Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

THE SHOW RACERS OF GREAT BRITAIN

- THREE

DOUG McCLARY

OF AUSTRALIA (FORMERLY OF EXETER)

Doug McClary is a fancier I have admired for many years for his showing, racing and wonderful writing in his regular page in the British Homing World, and several books he has had published. Doug and his wife, Ann, recently up sticks and moved, pigeons and all, to Australia, to start a new life down under with family that were already living there. I must say, he is greatly missed on the English showing scene, but in regular email that we exchange, it seems he is really working hard to get the Show Racer code going in Australia. Back in the mid-1990’s I went to Exeter, in Devon and had the good fortune to meet this great fancier for the first time and look at his 'Ace' team of pigeons and lofts. Doug is famous in our sport for being one of the top show men in the world, but in recent seasons had raced a small team on Widowhood with outstanding success.

 In showing he has won most of the top shows including three years running B.I.S. at the Great Yorkshire Amal, B.I.S at the B.H.W. Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ and many other top awards. In recent years showing has tended to take second place owing to business demands and because of growing interest in racing. Through the years, pigeons have taken him to many parts of the world including several times to the USA, where he judges many of the top shows on the eastern seaboard.

His most thrilling experiences in the sport have been winning the GYA three years on the trot, winning his Section in the National Flying Club, and being invited to judge so often in the USA. He first judged there at the National YB Show at Louisville, Kentucky in 1981, and after judging a huge entry of over 600 birds, he awarded BIS to a cracking blue cock owned by Jim Isslehardt. Four years later he judged at Charlotte, North Carolina and awarded BIS to the same blue cock and of course in the meantime had not seen the pigeon or the owner. That pleased Doug, greatly! Racing his pigeons, Doug has won every race point North Road to Thurso and on the south he has won Section D of NFC twice, been 3rd Section and taken several other good positions, always with a small entry of two or four birds. Top pigeons at the Exeter lofts were: 'Brian' blue chequer cock: winner of nine 1sts racing all Devon County Championship Club Nantes races, a fantastic pigeon!

The list of champion Show Racer to grace the Exeter would be far to many to list, but here is a few: "Medallion Cock” mealy cock: winner of Welsh Region RPRA showing award; Devon & Cornwall Region RPRA showing award, Supreme Champion Devon & Cornwall SRS, 1st Old Comrades Show, 1st and Best Opposite Sex at the B.H.W. Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’, four times Best In Show. 'Sparnon Queen' blue hen a great show winner, 1st Birmingham Mail, 1st GYA, 1st and B.I.S. GYA, 1st and B.I.S. at the B.H.W. Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ (when her sister was runner up), 1st. B.H.W. Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’, 1st and B.I.S. Southern Region Show, 1st Welsh Open Show, a total of 13 Classic show positions. “Del Boy” blue white flight cock, one of Doug’s finest breeders, winner of several times Best in Show, including three at successive shows of the Devon & Cornwall S.R. Society. “Georgia” blue hen, winner of Best in Show at the National Young Bird Show (1,364 birds) and many other premier wins. This wonderful hen is now at stock in Australia. “Double Eight” mealy cock. Doug says, this cock is a wonderful type and colour, and is an excellent breeder. “Roly” blue white flight cock. One of Doug’s favourites and he told me he was one of the best powder blues he had ever seen. A magnificent pigeon!

Doug had a very smart loft set up, which overlooks rolling hills and wonderful Devon countryside. The show racers, racers and stock birds were all housed in separate lofts, which have all got corridors running along the fronts. Ventilation is by adjustable glass .louvers along the front and in the rear of the lofts. He considers the most important factor in pigeon loft design is space for the fancier. This may seem unusual but he is quite convinced that a corridor of sufficient width allows for much easier control of the loft, a better flow of air and the opportunity to observe. Compartments should be of optimum size to allow the birds room, yet to control them. Doug mainly raced Widowhood, with nine pairs, but in 1996 worked a team of nine cocks on the celibate system and he says he found it very easy to use and also rewarding. He feeds a varied good mixture throughout the year, varying it as the seasons. Dictated by moulting, racing, showing and winter resting. His birds come to his house back door for small doses of Red Band and peanuts, and Doug maintains this helps the understanding between fancier and pigeons. Old birds training was varied with a couple of north road tosses, before having a last one or two south on the line of flight.

In showing he is founder member and long serving secretary of the Devon and Cornwall Show Racer Society, as well as former president and founder of British Show Racers Fed. Doug says in some ways the sport has progressed in recent years, thanks to better clocks and better technology. Transportation of race birds must be improved and economy is the enemy of pigeon comfort, too many fanciers do not even know what conditions their birds experience when they go off to the race point. He maintains we must design and build better transporters, ,and our pigeon unions should do much more to make the sport more professional. Our leaders seem more interested in maintaining their official standing than in promoting the sport and money within the sport shou1d be used to make it better for fanciers .and birds. The Fancy is however in great danger from the predations of raptors and we must all do our part to safeguard  the sport in this respect. The problems of fanciers in the south west, Wales, Cumbria and  Scotland will soon be problems of all. Doug McClary’s loft was first Show Racer set up that I ever visited, and it gave me a great buzz to start with one of the best!

