Keith Mott Writes about winning fanciers past & present

The Show Racers of GB - Part 10

 MARK HYLANDS

OF PORT TALBOT

Mark Hylands is one of the premier show in this country, having won consistently at the highest level in the Show Racer world. The lad from South Wales first started up with racing pigeon at the age of nine and tells me there were no pigeon fanciers in his family. Mark recalls, a fancier named Roy Denner was the best local racer at that time. He formed good friendship with Royce Davies of Sandfield and the lads formed a pigeon partnership, racing as Davies & Hylands. Mark was 11 years of age at the time and they joined the very strong Liberal Club (46 members), which was affiliated to the Welsh North Road Federation. Mark says that his good friend Royce Davies is still the best fancier in Port Talbot today! The young Mark had his first Show Racers from the late Will Morley of Port Talbot at the age of 13 and these were housed in a 10ft.x 6ft. loft. At that time, although he had some show birds, he was still hooked on the racing pigeons. Like all true Welsh men, when Mark was younger he played Rugby for his local club, Aberavon Green Star R.F.C.

When I asked Mark how he got on when started up, his reply was, ‘I only had three pairs of show birds, one pair from Will Morley, another from Will Williams of Glyncorrwg and the third from Brian Jones of Bridgewater. My favourite bird was a blue hen from Will Williams and she won the big show held in Swansea. That was my first big win, I was over the moon! On the racing side; I will never forget one particular day when we were racing three races, Lerwick with the Welsh Grand National, Elgin with the Mid Glamorgan Championship Club and a club race from Shrewsbury with the Welsh N.R. Federation. This particular day Royce had to go to work and clocking in was down to me, which was a huge responsibility for a 13 year old. There was a tail wind from Shrewsbury and I clocked to win the Federation, and then went on to time the Combine winner from Elgin. Royce phoned to say that the Lerwick birds would be home on the day, having been liberated at 06.00hrs. in a North East wind. At 18.12hrs I timed the black pied hen, sent sitting 10 day old eggs and this game hen recorded 1st. open Welsh Grand National, first birds in to Wales. What a day, that I will never forget!’

In the early days the racers came from M. Matthews and Ayton Marshall of the Up North Combine fame, and the first really successful show birds were obtained from David Shuttleworth of Bridgend. David was a great all round fancier and had the best Reds and Mealies at that time. When Mark worked in Essex he visited the great Bill Meader at every spare moment he had, to learn the showing ‘trade’ from one of the all time greats. Mark says, Bill Meader was the ‘master’ and he learnt a lot from him. One of the best birds he ever owned was a mealy pied hen gift from ‘wee’ Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Glasgow and she was the mother of his loft. Mark says what a pigeon! He maintains ‘wee’ Jimmy is the best all round pigeon man on the show scene today and there is nothing he hasn’t won. Mark’s first society was the very strong Monmouth S.R.S., which at that time had a membership like a ‘who’s who’ of some of the best Show Racer fanciers in the sport. He won his first Best in Show in the Monmouth and it was like winning an open show. Mark told me his early mistakes were over feeding and losing!  After some time off from the sport, Mark restarted with show birds in 1989, with birds obtained from David Shuttleworth, ‘wee’ Jimmy Fitzpatrick and a very good friend, Donald Brown of Campbelltown in Scotland. He combined the birds from these great fanciers together and they ‘clicked’.

Marks present loft set up at Port Talbot consists of a 12ft.x 8ft. stock loft, with an aviary and a 35ft.x 10ft. show loft, with an aviary, which is open all the year round. The loft has skylights in the roof to increase the light, he thinks ultraviolet is important for conditioning pigeons. In the loft contentment and feeding management are the most important things and he is against deep litter, because it is to messy and dusty. He likes to clean out twice a day, if possible.

