Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

THE BEST OF LONG DISTANCE IN WALES

- Part 2

Fishlock & Roberts of Briton Ferry

Phil Fishlock has been a friend of mine since the mid-1990s, when we used to meet up in France, with us both being convoyers for major organisations. I rate Phil as one of the best convoyers of racing pigeons in the sport today and unlike some people, he has never written into the fancy press to tell everyone how good he is. Self praise is no recommendation. This quiet man from Wales is a great convoyer and pigeon racer, winning countless major positions in his 45 years in the sport. Phil has been convoying racing pigeons for over 15 years and has worked for the Welsh SR National Flying Club and the Central Southern Classic Flying Club. Phil races pigeons in partnership with his good lady, Hillary Roberts and in the 2003 season hit the jackpot, when they won 1st Open Welsh SR National Flying Club Nantes (1,054 birds), with their champion blue chequer cock, ‘Our Dream Boy’.

Phil was born in Neath, West Glamorgan and his late father passed away at the grand age of 88 and he was a pigeon fancier all his life. He worked with his father's pigeons since he first started to walk and Phil tells me, he can remember, as a young boy, taking the birds to the local train station, to send them training, before going to school. Hillary was born in New Tredegar, Gwent and looked after her uncles birds when she was a youngster and has been around pigeons ever since. Phil says the fanciers that were doing all the winning when he was a lad were the Tregonings of Cwmgwrach, E. Humphreys of Seven Sisters, 'Winky' Humphreys and the school teacher in Cwmgwrach, Noel Jones, was never far away in the Thurso races. Phil's father kept mostly the old strains, Osman, Kirkpatrick, Hansennes etc and his dad always did well up to 600 miles. Phil tells me he has pigeon photos going back to 1937, when they won the Swansea Federation from Thurso (480 miles) and the Neath & District 2.Bird Championship Club. They won the 1965 Lerwick' race, which was one of the hardest races that Phil could remember, clocking their hen at 1112hrs on the fourth morning, with only a handful home into Wales. The first birds that Phil ever purchased were Hansennes from James Weir of Newtownards in Northern Ireland, which won races from 60 to 500 miles and these pigeons were wonderful looking, dark chequers. A few years later Phil introduced the Fechan Lass pigeons from Louella with outstanding success.

Phil & Hillary's present Brynhyfryd Lofts are based on Louella Jan Aarden, Vandenabeele, Braspennings, Ponderosa Janssen and Woodland Stud Vandenabeele/Carreras. The partners flew north road for many years, but now race south with the Briton Ferry SR Club (Welsh SR Federation) and the Welsh SR National Flying Club. Phil & Hillary have an 80ft L-shaped loft and told me it is not like the modern-day type lofts, as it has a wire netting front from floor to roof. Hillary says the ventilation is very important in pigeon lofts and theirs has a vent, at roof level, at the back, the full length of the structure. The loft faces east and south so catches the morning sun, but when the wind is in the east, the inmates feel it. The partners keep the loft as dry as possible and a deep litter is used in the stock sections. Hillary cleans the loft out every day in the summer and Phil says you can eat your dinner off the floors when she's finished. Phil tells me that Hillary isn't too keen on deep litter, but he has no problem with it, as long as it is kept clean and dry. The loft has three sections for cocks, one for the hens and 24ft for the young birds. Fishlock & Roberts race their old birds on the roundabout system, up to Nantes, then repair and revert back to natural for the long-distance races. The loft houses 25 pairs of racers and the partners pair the - inland racers in January and February and the long-distance candidates, the second week in March. The cocks are trained one day, the hens the next, never being trained together and Hillary is always at the loft to get them in. They have to train the wrong way for the south road, as the M4 goes east from Briton Ferry, up to the Severn Bridge, which gives them a 40 mile toss. The birds are broken down after the races, being put on depurative and the cocks and hens are allowed together, before going off to the marking station. They run together for about 20 minutes on their arrival from the race and Phil likes hens sitting 10 day old eggs and cocks sitting time for the 500 mile races. Hillary told me that they normally keep about 70 young birds for racing every year, with the first round going on the "darkness" system, but say they are not sure if it's worth the bother, as there is little in the way of special races for young birds in their area. Phil maintains that they have the two Welsh Nationals for young birds and that's about it. The youngsters are allowed to pair up if they want to, but they haven't had many paired up in recent seasons, and have noticed that once they start training they seem to lose interest in pairing up. The young bird team is trained as often as possible from the Severn Bridge and are exercised around the loft twice a day. They are fed on young bird mixture and depurative until the Nationals come along, then they are put on widowhood mixture and Hormoform. Hillary mostly looks after the young birds, with a few fancied birds being stopped at the 100 miles racing stage and the rest go through to the National Guernsey races.

