Keith Mott writes...

The B.I.C.C. Winners - Part 5

GEOFF & CATHERINE COOPER

OF PEASEDOWN ST JOHN

This week I'm going to feature a premier West Country partnership who must rate as one of the biggest names in the sport of pigeon racing, Geoff and Catherine of Peasedown. The partners won 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Falaise National in the 2005 season. When I spoke to Geoff recently he told me, "After my many years in the sport, it has taken until 2005, to win my first old bird National and have finally achieved it with our game blue chequer widowhood cock, Champion "Wriggler". He won the Falaise National which is just under 200 miles, yet he is bred for the long distance and will go on to race from 500 and 600 miles with ease". This wonderful two year old late bred has won; 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Falaise National, 201 st . open C.S.C.F.C. Cholet (2,659 birds), 1 st . Littleton F.C. Cholet, 16 th . open West of England S.R. Combine Saintes (1,804 birds), 5 th . open N.F.C. Dax and is a full brother to "Jumper", winner of 7 th . open N.F.C. Saintes. Geoff and Catherine's family of pigeons are based on the Deweerdt of Kortemark in Belgium pigeons and have been highly successful for the West Country loft since the early 1980's. The Cooper's have won 77 top National Flying Club open and section positions, 48 premier open and section prizes in the Central Southern Classic Flying Club, 20 in the British Barcelona Club and 8 premier positions in the British International Championship Club, plus they hold the U.K. record for having the most pigeons on a single International open result. Catherine said, "after so many years of racing at the very highest level, you can under stand why we thought that elusive first open National was never going to happen".

Geoff was born in Peasedown, the village where he lives today. His father was a keen sportsman, but with a shotgun, rather than pigeons. It was a big disappointment to his dad when he sold his own gun at the age of 13, to buy a pigeon clock, and has now been in the sport 50 years, having started up as an 11 year old, with birds obtained from the local farm. He says his uncle was a keen pigeon fancier and he really became involved through him. The first fancier who drew his attention were R. & M. Venner of Street and his first club was north road. He left it when he was in his late twenties, as the young Geoff wanted to race south road. A few seasons ago the Carlingcott club finally turned south, so Geoff was keen to re-apply but unfortunately he was turned down and the same thing happened the following year. A lesson he has learnt through his many years in the sport is not to believe unproven fads, weather they be eyesign, shape, or wing theories, and maintains he has seen many winners with all types of eyes, bodies and wings. His best advice to a novice is pair the best to the best. His first loft was an open fronted wooden shed. Geoff says, as the Honeysuckle grew over and around it, covering more and more of the front, so the condition of the inmates improved. His present loft is wooden, with a closed in front with controllable ventilation, the main factor beings being that the loft is dry and not overcrowded.

The Somerset loft houses 12 pairs of stock birds, which are paired up in early December. When I asked Geoff about his pigeons he told me, "My family of pigeons are based on the Deweerdt family and I originally had these from Emile Deweerdt of Kortemark in Belgium in the early 1980's. Over the years I have added to these with more visits to the Belgium champion's loft in Kortemark. If you study the International results over the last 25 years, you will notice very few fanciers featuring in these results, year in and year out. The Deweerdt family have successfully maintained and improved upon their performances, and have stayed at the top of the International race scene". One of the best Deweerdt based pigeons Geoff has ever owned is his champion racer, "Farm Boy", and his grand parents include, "Emiel"; 1 st . International Bordeaux and "Kedir"; 78 th . Internat. Dax, 34 th . Internat. Dax and 143 rd . Internat. Perpignan . Champion "Farm Boy" has won 190 th . open N.F.C. Saintes, 49 th . open B.B.C. Nantes National, 56 th . open N.F.C. Saintes, 7 th . open N.F.C. Dax, 475 th . open International Dax, 3 rd . open N.F.C. Dax, 12 th . open International Dax and 7 th . Euro Diamond Ace pigeon, being the first British pigeon to win an International Ace pigeon award. A wonderful pigeon and classic example of like breeding like! The Cooper's had a good cock out of Paul Kendall's Pau National winner, Champion "Holloway Boy", when mated to one of Geoff's good hens and also had some good birds from Harding Brothers' "Ashgrove King", 1 st . open Pau National, which was bred from 100% Geoff Cooper stock. This family of pigeons will compete and win from Weymouth (47 miles) through to Perpignan (645 miles).

