B.I.C.C. Winners - Part One

DAVE & GARY HEYWOOD

OF LAINDON

The Essex partnership of Dave and Gary Heywood have won many major positions in National and Classic racing through the years and have won the British International Championship Club three times, including twice 1 st . open National in one season. The father and son pigeon partners won 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Bihorel in 2002, 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Falaise and 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Tours, both in the 2003 season. Dave and Gary also won the L.& S.E.C.C. Tours yearling derby in 2002 and put the icing on the cake, of a brilliant season.

Dave Heywood had his first pair of pigeons when he was five years of age, being a gift from his uncle who kept tumblers and fantails. He says as a youngster he was interested in football and tells me Gary is a very good footballer, as well as being a major part of the pigeon racing partnership. Dave was born in south London and started racing pigeons in 1968, winning his first race from Newark in 1971. His first loft was a 12ft.x 5ft. open fronted structure, and he raced in the Old Pride of Laindon club. He says his biggest mistake in the early days was overfeeding and overcrowding his small loft. Dave says the late, Tommy Tomkins, was a great help to him and he obtained some outstanding Savage / Barker pigeons from him to start off his racing. The Heywood's brought in the Bill Growden Busschaerts in 1982 and won 1 st . open London N.R. Combine Stockton (young birds), with them in the 1990 season. The Laindon loft has always been successful on the north road, but turned around south several years ago. Dave is only interested in channel racing and maintains that on the north road old birds can fly the programme, but on the south, pigeons can't race every week and fanciers have to pick their races and save the birds.

The Heywood's loft is a 48ft. continental style structure, with six sections, tiled roof and open windows trapping. Dave maintains the most important factor behind good loft design is dryness and says pigeons don't like draughts. He likes deep litter on the loft floors, having tried it several times, but it makes him chesty, with the dust. Dave and Gary race 34 cocks on the widowhood system and say theirs is a dry system, as the cocks don't rear youngsters at the beginning of the season. They are paired up the second week in February and after sitting eggs for ten days are parted for a month and re-paired to sit the second round of eggs for four days, before going on the widowhood system to start racing. The cocks are given about six training tosses, through to Reigate (40 miles) before the first Federation race, but are never trained during the season, just exercised around the loft for an hour, twice a day. They are fed on V.L. Super Widowhood Mixture and during the racing season are broken down from Saturday afternoon until Tuesday morning. The cocks are only shown their mates on Friday night for the first three races. Dave says this is mainly to teach the yearlings the widowhood system and for the rest of the season the nest bowl is turned. On their return from the race, the cocks get their hens for about an hour. Generally the cocks get two channel races before going into the longest events and are never re-paired for these races, at the end of the season. Dave and Gary have been racing the Widowhood system since 1985. The main families raced are Busschaerts and Massarella / Verheye, but have a few Janssen and Jan Aarden pigeons.

As I've previously stated the Heywood's have put up some wonderful performances through the years, but the 2002 season was one of their best, winning 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Bihorel, 2 nd . open B.I.C.C. Gellainville, 13 th . open B.I.C.C. Bourges, 1 st . and 5 th . open London & South Coast Combine Tours, 2 nd . and 16 th . open L.& S.E.C.C. Tours (2,459 birds), 1 st . open L.& S.E.C.C. Tours yearling derby and flew only three inland races, recording 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th . Poole , 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th . Fareham (young birds). Brilliant pigeon flying! The partners Tours yearling derby winner was their good blue chequer pied cock, "Diane's Choice", named after Dave's wife, who is a great worker at the Heywood's loft. He was bred from a cock obtained from a local fancier named, Norman Flint and a Massarella / Jan Aarden hen. On his build up his classic win he had three inland races, Alencon , Le Ferte Bernard, then in to the Yearling Derby and was raced on the Widowhood.

The partners raced their 60 youngsters on the darkness system for two seasons, but Dave packed it in because of stress and young bird sickness. He maintains the "dark" doesn't affect the birds in latter life, because he won 1 st . open B.I.C.C., 1 st. open Combine and 1 st . open L.& S.E.C.C. with yearlings. He trains the young birds up to 40 miles for three weeks before the first race and twice a week during the season. He feeds heavy twice a day and races to the perch. The young cocks get only three races, being saved for the widowhood system and the young hens go over the channel, racing the full programme.

Dave is a steel erecter by trade and says he couldn't race pigeons without his wife, Diane's help, as he works long hours. The 16 pairs of stock birds are kept at Gary 's home and these are housed in two big lofts, with flights. These are paired up in late December and the partners like to bring in new birds every year and these are normally direct off champion pigeons. Dave told me, his families of pigeons race well up to 450 miles and his biggest thrill was in 2001, when he had the only bird on the day in the clock station from the N.F.C. San Sebastian race and recorded 106 th . open. A great pigeon racing partnership!

DAVID HALES

OF BASILDON

Our second featured B.I.C.C. winning loft is also in Essex , his name is also Dave and he also won the British International Champion Club twice in the same season. The featured fancier is Dave Hales of Basildon and he won 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Falaise twice in the 2003 season.