MR & MRS ALAN SPEDDING

OF CUMBRIA

It was on a ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tour of Cumbria and Scotland that I visited the Show Racer loft of Alan Spedding, soon after he had won Best in Show at the Old Comrades Show for the second time, and I must say, I have always found him to be a very nice guy. He started up with the Show Racers in 1988, taking over the birds when his relation, Donald Spedding packed up, and previous to that Alan raced pigeon with some good success. Donald was a professional singer and had to sell his team of birds to peruse his career in entertainment, and when he had his sale, Alan purchased two pairs back to start him self set up. Donald Spedding was very successful with his wonderful team of birds and is rated by some as one of the best Show Racer fanciers ever in the U.K. Alan told me, Donald was a brilliant stock man and had a natural gift of knowing which pigeon to pair together, to produce winners. He still spends a lot of time at Alan’s loft and his advice has help a lot with their recent success in the National shows.Alan is a member of a big Show Racer society in the north west of England and it has lofts as far apart as Blackburn and Carlisle. As well as winning Best in Show twice at the Old Comrades, the Spedding loft has won B.I.S. twice at the Louella Classic and had a winning pigeon on the top table every year it was staged. The first pigeon I handled on my loft visit was the champion blue chequer hen, that had won Best in Show at the Old Comrades Show a few weeks before. To say she was beautiful would be an under statement, she was perfection! She was a latebred, being out of a half brother, half sister mating and won the Old Comrades in her first season showing. Her dam, a blue chequer hen, was the nest mate to the champion blue chequer cock, ‘Mr. T’, winner of Best in Show at the Old Comrades in 1994. All these National show winners were bred down from Alan’s famous blue cock, ‘The Irish Cock’, bred by Harry Sprat of Ireland.Alan Spedding only keeps about 15 pairs of Show Racers and has no real stock birds, as he likes show all his birds. He pairs them up on 14th. February, to give them three or four weeks rest after the B.H.W. Blackpool Show and takes two rounds of them all. The premier birds in the loft are bred from more and ‘The Irish Cock’ and ‘Mr. T’ might produce ten youngsters in one season. They are fed different corn at different times of the year, ‘four seasons’ when breeding, ‘moulting’ mixture and ‘best racing’ mixture during the show season. The loft is nice and big, being very spacious, with roomy wire flights. I noticed on my visit that the dowled nest box fronts had no landing flaps and it was furnished with lots of standard box perches. The Speddings don’t use any type of deep litter on the loft floors, but fresh clean shavings are scattered over the perches and in the nest boxes. Alan cleans the loft out at 6am every day before going to work and his wife feeds and cleans out again at mid-day. He says his birds are fed at lunch time, because in the winter months, he thinks the birds don’t feed right by electric light, and tend to loose body. The partners breed 50 young birds every year and these are graded before the show season starts. Alan told me, they have a hit list, two hits and they are gone! He usually starts showing with about 15 young birds and has been very successful on this method. The next pigeon with looked at on our visit to the loft in Cumbria was the Old Comrades champion of 1994, blue chequer cock, ‘Mr. T’. This wonderful pigeon was five years old at the time and Alan said he had two more show seasons left in him. He won firsts at the Old Comrades three years on the trot and won Best in Show in 1994. Alan had a dream several nights on the trot, about a week before the Old Comrades and in this dream ‘Mr. T’, won B.I.S. at the Old Comrades Show. On penning his birds in the N.E.C. the following Friday, he told all the show lads about his dream and they all had a good laugh. Can you imagine the looks of amazement on their face on the Saturday when they walked in to the show arena and saw ‘Mr. T’ had won Best in Show! Really spooky! We also looked at the blue cock, ‘The Irish Cock’, and Alan told me he was the backbone of his loft, being a champion breeder. This cock was bred by Harry Sprat in Ireland and gifted to Donald Spedding in 1987, as a squeaker. As well being a ‘gold mine’ at stock, he won many firsts in the pen, including B.I.S. at York.Alan told me there is no secret to his outstanding success, but worked to a regular routine and tried to stick to it. When he raced pigeons he raced on the widowhood system and works his Show Racers on a similar brake down system. The day after the show they are broke down and then built up with corn and seeds to the next show. He never over shows the birds and likes at least two weeks between shows. They get regular baths in the flights, with them have one as near to the show as possible and they get multi-vits in the water three days before the show, as part of their build up.

We have featured two of the very best this week and our Show Racer specials continue next week. My phone number is 01372 463480. See yer!