Firstly before starting this small loft profile, due to my many work committmenets which are increasing by the day would all fanciers be kind enough to direct all correspondance with regards myself and Ireland's Own Pigeon Auctions and http://www.pigeonnetwork.com to my father "Homer" (Willie Reynolds) on Tel: (028) 256 44683 or E-mail: reynoldshomer@aol.com . Willie has agreed due to my increasing work load, that he will look after all of my affiars with regards pigeon related topics and the day to day running of Ireland's Own Pigeon Auctions and the website for the immediate future due to my many ongoing and future work commitments.
Robert Gore recently celebrated his 40th Birthday in the company of many including his wife Lynn and children Lauren & Harvey but for his 62 year old father Ashley this also was a mile stone for he was enjoying the exact same length of time involved with the sport of racing pigeons having joined the Ulster Federation affiliated Lagan Valley RPC in 1969 when at that time the Club operated from the rear of Lavery’s Public House in the town of Lisburn, Co.Antrim, N.Ireland.
Since then Ashley racing along with son Robert have enjoyed varying levels of success, with a more concerted effort implemented over the more recent years, with a more vigorous and a no nonsense attitude when selecting and purchasing new stock the name of the game.
The latest slice of success for the Gore Loft was enjoyed during the Y/Bird campaign in 2009 from Talbenny in South Wales flying with the Ulster Federation in what was the organisations cross channel Y/Bird Derby. The father and son team timed a Blue Pencil Cock who was driving his hen to the nest upon basketing for the Blue Riband event. With an 8am liberation into a westerly wind and this the first Y/Bird Cross Channel event of the season many new the birds where in for a stiff race, sadly not many predicted just how difficult a race it actually turned out to be with some where in the region of 35% returning from a mass liberation of 5,000 made up from the NIPA, Ulster Federation, East Coast Federation Etc. The Derby winning Cock for the Gore Loft has now been named Spike and he recorded a winning velocity of 1199ypm, with only a handful of pigeons recorded into Ireland on the day on a higher velocity.
The winning pigeon was bred down from a pair gifted to Robert from very good friend and fellow Club Mate Ian Gibb of the mighty Gibb & Byrne Stud who own some of the most outstanding breeding families from many of the European Elite as well as of course owning probably the most expansive collection of Soontjen pigeons around today. Robert and Ian have been good friends now for a number of years and Robert would like to thank Ian & Henry of the Gibb & Byrne Stud for gifting him some exceptional pigeons in those years of friendship.
The winning cock who was timed at 12.44pm flying 194 miles was bred down from a pair of exceptional breeders sourced by the Gibb & Byrne team from Marijke Vink of Holland the Dam being a 2 year old Blue Tic Hen and the Sire a Cheq Cock once again of 2007 breeding. The Dam of the Talbenny Derby Winner for R & A Gore is pictured in the 1st Edition of the Gibb & Byrne Stud Catalogue, something I knew right away when handling her she has a very distinctive eye, this family of pigeons have proved very successful for the Gibb & Byrne team and this success is only one in a number reported to the partnership in 2009. They invest large sums in enquiring the most up-to-date winning families around the UK and Europe and the 2nd Edition of their Stud Catalogue is of to the printers and will be ready very soon, with once again excellent photography carried out by Martin Kwakernaat of Holland.
It gives me a sense of pleasure reporting on Robert & Ashley Gore of the Lagan Valley RPC a Club only around the corner from myself and one I have had the honour of covering in the fancy press now for a number of years since moving to Lisburn, in fact my own non flying loft over-looks that of the Gore set-up, so I have a good view of their birds both training and racing. The Lagan Valley Club boasts some of the top flyers in the Ulster Federation and a number of them I have already covered over the years which makes this profile on the Gore’s that extra bit special for this is the first time that I have expanded into their operation.
Ashley the senior partner in the operation is married to Mildred and as well as being father to Robert also is father to daughter Tracey who lives right across the road. Robert is a full time father himself with two young children and also holds down a full time job with Corus Steel. So a lot of the day to day work is left in the capable hands of dad Ashley who looks after the cleaning and training systems put in place by Robert, through obviously years of trial and era and of course good advice from a number of good fanciers and friends over the years.
The Father and Son team race to a superb set up named ‘Tonagh Lofts’ which are situated in Ashley’s back garden in the Tonagh housing estate in the City of Lisburn. The lofts are of wooden structure measuring in total some 48ft by 6ft in an L shape. The roof is sloped, somewhat rising to a pitch around 2ft from the frontage of the loft, and with the extended height in the roof this allows for a controlled air flow throughout the sections within the lofts with louvers installed at the bottom of each section allowing for the air to enter and escape from south to north. The lofts themselves are kept immaculate and Ashley must be praised for this, going by my time knowing Robert he would be hard to listen to if things weren’t adhered to. Before going on Robert also couldn’t praise his mother Mildred enough for her help and dedication around the loft, and as many fanciers will know when you have a lady around the pigeons it just seems to give them that extra buzz.
As mentioned at the start of the report the father and son team have started to invest money and time and also have implemented a strict system over recent seasons after as Robert says being used to always being at the bottom of the result each week. This has obviously started to pay dividends for the boys for they have not been out of the top four in the Club as far as top prize winner goes for the last five years, which is a hell of an achievement when you consider that the Lagan Valley RPC is regarded as one of the toughest Clubs to win within the Ulster Federation.
