So near, but yet so far!
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:28 pm
IRISH ARCHIVES
By Adie McCormick
http://www.pigeonnetwork.com
So near, but yet so far!
Like any sport, in any year you will always get the unfortunate competitors who finish runner-up, and as the saying goes you always remember the winner but never the man who finishes runner-up. Having had the material at hand for 1971 I have decided to publish same and mention a couple of fanciers who finished runner-up in a couple of premier races of 1971.
Firstly this fate fell to John Blair of Ballyclare who was always regarded as a very quiet modest man but a very shrewd and good pigeon fancier. He races to a loft measuring 21ft in length and houses a family of birds which he has blended together for the past 30 years with a few birds added from friends to keep from having to go too close.
John Blair pictured holding his Red cock, winner of 2nd Open NIPA Dinard 1971
We go back to 1938 when he won 4th Open Redon Kings Cup a year in which the Belfast partnership of McBride & Brown were triumphant. John timed a Blue Cheq cock that day and this bird could be described as the head of the family. In later years a 16 year old son of this cock was mated to a Blue Cheq Hen which was 11 year old, another good French bird, this, having won 13th and 28th Landernau 2 years running. This pair bred a Blue Cheq Cock and a Blue Cheq Hen, which are still present in the loft today (1971) aged at 11 years and still breeding good pigeons. So there we have the direct link between the 1938 Redon Cock and the present day birds. There are few lofts who could rake their families back that far in a couple of generations.
Most fanciers send birds each year to the French race points but not John Blair because of the difficulty of getting his birds to the marking stations and getting the clock to the clock centre. He only sends on the odd occasion but when he does send he does quite well. Last year, for instance, he was 9th Section, 22nd Open Dinard with 3,595 birds competing timing a white hen.
Like good wine, this man seems to be maturing with age, as this year he wins his best postion from France taking 1st North East Section and 2nd Open Dinard and a nice sum of £523. The bird responsible is a mature 4 year old Red Cheq Cock which flew Dinard in 1970 and the previous 2 years prior to this flew out to Penzance, so he was really well seasoned. He was sent to the race sitting on 4 day old eggs.
He contains plenty of French Blood, his Dam a Red Hen flew St Malo 3 times and in her last race from France won 31st Open Les Sables.
Just to show that the Dinard result was no fluke, the following week John timed a 5 year old Blue Cock to take 81st Open Nantes, 558 miles and this was his third time in flying France, having previously competed from Dinard 458 miles twice, the last occasion being 1969.
The methods this fancier uses are quite simple, fed twice a day on a good sound mixture, and flown morning and evening, not a great deal of tossing. So what’s the secret? I don’t know possibly the ‘blood’. Just look through the small report and see the performances of some of the birds and as well as racing well, they have bred well and, of course, we must remember that the birds won’t breed the goods unless they are properly matched. John Blair seems to have the happy measure of doing just that.
In 1971 he sent 5 to France, 3 to Dinard and 2 to Nantes, and he had them all home. Hows that for French racing?
Next partnership I will archive is that of Richard & Dawson Smyth who in 1971 finished runners-up in the Kings Cup from Nantes. The father & son partnership finished only two yards behind the winner but although being Runner-up they collected the highest individual monetary award of £771 plus the Nelson Vase.
Robert Smyth pictured with sons Drew and Dawson after finishing 2nd Open INFC Kings Cup 1971
The partnership clocked their four year old Blue Hen at 8.28pm on the day, flying a distance of 556 miles into the Kingsmoss area. A beautiful hen she is that would surely win in the show pen, carrying a rich eye, a short thick neck and a good broad chest giving one the impression that she was very strong which she undoubtedly is. Last year she competed from Dinard flying 456 miles, and was on the wing for 16 hours. This, I am sure, was one of the reasons she was prepared and sent to Nantes this year with every confidence.
Her preparation consisted of races from Wexford and Swansea and a number of single-up tosses from Newry, the last of which was 8 days before the race. The remainder of her training was a fly of half-an-hour in the morning and the remainder of the day she had the open loft. She was sent on chipping eggs and when hampered had two flights away and threw another in the hamper.
The loft which is sited about 5 ft of the ground, built on concrete blocks is L shaped, one side 17 ft and the other 8 ft with 4 compartments. Another section has been made underneath for stock birds. This is far from being a big team loft with only about 15 pairs being wintered and about 20 birds bred.
The stock is mainly Delbar, purchased in 1963 from the last fancier McKinty of the Alexandra Club. The Dam of the Blue Hen is a 1962 Blue Cock and is one of the original McKinty stock. She is still in the loft today and is a fine looking specimen, one that would certainly please the “Eye Sign” men. This stock hen has bred another extremely good hen, a Blue W/F, and she in turn has bred a Blue cock which has flown France 4 times, Dinard (456 miles) twice and Nantes (556 Miles) twice. It doesn’t take one to be a genius to see that this blood is certainly getting the distance.
