Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

THE BEST OF LONG DISTANCE IN WALES

- PART 1

Preece Brothers of Abertillery

On a recent tour of South Wales, I visited the mountainside loft of Preece Brothers & son of Abertillery, Gwent. The partners race on the natural and widowhood systems, but have been learning a lot about the widowhood and roundabout in recent seasons. Colin says it’s getting harder to fly natural because of the Hawk problem in Wales, making it virtually impossible to have an open loft. Henry said that, considering the partners had 14 of their best racers stolen in 1986, they are very proud of their achievements in recent seasons, including 1st. open Welsh National in 1999. The loft since 1986 has won over 70 positions in the first 50 open in the Welsh National, including nine times 1st. Section; in 1986 1st. open Lerwick National; in 1988 1st. open Nantes National and 1st. open Guernsey National; in 1989 1st. open Combine New Pitsligo (8,000 birds); in 1993 1st. open New Pitsligo National and in 1999 1st. open National. Preece Brothers have been in the first 10 open positions over 20 times and over 50 times in the first 10 in the Section. A fantastic loft performance! Colin’s son, John, says that their biggest thrill was in 1986 on the night of the Lerwick National race, when they saw, Champion ‘Dusky’, racing up the valley. The Brothers fancied her to win the National two weeks before the race and she proved them right.

The main family of middle distance birds is Lefebre Dhaenen from Davis & Haines, with the odd Verheye from Lee & Cooper and A. Haull’s Janssen bloodlines. The long distance team is mainly Jack Porter, which the Preeces have made their own family. They also have a few Bakers bred by Gordon Proctor of Blackburn. They keep their pigeon management very simple and feeding is three different kinds of widowhood corn mixed together. The old birds race through to 600 miles and the youngsters go through to the programme to 280 miles. They pick out breeding pigeons on instinct and gut feeling and say that it’s something you can’t put in to words. They also go for the obvious things, like type and good winning lines. I feel really sorry for the Preece partnership. They have a wonderful loft set up, on the side of a mountain over looking the village of Abertillery, but their birds are being attacked by Hawks nearly every time they go out of the loft. One of their Welsh National winners was killed on the grass in front of the loft by a Hawk, as have many good pigeons own by Colin and Henry. In spite of all their problems on the mountain side, their record in the long distance National races is one of the best in Wales!

Alan and Andrew Deacon of Cardiff

I recently visited the Welsh National partnership of Alan and Andrew Deacon, whose loft is sited about half a mile from Cardiff City football Ground. The father and son partnership started up in the sport about 35 years ago, with pigeon obtained from Jim Biss and Paul Smith. I was very impressed with the Deacons loft and pigeons, they were a real credit to them. The main loft was brick built, double lined, with a tiled roof and three sections, one for young birds and hens on the natural system, one for widowhood cocks and a stock section with an aviary. Alan and Andrew race on the North Road with Janssens from Ken Darlington and Jan Aarden pigeons from the Ponderosa U.K. Stud. They race 20 widowhood cocks in the sprint races and 16 pairs on the natural system for the long distance events. They only race hens from the natural pairs on the long distance and they are mainly Jan Aarden. Because of the lack of space, the 60 young birds stay in the natural section with the old birds, which Andy says works out well. With both sets of racers winning many premier prizes. The loft has won 1st. open in the Welsh National and 1st. open in the Welsh North Road Federation many times, so obviously the loft is full of quality, housing many outstanding racers.

The widowhood cocks are paired up in January then rear a pair of squeakers and are allowed to go down on a second pair of eggs. While sitting, they are quietly trained before going on the widowhood system, sitting at 10 days on the second round. The natural pigeons are paired up in mid-March and only the hens are raced on the long distance. The pigeons are hopper-fed all the season on Bosmolen mixtures, deep litter is never used because the loft is closed in and the widowhood nest boxes are cleaned out daily. The widowhood cocks get seven training flights from 20 miles before the first race, with the naturals getting 40 mile tosses daily through the season and young birds are trained as often as possible. Andy says the young birds should be raced at the 100 mile stage as much as possible, before going to further racepoints.

Don ‘Mr Thurso’ Chaffe of South Wales

Don Chaffe has won Thurso countless times and has earned the nickname, ‘Mr. Thurso’, in the Welsh pigeon fancy. His best hen, ‘Mary Anne’, a Van Hee natural pigeon, won 4th, 8th. and 12th. open Welsh Grand National Thurso (479 miles) three years on the trot, being sent sitting 14 day old eggs. Don’s loft is half way up a mountain and he has to carry the corn and full baskets a long way to keep his pigeons set up operating, but lucky enough, a natural spring runs down the side of the mountain and he uses the water for his birds. He started up in the sport as a lad in 1963 and after his first year in partnership with an old gentleman, he started on his own. He has always been a natural racer, but has recently tried 12 cocks on widowhood, which he says, up to Thurso has proved to be a far better system. In the longest old bird race last season he clocked two natural hens, but intends to try the widowhood cocks from Lerwick. The Chaffe loft has won up to Thurso with widodhood cocks.

The main families raced are Janssen from Mr. Mills and Busschaerts of the Tom Larkins bloodlines. Don likes the longest races and the loft management is geared to Thurso (500 miles) and Lerwick (600 miles). One of his best natural racers is a small Busschaert blue chequer hen that is a granddaughter of Champion ‘Red Rum’. This class hen likes to race to 14 day old eggs and won 2nd. Section, 9th. Open Welsh Grand National Lerwick (600 miles) and 2nd. Federation, 6th. Open Lerwick. The mountainside loft houses 20 pairs of natural racers which are paired up at the end of March, as he likes the birds to drop their first flight for the early National races. The loft’s 70 young birds race through to 290 miles, but some cocks are stopped short for the widowhood system. The babies are fed well and raced to the perch.

Sterio Brothers of Cardiff

Gary and David Sterio have been in pigeons for nearly 20 years and in that time have won every thing in sight, including 1st. open Thurso National (460 miles), 2nd. open Thurso National and 1st. Section 30 times. A fantastic loft performance! Their Thurso National winner was the handsome Cattrysse blue widowhood cock, Champion ‘Jack’, which won ten 1sts, including seven times 1st. Section in races over 300 miles. ‘Jack’ is now in the stock partings and has bred many outstanding winners, including a 7th. open Thurso National winner. This great cock won all his racing prizes on the widowhood system.

Although the brothers win many sprint and middle distance races, they excel at and like the long distance races best. They race all cocks on widowhood, but do send the odd hen to Thurso, with outstanding success. The main old bird loft is 40ft. long, with a nice 10ft. wide open door to trap the racers, and the widowhood cocks are housed in a 30ft. section, with 27 nest boxes. They go out around the loft twice a day for exercise, but are trained during the racing season, if they are not coming too well. The hens are shown to the cocks on marking night and the partners give the returning racers their mates for an hour on Saturday afternoon. Gary and David feed a standard widowhood mixture and break down from Sunday.

The 70 young birds bred each season are housed in a neat, self built 20ft. loft, which has a 10ft. section on the back for the darkness system. Youngsters are trained from the same point, about 20 miles from the loft, every day through the racing season. Come rain or shine, they never miss a day! The young bird team is paired up and two weeks before the first race the sexes are parted then put together for ten minutes on race marking night. Gary says the young birds race well on this semi-widowhood system.