Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

THE SHOW RACERS OF GREAT BRITAIN

- PART 2

JIMMY FITZPATRICK

OF GLASGOW

A good friend of mine in the Show Racer world is someone I admire for his skill in producing so many show champions, is Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Cambuslang, near Glasgow. ‘Wee’ Jimmy is in partnership with Roddy Fleming and Gary Coutts of Aberdeen, and they have won countless classes and trophies at every Classic show, including B.I.S. R.P. Old Comrades Show (twice), B.O.S. Old Comrades (twice), B.Y.B. Old Comrades (three times), many premier prizes at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show and three times Champion of Great Britain. Jimmy has kept show pigeons over 30 years, previously racing pigeons with his father, and 1971 won three races on the trot in the very strong local club, with over 55 members competing. At the end of the 1971 season Jimmy attended his first classic pigeon show and fell in love with the wonderful show birds he saw. He got rid of his racing pigeons and made his start in Show Racers, with a gift pair of eggs from Charlie Hanner. Later Jimmy met the ‘Master’ show man, Don Spedding of Cumbria, whom he considers to be the greatest stockman of them all.

Jim’s show team is housed in a smart six section loft at Cambuslang and the inmates enjoy an attached 24ft. aviary. The 25 pairs of Show Racers don’t fly out, but are fed in the flight, to encourage them to exercise. Jimmy told me, he let all the birds out once, to try and get them flying out and they were all alright until they went around the house roof out of sight of the loft, and they were lost. Wood chips are used as a litter on the loft floors and the loft has heaters which are used on the night before the big show. The birds are paired up at the end of January and are fed a Channel mixture of beans, peas and tares. Jimmy makes up his own seed mixture and feeds groats when rearing. This loft competes in about 40 shows in a season and Jimmy maintains he has no favourite colour, but only likes good type. The birds get a bath the day before the big show, but just prior to travelling, the birds drinking water is withheld as the partners maintains their droppings are dryer for the show pen. He likes to enter a team of about 40 pigeons in the Classic and National shows, and has judged all over the U.K. In fact the first time I ever met Jimmy, was when he was judging the Devon & Cornwall show in the West Country, with Alan Spedding of Cumbria.

One of the partner’s best pigeons in recent years is the wonderful Red cock, ‘Red Rum’, and he is off Harry Spratt of Belfast bloodlines. This cock has won countless first prizes in big shows and is a champion breeder, being the sire of Classic winners. The many quality stock birds owned by the partners are housed at the Aberdeen home of Gary Coutts and about 150 youngsters are bred each season. Jimmy is a very hard man when it comes to selecting young birds and is happy to retain just one youngster from the whole season’s production. He maintains that when competing at National level only the very best stock will do. There you have it, Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Cambuslang!

RON McCARTHY

OF RHYMNEY

On one of my ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tours of  South Wales, I visited the premier Show Racer fanciers, Mr. & Mrs. Ron McCarthy of Gwent. In Ron’s 45 years in the sport, he has won many top positions, including B.I.S. Cardiff Charity Show, B.I.S. Show of the West, B.I.S. Birmingham Mail Show, B.I.S. Midlands Show several times, B.I.S. R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show several times, B.I.S. B.H.W. Blackpool Show and Supreme Champion Young Bird Southern Classic Show. A fantastic loft performance in classic shows!

Ron keeps about 16 pairs of Show Racers which are paired up on February 14th. and breeds about 40 youngsters each season. His loft is over 45 years old, starting out as a chicken shed, and is 22ft.x 8ft. with a flight on the front to bath the birds and keep the loft dry. Ron says a good loft should be comfortable for the fancier and the pigeons. He has been with pigeons all his life as his father was a fancier, and his first few pairs of birds were housed in the coal house. Ron’s best bird over the last few years is his White Mealy cock winner of two firsts at the British Homing World Blackpool Show, including Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex; at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show, Best in Show; at the Royal Welsh, Best in Show and first at the Monmouth Open Show, plus many other good wins for the Rhymney loft. A once in a life time pigeon!

The birds are fed on farm beans and peas, mixed with maize and a pinch of Linseed each day. Ron doesn’t feed anything special for the moult, as the birds get the same corn all the year round. He likes to pair grandparents to their grandchildren to produce good Show Racers. He likes a bigger pigeon for stock, with strong head and good body. Ron tried deep litter for about six months, but his wife hated it and Ron wasn’t too pleased either, he always had to clean his glasses after coming out of the loft, with the dust. He told me, he enjoys scraping the loft out every day and most of his birds are tame. Ron McCarthy, another of the very best showmen in the sport today!

