Jim Logan of Ballyclare - Remembering a master fancier
Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:56 pm
Back in the early 1960s quite often on a Saturday night around 11 o'clock there would be a knock on our back kitchen window and we would look to see two faces smiling through the glass. The Mairs family at that time lived in Millvale on the edge of Ballyclare in a terraced house on the Ballynure Road. Most of us these days would be a bit wary of someone knocking our window at that time of night, but back then when these two faces appeared the shout from inside was come on in the door's not locked. In would come Jim Logan and Tommy Dodds usually in good form thanks to an evening spent in Baird's Pub at the bottom of Ballyclare Main Street, about half a mile away. We children vacated the sofa to allow the pair to sit down as even without visitors seats were at a premium in our family which eventually numbered eleven including our parents. Thankfully we had a front parlour which was very handy when the living room got a bit crowded, but when Jim and Tommy came on Saturday nights the younger children were by that time in bed having just had their weekly bath.
When all children including myself were safely up the wooden hill the talk soon turned to pigeons, going on till the early hours of the morning before my father had to run Jim home in his car, with Tommy walking on up the road a hundred yards to where he lived with his sister and brother-in-law, who were the parents of Michael Fasciolo who currently races in partnership with Noel Higginson in the Ballyclare & District Club.
Moving on to 1963 and having left school at 16 I got my first job as an apprentice joiner in the joinery workshop of James Logan & Sons, with one of the sons being Jim. My father obviously played a big part in getting me the job being a good friend of Jim, who was a very good joiner himself , although he was the main son in the building firm in a white collar capacity. Back then Logans built large housing developments in both East and West Belfast, with the joinery shop on the Hillhead Road having five benches with a joiner and apprentice at each. Although the work was usually making sets of stairs and kitchen cupboards I occasionally got the job of making pigeon nestboxes for Jim's loft. These were made of the best of timber, carcases of jointed tongue & groove flooring sanded nice and smooth on a large belt and table sander with fronts of square dowells the holes of which were cut with a heavy duty mortice machine. He raced at that time with his son Ron in the Ballyclare club but it was some years later after the building firm closed that Jim got more time to devote to the pigeons, and success soon followed.
He returned to his trade of joinery setting up a workshop about a 100 yards from his bungalow on the Hillhead Road, specialising in hardwood windows working mainly on his own. Needless to say his lofts were self built the main one having a corridor that enabled him to be one of the first in the area to fly the roundabout system. Some top results followed not only in the Ballyclare Club, but in the Derby and National races.
The Nipa French National can be a very difficult race with a lot of bad ones over the years, the worst I recall being only 9 home in 1963. Today bronze, silver and gold awards are awarded for pigeons appearing on the result sheet twice, three times and four times for the gold award. Jim Logan raced a pigeon called Clare Express that won prizes in four of these races but unfortunately there were no gold medals awarded in those days, but what a pigeon it takes to do that, one that is worthy of being called a champion. In 1993 he finished 2nd Open in the race with a 2 year old Blue WF Hen and this coupled with 41st in the King's Cup saw him awarded a diploma for best average in the two races.
In the INFC one of the top awards is the Triple Crown awarded to a pigeon winning Open prizes in the Penzance Young Bird National, Sennen Cove Yearling National and King's Cup in consectutive years, it takes a very good pigeon to do that, and some years none are won. Jim gained one with his pigeon Anniversary Clare that was 115th Penzance as a YB, 106th Sennen Cove as a Yearling and was then set up for the last leg in the 2000 Kings Cup from Redon, and what a result when the pigeon finished 3rd Open Jim's best ever position from the top race in the country.
His best known pigeon was Champion Blue Jean, a beautiful Blue Hen that won the coveted INFC Hall of Fame award for three times in the Open prizes in the King's Cup. This hen turned out to also be a top breeder with a lot down off her winning not only for Jim but for quite a few other fanciers.
In 1992 he called with me to make him some small wooden grids for a set of perches, and when I finished I took them over to his loft. When he asked about the cost I said there was no need to give me money and that I would be happy enough for him to breed me a young bird sometime. With that he said come on round to the Young Bird loft as he had just weaned some youngsters the previous day. On entering the section there were a couple of dozen lovely young pigeons on the floor, and he told me to take my pick. Taking a quick look I pointed to a very nice Blue Hen that took my fancy,and when I looked up Jim had a broad smile on his face. Enquiring why he was smiling he told me I had just picked a daughter of Blue Jean his Hall of Fame winner, whereupon I told him this bird was worth far more that what he owed me for the grids, and he could give me any of the other young birds instead. Being the man he was Jim wouldn't here of that and insisted that I take the blue hen, which left me feeling as if I had just been greatly over paid for my work.
I can't remember what she was mated to but that hen bred me a Blue Cock that finished 49th in the 1995 Rennes Kings Cup, something that greatly pleased Jim when I let him know.
