DAVE IMPETT

of Blackpool

by Keith Mott

In January, while in Blackpool for the B.H.W. 'Show of the Year', I had the good fortune to visit the long distance loft of David Impett, who I have known for several years, through our mutual friendship with Eric Cannon. Dave is a dedicated long distance fancier and in recent seasons has put up some wonderful performances with his Jan Aarden based Brugeman Bros. pigeons.

Dave started racing pigeons with his father in the 1960s and at that time met up with premier National long-distance flyer, the late Roy Mundy of Bolton. Dave says Roy was a brilliant fancier and taught him everything he needed to know about racing pigeons on the long distance. He spent a lot of time with Roy Mundy, serving his pigeon racing apprenticeship with him and maintains he owes his present day success to this very gifted fancier and dear friend. In the 1970s, Dave resigned from the N.W.H.U. and joined the R.P.R.A. so he could compete at National level, but unfortunately was only accepted as a guest member because his loft was 5 miles north of the boundaries. The base pigeons in the early days were bred down from, 'Vale Lady', winner of 1st Open Lancs. Combine Marrenes, 2nd Section, 30th Open Pau, also winner of the 'Osman Memorial Cup', and 'Vale Princess', winner of 1st Section Pau. Another good line was Roy Mundy's 'Rossall King', winner of 1st Section, 49th Open Pau.

With these outstanding bloodlines, success came straight away for the Impett loft, but this was short lived as the young Dave retired from the sport over 'pigeon politics'. This action cost Dave 20 years pigeon racing, however he says this time was not wasted because it made him a wiser person.

He restarted with the Pedley & Impett partnership in 1998 and the two fanciers raced with two lofts, one sprint and the other long distance. In 1999 they joined the North West Classic and were successful from the outset, winning 2nd Sect., 8th Open (£508), 1st Sect., 7th Open, 1st Sect. Yearling Derby and 5th, 6th Sect., 35th, 36th Open. The partners did well in the N.F.C. races, including 20th Sect., 268th Open Saintes (571 miles) in a north-west wind.

Dave decided to start racing long distance on his own and started up his present loft at Trapp Farm in 2001. He told me it was a good move as the pigeons are in a natural environment, which he thinks is a must for successful long distance racing. Due to the foot and mouth, Dave only had one channel race in 2001 and recorded, 13 th Sect. L from Herstal with the N.F.C. The following season he recorded 21st, 27th, 29th Sect. L Saintes (571 miles) N.F.C. In the 2003 season he joined the North Ashton 2 Bird Championship Club, racing against the very best fanciers in the north west of England and quite often if you don't time in on the day from the long races, you don't get on the result sheet. In his first season in the North Ashton, Dave, recorded 3rd . Niort, 6th, 9th Saintes (571 miles), winning the best 2 bird average from Saintes. 2004 saw him win 20 th Niort, 4 th Saintes, lifting the best average Niort/Saintes in the North Ashton and 8th, 14th Sect. L (only 14 birds on the day in the section), 155th, 288th Open N.F.C. Saintes, flown in to a very hard north west wind.

David Impett keeps his pigeons in a wonderful natural environment, at Trapp Farm and races 36 pairs on the natural system, with 500 mile plus racing in mind. The main racing loft is 40ft long, with open door trapping and he has never used deep litter. Dave told me he had visited many premier lofts that use deep litter, including Brugeman Bros. in Holland, but it's not his cup of tea and he likes to scrap out regularly. He maintains the most important factor in good loft design is good ventilation and the lofts must be dry. The old birds are paired up in mid-March and get very little training, as they are given an open loft a lot of the time. Dave normally gives them three 50 mile training tosses prior to the race he is setting them up for. His feeding system consists of a good balanced mixture, with an additional fat mixture being added for the long distance events. The old birds have raced outstandingly up to Saintes, 571 miles, but Dave tells me the 2005 season will see him have go at Pau which is well over 700 miles to his loft in the north-west of England. The 50 young birds are housed in a 20ft loft and they are given about eight training tosses, up to 30 miles before their first race. There is no 'darkness' system, with the youngsters being raced naturally to the perch and they are only given four races to train them. They are fed a good mixture similar to the old birds, but with a higher proportion of Maple peas. Dave doesn't race his old birds or youngsters inland, they are only sent to the short events, every now and then, for training.

Dave says long distance pigeon racing is for him because he likes a challenge and sprint racing is not a challenge! Anyone with a good loft position can win sprint races.

His family of Brugeman Bros. pigeons only perform well over 500 miles and Dave is very proud that his loft houses seven different pigeons that have scored at 571 mile races. Dave told me his most thrilling experience in pigeon racing was meeting the late, great Eric Cannon, who he says is possibly our greatest fancier.

The 16 pairs of stock birds are housed in two 8ft lofts, with flights and the breeders are paired up in mid-February. These birds are fed on a heavy mixture and when feeding their young are given 80% maple peas. Dave rates Brugeman Bros. of Holland as one the best lofts in Europe and says their record in long distance International racing is second to none. He visits the Dutch loft once a year and most of his stock team are direct from the brothers. The Brugeman pigeons are an inbred family and are Jan Aarden based, being medium long cast in the hand, with wonderful feather quality. Dave maintains, that when you bring in new stock birds they must conform with what you have already, especially if you have a good inbred family. For example, Dave recently purchased two pigeons from premier National flyers, Padfield Family of Wales, off their famous '63' pigeon, which is Jan Aarden based, from the best of Wim Muller. Brugeman Bros. famous pigeon, 'Orhan', winner of 8th International Barcelona, is bred down from Muller/Aardens on one side. Every pigeon in the Brugeman loft contains the 'Orhan' bloodline and Dave's top breeders are grandchildren of this champion pigeon. Another Brugeman bloodline which is very strong in the Impett loft is that of 'Myra', winner of 8th National Barcelona and 45th National Barcelona. Dave Impett's best stock pigeon is 'The Golden Hen', and she is the dam of the loft, being a champion producer. This wonderful dark chequer hen is direct from Brugeman Bros. and is a granddaughter of 'Orhan' and 'Myra'.

Dave maintains that sadly our sport has declined in the past 20 years, because we live in a lazy society and pigeon racing needs hard work and dedication to make it thrive. Very few young people are coming in to the sport, as we live in a the Computer age they are more interested in Electronics than the old fashioned hobbies, like fishing and pigeon racing. He thinks the management at top of our sport should channel their energies in to trying to get the fancy back to what it was year ago, when clubs and birdage were big. Dave says if it was in his power he would introduce a rule, that clubs would not have a radius and all decent fanciers had to be accepted in to the membership, and not rejected because they are good flyers.