Another good bird to mention is a Red Hen (her Sire has flown France three times this year) which was a gift from Club mates Connor Bros, She won 59th Open Penzance Y/Bird National last season, flying almost 320 miles. This hen should cross well with the Delbar blood and keep up the name of R & D Smyth in the National results.
Flying back to the East Down Combine I must mention a bit of archive on an excellent pigeon raced by Eric Carlisle of Dundrum. Apart from being an exceptional good racer he has put up excellent performances from the Dinard Derby with the East Down Combine in the last three years.
Eric Carlisle examing his winner of 2nd, 3rd and 5th Open EDC Dinard
Eric’s winning positions have been 1969 finishes 2nd Open, 1970 finishes 3rd Open and 1971 5th Open. What makes that feat all the more remarkable is that all of the positions have been won by the same pigeon, a 1966 bred Blue Cheq Hen, a really magnificent racing pigeon.
The hen in question what a pigeon, won in her first race sent and turned out a complete star at all distances.
She won her very first race she was entered in as a Y/Bird (Gormanstown) and finished her Y/Bird career as a winner from Haverford. As a yearling she won 1st Club Wexford and 2nd Club Dungarven and flew up to Penzance.
In 1969 she went for the first time to Dinard, winning 2nd Club, prior to this in the same year she flew Malahide, then won 1st Club Okehampton and on to Dinard to record 2nd Open winning £225. 1970 she competed from Wexford and Haverford before being entered for Dinard where she recorded 3rd Open and £115.
In 1971 she was again prepared for Dinard and recorded 5th Open for her delighted owner. Her winnings this time was £175. This latest performance is quite fantastic as the hen was only broken to her new loft 2 weeks before the first race of the season.
The hen is a very intelligent looking bird with exceptional feather qualities and a nice gravel eye. She is bred from a black Cheq Krauth hen presented to Eric by Tom Taggart of Taggart Bros. (Ballyclare) and a Blue Cock, a G/Son of the late Billy Locke’s famous Red Hen “Elizabeth”.
Eric has sent the hen to Dinard every year sitting 18 days and when she returns he has a young squab in the nest for her.
By Adie McCormick
http://www.pigeonnetwork.com
So near, but yet so far!
Like any sport, in any year you will always get the unfortunate competitors who finish runner-up, and as the saying goes you always remember the winner but never the man who finishes runner-up. Having had the material at hand for 1971 I have decided to publish same and mention a couple of fanciers who finished runner-up in a couple of premier races of 1971.
Firstly this fate fell to John Blair of Ballyclare who was always regarded as a very quiet modest man but a very shrewd and good pigeon fancier. He races to a loft measuring 21ft in length and houses a family of birds which he has blended together for the past 30 years with a few birds added from friends to keep from having to go too close.
John Blair pictured holding his Red cock, winner of 2nd Open NIPA Dinard 1971
We go back to 1938 when he won 4th Open Redon Kings Cup a year in which the Belfast partnership of McBride & Brown were triumphant. John timed a Blue Cheq cock that day and this bird could be described as the head of the family. In later years a 16 year old son of this cock was mated to a Blue Cheq Hen which was 11 year old, another good French bird, this, having won 13th and 28th Landernau 2 years running. This pair bred a Blue Cheq Cock and a Blue Cheq Hen, which are still present in the loft today (1971) aged at 11 years and still breeding good pigeons. So there we have the direct link between the 1938 Redon Cock and the present day birds. There are few lofts who could rake their families back that far in a couple of generations.
Most fanciers send birds each year to the French race points but not John Blair because of the difficulty of getting his birds to the marking stations and getting the clock to the clock centre. He only sends on the odd occasion but when he does send he does quite well. Last year, for instance, he was 9th Section, 22nd Open Dinard with 3,595 birds competing timing a white hen.
Like good wine, this man seems to be maturing with age, as this year he wins his best postion from France taking 1st North East Section and 2nd Open Dinard and a nice sum of £523. The bird responsible is a mature 4 year old Red Cheq Cock which flew Dinard in 1970 and the previous 2 years prior to this flew out to Penzance, so he was really well seasoned. He was sent to the race sitting on 4 day old eggs.
He contains plenty of French Blood, his Dam a Red Hen flew St Malo 3 times and in her last race from France won 31st Open Les Sables.
Just to show that the Dinard result was no fluke, the following week John timed a 5 year old Blue Cock to take 81st Open Nantes, 558 miles and this was his third time in flying France, having previously competed from Dinard 458 miles twice, the last occasion being 1969.