Jim Logan was a clever pigeon man and was using the Roundabout method back when most of us thought that roundabout was something children played on in the park. Way back in the 1960s he was racing widowhood to a doubledecker flyin loft, controlling the birds with a silent dog whistle when he wanted them to trap. Deeplitter was something that most didnt use back then but Jim was bringing limestone straight from the quarry in Glenarm to spread on the floor of his loft. A deep thinker about the sport he was always using up to date methods and probably devising some systems of his own. He will go down in my book as one of, if not the best ever pigeon man in the Ballyclare area. How many fanciers have won an Nipa Gold Medal, 2nd Open Nipa St Malo National, an Infc Triple Crown and a Hall of Fame award plus 3rd in the King's Cup, and thats not to mention the very many other prizes he won over the years in Club and National racing. Milne Mairs.
When all children including myself were safely up the wooden hill the talk soon turned to pigeons, going on till the early hours of the morning before my father had to run Jim home in his car, with Tommy walking on up the road a hundred yards to where he lived with his sister and brother-in-law, who were the parents of Michael Fasciolo who currently races in partnership with Noel Higginson in the Ballyclare & District Club.
Moving on to 1963 and having left school at 16 I got my first job as an apprentice joiner in the joinery workshop of James Logan & Sons, with one of the sons being Jim. My father obviously played a big part in getting me the job being a good friend of Jim, who was a very good joiner himself , although he was the main son in the building firm in a white collar capacity. Back then Logans built large housing developments in both East and West Belfast, with the joinery shop on the Hillhead Road having five benches with a joiner and apprentice at each. Although the work was usually making sets of stairs and kitchen cupboards I occasionally got the job of making pigeon nestboxes for Jim's loft. These were made of the best of timber, carcases of jointed tongue & groove flooring sanded nice and smooth on a large belt and table sander with fronts of square dowells the holes of which were cut with a heavy duty mortice machine. He raced at that time with his son Ron in the Ballyclare club but it was some years later after the building firm closed that Jim got more time to devote to the pigeons, and success soon followed.
He returned to his trade of joinery setting up a workshop about a 100 yards from his bungalow on the Hillhead Road, specialising in hardwood windows working mainly on his own. Needless to say his lofts were self built the main one having a corridor that enabled him to be one of the first in the area to fly the roundabout system. Some top results followed not only in the Ballyclare Club, but in the Derby and National races.
The Nipa French National can be a very difficult race with a lot of bad ones over the years, the worst I recall being only 9 home in 1963. Today bronze, silver and gold awards are awarded for pigeons appearing on the result sheet twice, three times and four times for the gold award. Jim Logan raced a pigeon called Clare Express that won prizes in four of these races but unfortunately there were no gold medals awarded in those days, but what a pigeon it takes to do that, one that is worthy of being called a champion. In 1993 he finished 2nd Open in the race with a 2 year old Blue WF Hen and this coupled with 41st in the King's Cup saw him awarded a diploma for best average in the two races.
In the INFC one of the top awards is the Triple Crown awarded to a pigeon winning Open prizes in the Penzance Young Bird National, Sennen Cove Yearling National and King's Cup in consectutive years, it takes a very good pigeon to do that, and some years none are won. Jim gained one with his pigeon Anniversary Clare that was 115th Penzance as a YB, 106th Sennen Cove as a Yearling and was then set up for the last leg in the 2000 Kings Cup from Redon, and what a result when the pigeon finished 3rd Open Jim's best ever position from the top race in the country.
His best known pigeon was Champion Blue Jean, a beautiful Blue Hen that won the coveted INFC Hall of Fame award for three times in the Open prizes in the King's Cup. This hen turned out to also be a top breeder with a lot down off her winning not only for Jim but for quite a few other fanciers.
In 1992 he called with me to make him some small wooden grids for a set of perches, and when I finished I took them over to his loft. When he asked about the cost I said there was no need to give me money and that I would be happy enough for him to breed me a young bird sometime. With that he said come on round to the Young Bird loft as he had just weaned some youngsters the previous day. On entering the section there were a couple of dozen lovely young pigeons on the floor, and he told me to take my pick. Taking a quick look I pointed to a very nice Blue Hen that took my fancy,and when I looked up Jim had a broad smile on his face. Enquiring why he was smiling he told me I had just picked a daughter of Blue Jean his Hall of Fame winner, whereupon I told him this bird was worth far more that what he owed me for the grids, and he could give me any of the other young birds instead. Being the man he was Jim wouldn't here of that and insisted that I take the blue hen, which left me feeling as if I had just been greatly over paid for my work.
I can't remember what she was mated to but that hen bred me a Blue Cock that finished 49th in the 1995 Rennes Kings Cup, something that greatly pleased Jim when I let him know.
Jim Logan was a clever pigeon man and was using the Roundabout method back when most of us thought that roundabout was something children played on in the park. Way back in the 1960s he was racing widowhood to a doubledecker flyin loft, controlling the birds with a silent dog whistle when he wanted them to trap. Deeplitter was something that most didnt use back then but Jim was bringing limestone straight from the quarry in Glenarm to spread on the floor of his loft. A deep thinker about the sport he was always using up to date methods and probably devising some systems of his own. He will go down in my book as one of, if not the best ever pigeon man in the Ballyclare area. How many fanciers have won an Nipa Gold Medal, 2nd Open Nipa St Malo National, an Infc Triple Crown and a Hall of Fame award plus 3rd in the King's Cup, and thats not to mention the very many other prizes he won over the years in Club and National racing. Milne Mairs.