Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

The Show Racers of Great Britain - Part 5

 SANDRA WILLIAMS

OF CAMBORNE

When you are looking for one of the very best pigeon fancy press scribes, you need not look any further than Sandra Williams of Camborne, our own ‘Celtic Lass’ of the British Homing World. Sandra has raced pigeons very successfully for many years, in partnership with her husband, Graham, but what she is mostly famed for is her wonderful writing and the great success she has achieved with her team of Show Racers.

Sandra married Graham in October 1970 and have three children, and six grandchildren, which she says are the love of her life. At that time they raced Greyhounds at the St. Austell, where they met Bob and Ecla Penfold, who raced Greyhounds, but also were pigeon fanciers. The Williams started up in pigeons in 1975, with some Vandevelds and Champion Major pigeons, the old black pieds, which they obtained from Bob Penfold. More or less from their out set in pigeon racing, Graham and Sandra won club races and averages, but had some good luck in the late 1970’s, when their acquired their famous “Dutch Pair”. This champion stock pair bred countless winners, racing and showing, for the Williams loft. Graham says, these days the partners concentrate manly on the long distance channel races, with the N.F.C., B.B.C. and Cornwall Continental Flying Club, where the partners won 1st. open Lamballe in the 2005 season. They race 24 cocks on the widowhood, but dabble a bit with some natural birds and maintain that their best performances are mainly with natural hens.

Having been involved with pigeons for most of her married life, early one morning in 1995, Sandra received a telephone call from Jack Bolitho (Cousin Jack) of the British Homing World, asking if she would like to take over his column in the fancy press. Jack had been suffering some bad health and was finding it very difficult to produce a column every week. She was flattered that Jack had considered her for this important job, but was also terrified that she was up to the task and to follow in ‘Cousin Jack’s’ footsteps. Sandra told me, having always lacked self confidence in her self, she nervously said, ‘I will think about it Jack’. She thought about it and decided to give it a go, and after a while found she was enjoying the writing. It was getting her out of the house more, giving her a new lease of life and a sense of adventure. Sandra says she loves writing and her pigeon scribe work is now her whole life. The rest is history, as we all know now, ‘Celtic Lass’ is one of the very best pigeon scribes in the sport today!

In January 1998, Graham and Sandra were invited to judge at the B.H.W. ‘Show of the Year’ Blackpool, and thought it to be quite an honour to be asked. They had no idea what classes they were to judge, but were thrilled to be told on their arrival in the Winter Gardens that they were handling two classes of young Show Racers. Sandra’s father passed away just two days before travelling to Blackpool, and his dying wish was that she went, whatever the outcome. She had very mixed emotions on that weekend in Blackpool, sadness and the thrill of excitement and nervousness, that goes with judging at one of the biggest pigeon shows in the world. She went down the aisle between the show pens with her judging stick, making them all stand up and thought to her self, they were the finest array of pigeons she had ever seen! She judged at racing pigeon shows many times with her hubby, Graham, but to judge at Blackpool, is an experience she will never forget. She started to judge in the Winter Gardens at 20.00hrs and at 23.35hrs she had picked out a beautiful young Mealy cock, which says literally took her breath away. There was one to have beaten him, but sadly when Sandra held out his wing, a moth had eaten away a bit of his flight. Her winning Show Racer had it all, beautiful head, a well balanced body, the soft fine feather, a mealies ‘black pea’ eye and a wonderful stance. She gave him ten out of ten! Next morning she was greeted by John Robilliard who asked her, what she had selected and she told him, it was a Mealy belonging to Fitzpatrick, Fleming and Coutts of Glasgow. Sandra’s selection went on to win Best Young Bird in Show and on meeting ‘wee’ Jimmy Fitzpatrick, he told her it had previously won ten firsts. After that first meeting at Blackpool, Sandra and Jimmy became very good friends and several years later Jimmy gave Sandra the Blackpool Mealy cock as a 50th. birthday present.

