W A Gough & Son

W. A. GOUGH & SON

1st Section L, National Flying Club Pau

by Cameron Stansfield

Arthur Gough (far right), putting the world to rights with Brian Stansfield

One of the greatest-ever Pau performances in Section L of the National Flying Club was put up in the 2004 season by a splendid 4y mealy cock, Chesham Supreme, flying 698 miles to the lofts of Roy & Arthur Gough of High Legh, near Knutsford in Cheshire. The NFC convoy of 3,463 birds was liberated in Pau on Sunday, June 27th, at 0600hrs and at the close of the first day only 28 had been recorded into England, none being over 600 miles.

Early the following morning, Roy's & Arthur's mealy cock came swinging over the fields to be clocked at 8.25am. This performance was to become even more remarkable on reflection at the end of the second day, for he was to win Section L by 247ypm. He had covered the 698-mile journey in under 191/2 hours to record a velocity of 1053.

I paid a visit to Arthur's & Roy's a couple of months later for a look at the mealy cock and began by asking Roy when was it he had first earmarked Pau for this mealy cock? 'When he was an egg. When you breed pigeons with the sort of background he has, that's what they are for - though you seldom breed the right ones, of course.' Roy continued: 'I've always been Pau mad and I remember Dad and I first sent in 1956 when I was 12. I can recall all the great pigeons of that era, birds such as Champion Twilight, 1st, 4th and 8th Open King's Cup. We had only a few pigeons back then and it took us a while, perhaps eight to 10 years, before we could get our birds to fly Pau on the winning day. Back then, though, you would get only around a handful on the winning day up into these parts.

Roy Gough

'We have had quite a few good performers over the years, pigeons such as Julie who won 1st Section, 23rd Open (she also won 1st Section, 25th Open Nantes) the year Ron Mitcheison won it with Queen Guinevere. Julie was just starting to slow up a bit in the shorter Channel races so we thought she was worth a try at Pau. We actually found her in the loft "perched up". What happened was, it was a midday liberation and we thought about 4.30pm on the second day would be a cracker. I went to pick up my grandad, had lunch and a cup of tea and we made our way back to the loft. I thought there was no need to rush and anyway we had a neighbour who used to keep half an eye out for us. To cut a long story short, I went to the loft at 3.40pm and she was on the perch with her head in her chest! What might have been? Subsequently Ron Mitcheison came up from Winchester to have a look at her.

'At about that time I got to know Roy Mundy who was still living in Bolton. Roy was to move to Blackpool in later years and had a great Pau pigeon called Roassall King. I used to spend quite a bit of time with him before he moved, often talking about the pigeons you needed for Pau. I was also friendly with Eric Naylor of Thelwall who won the Pau race with Woodside Monarch, and he would teach me things. Dad and I used to fly only natural in those days and I noticed the wattles on our birds weren't always as snow white as those on Eric's. From this I learnt that racing and rearing don't mix and ever since then we have always sent natural pigeons "dry".

'We started flying widowhood as well as natural in about 1975 and it meant we had the best of both worlds. We were winning regularly in the prestigious two-bird races in this area and also in the National but whilst we were doing okay at Pau, I noticed that a fancier by the name of Albert Bennett, living only 50 miles short of us, was timing Pau pigeons a lot better than we were. I was friendly with Doug Wright of Sale, who in turn was friendly with Bobby Mayo, and I got to learn a bit about Albert, in particular that he was flying widowhood and raced the Van Bruaene pigeons. That same season we sent 11 pigeons to Niort, 500 miles, and had all 11 on the day, topping the South Lancs Combine. However, we didn't get anything home from Pau! I just thought, I've had enough of this - I'm going to Bennett's! When I went and saw the birds, I knew even more strongly that I had to do something if we were to be competitive. Over time, I visited Albert quite a few times and I got to know the individual pigeons, such as Northern Dancer, Zeus, The Lourdes, Fabiola and both of the Electric hens, and I thought they were fantastic. Incidentally, I only ever once went into Albert's racing loft, and on any one trip Albert would be very selective about what he showed me. He told me later that he wanted to make sure he always had something fresh for me to see.

The Section winner

'Eventually children of some of these pigeons made their way back to my loft and it turned out that the most influential cock I had was a brother to Northern Dancer being off Zeus and the Electric Hen. A daughter of Bobby Mayo's Nightwatchman, a Van Bruaene, was also to make its mark. We already had the Van Hees and when we put them with the Van Bruaenes they clicked right away. This was around the early 1980s and at about that time I travelled to Belgium and visited both André Van Bruaene and Michael Van Hee. Both lofts made a big impression on me, though both were entirely different. Van Hee was very businesslike and had his best cocks on the bull system; Van Bruaene had a stock loft with about 30 pairs made up of performance cocks paired to daughters and sisters of performance cocks. I could appreciate both ways. Far from returning home enthused, however, I came back full of the realisation that I had a long way to go and a lot to learn.