The methods this fancier uses are quite simple, fed twice a day on a good sound mixture, and flown morning and evening, not a great deal of tossing. So what’s the secret? I don’t know possibly the ‘blood’. Just look through the small report and see the performances of some of the birds and as well as racing well, they have bred well and, of course, we must remember that the birds won’t breed the goods unless they are properly matched. John Blair seems to have the happy measure of doing just that.
In 1971 he sent 5 to France, 3 to Dinard and 2 to Nantes, and he had them all home. Hows that for French racing?
Next partnership I will archive is that of Richard & Dawson Smyth who in 1971 finished runners-up in the Kings Cup from Nantes. The father & son partnership finished only two yards behind the winner but although being Runner-up they collected the highest individual monetary award of £771 plus the Nelson Vase.
Robert Smyth pictured with sons Drew and Dawson after finishing 2nd Open INFC Kings Cup 1971
The partnership clocked their four year old Blue Hen at 8.28pm on the day, flying a distance of 556 miles into the Kingsmoss area. A beautiful hen she is that would surely win in the show pen, carrying a rich eye, a short thick neck and a good broad chest giving one the impression that she was very strong which she undoubtedly is. Last year she competed from Dinard flying 456 miles, and was on the wing for 16 hours. This, I am sure, was one of the reasons she was prepared and sent to Nantes this year with every confidence.
Her preparation consisted of races from Wexford and Swansea and a number of single-up tosses from Newry, the last of which was 8 days before the race. The remainder of her training was a fly of half-an-hour in the morning and the remainder of the day she had the open loft. She was sent on chipping eggs and when hampered had two flights away and threw another in the hamper.
The loft which is sited about 5 ft of the ground, built on concrete blocks is L shaped, one side 17 ft and the other 8 ft with 4 compartments. Another section has been made underneath for stock birds. This is far from being a big team loft with only about 15 pairs being wintered and about 20 birds bred.
The stock is mainly Delbar, purchased in 1963 from the last fancier McKinty of the Alexandra Club. The Dam of the Blue Hen is a 1962 Blue Cock and is one of the original McKinty stock. She is still in the loft today and is a fine looking specimen, one that would certainly please the “Eye Sign” men. This stock hen has bred another extremely good hen, a Blue W/F, and she in turn has bred a Blue cock which has flown France 4 times, Dinard (456 miles) twice and Nantes (556 Miles) twice. It doesn’t take one to be a genius to see that this blood is certainly getting the distance.
Another good bird to mention is a Red Hen (her Sire has flown France three times this year) which was a gift from Club mates Connor Bros, She won 59th Open Penzance Y/Bird National last season, flying almost 320 miles. This hen should cross well with the Delbar blood and keep up the name of R & D Smyth in the National results.
Flying back to the East Down Combine I must mention a bit of archive on an excellent pigeon raced by Eric Carlisle of Dundrum. Apart from being an exceptional good racer he has put up excellent performances from the Dinard Derby with the East Down Combine in the last three years.
Eric Carlisle examing his winner of 2nd, 3rd and 5th Open EDC Dinard
Eric’s winning positions have been 1969 finishes 2nd Open, 1970 finishes 3rd Open and 1971 5th Open. What makes that feat all the more remarkable is that all of the positions have been won by the same pigeon, a 1966 bred Blue Cheq Hen, a really magnificent racing pigeon.
The hen in question what a pigeon, won in her first race sent and turned out a complete star at all distances.
She won her very first race she was entered in as a Y/Bird (Gormanstown) and finished her Y/Bird career as a winner from Haverford. As a yearling she won 1st Club Wexford and 2nd Club Dungarven and flew up to Penzance.
In 1969 she went for the first time to Dinard, winning 2nd Club, prior to this in the same year she flew Malahide, then won 1st Club Okehampton and on to Dinard to record 2nd Open winning £225. 1970 she competed from Wexford and Haverford before being entered for Dinard where she recorded 3rd Open and £115.
In 1971 she was again prepared for Dinard and recorded 5th Open for her delighted owner. Her winnings this time was £175. This latest performance is quite fantastic as the hen was only broken to her new loft 2 weeks before the first race of the season.
The hen is a very intelligent looking bird with exceptional feather qualities and a nice gravel eye. She is bred from a black Cheq Krauth hen presented to Eric by Tom Taggart of Taggart Bros. (Ballyclare) and a Blue Cock, a G/Son of the late Billy Locke’s famous Red Hen “Elizabeth”.
Eric has sent the hen to Dinard every year sitting 18 days and when she returns he has a young squab in the nest for her.