ALAN MARK

of Sanderstead

by Keith Mott

Probably one of the most famous pigeons to win the Pau Grand National was Alan Mark's blue chequer hen Champion 'Pauline', which was finally sold to the Louella Stud in Leicester. This Alf Baker/Jim Reilly hen was clocked on the second day at 13.47hrs and won £2,000, which was a record amount of cash at that time. This great hen's sister, also a blue chequer, was a very good Channel racer, winning many major prizes including 5th section, 48th open Palamos. Champion 'Pauline' won, in her brilliant racing career: 1972: 2nd club, 26th open London South Road Combine Bergerac (5,299 birds); 1973: 5th club Niort, 1st club, 5th federation, 24th open London South Road Combine Bergerac (3,000 birds); 1974: 1st section, 1st open Pau Grand National (5,609 birds). A true champion!

Alan Mark was born in Upper Norwood, near Croydon, in 1935. His grandfather, Ted Mark, raced pigeons in the same street and Alan's father, Ted junior, used to run to the local post office to time in. In those days, all the lads used to shove one another aside to get in the door and become the race winner. Alan says his dad was a good runner and was a champion cycle racer at Herme Hill Cycle Track, winning many silver cups and medals. Alan caught his first pigeon when he was a schoolboy in the 1940s. Every Saturday he would wait with his mum, in the queue for Kennedy's, in Surry Street Market, to buy sausages and was eyeing up the stray pigeons in the road, while waiting. One day a pigeon fell off a ledge on a building to the ground and the young Alan picked it up and put it in his paper round bag. He kept the roadster in with the family chickens and although his mother wasn't too keen on pigeons, because she thought they were bad luck, this was the start of a life time in the pigeon sport for him. He had his first pigeons when he was about 12 years of age and used to travel to Club Row, in London, on a Sunday morning and purchase birds for 2/6d. each. When he was 15, his dad had some canaries and he put them in the pigeon paper, swapping them for six pigeons and an Invincible six bird clock. The birds were Lullum & Sharrock stock and in 1950 the Croydon Flying Club started up, so fatyer and son joined. It was five years before they had their first race winner. Alan recalls, Wally Gillham was the best fancier in the local club and Croydon Federation, and one season, he won nine out of the eleven old bird races. Alan became a great pal of Brian Gillham, with the pair of them fishing together and playing darts in the local Running Horse pub. Alan remembers Wally as a racing pigeon icon to him. The main thing he learnt from this great fancier was to train hard.

As a lad he had no other sporting interests, because when he was small he had pneumonia and rickets in his chest and as he says, to put it bluntly, he was a weakling! In 1953 he joined the Surrey Valley H.S. (Surrey Federation) with his father and that is the club he races in today. George Potten was the premier fancier in the club in the 1950's. Alan remembers his first winner from Rennes, taking 1st and 2nd club, by a clear 45 minutes. He flew in his first Nantes National, the year after Alf Pays of the Beehive pub in Mitcham won it. In those days the pub was a N.F.C. clock station. It was a hot sticky race day, and on timing in at 18.00hrs, he took his clock in for checking. On entering the Beehive, Alf told him he didn't have to bring back his clock until he has a pigeon, and the delighted young Alan replied, 'I have got one'. Alf went through to the lounge bar where all the pigeon fanciers were, and shouted out, ' There is a young lad in the other bar and he has the only bird in the clock station!'. The young Alan Mark was very proud and, beating top guns like Norman Southwell and Ron Michieson, he recorded 12 th section A, 70 th open. In those days, the National pigeon results were printed by the Daily Herald newspaper every Wednesday. Alan purchased his first brand new pigeon clock with the £25 he won in the Nantes National.

