A history of the Championship might be of interest to a few people. The cup was presented by the late William Erwin, a household name in pigeon circles, for what he thought would be the biggest achievement in pigeon racing, the best average in all the National races. There are some of the all time greats of Irish pigeon racing engraved on the W. Irwin cup. First won in 1968 by Kirker Porter who was third in that year's King cup from Nantes behind the famous "Moonlight Mannequin" of Billy Erwin's and T. Perry, Lisburn with only three day birds. The following year when Nelson Corry won the Kings Cup, Billy Erwin himself won the Championship. In 1970 Kirkwood Bros won the first of three championships, the joint record, the other years being 1986 and 1995. The only other loft to win three times is Ron Williamson in 1996, 2005 and 2010. In 1971 Sam Bell was the first loft to do the double, Kings Cup and Championship, only three other lofts have achieved this feat, double Kings cup winners McDowell Bros in 1973,Connor Bros 1978 and Jackie Crossan 1985, Jackie was one of only two lofts to win on the North road, the other being Alan Darragh 1984. Other winners were Kennedy & Swail 1972, A. McCartney 1975, J. Wright 1976, T. Beckett & Son 1977, Russell Bros 1979, W. Lambe & Son 1980, Mr & Mrs Magill 1988, T. Marshall & Son 1989, Smyth Bros 1991,W&L McCaw (the longest flyers to win) 1993, J. Patterson 1994, Mr & Mrs Suitters 1998, W. McClelland 1999, P. McCullough & Dtr 2006 and M.Maguire & Son2009.
The only other double winner, and the only winner from the South section, was J.Doheny, 1981 and 1987. Of the forty four years since the trophy started it was not won eleven times either through cancelled races or no loft timing in all races.
Everything has to go your way to win the Championship, no slip ups are permitted as there is always going to be some loft which does not slip up. The Championship consists of six races, two short inland races Skibbereen old bird and Skibbereen young bird, two middle distance races Yearling from Sennen Cove and Penzance Young Bird although this is long for young birds and two long distance, King's cup from Plaudren Vannes, Friendship from Quimper, the first in May and the last mid September, so it takes a lot of hard work for the whole season. The two short races are a problem for us as we only have three or four sprint pigeons, so we just try and keep as close as we can to the leaders in these two races and hope our birds can get us ahead in the other four races, which luckily they have this last two years.
Racing pigeons with us is all about planning and preparation, we do not have an off season in our loft, there is no starting point and no end, everything just runs through to the next year and keeps going. I read somewhere that the great George Busschaert said that you could not go back far enough in the management of your loft to find a day which was unimportant. We do the same things in the management of the loft almost to the day and have been doing this for a long time. We might tweak a few things here and there from time to time but there are never any major changes. We have not had too bad a record since we started in 1973 but the performances have really taken off over the last 3 seasons and we put this down to the feeding, supplements and oils which we get from Frazers of Banbridge, Neil has been a great help to us in selecting the right products for the job we want and their range of mixtures are superb. At the moment we seem to have got the medication not too far away but it is something we keep an eye on. In the 38 years we have kept pigeons we have never had them tested by a vet, we think being farmers and used to keeping livestock gives us an advantage in this department. We have been racing the same family of birds since we started, these being a blend of Delbars via Russell Bros from Jim Moreland Dromore, John McMullan, Carnlough plus Delmotte and Jurion pigeons from George Casement, South Belfast. These three families of birds were each based on fantastic birds which proved their worth on the journey from France to Ireland time after time, birds such as Moreland's pied cock and the blue cock, house hold names in Dromore in the sixties, George Casement's "Top of the Box" a legend into Belfast and a string of top performers into Carnlough for John McMullan. We consider it an honour to be able to continue the line of these birds and hopefully to continue on were these men had left off. The main reason for racing them is to find the birds which we can put into the stock loft to continue the strain into the future. Along with giving us some great birds to start with George Casement gave us one very good bit of advice 'make your own pigeons' and we have been doing this ever since. Although we don't like losing birds we know we have to so that we can find the champions we are looking for to continue the family. Our aim all the time is just to be consistently as close as possible to the winners, if we win a national along the way it is a bonus. We probably send our birds a bit on the heavy side which maybe hinders us from winning but the plus side of this is that they keep coming home, sometimes, if they make a mistake it can be days and weeks after the race. In 2006 we had a blue white flight cock return after being away for nine years, he flew straight through the doors to the same box he was sent from.
Our birds had a great moult in 2011 so we were confident they would put up a good show in 2012, although you can never be sure. The first National is inland from Skibbereen 237 miles to us, we sent 20, the Irish National Flying Club is the only National organisation which has a limit (20 birds). Our timer was a cheq pied yearling hen sent just hatched, she finished 51st North Section and was not too far off the winners which is all we are looking for in this race. This hen was 55th North Section 185th Open Skibbereen young bird National in 2011 and also won a Gold Medal with the N.I.P.A. from the yearling Rosscarberry this year too. Her dam helped win The Championship in 2011 by being our first bird in this race, her and the cock she was paired to that bred this hen were brought in from Brandon and Culshaw, Rochdale to help improve our results in these inland races and are Soojten/Janseen.
The second National is the Yearling race from Sennen Cove 300 miles, and, as with most races this year, the weather was not perfect but our birds did well. Again we sent 20 and our timer was a small chequer hen sent sitting 16 days, this hen was hand reared along with her nest mate by my son Andrew from the age of ten days. They would patiently sit on the back of the summer seat waiting to be fed and where very tame although they are not quite as tame now. This hen finished 68th North Section, 108th Open she was also 162nd Open Penzance young bird National last year so fingers crossed she will be going for a Triple Crown next year, incidentally her nest mate was 58th Open Penzance young bird National last year too and returned injured just out of the prizes in the Yearling National this year. Their sire was 101st in the Kings Cup last year and their dam flew the King's Cup the last two years, their aunt was 61st King's Cup last year as well.