Phil who is a pigeon convoyer during the summer months is also a full-time carer for his mother, who has just turned 90 years old. The partners are great workers for the sport and are secretaries of their local club. Hillary told me they like all sorts of racing and their best performance was from the 2003 Nantes National (320 miles), when they had three birds come together and won 1st Open, with champion "Our Dream Boy". Phil and Hillary also won the Section from the Dax National also in the 2003 season. A brilliant performance! Other outstanding racers in the Fishlock & Roberts loft are: blue pied hen "37770", winner of 1st Section Saintes, 1st Section Dax (a brilliant double Welsh National Section winner): "the old black pied cock": 4th Section, 23rd Open Bordeaux (14 hours on the wing) and then went on to win 1st Section from Saintes: "Lesley's Boy" red cock: 1st Section, 4th Open Welsh Region RPRA Nantes Centenary Race, 1st Swansea (Smash) Open from Plymouth. The Welsh SR Federation' has about 250 members and Fishlock & Roberts have won the averages on   three occasions. The partners are the secretaries of the Briton Ferry Club and Phil says he has a dislike of mouthy fanciers that are always condemning the very few that are willing to do something for the sport. Phil thinks the general health of pigeons has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. In his father's time he would I just dose the birds with Epsom Salts before breeding and that would be it. Phil says he doesn't know what his dad would say if he could show him what's in his microscope sometimes. The partners like to keep their different families pure when breeding, but like a first cross, which has been very successful for them, they don't normally breed latebreds, but had a few from their premier performers in 2003 and donated one off "Dream Boy" to the Blackpool Charity Auction. Hillary maintains the moult is very important and the birds get the very best in feeding, including widowhood mixture, with beans and peas for extra protein. This feeding continues until the end of November, then they keep adding barley until they get up to about 60% and this continues until about 10 days before pairing up.

Ward Brothers of Risca

Brian Ward has been in the sport of pigeon racing over 50 years and in partnership with his brother, Roger, for about ten years. The loft has won an incredible eight times 2nd. open Welsh National Flying Club, missing out on their ninth 2nd. open in 1995 when their good natural dark chequer hen sat out for a minute from Lerwick (600 miles) to record 3rd. open, losing 2nd. place on a decimal. On one Saturday the partners won 1st. and 2nd. open Federation Thurso (500 miles) and 2nd. open Welsh National on the same day. They race only north road and like long distance events best, recording many top positions from Thurso and Lerwick.

The main loft is 6ft. off the ground and their 20 pairs of natural racers are trapped through the open doors. This loft houses mostly Westcott, Hansennes and John Smale pigeons, for the long distance, which are paired up in February. The natural birds are hopper fed on beans and all race through to Lerwick (600 miles). About 45 youngsters are bred each season and they are given seven 30 mile training tosses on a local transporter before the first race. The young bird team races the full programme through to the National race (300 miles), with a few selected cocks being stopped for the widowhood loft after about 230 miles. The young birds are hopper fed on beans and are never kept short of food.

The partners race 12 cocks on the widowhood system. They are housed in Brian’s garage, with his car going in and out every day, only a wire partition between the pigeons and the vehicle. The cocks only race up to 300 miles and the brothers have won the Federation seven times, flying to the garage. The widowhood section is quite open with a wire front and the cocks race to normal widowhood nest boxes. They are paired up on 1st. February and are trained on the Cardiff transporter, up to 30 miles. During the racing season they are broken down two days a week, then fed on a first class widowhood mixture with a lot of maize. They are shown the hens on marking night and only get their mate for about one minute on their return from the race. The star birds in the widowhood section are three blue chequer Hansenne cocks. One won over £1,000 in club and Open races; another won 1st. open Federation Ripon (4,000 birds) and the third cock chalked up twice 1st. open Federation with speeds of 76 m.p.h. and 35 m.p.h.

Most of the widowhood team are Janssen bred from the Gordon Johnson of Risca blue stock hen, ‘The One Winged Hen’, which has bred three 1st. open Federation winners for Ward Brothers. This great old hen had her wing ripped off by a cat and off the Ponderosa Dikke Blue Janssen lines. Ward Brothers paid Gordon £10 for this wonderful hen and she has bred countless winners. Brian and Roger keep 20 pairs of stock birds, which are paired up in March, but do not over breed from them. Roger says they like good feather and eye, but stock birds must be from winning bloodlines.

There you have it, two of the best pigeon partnerships in Wales! I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!