The father and son partnership won many premier position in the early days, including 1st club, 2nd Surrey Federation, 2nd open London South Road Combine (9,086 birds) Guernsey in 1961, when Paul Bridgewater of Godalming won the combine. Alan had a good widowhood, '007', which won the Surrey Federation two weeks on the trot, in those days when the federation sent 5,000 birds a week. He won the Surrey Federation from the very hard Mele race and also won the federation from Marmande, recording 2nd open combine. In 1973 he won 1st section from Barcelona with the mighty British Barcelona Club. The hen that won the section from Barcelona was produced from a batch of 12 gift eggs from Peter Titmuss, and she went on to win many premier prizes in long distance national races. Alan has won many firsts through the years from Bergerac, 450 miles south road and from Thurso, 521 miles on the north road.

The S.M.T. Combine amalgamated with the London & South Coast Combine for the longest old bird race of the 2002 season, from Bergerac (450 miles) and the race turned out to be a very hard event. The 3,070 birds were liberated at 08.25hrs in a north west wind and only three game birds were clocked on the day of liberation in the amalgamation. The overall and S.M.T. Combine winner was Alan Mark, who recorded the only bird on the day in the Combine, in the form of his 2 year old blue widowhood cock, 'Breakaway', and I think I'm right in saying that this is the first time this has been achieved since 'Culmer Lass', was the only bird on the day of liberation in the S.M.T. Combine from Bergerac, for Eric Cannon, back in the early 1980s. 'Breakaway' was the only bird in the big convoy to record over1000 ypm. He had 15 races in the 2002 season, before winning the combine. He was paired up on Boxing Day and after rearing two young birds, was put on the widowhood system. His sire is a direct son of Alan's Bromley Open San Sebastian winner, when the Sanderstead loft sent two birds to this 560 mile event and got the two birds together to win 1st and 2nd open. A wonderful family of long distance racers!

In conversation, Alan told me his biggest mistake in the early days was keeping too many pigeons in the loft, which he still dies today, saying, 'An old fool never learns by his mistakes!' His very smart loft set up is a far cry from his first loft, which was built out of orange boxes from the Surrey Street Market in Croydon. The main loft is 50ft. long, with seven sections, open door and corridor trapping, and houses mostly channel racers and stock birds. A second very smart loft, butts onto the main loft making the set up 'L' shaped. This loft is 25ft. long, split into four sections and houses mostly young birds. His small team of widowhood cocks are houses in a 16ft. loft in the corner of his massive garden and he maintains that pigeon lofts should have a good flow of fresh air going through them. Alan told me that he thinks that the reason why some fanciers don't visit the prize table is that they overfeed and don't train enough. The Mark loft is made up of 16 pairs of stock birds, 20 pairs of natural racers, he usually starts the season with nine widowhood cocks and always seems to end the season with them all. He told me, his widowhood loft is the 'fun' loft and he's won 1st Thurso on the day of liberation, and 1st club Bergerac on the same weekend with widowhood cocks. Stock birds and the widowhood cocks are paired up on Blackpool Show weekend in January, the natural pigeons two week later and about 100 young birds are bred each season. Although Alan wins on the channel with the widowers, he maintains they are basically used for inland races in the club. The natural birds are his main candidates for the long distance events. Alan is a retired window cleaner and told me that he prefers old bird racing, as racing youngsters is more of a lottery. He has won more than his fair share of young bird races, including only bird on the day from Alencon and in one season won seven of the eight young bird races in the Surrey Valley H.S. He has a reputation as a long distance fancier, but says he likes to win all races, long and short distance.

Alan Mark is a good worker for the sport and has been a clock setter for most of the time. When he started setting pigeon clocks as a lad, under the supervision of Len Smith, he was always worried that the ones he'd set would go wrong and so couldn't wait for Saturday night to come around, but they were always alright. When Alan was a lad he had to take the birds to Waterloo Station, in London, on a Friday night, to be loaded on to the pigeon train and Wally Gillham drove them to Waddon Station with the 25 baskets. The pigeon train was always on platform number 16 at Waterloo Station and the lads were always met by the great old Surrey Federation convoyer, Mr. Goodwin, father of the ex N.F.C. convoyer, John Goodwin. Alan has mostly raced south road, which he enjoys, but when the PMV vaccination programme started, a good friend of his, Ron Wasey of New Addington, asked him if he would be interested in going north road to get the distance. They formed a good north road club and raced in the London N.R. Federation for several seasons.