The Cooper partnership race 50 cocks on the widowhood system and these are paired up in December. Geoff told me he raced on the widowhood system because it is easier to condition the birds, it increases their motivation and the widowhood racers exercise well, needing no road training, and hold their condition better and longer than natural pigeons. Geoff's racers rear a pair of youngsters and then are separated before the hens lay their second round of eggs. They are repaired in March and the cocks are put on the widowhood after sitting six days on eggs. After the birds are separated at the start of the season they are let out twice a day for one hours exercise. They have two training tosses prior to the first race and then they race every week inland to keep them fit, and then they are selected for different National and Classic overseas races. When racing old or young birds, Geoff told me, he tries to keep thing as simple as possible. He doesn't favour any particular condition for racing the long distance, bar one, they must be supremely fit! His young birds race the Channel, the young hens as many times as possible, the yearlings race to 400 miles and the old birds through to the longest National race.

Geoff's birds are fed a variety of mixtures, depending on what they are doing. He developed these mixes by observing the birds closely, after all, he firmly believes they know better than us. He feeds the birds a mixture with a lot of maize and increases the fat content for a few feeds before basketing. As a titbit, he always gives the birds a pinch of hemp and he uses Gem Products regularly, and makes his own herbal tea for his pigeons. He finds garlic is very good for maintaining the health of the birds and also uses a live natural yoghurt as a probiotic. Geoff told me, he didn't like to race his birds hungry, so if they got into trouble, they have a reserve in the fuel tank.

Many years ago Geoff spent seven years studying eyesign. He made detailed copies of the eyes of his birds and paired them on the advice of eyesign experts. After seven years he had boxes full of detailed diagrams and eyesign information. After comparing the winning bird's eyes over the period with the experts opinions, he came to the conclusion that it was nothing more than a fad, and no use to him. On the downside, he had many good birds not bred from because they did not have the 'right' eye. He was glad he never culled any birds during this period due to them having a 'poor' eyesign. He had many winners with 'poor' eyesign which went on to be the foundation birds of his present loft.

Geoff has had many section winners in National and Classic racing through the years and he considers his best team performance was having three birds in the first 12 open of the Pau National, winning the first three section prizes, also timing five out of his six entries on the day of liberation, when only 5% of the convoy were home. His best individual performance was when "Nicholls" won 3 rd . open N.F.C. Pau, when only 11 birds were timed on the day of liberation, and he was the only bird timed on the day west of Portsmouth . He won the section by three hours and was the first pigeon in the west of England by approximately three hours, only beaten for 1 st . open position by less than 5 minutes. A brilliant performance! Geoff says his greatest thrill, besides marrying his wife, Catherine, was seeing his single entry from the B.B.C. Palamos race arrive to win 2 nd . open, having flown 701 miles. Catherine is very interested in the pigeons and would prefer to do all the husbandry and let Geoff do all the housework. "Never", says Geoff!

He has held many positions in the sport through the years and has been President of the local club and Vice President and committee member in the N.F.C. Geoff is a great worker for the sport and ran the Frome marking station for the N.F.C. and the local clock station for the National and Classic races. He says if he could get one rule passed to benefit the sport, he would prohibit a fancier being rejected from membership to a club, providing they are in the radius, unless it can be proved that he is guilty of misdemeanour affecting the sport. Geoff says to stop fly aways, he always tries to have his youngsters out as much as possible in their first few weeks. If they have been shut in for a time and let out full of fly they can easily go AWOL. He inbreeds and line breeds to the best in his loft, and regards latebreds very highly for racing and breeding, but you need plenty of patience with them, he says. When he looks for new stock birds they must be winning pigeons, bred from winning pigeons, or preferably breeding winning pigeons. There you have it. Geoff Cooper, a brilliant pigeon fancier!

That's it for this week. I hope my readers have enjoyed this insight in to the pigeons of Geoff and Catherine Cooper, I think their loft is one of the best in the U.K. today! Thanks to Catherine who took the great photos. I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!