Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

The best of long distance in Scotland! (Part 3)

BOBBY CARRUTHERS

of Bonnyrigg

On my second trip to Scotland , I visited the National 'ace', Bobby Carruthers. Bobby started up in 1952 with nine young birds and after racing them through to 200 miles was left with eight. He started up when he left school and says all his childhood friends had pigeons. He has recorded countless positions in the first ten of the Scottish National Flying Club results through the years, including 1st Open and 3 x 2nd Open. He has had four Gold Award winners and in 1997 won 1st Federation and 4 th Open Sartilly, 496 miles Scottish National Flying Club on a very hard day. Bobby loves long-distance and says it's for him. He showed us many of his best racers including a blue chequer hen, which in 1995 was raced in the two Sartilly Nationals, being the only bird on the day in Mid-Lothian both times, recording 18 th and 24th Open Scottish National Flying Club. She has scored many times sent feeding a small youngster, including 7th Federation from a hard Fareham , 360 miles, as a yearling.

Bobby only races natural, and never pairs his long-distance team until the end of March. They are not put in a basket until the cold north-east winds have gone, and the weather is warm. They then get a 50-mile training toss every day until they are fit to do their work. They are hopper-fed beans and peas all the year round, but when racing starts they are given a sport mixture as well as the hopper. His hoppers are self-built and have a sloping board on the front, so when the birds throw the beans about, they just roll back into the hopper. His main old bird loft is double-decker, made of brick and has grilled floors with sputnik traps. All his nest boxes are closed in, ideal for long distance racers. The old birds used to get an open loft all the time, but because of the hawk problems in Scotland , Bobby can't do it any more. They are never let out of the loft in the winter, as he would have birds killed every day by hawks.

The main family is Kirkpatrick originally from the late John Carrnichael of Lockerbie. Bobby breeds a lot of youngsters each year because of the hawk problem and the race team is normally about 120 birds. The 26-foot young bird loft is kitted out with nest boxes, as he likes his youngsters to pair up for racing and they go all the way to the National race. He says the darkness system is bad for the birds in the long term, so he practices the light system where the young bird loft lights are left on until 10p.m. every evening until the end of April which pushes the moult on. Bobby maintains basket training is more important than lots of road work. He takes a lot of trouble to teach his youngsters to eat and drink in the basket and their first three training chucks are from his front garden to teach them how to come out of it. The young birds get lots of training tosses up to 50 miles before the first race and they race every week, up to 280 miles.

JOHN WYLIE

of Newcastleton

While in Scotland , I had the good fortune to visit one of the all-time greats, John Wylie. Since starting up in 1961, John has won countless positions in the Scottish National Flying Club, including 3 x 1st Open and 3 x 2nd Open and was the first loft in Scotland to win 1st Open Scottish National Flying Club Rennes twice. John's wonderful old champion, 'Blue Blitz' won 1st Open Rennes Scottish National Flying Club in 1964 and in 1965 recorded 2 nd Open Scottish National Flying Club beaten by a decimal by W. T. Gardener of Lockerbie, a fantastic pigeon!

On our visit to John's loft he proudly showed us his other Rennes National winner, a handsome old red chequer pied cock who is a grandson of 'Blue Blitz'. The red pied cock won the Rennes National in 1982 and many other prizes, including 1 st Federation Cheltenham with his best racing condition, being sitting ten-day eggs. John's loft is 18 feet long, in three sections, with open-door trapping and is the original loft he started with in 1961. Although John has the constant worry from birds of prey, he gives the birds an open loft most of the time, as it is sited in a field. John has always raced on the natural system and pairs up his 16 pairs of racers the first week in March. He is only interested in Channel racing and races his team right through to Nantes (550 miles) with the Scottish National Flying Club. The birds are fed on a mixture of peas, beans, maize with a little wheat and gets regular training tosses from 30 miles. The Wylie loft breeds 25 youngsters each season to race and they are never paired up, always raced to the perch. John stops half the young bird team after a few races, with the rest going through to 207 miles.

John said his highlight in the sport was when 'Blue Blitz' won the Rennes National doing 1040y.p.m., and was the only bird into Scotland and Cumberland doing over 1000y.p.m. A wonderful pigeon and great fancier!

ELLWOOD & LITTLE

of Langholm

Although 95% of the lofts I've visited in Scotland have been natural, one that wasn't was Ellwood & Little and they won the Federation many times from inland race points. Kenny and George race 24 cocks on the widowhood and prefer sprint and middle distance racing, although they have had some useful performances from the Channel.

Kenny started up in the sport over 20 years ago, and when starting up in business on his own found he didn't have a lot of time for racing, so in 1991 joined forces with George and formed the Ellwood & Little partnership. Kenny says although they won the Federation many times he thinks their best performance was in 1997 when they recorded 1 st . South Section, 3 rd . open S.N.F.C. Worcester 208 miles, with the young birds. Their star in the 1997 National was a little blue chequer Delbar hen, and she handled apple bodied, with outstanding feather and eyesign. Kenny told me, this game hen had every race before her National success, but never scored, although she was aways in the first few home each week. The partners race 50 young birds each season and started using the darkness system in 1998. They never pair their youngsters up, always racing to the perch, and give them lots of training tosses, but rarely over 20 miles. The youngsters have their own section in the 30ft. racing loft and are trapped through open doors. Ellwood & Little really enjoy racing their babies, but said they never keep them short of corn, which is a good quality mixture, with plenty of maize.