Busschaerts are Alan's base pigeons, but he always tries to purchase good winning pigeons of any strain. He has had some good birds from Peter Titmuss, direct and through his very good friend, George Burgess of Wraysbury. He says he has made some good friends through racing pigeons. If he wants a pigeon he'll always pay for it, if it's the right bird, from the right fancier. He gave Jim Riley of Carshalton £6 for the sire of Champion 'Pauline' at his entire clearance, which was a good price to pay for a pigeon in 1970. In 1965, he bought his first house in Thornton Heath and asked about if anyone had a pigeon loft for sale. Harry Frith phoned to tell him that a friend, Joe Johnson, had one for sale, an old R.A.F. national loft, which contained 19 pigeons, most of which were winners of the Alf Baker strain direct. As soon as Alan saw the loft and the inmates he said yes, he wanted to purchase it and out of those birds he bred the dam of Champion 'Pauline', his Pau National winner.

He finds the Peter Titmuss pigeons are very good for the long distance racing and have scored through to Barcelona for him. He often purchases youngsters off premier lofts and the dam of his Bergerac combine winner, 'Breakaway', was one of a batch of six youngsters from Geoff Gilbert of Windsor, a past winner from Pau with the London & South East Classic Club. Alan maintains his biggest thrill in his time in pigeon racing was winning the Pau Grand National, with Champion 'Pauline', although he lost a few nights sleep when he won the Bergerac Amalgamation race last season! He thinks the most disappointing thing for most fanciers is not to time in, and take an empty clock back to the clubhouse. He says his family don't take an interest in his pigeons, although they always ask how he got on after a race. His son, Tim, was born with Spina Bifida and is in a wheelchair, being paralysed from the waist down. Alan is thankful to Ronnie Wasey for making Tim feel very special, by inviting him as the guest of honour at the Addington North Road Club prize presentation every season, when he was the secretary a few years ago. He says Ronnie is a great pigeon fancier, a true gentleman and he's never forgotten Tim.

Alan maintains that to get the best results in sprint races you must race cocks on the widowhood system, but he likes hens on the natural for the long distance events. He's all for new ideas and put a few young birds on the darkness system in the 2002 season, to be 1st, 2nd and 4th club, 3rd Kent Valley Federation in the first race. Alan likes his yearlings to go to Bergerac, his 2 year olds to fly Pau (550 miles), but is not in favour of sending young birds to France and he sends only a very small team to the young bird national each season. He is not a believer in the eyesign method, but says you can tell a birds fitness by it's eyes and likes birds sitting 12 day old eggs for the long distance events. As one time secretary of the Surrey Valley H.S., he had a hard act to follow, in the footsteps of previous secretary for 40 years, Basil Aylemore, who was the very best. As I previously said, Alan, is a great worker for the sport, having been the president of the Addington N.R. Club and I/C clock setter for the National Flying Club at the Whyteleafe clock station. He has heard fanciers say their pigeons won't fly Pau, because they are short distance birds, which he thinks is poppycock, maintaining it is management which gets the pigeons to fly the distance and not it's breed. Alan says, as the old saying goes, 'You are never too old to learn'. He thinks that the sport has changed so much over the years, and says you can learn a lot from good young fanciers, as they are not afraid to change things. Top notch young fanciers who are showing the way in the Croydon area are Mark Adcock and the O'Connor Brothers, Richard and Ken. Alan likes to inbreed his pigeons, keeping lines pure, but says a lot of champions are bred from crossing of two good families. He takes extra care of the pigeons during the moult period, as a bad moult means a bad performance the following racing season and feeds them a special mixture at this time of the season. He breeds a few latebreds, but says they don't last very long with him, as he is too inpatient, although if they are bred from the right pigeons, they can make excellent stock birds. He says his tamest pigeons are definitely his best birds and a confident bird is a winner. When selecting new stock birds, he likes a good type, but above all it must come down from good long distance winning lines.