Farming Life - Wednesday 06/03/13
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:54 am
The ‘ACE’ Partnership of Ian Gibb & Sons
* NIPA Section D Old Bird Fanciers of the Year *
With a few days off from my busy work schedule following my wedding to Charlene on Friday 21st September, I decided to make a call to my good friends and current NIPA Section D Fanciers of the Year Ian Gibb & Sons. It’s been some time from I followed the weekly happenings in the pigeon world due mainly to my ever increasing work and family commitments and boy haven’t things spiralled out of control in a good way for the Gibb family since my last bit of scribing on this outstanding Racing and Stud partnership back in 2010, with the last detailed report on the partnership way back to 2007 following the partnership of Gibb & Byrne winning the Europa Classic One Loft Race I headlined that particular article ‘The Dawn of a Golden Era’ which can be found on our website pigeonnetwork.com. I make reference to this for a reason as you will discover further on in this article.
Over the years I have watched what can only be classed as a development programme at the Gibb Lofts with regards their involvement in the sport of pigeon racing with two main objectives winning top prizes and offering good pigeons at working men’s prices from there ever expanding Stud.
Just to give the fancy an insight to the make up of the partnership in particular Ian Gibb races in partnership with his sons Peter, Andrew & Simon as I Gibb & Sons flying within the competitive Glenavy & District HPS, the loft also falls into the boundary of the highly competitive Section D of the Mighty NIPA. The Gibb & Byrne Stud is a combination of two very good friends namely Ian Gibb and Henry Byrne who many fanciers around Ireland and the UK know well through his ownership of Sandyhill Pigeon Supplies in Dublin Henry Byrne I would have to say is a highly regarded individual within the Irish South Road Federation holding the vast majority of posts along the way including President time and time again, a true gentleman but one that will tell you exactly as it is not a concept everybody likes but one that I personally like and I for one have had many a mouthful from the man himself and rightly so, on the occasions that he has let rip. Now also many fanciers in Dublin will not need reminding prior to his now busy commitment with the Sandyhill Corn Store how this man raced, without any exaggeration A man to be feared with the wicker basket boy could he race pigeons and any fancier in doubt get yourself to Sandyhill for a debate, of course as many know Sandyhill must be one of the busiest Corn Outlets about and if Henry doesn’t have what your looking by god he will source it, on top of that a days craic to be had plus a super cuppa.
Ian also for a number of years owned a successful feed business in Lisburn which proved to be such a balancing act with working Full-Time as a production manager at Bombardier Aerospace in Belfast with the stresses and strains that the job brought, he found himself getting further and further involved in the Feed business on his return from his daily full time work which was starting to have an affect on his own racing and Stud commitments with more and more successful testimonials coming forward by the day , even with the unrelenting support and work of Ian’s eldest son Peter a decision had to be made and the Feed Business was to be sadly no more. Of course with Henry Byrne being the Stud partner anything that’s needed in Lisburn is of course sourced from Dublin for fanciers but on a far lesser scale than previously.
I have to personally admit what a change there has been with the lofts since my last visit many months ago, more and more additions just to note so far and I say so far as they still can build around the frontage of the spacious family bungalow 1st loft measures 24ft x 6ft, 2nd loft 36ft x 6ft, 3rd loft 24ft x 6ft, then we have two 24ft x 18ft, followed by a 12ft x 6ft and finally a 24ft x 6ft. Simply what a set up of a Stud on top of that you have wall to wall off individual breeding boxes within what seems like a custom made 2 floor garage. The lofts are built to the extreme highest specifications including internal flooring that can be power washed in the most recent loft, the vast majority all fitted with custom made Velux windows on the frontage and roof’s also. All but one are PVC Clad with tiled roofs and all fitted with custom made aviaries. Where the new power washed flooring isn’t fitted the rest are steel floor grills with upwards of a 3ft gap from floor to base.
The last couple of seasons have been absolutely tremendous for the Gibb lads with winning the 2011 Section D fanciers of the Year, not surprising of course I predicted this in my article in 2010. Having accumulated the most Section D points without duplication in 2010 they failed because all there competing races weren’t within the one Club, so with this in mind they stuck to there guns in 2011 and only flew pigeons with the Glenavy & Distrcit HPS having previously contributed to the Derriaghy HPS as well as Glenavy in 2010. (To be continued).
