bird Inland National – 66th, 78th, 109th & 123rd Open NIPA 535 members sent 4,329 pigeons; Velocity 1296.
INFC Skibbereen Y/B National – 139th, 187th, 196th & 199th Open winning Velocity 1498.
O/Bird 2009
Tullamore (2) – 23rd Section G NIPA 103 members sent 2,296 pigeons; Velocity 1359.
Roscrea – 9th & 24th Section G NIPA 115/2,793 finishing 130th Open NIPA 1,223 members sending 27,770 pigeons; Velocity 1793.
Clonmel (1) – 4th, 15th, 16th, 29th & 30th Section G NIPA 120/3,246 finishing 7th, 42nd, 44th, 103rd & 108th Open NIPA 1250 members sent 30,201 pigeons; Velocity 1793.
Clonmel (2) 35th & 44th Section G NIPA 110 members sent 2,735 pigeons.
Rosscarbery O/Bird Inland National – 1st & 2nd Section G 94/858 finishing 1st & 13th Open NIPA 907 members sending 7,602 pigeons; Velocity 1899.
I will close by wishing Joe, David & Andrew all the best for the rest of the 2009 seasons and thank them for a very enjoyable afternoon's company. A class act of a partnership that are likely to continue at the top of the summit for many more years to come. Well done gents on winning yet another National.
Adie McCormick
18 Tonagh Gardens
Lisburn, Co.Antrim
N.Ireland. BT28 1BX