Keith Mott writes...

The Best of the Up North - Part 8

Although this article is part of the Up North Combine series, this week we are going up to one of my favourite parts of England, the North-East, to look at some premier lofts in the West Durham Amalgamation.

DENT & LINSLEY

OF COCKFIELD FELL

Eric Dent entered the sport of pigeon racing in 1955. His present team are Busschaerts from introductions in the late 1960s out of the original lines of A. Wilkinson, Parker & Wilkinson and E. Rawle blended in with Fountainhead and Louella birds to create a family. The Dent and Linsley pigeons are outstanding from 60 to 400 miles and Robert Linsley maintains the Busschaerts are the best strain of pigeons in the UK over the last 30 years. Eric and Robert race their team of pigeons to the Cockfield Fell, a tract of common land populated with sheep and ,wildlife. The view around the loft is staggering, with the rolling hills of County Durham stretching as far as the eye can see.

The partners have won the West Durham Amalgamation twice in recent seasons including 1st NERU Queen's Cup, 1st Open WDA Bourges (17,478 birds) 400 miles in 1995, also recording 3rd and 4th Open WDA in the same race. A fantastic performance! Their Queen's Cup winner is a handsome Busschaert dark pied cock, raced on the widowhood system, This champion is of the Louella/Busschaert lines, a grandson of  ‘Starview Pegasus’ and an outstanding young bird, scoring several times. In the Bourges race the partners clocked their second pigeon six minutes after the Queen's Cup winner to win 3rd Open WDA and this bird was also a game widowhood Busschaert cock with an excellent racing record winning 2 x 1sts as a young bird.

The main racing team is 34 widowhood cocks and this system was started eight years ago, with hens never being raced. The cocks are broken down over the race weekend and peanuts are added to the widowhood mixture for the long-distance races. The hens are shown to the cocks on marking night and are left with the returning birds for about one hour. The cocks fly out twice a day and get three 20-mile training tosses per week right through the racing season.

The smart loft has glass windows and open door trapping. The partners race 50 youngsters each season and the cocks are stopped after three races, but the hens fly the full programme. If young birds want to pair up they are given a nest bowl and are trained three times a week from 20 miles in the racing season. Eric and Robert keep ten pairs of stock birds which are paired up in late January. When selecting stock birds the partners look for good 400-mile performances. The most consistent racer is a blue Busschaert cock - winner of 5 x 1st Club, 2 x 1st Open Federation in races from 60 through to 37 miles- that is a grandson of Champion ‘Twirler’.

TRAY, SONS & LYNAS

OF CO. DURHAM

Since starting up in the sport in 1946 John Tray has been a leading flyer in the West Durham Amalgamation, winning every position in the first 50 Open, including 1st Open twice, 2nd Open twice and 3rd Open four times. A fantastic record!

John likes Channel races best but enjoys all racing and keeps three main families of pigeons, including Busschaert, Janssen and Wildemeersch. He races cocks and hens on the roundabout system and one of the top racers is a blue chequer pied Busschaert hen, winner of 1st Club Bourges 555 miles and 1st Club Orleans 500 miles. John races a standard roundabout system with the birds being paired up on January 21st. He feeds a first-class widowhood mixture. The birds are broken down from Saturday until Tuesday morning and cocks and hens race on alternate weeks. The old birds get two 12-mile training tosses every week and are never paired up, not even for the long distance events. The birds are not fed depurative for the long-distance races. Another top racer we looked at on our visit to John's loft was a blue cock, a Busschaert, winner of 2 x 1st Open Federation, including 1st Club, 1st Open Federation, 9th Open WDA Brands Hatch Inland National.

John's very smart lofts are sited on allotments with 20 other lofts and his club sends about 700 pigeons every week. His racing loft is painted white - so birds can pick it out when the mobs of pigeons hit the allotments - and is 56ft long, ‘L’ shaped with open door trapping. The loft houses 40 young birds each season and these race the programme through to 240 miles. The babies get three 12-mile training tosses every week and usually race to the perch but John let a few pair up for the 1999 young bird races. The day before our visit, John was 2nd Open Federation Wakefield with a young blue chequer pied Busschaert cock calling his hen to nest. John is not a believer in pairing up young birds, but says he lets a few go to nest bowls to give them a bit of edge for the young bird events.