Many top pigeons have been raced over recent times and one that struck a cord with Robert was a 2003 Blue Hen of Soontjen breeding a specialist from Penzance she finished 1st Club 2nd Ulster Federation in 2008 and the year previous 2nd club 8th Ulster Fed from the same race point just to name a couple of the cross channel performances which were many. This year they also have the O/Bird of the Year in the Lagan Valley RPC “Mr Consistent” who has a rather substantial racing record, including a 2nd from Skibbereen and a 3rd from Thurles in 2009, he is from the Van Leen Putten strain from pigeons sourced from P Martin of Belfast.
Stock is very limited with no more than 8 pair of breeders at stock consisting of Soontjens from Gibb & Byrne, Van Leen Puttens from P Martin and Hartogs from another fellow Club Mate in Pat McConville, like this year has proved they take in an odd gift pair to try and as this year proved works from time to time.
The O/Birds which number around 30 are raced on the widowhood system and like many other successful lofts are paired together after the Blackpool weekend rearing one round of youngsters and then the hens are removed around the 10 day mark of sitting the next round of eggs. For the Gores then the Widowhood has started, they will then have the freedom of the skies daily around the loft until ranging well, this being their first experiences outside of the loft since the completion of racing the previous year the boys opting not to let the birds out over winter, when ranging well the O/Birds will get a wake up call of a toss from a 5 mile regular tossing point before being bounced onto their cemented 20 mile and routine tossing point, when all is well, they will get this everyday with the exception of a Monday. The hens are kept in the section next door to the widowhood cocks are let into each other prior to basketing for 5 – 10 minutes the length of time deeply depends on the forecast reference wind condition for the task at hand the following day. Robert admits with the widowhood system especially the one in practice within his loft leaves a lot of the hen’s untried so next season (Lagan Valley BE WARE) he is for opting to change to the roundabout system and over recent days I have been informed that changes are being made to the lofts !!!!
I went on to ask about the feeding, once again this is all sourced from Ian Gibb who owns Gibb Feeding in Lisburn and agent for a number of top brands, Robert and Ashley feed as follows Byers No 43, Van Robey No 12 and Bamfords Moulting mixture, I did enquire about the break down, but the look said it all from Robert. As he said to me there are many different sizes in spoons. (Enough Said). Going onto supplements, you always get an odd clearing of the throat when entering this subject, but not for the Gore’s simple he says, Byers tea on Monday and Tuesday, with Vitapro from Syndicate Lofts in the water on Wednesday, Thursday no late than 12 Noon on a Friday. It also must be noted that the birds are fed also on a Friday including the youngsters with Robert admitting he is feeding for the future and not for today. Within the loft you have neither pick stones nor minerals just fresh grit available at all times. On return from a race they will get Belgasol from De Weerd in the water again sourced from Ian Gibb, this would then be followed the next day with either a treatment for Cocci, Respiratory, or Canker, with the lofts burnt after every treatment.
The Y/Bird’s are raced on the darkness system and number around the forty mark, no big team here. They are weaned over to the darkness on Maple peas with the shut of from introduction being the 23rd of March, then they will enter a programme which will see the loft opened to light from 8.45AM until 4.45PM daily. They will then be brought of the darkness on the longest day re. 21st of June, but this year due to circumstances this was changed until 10th of June. The feeding is as the O/Bird Widowers twice per day including a feed on a Friday, they will be vaccinated on leaving the nest. I went on as I do to enquire about Y/Bird sickness, and credit where it is due Robert said they experienced it last year for the first and confined all pigeons to the aviaries. They were kept here until feeding time, and as well as treatments from their feed Supplier Ian Gibb, they also are watched when letting the birds from the aviaries enter to the loft for feeding the ones that went straight to the drinker rather than the feeder are removed without delay. This worked for the father and son team and with the introduction of over 20 youngsters as gifts from the Gibb & Byrne team the Gore’s enjoyed another excellent season, a true example of what the sport of pigeon racing and friendship is all about.
The Y/Bird team when coming of the Darkness system are allowed the freedom of the skies around the loft until they are batching and ranging well, they will only after this, begin the process of training and this will consist of four or five tosses from a distance of 5 miles and once satisfactorily over this it will then increase until 15 miles before ending up at the usual 20 mile and regular drop off point. These will be carried out by Robert and Ashley, once the birds have cemented this within the education programme will the mixing up of a transporter be added to the regime and this year the services of Andy Milliken was used with a daily load of 1,200 heading in the same direction the order of the day this was to be the making of the Gore Y/Bird team of course adding into that a couple of difficult tosses which Robert states will always sort the good ones from the followers on. The feeding and supplements are exactly the same for the Y/Birds and they are of the that in reference to the widowers for extra motivation for the Y/Bird they are separated after the third race and given the freedom of the loft together as the Y/Bird season approaches the Derby and National events.
I will pen off by firstly congratulation my good neighbours Ashley and Robert on their Derby winning success with ‘Spike’ and I wish them many more enjoyable years in the sport of pigeon racing and to finish one of the last questions I asked Robert before leaving as to who he admired most in this very competitive sport of ours, simple he said the man who works full time and races the pigeons on his own.
Adie McCormick
Ireland’s Own Pigeon Auctions
http://www.pigeonnetwork.com
email celestiallofts@aol.com
Tel: (028) 92 604778.
‘Spike’ The Ulster Federation YB Derby winner for R & A Gore of the Lagan Valley RPC in Lisburn.
Robert Gore (l) with the NIPA Section D Famcier of the Year in 2009, Jeff Greenaway of Dromore.
Robert Gore in the loft observing the widowhood cocks following his win from Talbenny in South Wales.