TOM GILBERTSON

of Carlisle

by Keith Mott

The 2004 season saw Tommy Gilbertson win the Federation from the long distance again, following a life time of successful pigeon racing at 500 and 600 miles. Last season Tom recorded 1st club, 1st Federation, 1st open Combine Sartilly (431 miles) with his good blue chequer pied hen, "California Belle", and 1st club, 1st Federation, 10th open Combine Nantes (534 miles) with "California Cher". For me, what put the icing on the cake with Tom's latest success, was that "California Cher" is another bred down from the brilliant, Champion "Jay Bee".

During my 30 odd years in pigeon journalism, I have visited most of the premier long distance racing lofts in the U.K. and I must say that Tom's loft in Cumbria must rate as one of the best, with Champions breeding Champions. A loft with quality in great depth. Although I had the pleasure of meeting Tommy previously, I first had a chance to view his loft of wonderful long distance racers, while filming the "Many Miles with Mott" videos, a few years ago. Tom has had several outstanding seasons recently, with his previous Cumbria Combine win being from Sartilly (431 miles) and won the Federation Averages. Tom told me, the pleasure aspect of that Combine win was that the winning pigeon, a blue pied hen, called "Emergency Whinona", was an inbred pigeon from a half brother and sister mating. The dominant bird was the champion racing hen, "Jay Bee", a winner of 1st club, 1st Federation, 1st open Cumbria Combine Niort (604 miles), on the day of liberation for the Gilbertson loft. This gave Tom enormous pleasure because he is really interested in the breeding side of the sport and says he has been fortunate that his family has done well for other fanciers, all over the U.K. The Gilbertson loft has won countless major prizes in long distance racing through the years, including four times 1st open Combine, five times 2nd Open Combine, four times 3rd open Combine and twice 1st open Channel races. A fantastic family of pigeons!

The loft was originally founded in 1920 by Tom's father, Frank and from day one it has been active in long distance Channel racing only. Frank came into pigeons as a 12 year old school boy and loved the thrill and mystique of racing them from the long distance. The loft is based on pigeons obtained from Dr. Buckley of Nottingham in the war years and Bricoux pigeons brought in 1968. Tommy says, the Dr. Buckley pigeons were a family based on the old successful families of W. Barker, Delmotte, Grooters, Toft, J. L. Baker, Gits, Logan and Osman, expertly blended together by the doctor, who was one of the top long distance fanciers at the time. In 1939 he had in his loft 20 pigeons that had flown Marande (660 miles). Frank Gilbertson concentrated on the longest old bird race from Nantes (534 miles) every season and the loft won the 1st . open Federation many times through the years, winning many Federation Averages.

The Gilbertson loft has always raced on the natural system and the 40 pairs in the main racing loft are paired up on 1st March. Tom pairs a few stock birds to his best racers, as he says it gives them a "safe" mate when racing and a quality mate for breeding. He doesn't train the old birds much these days because of the very bad sparrow hawk problems, but tends to race them more often to keep them fit. In Cumbria they have a really bad hawk problem and in April 1998, Tom had 8 birds killed in ten days. "Red Alert", the 3rd open Combine Rennes winner, was killed, as was the 2nd open Combine Nantes hen, "Hollie". He picked up this champion blue hen dead, 100 yards away after liberating her on a training toss. Premier racers, "Jackie" and "Jacko", were both hawked, but fortunately survived to go into the stock loft.

Tom's main racing loft is 40ft. long and is an ex-service loft, purchased by his father after the Second World War. The loft has it's original nest boxes and partitions, but has a renewed front with open- door trapping and glass louver windows. He says he is reluctant to replace the old loft because the birds love it and race well to it. It was one of two war service lofts in Carlisle during the war and has a corn store and three sections for natural racing. Tommy says he has one set mixture to feed his birds and he has had outstanding success with both the 75% beans mixture and a widowhood mixture. It makes no difference as long as the corn is of the highest quality. His preparation for the long distance events is three races from 100, 150 and 180 miles, then a jump into Sartilly. They are put down on eggs for Rennes (474 miles), Nantes (534 miles) and Niort (604 miles). He maintains that 80% of his best performances for the last 15 years have been with hens.

The stock loft has three sections, grating floors and houses 24 pairs of stock birds, which are paired up on 14th. February. His stock loft has not only bred champions for his own racing team, but for many other premier long distance lofts in the U.K. He takes three pairs of youngsters off the stock birds, which are mainly retired racers or latebreds off his best racers. When selecting stock birds, they must be from the very best winning bloodlines and have a good eyesign. When I asked Tommy what he thought of the darkness system for young bird racing, he said he was worried that it might affect them badly in later life. His young birds are housed in their own loft and raced natural to the perch. A few extra young birds are bred these days because of the hawk problem, but Tom normally races about 45. He likes his youngsters to race the full programme, but says he has a lot of success with old birds that have only gone up to 100 miles as young birds. They are given a lot of training tosses up to 45 miles and are fed heavily, as he is more interested in them in their later life.

In recent years, Tommy has concentrated on the breeding side and many U.K. National winners and premier long distance lofts have his bloodlines running through them. One of the star pigeons in the loft today is the champion blue hen, "Jay Bee", who won many major prizes racing including 1st open Cumbria Combine Niort (604 miles), clocked on the day of liberation. She is dam and grandma of countless winners including "Hollie", winner of 2nd open Cumbria Combine Nantes in 1995, and the blue cock, "Jackie", winner of 2nd open Cumbria Combine Nantes in 1996. "Jackie" was 15 hours 21 minutes on the wing and with only five birds recorded, swas the longest flying competitor timed in. As I stated previously, the 1998 Sartilly Combine winner, "Emergency Whinona", is inbred to the champion breeder and racer, "Jay Bee". A fantastic hen!

A wonderful red chequer hen that took my eye on my visit to the Gilbertson loft, was "Red Biddy", who won Rennes in 1997, being sent on a small youngster. Tom says he has normally never had much success with pigeons being sent to races feeding youngsters, but "Red Biddy" is the exception to the rule and races well in this condition. Her sire is the champion racer, "Red Alert", winner of 3rd open Cumbria Combine Rennes in 1992. They are bred down from the old famous Gilbertson, "Peanuts" bloodlines. Tom says, the red line in his loft are a very important side of the family and another very good red chequer racer is "Johnny", winner of 2ndopen Combine Rennes in 1987. On my visit to the Carlisle loft we looked at many other premier racers, including "Jacko", winner of 1st open Anglo-Scottish Borders Amal. Niort (604 miles). This wonderful dark chequer cock won the race by 90 minutes clear and afterwards had his back ripped open by a sparrowhawk and had to be retired to the stock loft. Tom showed us his champion stock cock, known as "The Blue Cock", a breeder of many top racers including "Hollie". "The Blue Cock" is the son of the Dr. Buckley's blue chequer cock, "Frankie", winning for the Gilbertson loft: 19th open Combine Sartilly, 4th open Combine Nantes and 1st open Combine Nantes.

I think the route from France into Cumbria through the mountains at the home end, is one of the hardest routes in the U.K., so full credit to Tom Gilbertson and the other flyers in the far north-west of England. The Channel winners are present in numbers in Tom Gilbertson's loft, which shows the quality in great depth in the Carlisle loft.

Thanks to Tommy for being a good friend over the years!