* NIPA Section D Old Bird Fanciers of the Year *
With a few days off from my busy work schedule following my wedding to Charlene on Friday 21st September, I decided to make a call to my good friends and current NIPA Section D Fanciers of the Year Ian Gibb & Sons. It’s been some time from I followed the weekly happenings in the pigeon world due mainly to my ever increasing work and family commitments and boy haven’t things spiralled out of control in a good way for the Gibb family since my last bit of scribing on this outstanding Racing and Stud partnership back in 2010, with the last detailed report on the partnership way back to 2007 following the partnership of Gibb & Byrne winning the Europa Classic One Loft Race I headlined that particular article ‘The Dawn of a Golden Era’ which can be found on our website pigeonnetwork.com. I make reference to this for a reason as you will discover further on in this article.
Over the years I have watched what can only be classed as a development programme at the Gibb Lofts with regards their involvement in the sport of pigeon racing with two main objectives winning top prizes and offering good pigeons at working men’s prices from there ever expanding Stud.
Just to give the fancy an insight to the make up of the partnership in particular Ian Gibb races in partnership with his sons Peter, Andrew & Simon as I Gibb & Sons flying within the competitive Glenavy & District HPS, the loft also falls into the boundary of the highly competitive Section D of the Mighty NIPA. The Gibb & Byrne Stud is a combination of two very good friends namely Ian Gibb and Henry Byrne who many fanciers around Ireland and the UK know well through his ownership of Sandyhill Pigeon Supplies in Dublin Henry Byrne I would have to say is a highly regarded individual within the Irish South Road Federation holding the vast majority of posts along the way including President time and time again, a true gentleman but one that will tell you exactly as it is not a concept everybody likes but one that I personally like and I for one have had many a mouthful from the man himself and rightly so, on the occasions that he has let rip. Now also many fanciers in Dublin will not need reminding prior to his now busy commitment with the Sandyhill Corn Store how this man raced, without any exaggeration A man to be feared with the wicker basket boy could he race pigeons and any fancier in doubt get yourself to Sandyhill for a debate, of course as many know Sandyhill must be one of the busiest Corn Outlets about and if Henry doesn’t have what your looking by god he will source it, on top of that a days craic to be had plus a super cuppa.
Ian also for a number of years owned a successful feed business in Lisburn which proved to be such a balancing act with working Full-Time as a production manager at Bombardier Aerospace in Belfast with the stresses and strains that the job brought, he found himself getting further and further involved in the Feed business on his return from his daily full time work which was starting to have an affect on his own racing and Stud commitments with more and more successful testimonials coming forward by the day , even with the unrelenting support and work of Ian’s eldest son Peter a decision had to be made and the Feed Business was to be sadly no more. Of course with Henry Byrne being the Stud partner anything that’s needed in Lisburn is of course sourced from Dublin for fanciers but on a far lesser scale than previously.
I have to personally admit what a change there has been with the lofts since my last visit many months ago, more and more additions just to note so far and I say so far as they still can build around the frontage of the spacious family bungalow 1st loft measures 24ft x 6ft, 2nd loft 36ft x 6ft, 3rd loft 24ft x 6ft, then we have two 24ft x 18ft, followed by a 12ft x 6ft and finally a 24ft x 6ft. Simply what a set up of a Stud on top of that you have wall to wall off individual breeding boxes within what seems like a custom made 2 floor garage. The lofts are built to the extreme highest specifications including internal flooring that can be power washed in the most recent loft, the vast majority all fitted with custom made Velux windows on the frontage and roof’s also. All but one are PVC Clad with tiled roofs and all fitted with custom made aviaries. Where the new power washed flooring isn’t fitted the rest are steel floor grills with upwards of a 3ft gap from floor to base.
The last couple of seasons have been absolutely tremendous for the Gibb lads with winning the 2011 Section D fanciers of the Year, not surprising of course I predicted this in my article in 2010. Having accumulated the most Section D points without duplication in 2010 they failed because all there competing races weren’t within the one Club, so with this in mind they stuck to there guns in 2011 and only flew pigeons with the Glenavy & Distrcit HPS having previously contributed to the Derriaghy HPS as well as Glenavy in 2010. (To be continued).