Keith Mott

Visits two lofts in Lincolnshire...

ALWYN & LYNNE HILL

The month of November saw me visit the highly successful partnership of Alwyn and Lynne Hill of Swinderby in Lincolnshire. The Hills were only in the sport for six years and won over 200 x Ists and 36 x Ists Open Federation. Although they mainly enjoyed sprint racing, they won 1st Section in the North Road Championship Club three times, as well as 1st, 2nd, 3rd Section, 5th, 7th, 9th Open in the 1998 North Road Championship Club Young Bird National. The first bird that Alwyn gave me to handle on my visit was 'Super Blue', a handsome blue Van Reet widowhood cock which has had 21 x Ists with 16 prizes in the first ten in the Federation result. This great pigeon had won a RPRA Merit Award and although he was a sprint racer, won 1st Club, 8th Open Federation from 317 miles. A wonderful pigeon!

The Hills had a brick double-decker old bird loft with seven sections for racing widowhood cocks, and they favoured open window trapping, with straw litter on the floor all the year around. The main family kept was Staf Van Reet, originally from Bert Hession of Blackpool and their best stock hen, 'The Golden Hen', was from the very best Dave Allan lines. They raced only north road with the very strong Peterborough Federation, Notts and Dist. Federation and North Road Championship Club and were highly successful in all of them. The partners raced only cocks on the widowhood system and paired up the racers the second week in January. They all reared at least one youngster and when these were 15 days old, the females were taken away and the cocks finished the rearing. When the hens were re-introduced, the cocks were gives eight to ten training tosses on good days only, and were put on the widowhood system when sitting seven days on their second round of eggs. The cocks were never trained in the racing season, only flying out around the loft twice a day. They were fed a first-class widowhood mixture and were put on breakdown after the race, until Tuesday night.

Alwyn says his widowhood system was very basic and geared to save work and time. The widowhood hens were housed in a wire flight at the rear of the widowhood section and on marking nights would be placed in their nest boxes through a small trap-door in the back of each box to save time. We looked at many of the Hills' premier racers, including 'The Young General', a Van Reet mealy cock, which had won the federation four times racing on widowhood. This champion racer is a direct son of the 'Golden Hen' and Alwyn believes him to be a record holder, being the only bird in the very strong Peterborough Federation to win 1st Open three times. Another champion racer we handled was a young brother of 'Super Blue', which Alwyn called 'Treble Five'. These ace racers had won many Ists up to 250 miles and was runner-up for the 1997 RPRA Merit Sprint award. He also won 18th Open in the mighty North Road Championship Club from 250 miles with 4,200 birds competing.

The partners housed 30 pairs of stock birds, which were paired early, on December l5h. One of the top stock birds, a handsome 10-year-old chequer pied cock, was put on the bull system in 1998, and produced 41 youngsters, running with six hens! Alwyn says because his young birds were bred so early they would want to pair up in late April, so they were parted for three months and put back together after two or three young bird races. He put 26 youngsters on the darkness system, with the remainder staying natural, but says they were on the dark naturally being bred so early, with only eight hours' light per day in January and February. The young birds were trained very hard and were started at a very early age and raced through to the longest race.

FRANK BRISTOW

OF HORBLING

I think Frank's loft set-up is probably one of the best I've ever seen. The lofts were not only excellent but were full of pigeons of the highest quality. Frank's L-shaped, brick double-storey loft was built in 1976 and is not only very pleasing to look at, but is very practical, with a lot of thought put into the design. One half of the top floor is for the widowhood cocks, which are housed in four sections and the other half is taken up with young birds and widowhood hens. The 55 pairs of stock birds are kept on the ground floor. The racing sections have grating floors with the widowhood racers being trapped through open doors and the young birds through sputniks. The stock birds have very spacious living quarters and can get out in a big wire flight in the summer months.

Frank has been in the sport for 45 years and when it comes to breeding winners he never relied on so-called individual strains. He pairs the best to the best regardless of origin, but the main base strains that formed his impressive family are Janssen, Wildemeersch, Haelterman and the super line from Albert De Groote which was mainly of the famous D'Hondt family. When he finds a certain breeding pair are producing above-average race birds, they remain together; others are given different mates for a couple of seasons. Frank is adamant that in today's fierce competition only the best will keep you at the top.

While we were in his stock sections, he showed me many top breeders, including the retired racer 'Sammy', a wonderful Wildemeersch pencil pied cock which had won 1st Northallerton (110 miles), 1stMorpeth (166 miles), 1st Berwick (209 miles), 1st Fraserburgh (337 miles) and 1st Lerwick (563 miles). This old cock took my eye as soon as I walked into the loft. The Wildemeersch hen he is paired to had also won many 1st prizes racing. The breeders are usually mated around Christmas time and Frank spends several days making sure the pairs are suited to each other. His breeding birds normally rear two or three rounds of youngsters, but all the pairs are separated towards the middle of June.

Frank likes racing at all distances and has won the federation from every racepoint on the north road, including Lerwick. He won 268 x 1st prizes between 1990 and 1998 and has won the section in the North Road Championship Club from Perth and Berwick. One of the top birds in the race loft is a Staf Van Reet pencil pied cock which m the 1998 season won 1st Perth, 1st Thurso and positions from Morpeth and Berwick, to win the East Midlands RPRA Region Middle-Distance award. Another ace in the racing section was the D'Hondt blue chequer cock 'Prince Albert', 1st Section North Road Championship Club, Berwick, when raced paired up as a young bird, and winner of many prizes as an old bird on the widowhood system.

Frank's main family are the D'Hondts of Semmerzake. D'Hondt, a great Belgian fancier, won 1st Open Bourges National 60,000 birds in 1997. Frank races his pigeons in the Peterborough Central Federation, which covers an area of more than 3,000 square miles and has several very strong competing clubs. He has won every average and award possible over the past few years, often taking up to the first six positions in the organisation! He races both cocks and hens on the widowhood system. They are usually mated at the beginning of January and are allowed to rear just one youngster or sit eggs which have been moved from the better pairs. The race team are then separated until the beginning of April, when they are re-paired and allowed to sit eggs for about eight days before going on the widowhood system. During this period they will receive five or six training tosses to a distance of about 25 miles. After this initial training no further basket work is given with loft exercise and regular racing keeping the whole team in super condition. Frank races on the basic widowhood system with the racers seeing their mates on marking night, and on their return from the race. He goes into great detail when it comes to feeding his team and uses commercial racing mixtures, usually mixing at least three different types together. His young birds are raced on the darkness system and are paired up to be put on a semi-widowhood method. The Bristow loft enjoyed an excellent season racing in 1999, winning over 30 x 1sts in the clubs and being premier prize winner in the local Federation. A wonderful performance!

We really have looked at two of the best this week. Two absolutely brilliant fanciers! 

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.