In his 35 years in pigeon racing, Dave has been an outstanding fancier racing his old birds on the widowhood system, but his young bide performances must be described as fantastic. In 2001 he sent to two Guernsey races held on the same day in September, one with the London & South Coast Combine and the other with the L.& S.E.C.C. He sent 15 youngsters to the Combine and had 10 drop on the loft together, recording 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd . and 4 th . open Combine. Dave told me he had won the Essex Central Federation young bird average over 10 times in the last 25 years. The first bird on the clock from Guernsey , to win 1 st . open Combine, was the Jan Aarden blue chequer hen, "The 31 Hen", and she was a darkness youngster. The Hales loft entered 10 birds in the London & South East Classic Club Guernsey race the same day and had three of them drop on the loft together, recording 2 nd , 4 th . and 5 th . open with 2,139 birds competing. The first pigeon on the clock was a Janssen blue pied hen sent feeding a small youngster and her dam was 4 th . open N.F.C. Vire in 2000. Dave breeds his youngsters very early and says they are on a natural darkness system because of the short days early in the year. He told me, that anything born after March 31 st . he considers to be a late bred.

He had his first pigeon at the age of nine, in 1962, when he picked up a stray racer and it wouldn't go home. At the time his father, Harry, was a small finch fancier and talk Dave into keeping Canaries, but he wasn't having any of that. The young David started racing in 1968, winning his first race in 1969, from Spalding (91 miles), with "49", a young hen from a cock purchased from Hagger Brothers of Dagenham, for the princely sum of 1/6d. His team were obtained from here, there and everywhere, and in 1971 his father gave up the finches and became a partner, flying as D. & H. Hales. They flew north road for many years in the Rochford H.S. (Essex Federation) and in 1997 turned south road with the Thames North Eastern Counties Flying Club. On turning south road in 1997 Dave set his stall out for the N.F.C. young bird national from Sartilly and won 1 st . open, with 7,107 youngsters competing. Dave says the Sartilly National was only his sixth race on the south road and named his winner, "Harry's Dream", after his dad, who only passed away a short time before the race. "Harry's Dream" is a Janssen blue chequer cock, who flew 219 miles (velocity 1267 y.p.m.) from Sartilly to win the Young Bird National and is now at stock breeding winners. His dam was the Janssen smoke blue hen, "58", and she was still laying eggs at 12 years of age, being the dam of the Hales loft. On Dave's second attempt at the young bird national in 2000 he won 4 th . open N.F.C. Vire (6,500 birds), lifting over £4,000. This game pigeon was the Janssen blue hen, "16", and she was a daughter of a full sister to "Harry's Dream". Dave Hales rates this performance as one of his best to date, as this game pigeon recorded 4 th . open national, racing in a north east wind to her loft on the east coast. This hen is the dam of, "The 19 Hen", winner of 2 nd . open London & South Coast Combine Guernsey in 2001. A brilliant family of pigeons!

His first loft was 3ft.x 4ft. and made of old pallets, is a far cry from his present day loft, which is 80ft. long and built of brick, with a tiles roof. The very smart loft has 11 sections, stall traps and is very well ventilated, being kept at a constant temperature. Dave houses 30 pairs of stock birds which are paired up on 15 th . December and maintains he always pairs the best to the best, no matter what strain, although his main family is Janssen based. He has always been a sprint / middle distance fancier, but wants to have a go at long distance racing, so has recently introduced Jan Aarden, Alan Parker and Eric Cannon pigeons in to the stock sections. Dave says his motto is "it's horses for courses" and always brings in the very best lines for the stock loft. He maintains that pigeons thrive on neglect and has not changed the sand and lime deep litter on the stock loft floor for many years, but cleans out nest boxes once a year, whether they need it or not. Dave likes deep litter and the whole loft has 4ins. Of sand and lime on the floor. He likes to keep his system very simple and never does anything to complicate it or make hard work

The Hales loft houses 32 pairs of old bird racers and races cocks and hens on the widowhood system, with sprint / middle distance racing in mind. He pairs the racers on 7 th . April, so flies the first few races on the natural system. The widowhood racers are never shown their mate on a Friday night before marking and are never picked up, just driven in to the basket to be taken off to the club house. The widower gets his mate on returning from the race, although this is determined by how hard the race is and they get their partner for the first few Federation races. The widowhood racers are never broken down and fed a traditional widowhood mixture all week. The stock birds are fed an extra of Hormoform and Dave never gives any of his birds seed. The old birds are trained during the racing season, depending on what is needed and likes to race them through to 500 miles. He says that the main factor behind successful pigeon racing is knowing how to work and feeding the birds need. He keeps about 80 young birds each season and these are put on Dave's own darkness system, which has been very successful. Dave maintains that young bird fly aways are down to overcrowding and lack of time outside of the loft, at an early age. One of his first mistakes with his pigeons was over feeding, but has perfected his system through the years and feeds the youngsters the same as the old bird racers, on good quality widowhood mixture. The young birds are trained every day through the racing season and Dave likes them to race through to 220 miles. When selecting new stock birds, he likes the pigeon to be from good winning origin and have a nice rich eye, although he thinks the eyesign theory is rubbish

Well I hope you've enjoyed this little insight into the methods of these two great fanciers from Essex ! The next part of "The B.I.C.C. winners!" will be published very soon. I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!