I have known John MaCallum of Bargoed for the best part of 35 years and during those years the partnership has consistently attained long distance performances of the highest order. On the north route through to Thurso and Lerwick and now on the east route through to Bonn, Kassel or Geissen the name of Hall and MacCallum is rarely missing from any National / Combine or Fed result. John’s grandfather and partner, the late Will Hall, passed away in 1990 but John maintains the partnership’s name in old Will’s memory.
The partners compete in the massive Welsh North Road Fed, once the biggest federation in Great Britain with up to 1,500 competing lofts. Although not now quite so big it can still boast a membership of close on 1,000. In the 2001 season the partners won the coveted “Silver Pigeon” in the federation, which is awarded to the loft with the best average all races from 60 – 550 miles. In the Welsh Grand National Flying Club the superb “Coch – Y – Bonddu” trophy has been won in 1979 & 1999, once again awarded to the loft with the best average in all National races from 200 miles through to 590 miles. I could go on and on ad infinitum listing the loft's top performances, but feel that the above is sufficient to illustrate just what a class act this partnership is when it comes to winning in difficult long distance races.
So we come to the reason for my latest visit to the partners - the winning of the 2007 Queen’s Cup awarded to the Welsh pigeon with the best performance or series of performances in races over 300 miles during the season. This year’s winner proved to be an absolute racing machine as, in her short racing career to date, she has won no fewer than seven top National prizes and amassed in excess of £2,500 in prizes and pools. Her National and Combine positions for 2007 are as follows:- 4th sect 4th Open National 4,279 birds Oudenaarde; 4th sect 4th Open Combine Oudenaarde 9,442 birds. [301 miles]; 4th sect 4th Open National 1,437 birds Bonn 458 miles; 4th sect 4th Open Combine Bonn [2,412 birds].
Add to these 6 x 1sts at club and 2Bird club level plus 20th National Liege 27th Combine [6,063 birds]; 28th National Brussels [3,074birds]; 52nd National Maidstone [4,674 birds]; 73rd National Maidstone [4,793 birds]; 142nd National Ramsgate [2,275 birds] and you have an extremely impressive CV. Oh, and she also won 1st club Maidstone as a young bird into the bargain. Now named appropriately “Wonder Woman”, she was raced on the darkness system as a youngster with no obvious detrimental effect to her long term racing career!!
The basis of the present team of long distance pathfinders is the old reliable Van Hees obtained exclusively from Louella Lofts. The Motta lines are predominant although the colours of most of the loft’s inmates was chequer / chequer pied. These excel when the going gets hard and the distance is long. They rarely win as youngsters, the exception being Wonder Woman, but will fly all day and rarely seem to tire. However, a few Janssens have been introduced in recent years so that John can have a bit of fun in the shorter in land races. During my visit I handled bird after bird of the highest quality and most were related to Wonder Woman being bred from her, her parents or her brothers and sisters. All were in superb condition and handled like the true thoroughbreds that they are. Just on or above medium sized, well muscled with excellent feather quality and very strong iris colouration. The sire of the Queen’s Cup winner is a winner himself of 1st Swindon and 1st Reading and is full brother to “Honest John” a winner of 3rd,12th, 19th, 24th and 26th Open in National races. Both these cocks being bred from the original Louella Van Hee pair. The dam of the Queen’s Cup winner was bought at a Louella All Fair auction for £80 and John travelled up to Blackpool specifically to buy her. She proved to be a lovely chequer tick eyed hen with a full yellow racing eye.
The old loft that John and grandfather Will raced to for more than 40 years was replaced in the winter of 2005 by a brand new 16 ft x 10 ft structure containing four sections, plus a 3ft corridor along the front Two of the sections house the old bird team whilst the other two sections are kitted out with box perches and nest boxes for the young bird team. The old bird team amounts to just 16 pairs of birds that are raced on the roundabout system. The young bird team of around 50 are reared from the best of these and the 14 pairs of stock birds. Stock birds are mated in late December with the racers going together after the BHW show in Blackpool. Racers are allowed to rear and sit their second round eggs for not more than 5/6 days before being separated. They are then exercised regularly before receiving no more than six training spins from 20 miles before the first race. Once racing begins the old bird team are kept at it throughout the season only being rested in accordance with DEFRA guidelines. Both cocks and hens are exercised twice per day throughout the season. The cocks exercise with gust whilst the hens are reluctant to fly for more than 40 minutes on each occasion. The Queen’s Cup winner raced weekly throughout the inland programme and fortnightly once over the channel. Her mate was lost before the Bonn race, but returned in time to encourage her for her final effort in the last race from Bonn, where she came up trumps on an absolute stinker of a day, to be clocked late in the evening.
It must have been 30 years since I last visited John’s home to highlight the partners excellent results from Elgin, Thurso and Lerwick. I don’t think it will be that long before I return for a third time to publicise yet another long distance win for the Hall & MacCallum partnership. Congratulations John on winning the ultimate.
28/12/07