NORMAN PERRY

OF PORT TALBOT

I first met Norman Perry several seasons ago, when I was judging at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show and he won Best in Show with a Mosaic Chequer hen, bred from pigeons obtained from his good friend, Ron McCarthy of Rhymney. Norman has since gone on and won B.I.S. at the Southern Region Show (twice), B.O.S. R.P. Old Comrades Show and the top honours at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show. Norman has been in the sport since he left school and has kept Show Racers for about eight years, being a north road racer before that. He changed over codes, to showing pigeons because his job as a postman didn’t allow him the time to race his birds properly. He was very keen on the long distance racing and won Lerwick twice. He pairs his 25 pairs of show birds the weekend after the B.H.W. Blackpool Show and keeps mainly the very successful Ron McCarthy bloodlines. He has nine pairs of stock birds and breeds about 50 babies each season, retaining half these for the show pen. Norman’s set up is made up of three lofts, with flights and the birds are fed on a Young Bird mixture. His club is the Monmouth Show Society and he enters only club events and three National shows each season. A fancier with a big future in the Show Racer world!

VALERIE VICCARS

OF HIGH WYCOMBE

We are going to feature a lady who has been a good worker for the sport for many years and has now taken more of a ‘back seat’ in recent years. I was looking forward to visiting the High Wycombe lofts of Tony and Valerie Viccars for some time and I finally achieved the visit on a cold, frosty, Saturday morning, in the depths of winter. Tony raced in the local club with outstanding success, but the purpose of my visit was to see Val’s show racer team, after her outstanding performances in recent seasons.

Val was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex, and lived there until she and Tony got married, when they moved to the High Wycombe area, where Val was a secretary for a firm of solicitors. Initially Tony kept a few racing pigeons in 1983 on moving in to their cottage, bought a few fantails for the garden. This went down well with the neighbours, so after a couple of years Tony bought stock birds from Louella and started racing with the Wycombe Coly. In December of that year they went to the Old Comrades Show at the N.E.C. Birmingham and Val was immediately interested in the show birds on display. They got talking to one of the judges, Reg Price of Worcester, about the sport and the Show Racers, and he agreed to sell Val two pairs of stock birds. A couple of weeks later they picked them up from Reg and paired them up in one of the sections in Tony’s racing loft. The following year Valerie met up with top show man, Bill Meader of Rainham, Essex, and his colleague, Tommy Jones, who gave her a great deal of help and advice, and provided her with  some excellent stock birds. Bill and Tommy, and their wives became very close friends of the Viccars.

In 1985 Val bought her own Show Racer loft off the late Ted Hills of Tonbridge and Tony built on to the original loft and finished up with six sections. Four sections had wire bays, each with a concealed bath which drained to the outside of the loft keeping the inside nice and dry. Val was a member of the Midlands Show Racer Society of Shipton on Stour, where she won the Points Trophy for several seasons and was the Society Champion. The Society was run by Angela and Alan Noyce who did an excellent job of organising five club shows each year, followed by the Championship event in January. Val’s local show was the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show, which she attended most years and in 1989 she won B.I.S. with a young Mosaic hen. In 1992 she achieved B.O.S. at the London Show at Edmonton, with a three year old Silver Mosaic hen. She won several firsts at the Old Comrades and in 1994 had two firsts, one of which won Best Young Bird in Show. The Viccars pigeons won first and best through the wires at the Louella Classic in 1990 and at the first R.P. Southern Classic at Bournemouth, she won two firsts, with her good Grizzle hen winning reserve Best in Show. To finish off a great 1996 season Val won two firsts in the Inter Society classes at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show and with other cards, she picked up the trophy for Most Points in the six Inter Society classes. Valerie was the secretary of British Show Racer Federation for several years, with John Robilliard as chairman and Doug McClary president.

The show team was made up of mainly ten pairs and the three pairs of stock birds were paired up two weeks after the Blackpool Show. Val told me, when pairing up she tried to concentrate on the colour and size, and liked to house only two pairs in a section in the loft, to stop fighting. She usually had an 80% success rate with hatching from the first two rounds, the second being better than the first. The number of youngsters was then reduced over the next few months, to about 25 before their first outing, which was the Thames Agricultural Show.

Val fed the same corn all year around, which was a 50% / 50% mixture of Versele-Laga Super Widowhood and Star Brand Super Junior. At the weaning stage youngsters were given extra maple peas and as a treat all the birds got a little Red Band two or three times a week. As far as the water was concerned she added garlic once a week and minerals twice a week. The show team got one bath every week, normally two days before the event. She tried to keep the birds in good condition all the year round, but more effort went in during the week before a show.

They say variety is the spice of life and we’ve covered England, Scotland and Wales in this week’s “ON THE ROAD’. I hope my readers have enjoyed the second Show Racer special, we will be having another very soon. I can be contacted on telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!