When I asked Mark about his general management, he told me, ‘I don’t race any more. I concentrate on show birds, but if I was racing, the distance birds would be raced on the natural system, sprint to middle distance would be flown on the widowhood system, with the youngster going on the darkness system. Back to the showing; I keep about 40 show birds and breed about 60 young birds because it’s difficult to breed a champion, because every judge is different. There should be a standard for Show Racers i.e.; reds and mealies should have black eyes and blues should have good bars and plenty of colour. I find my late breds are always my best yearlings and find the best young birds are bred from yearlings. The corn I use is the best, a prestige mixture by the Versele-Laga corn merchants, which contains five different peas, popcorn maize ect. For conditioning I use plain canary seed. I think it is important to bathe the birds the day before a show and normally three times a week, also treat for cancer once a month’.

Mark pairs his 20 pairs up just after the B.H.W. Blackpool Show. All his Dark Chequers are bred down from his champion hen, ‘Nancy’, which was bred by Mark’s good friend, Russell Davison of Edinburgh. Even to the untrained eye you can tell this hen is very special, as her record tells you: B.I.S. ‘Old Comrades’ Shoe 2004, twice B.I.S. Edinburgh Show, twice B.I.S. N.E.H.U. Peterlee Show and to finish it off, twice Reserve Supreme Champion B.H.W. Blackpool Show. What a pigeon! When selecting birds, Mark, likes a long cast, a good head and a good size, not to small. He doesn’t like coloured birds and tells me he has just introduced some new stock from Darren Gibbons of Grimsby and Peter Kendall of Bideford. He normally keeps about 40 young birds and these are fed the same as the old bird show team. His job is a pipe fitter, which takes him working all over the U.K. and E.U., and sometimes only comes home once a month. He has some good friends that look after the bird well when he is away working, but it can be difficult when something goes wrong and he is not there to sort it out.

He first entered the ‘Old Comrades’ Show at the N.E.C. Birmingham in 1990 and won Best Young Bird and Best in Show, with his champion blue hen, ‘Lockie’s Gift’, which was bred by the late, John Lock of South Wales. Other premier birds at Mark’s Port Talbot loft are: ‘Peaches & Cream’, Mark told me she is the best Mealy he has ever seen and is a champion breeder, being the dam of his loft. She is 11 flighted and has won through the wires: ‘Fatty’, winner of five times Best in Show including at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show and Reserve Supreme Champion at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show: ‘The Beard’, winner of 11 times Best in Show. This wonderful Mealy cock has won two firsts at the ‘Old Comrades’ Show and three firsts at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show: ‘Spanish Princess’, Supreme Champion at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show, B.I.S. Monmouth S.R.S. Show: ‘Brownie’, Reserve Supreme Champion B.H.W. Blackpool Show, B.I.S. Monmouth S.R.S. Show. A wonderful loft record!

Mark says Show Racers should have dark eyes, he doesn’t like yellow eyes and maintains it is a fault. He believes in inbreeding his pigeons and told me late bred quite often make the best stock birds. When I asked Mark about the Show Racer scene in general, he said, ‘I would like to see only show men judging show birds, because racing men will always go for the smaller types of pigeons, with small heads and yellow eyes. You wouldn’t ask a show man to judge a 500 mile class! Just because a racing man has won a National or big race it doesn’t mean he knows about Show Racers. (Mark, I gave your beautiful pair of reds the first card at the ‘Old Comrades’, when I judged at the N.E.C. a few years ago! – Keith.) Show Racers should be bigger, bolder and beautiful, and in the main racing pigeons are smaller and finer. I think a racing man will always go for the type of bird he keeps.

Well that’s your ‘ON THE ROAD’ for this week and our last in the Show Racer series. We’ve finished on one of the very best on the show scene, Mark Hylands. He really is a brilliant fancier! Any fanciers interested in the Show Racers scene can obtain info from the British Show Racer Federation secretary: Mrs. L. Bissett, 28, Roundhill Road, St.Andrews, Fife, KY16 8HE. I can be contacted on telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT