Chris Gordon Mathers

A complete fancier is someone who makes winning look easy. One such fancier is Chris Gordon, winner of this year's National Flying Club race from Tarbes. Many years ago I did a write up of Chris after he had just won 2nd Section K in the NFC's Young Bird National from Cherbourg. His distance family of base birds was from the late Eric Fox of Bakewell, and later birds from Hayden Radford of Wales, one of Chris' friends. One of Eric Fox's birds won over £1,000 in the year the article was written, 1989, and the only other addition to the loft are birds from the lofts of Pearson & Dransfield of Barnsley, who are also his good friends. This family of distance birds goes back more than 30 years and they are now like peas in a pod. Other birds have been tried but were never good enough to claim a perch. Even in those far distant days, Chris said that he might one day win a national. Moving on now to the sprint and middle-distance birds, these are Leen Boers Janssens. Once again they are all of the same type, and careful breeding over the years has produced winners for many fanciers from all parts of the world.

Chris is a businessman owning a few florist shops and many properties for rent. I think the properties take up a lot of his time and the florist business goes back many years. By trade Chris is an apprentice-trained joiner, working in his younger days on building sites. Even then his passions were pigeons, rabbits and gardening.

After a few years of evening classes studying horticulture, with exam passes in many aspects of the subject, Chris was ready to start and exhibit throughout Britain at many top-class horticulture shows. This was the foundation of the florist shops and the rest as they say, is history. Chris will tell you that hard work and the determination to achieve will also take you a long way to being successful in the field of racing pigeons.

Now anyone reading this article can draw their own conclusion about the fancier and what it takes to win a national from Tarbes, 725 miles. Chris did say that he wished Eric Fox could see what his breed of birds have now achieved, but alas Eric is no longer with us. Chris was also 8th Open Tarbes in the same race, this cock finishing 2nd Section K, 2 nd Lancashire 4-Bird Club. The grandam to this pigeon was 17th Open Pau, and his actual sire was 22nd Open Pau. In three generations you have 8th, 17th and 22nd Open at 725 miles. Chris did say that he line-breeds back to the old Eric Fox cock who was himself full of 700-mile blood. He had 6 th and 14 th Open Pau in his background including 2 x 1 st Section. This Fox cock bred a cock that won everything from 500 miles in the Barnsely Federation, also taking a prize in the Nantes National, 16 hours on the wing. Chris felt the pigeon was something special and he was correct. A good friend, Hayden Radford from Wales, loaned Chris a few champion hens to pair to this cock and their youngsters were line-bred back to the old Eric Fox cock.

Let us now look at the winner of the Tarbes National. He is a grandson from Chris' 17th Open Pau hen, who was again inbred to the Fox pigeons through the 28 Cock, one of Chris' best birds. I would also like to note that the 8 th Open Tarbes cock has about 25% of the Pearson & Dransfield blood in his breeding. Both cocks were raced on the widowhood system and they have also had many prizes on the land. Both birds had every land race in 2005 prior to Tarbes.

I think Chris will win a few more national races, and I say this because when you look through his loft you can see more than 40 birds the same way bred and all at different stages of life. Some 2005 youngsters are set aside and being prepared for 3 years' time. Chris is a thinking man and I know he will have his sights set on more big wins in these events. It has taken him many years of patience to build this family of birds and it is now coming to fruition. When you can lay your hands on 40 or 50 birds with breeding of this quality, in my opinion it is inevitable that winners will come.

When rearing Chris feeds on farm corn green peas, £120 per ton, which is £3 per bag. It is very rare that Chris will pay more than £120 per ton for any corn. The birds are mostly fed on barley, then about 12 days before marking day he reduces the barley a bit each day to bring to the feed maize, brown peas and beans. This then starts to enrich the feed. About 5 days before marking, peanuts start to come into the food, and Chris says you have given your birds a boost that can be seen by the way they start to bounce about in the loft and by the way they act when out at exercise. One could say his birds are on breakdown corn all the time until they are needed for a race.

This may consist of some short tosses of about 30 miles, but should Chris be going to London, then the birds are placed in the back of the car and taken with him. Chris said, though, that he can gather more information from the birds when he sees them exercise around the loft.

All birds are paired on February 14th each year. They bring up 2 youngsters then a steady build up to top form begins. The birds are worked around home then road training will start. The birds selected for the first races will be worked on till they are on song.

Before pairing all boxes are sprayed with cockroach spray, which is used just twice a year on all surfaces of the loft, and boxes are cleaned twice a day. Many compartments have grid flooring to make light work of cleaning out.

The birds have the same treatment. Chris never treats for cocci, canker or worms on a regular basis. He uses the microscope and then treats when he finds any of these diseases. The microscope is the item that Chris uses regularly to keep his birds healthy.

When asked what advice he could give to anyone starting in the sport, he said to go to a fancier who is winning now and purchase a few youngsters. Breed a nice kit of youngsters from these birds, work them hard and stay with this family till you have achieved what you intended when you bought the original youngsters.

This man is a dedicated pigeon man. The jobs he undertakes within the fancy make me wonder how he ever has time to put his birds in the basket. He is president of the Barnsley Federation, some 500 members, President of his own local club, clock-setter for his local club, President of the North-East 700 Mile Club, Vice President of the North-East Region, Councillor of the RPRA, and for many years he has always taken any member's birds to Salisbury for marking at the British Barcelona Club, which is a round trip of about 400 miles. Many fanciers bring pigeons for Chris to see if he knows what is the trouble with them, when the microscope comes out again.

He would like to thank people from all over the world for the cards and phone calls of congratulations which he received after winning the NFC's principal event from Tarbes. Before I leave the subject of the winning pigeon let me just say that in 2004 this cock went to the Portugal Olympiad and won a Gold Medal for Britain and an RPRA Award. In the same year he raced from Nantes 445 miles, Poitiers 500 miles and Saintes 550 miles - and prize carded in all.

Chris would also like to thank the President of the NFC for the letter he sent to Chris congratulating him on his win and confirming that his bird is now the record holder of the Longest Distance Winner of the NFC's premier race. Many thanks to you, sir.

Chris also holds the British Barcelona Club's record for the Longest Flying Pigeon on the Day in any of the club's races. This bird is also a granddaughter of the Pau Hen, and the distance record it holds is 608 miles on the day from Bordeaux.

Chris hopes this win will give other fanciers the confidence and encouragement to join the National Flying Club and the North-East 700-Mile Club.

Just as Chris was talking to me the phone rang. When he returned from answering it, he told me he had just been told he had won 6th and 12th positions in the Barnsley Federation's race from Poitiers 500 miles, winning £760 pool money!

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