It was the big one next, the King's Cup flown from Plaudren Vannes 480 mile to us, and again we sent 20. The bad weather theme of the year continued on, the race was flown in a stiff head wind with only 72 birds being recorded in three days and only ten on the first day. Thankfully our birds performed well again, although with the bad weather and the cold, damp summer it was very difficult to get birds into top form. We timed our three year old blue cock named "Rocky" at 8.49 flying almost fifteen hours, he finished 5th Open and won £2365 bringing his career winnings to over £3000. This cock was 8th Open last year and helped the loft win six I.N.F.C. trophies, this year he is involved in winning four more plus a merit award on his own. He was also 71st in the Yearling National two years ago, although we have had two other birds to be twice in the top ten in the Kings Cup we consider this cock to be the best bird we have owned to date. The reason for saying this is that he has never ever returned from any race tired, and he always goes out the next morning and will fly for an hour plus. In fact we thought so much of him as a yearling we put two sons off him into the stock loft. He was sent as usual on a one day young bird, we timed three other birds the fourth bird "Big Darren" winning a Gold Medal, awarded for being in the prizes in the Kings Cup four times. To be truthful this was our main aim for the season as we had never won a gold medal before, the closest we came was in 1996 the year we won the Kings Cup when we lost a chequer cock going for one. "Darren" is a very gutsy pigeon as he returned last year to win his Hall of Fame injured by a B.O.P. and the same thing happened this year, but he has great powers of recovery. As stated in previous articles the breeding and future of our family of birds always takes preference over the racing side, with this in mind we will be retiring both "Rocky" and "Darren" to the stock loft, "Darren" has bred 18th Open Friendship National 2011 and our third bird this year which was 30th Open. "Rocky" is the already the grandsire of two of our Penzance young bird National prize winners. Both "Rocky" and "Big Darren" are the fifth generation of our family of birds, his grand-sire "Drumiller Hill Lad" won the King's Cup, his great grandmother flew France five times and his great great grandmother flew France twice and was 66th Open Les Sables 577 miles, in fact Big Darren's son was 30th Open this year as well.
The next race was the Friendship National from Quimper 450 miles where we sent 13 birds. The way the weather situation panned out meant that this race was flown the day after the King's Cup and another hard race was to follow. Only seven birds were timed on the day but next morning we had two very early arrivals timing at 5.55 and 5.58. The first was a 3 year old grizzle hen called "Fiona" sent on a one day young bird although this hen is an unusual colour for us she carries a lot of our own blood. Her sire was a grizzle cock gifted to us by Mr & Mrs Stevenson, this bird had some of our own blood in him and went on to win several races for us, he was paired to a daughter of "Annie Mary" 4th & 8th Open Kings Cup for us to breed the grizzle hen. The grizzle hen was 2nd club Penzance as a yearling beaten by a loft mate and in her last toss in preparation for last year's King's Cup broke both her legs. She was prepared for the King's Cup this year again but was rerouted to this race at the last minute as it suited her nest condition better. Two other birds were timed in the open result Andrew's favourite hen, which was 51st last year was 75th and wins a merit award and "Stormin' Norman" who was 3rd open last year was 95th and also wins a merit award.
It was now the turn of the young birds and they did not let us down. We normally have 40 to 45 young birds on the darkness, we find that with the 20 bird limit this all you need, there are another 50 natural young birds which are well trained. They might have a race or they might not as was the case this year we don't mind, as with the old birds they are trained on John Aberneathy's trailer with up to 1000 birds from 80 miles. The first National for the young birds is from Penzance 300 miles to us and it is a very stiff test for a young bird, we sent 20 timed 8 on the day and had 6 in the National result, 27th, 35th, 62nd, 75th, 119th and 126th Open. Our first bird was a small chequer hen sent sitting 16 days, gifted to us by Sid Collins. Sid was watching at our lofts last year for the Penzance young bird National and wanted to have some of his own to watch for this year, the bird did the business but Sid messed up and wasn't home in time from his holidays to see her coming home.
The last National was from Skibbereen, we sent 16 darkies and 4 natural young birds. We timed a small chequer hen, a daughter of the hen we timed in the first National but didn't make the section result , this race is the first time we have not made the prizes in a National in three years of racing, 18 races. In 2010 we won 12 national prizes, in 2011, 20 prizes and this year another 20 prizes. With about two hours in hand we managed to win the championship again. For us winning the I.N.F.C. championship is the tops as we are competing against the best lofts in the whole of Ireland. Our list of INFC awards now reads 1 Gold Medal, 2 National Championships, 3 Hall of Fames, 4 Harkness Rose bowls, 5 Merit Awards and 16 times in the top ten of the King's Cup.
The Black Family with trophies won in 2012.
Rocky Merit Award winner. 71st Ylr Nat 2010, 8th KC Vannes 2011, 5th KC Vannes 2012.
Bred & Raced by N Black & Sons.
Big Darren Gold Medal winner. 241st Open 2009, 153rd Open 2010, 200th Open 2011, 52nd Open 2012.
Lucky 108th Open INFC Sennen Cove Yearling Nat.
Fiona 13th Open INFC Quimper Friendship National.
Andrew, David and Alan holding 109th Ylr Nat, 5th Open Kings Cup and 13th Open Friendship Nat.