After the Blackpool weekend Sandra couldn’t get those gorgeous Show Racers out of her mind and had been well and truly smitten with them. She rang Jimmy Fitzpatrick in Glasgow and decided to purchase some Show Racers from him. Sandra says, Jimmy was her ‘mentor’ after that and taught her all she knows about Show Racers, with some invaluable help from her husband, Graham. With the birds she had sent down from Scotland, there was a superb Mealy cock that had won Supreme Champion at the Blackpool for the Fitzpatrick, Fleming & Coutts partnership. Sandra bred some wonderful Mealies from these original birds that were the foundation of her Show Racer loft. ‘56’ as he was known, bred Sandra a young Mealy cock, which won Supreme Champion at the Duchy R.P.C. Open Show (578 birds) at Polgooth in November 2001 and then the handsome cock was named, ‘Celtic Supreme’. He went forward and was entered in the Supreme Champion of Great Britain class at the Blackpool Show in January 2002 and was 3rd. of the 17 champions entered, and won the R.P.R.A. Show Racer award for that year. In 2002 Sandra bred, ‘Joe 90’, a Mealy cock from ‘Celtic Supreme’, and this young cock which was the spitting image of his father, and won Best in Show twice as a young bird. ‘Celtic Supreme’ bred many outstanding show birds, including a sweet hen called, ‘Snowdrop’, which won Best of Series and overall Champion at the South West Show Racer Society. The dam of ‘Celtic Supreme’ was a Mealy hen loaned to Sandra by the well known show man, Roland Thresher. Within a couple of years Sandra had a loft full of winners. In January 2002 ‘Celtic Lass’ had a B.B.C. film crew visit her loft to record her wonderful Show Racer team and feature the great ‘Celtic Supreme’.

Her birds always had access to an aviary, where they had two or three baths a week. The loft was scrapped out at least once a day, sometimes twice, especially if a show was coming up. Sandra’s feeding regime consisted of beans, peas and tares, which was fed once a day in the show season. The birds were given all the normal grit, pick-stones and Condition seed. The youngsters were the same, but never allowed to get fat, as there is a fine line to handling well. Before she paired the stock birds they were fed very light, which was usually after the Blackpool Show. The light feeding continues until they lay and then the better food is increased, and this mixture continues right through the breeding season.

Sandra has won Best in Show many times at all the premier Show Racer venues and some more of her best birds were: ‘The Red Cock’ had seven shows as a young bird and won five firsts: ‘The10’ a Mealy cock which was one of Sandra’s all time favourites and he won six firsts as a youngster: ‘The Silver Hen’ gifted to the Williams loft by Sandra’s good friend Roland Thresher and she won Best in Colour Class (a very large class) Pensilva Open Show. Sandra’s achievements with her birds must be described as brilliant and her wins would be countless. She has had some wonderful experiences and memories with pigeons, not only with racing and show pigeons, but ‘Fancy’ birds, such as the Oriental Frills. Sandra told me, these are a difficult breed, where the adult birds can’t rear their own young, and need a foster pair of racers.

A few years ago Sandra started to become ill with repeated chest infections, which followed one after the other. Her G.P. gave her anti-biotic after anti-biotic and sent her for a chest X rays, finally she was sent to a Immuneologist at Derriford Hospital. In 2004 after several visits to the Hospital and many tests, it was revealed that Sandra had the dreaded Pigeon Fancier’s Lung Decease. She was devastated by the news and could not believe it, convinced they had got it wrong. Sandra asked her self, ‘Could this really be happening to me?’ She says she absolutely adored the Show Racers and still does. In December 2004 all her birds were sent back to Scotland and her heart with them! The doctor gave her ten years minimum, and if she didn’t heed the warning, would finish up a respirator in a few years, if she continued to keep pigeons. She was shell shocked and felt very bitter. On December 15th. 2004 every bird was boxed up and sent to Scotland, and by the 20th. the loft had been sold, leaving Sandra feeling very empty indeed. Although she always wore a loft coat and changed her shoes, she had not always worn a mask or head gear. It’s the bloom that settles on the lungs. She had a 17ft loft with two sections, and housed a dozen birds in each section, so over crowding never affected her lungs, because her loft was never overcrowded. As Sandra says, ‘It’s just one of those things!’

Sandra has kept pigeons of all the different codes for over 30 years and now keeps her interest going with her writing in the fancy press, which she thoroughly enjoys. She is still in partnership with Graham, with the racing pigeons, but she never goes in the loft. During the summer month she enjoys watching the birds exercise around the loft and on race days watching for the channel racers.

Well I hope my readers have enjoyed this little story about one of our best pigeon writers, Sandra Williams, our own ‘Celtic Lass’. I’ve enjoyed writing it! I can be contacted on telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!