The partnership has a large stock loft, light and clean with plenty of room for the inmates, which houses ten pairs that are paired up in January. The main stock birds are Busschaerts from Tommy Newton and direct from Georges Busschaert, Janssens from Louella and Wildemeersch from Charlie Wooff. John says he always pairs his best to the best to produce his champion racers.

KNIGHTON, SHOULDER, RHINE & ROE

OF CO. DURHAM

The name Knighton, Shoulder, Rhine & Roe sounds like a firm of solicitors, but in fact they are one of the top pigeon partnerships racing in the mighty West Durham Amalgamation. On our visit to the allotment lofts we were met by loft man, Ted Williams, who has been in the sport for over 40 years. Ted says there are 20 lofts on the same allotments, including the loft of John Tray, and with the club sending over 700 birds, if your bird flies half a turn too much on trapping, the race is lost. Because there are so many pigeons on the allotments, the partners let their young birds out at 4.15am, so they are back in the loft before the crowds are in the sky over the allotment site.

The partners like to race their pigeons from 200 miles through to 450 miles and have won countless premier positions in the West Durham Amalgamation including 1st Open and 5 x 2nd Open. One of the top pigeons in the North-East loft is a blue chequer Busschaert cock raced on the natural system, winner of 1st Club twice and 2nd Club four times. In one race it sat out for three minutes and finished 2nd Club, 2nd Open Federation. Because of his bad trapping, this cock is now at stock and has bred five winners.

Knighton, Shoulder, Rhine and Roe race only the natural system with cocks and hens being raced purely to eggs and youngsters. Ted says the birds trap well as a rule because they are taught as young birds. They are never allowed to sit out on the lofts. The old bird team is paired up in late January and Ted likes the hens sitting eggs for the longer races. Another top pigeon in the loft is a blue chequer Staf Van Reet cock that has won many top prizes in races of about 250 miles including 1st Club, 1st Open Federation and 2nd Club, 2nd Open Federation. This cock likes to race to 12-day-old eggs and is now at stock breeding well, including a yearling to win 2nd Club in a 400-mile race.

The main loft is 40ft long with open door trapping, which is a must with the local competition in races. The loft houses 50 young birds, raced through to Brands Hatch (240 miles) and paired up for the long National Young Bird races. The partners keep 11 pairs of stock birds that are paired up on February 14th, with the main families being Busschaert and Staf Van Reet. Ted says stock birds are selected on handling and racing performances.

NEIL LAIDLAW

OF SHILDON

My good friend Neil Laidlaw of Shildon in Co. Durham arranged the West Durham Amalgamation ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video loft tour, so I'd like to thank him for all his hard work. Cheers, Neil!

Neil raced in partnership with Dennis Merryweather and their 40ft x 8ft loft was sited in Dennis' garden. The loft had put up many premier performances through the years including 1st, 2nd and 3rd West Durham Amalgamation Abbeville (344 miles) with 4,900 birds. This was the only time any loft had done this in Classic racing since the WDA was formed in 1950. The partners had been racing a standard widowhood system for only five years when they recorded this brilliant performance. Neil and Dennis separated their 20 pairs of racers on their second round of eggs, having reared a pair of babies. Then the cocks got six training tosses no further than 15 miles, before the first federation race. Cocks were never broken down, as their main aim was to win the Channel races. Hens were only shown on a Friday night for the first two races and never after, but they were always there for the cocks on arrival from the race. If the weather was right they paired up in February and raced only the south route with New Shildon WCHS.

Busschaerts were raced and were down from Neil's old family (when he raced with Wilf Stott as Stott & Laidlaw) and four additions direct from Georges Busschaert. In 1991 they also introduced some Busschaerts from their good friend Bernard Curley and these crossed with their old Busschaerts have produced a family that wins from 60 to 500 miles.