'And one thing I have learnt - thanks to Albert Bennett - is the importance of the hen for breeding. He taught me that breeding hens breed breeding hens. Albert is a quiet Shropshire man who always let me make my own mistakes but he would be there to coach me along. He still does now. I looked at the pigeons in Albert's loft which had scored from Pau and they weren't small pigeons. Hermes wasn't little, nor was Northern Dancer. The Lourdes and Tarzan were powerhouses, and Zeus frightened me when I first saw him. And they were pigeons which improved with age. I decided to adopt a softer approach and leave them alone. All I now ask is that they show me a bit of something at three. When you send pigeons to Pau, previous winning form is of no consequence - it doesn't mean a thing. Don't get me wrong, if I had 10 4ys I'd chance a couple of 2ys at Pau but I think by sending them at two there's a greater chance you might break them. At four the maturity is right and that's when you get that super performance. I now regret sending the Ashley Cock (who was 27th Open at four) when he was three, as I feel it lost us a few positions. By the way, he was the spitting image of our current Pau cock, who is his great-grandson.

One of the racing lofts

'We have sent pigeons on widowhood and scored and have taken pigeons off widowhood, raced them on natural for a year and scored so I don't think it makes any difference: it's the love of home that counts. The beauty of sending them sitting eggs around 16 days is that it is easier to get them just right in body weight, in other words, carrying body without being too heavy. One week before basketing they have a pot of maize and peanuts and a bit of hemp in front of them at all times and they can eat what they want, though I think it important they have at least 50% maize in their overall diet. Their final race comes four weeks beforehand and we don't hammer them in the last month. They have just one 25-mile toss a week before. On a good day, though, I should stress that all our pigeons fly well around home. The widowers go out morning and evening and the naturals are out all day and then again after we get the widowers in at night. The hawks keep them on the move, as do the buzzards from the wood near to the loft. The naturals are out until dark when I just go down and shut up the sputnik.

Roy & Arthur's Pride and Joy

'I am never confident about timing from Pau. I just sit and wait. You'd get disappointed if you were confident. I've been through that. When I was younger I used to be over confident but you come to realise it's a long, long way and there are lots of hazards. This year the birds were liberated at 0600hrs and, through a friend, I knew there were 28 in on the day to the southern counties, which was not a lot out of a total convoy of 3,463. I went to bed that night but couldn't sleep and I was back out at the loft at 3.50am. My friend rang to say that Wilf Reed of Monmouth was in at 6.16am, 120 miles away, and three hours onto Wilf's time would put us at 9.16am. My friend said if either of us got one before 9am it would be an absolute blinder, to which I replied that if I was going to get one it would be the mealy because he was bred for it. Mind, I've bred them for it before and it hasn't happened. It's not so simple.

'At 8am I thought I'd get on with a few jobs around the loft. The widowhood cocks had been racing the previous day and still had their hens, so they needed to be moved, and all the time I was just keeping an eye out, though more for latecomers from the previous day than for Pau pigeons. I'd noticed that from 4am to 5.30am nothing had moved: not a wood pigeon nor a rabbit. It was a funny morning and it wasn't until the sun came through that things livened up. I thought if nature wasn't up and about at dawn then you could hardly expect a Pau pigeon to be up that early, especially having flown all the previous day. And it was then that I look down the field and saw this pigeon coming. The sun was shining on its wings and I could see it was a mealy. Normally, Pau pigeons come low across the field but this mealy was quite high and coming like a train. I had a moment of doubt when I thought, what if it's not for here and it goes past? when all of a sudden he put his wings up and and his throat was out and I immediately knew it was him. I must have jumped six feet off the ground because I he must be a cracker, I was in doubt about that, and I also knew there wouldn't be a flood of pigeons because experience has taught me that invariably Section L pigeons come through in the afternoon. When he dropped he looked fantastic, crowing and as happy as Larry. Meanwhile, Dad was up in the house and Shiela, my wife, seeing me jumping up and down, said to him, "There seems to be something happening down there!". Then all of a sudden the mealy spotted a buzzard and cocked his head. I knew he wouldn't go in until the buzzard had gone and I was shouting, "For heaven's sake go in, go in".

Arthur and Roy with Doreen Kneller at the 2004 NFC Dinner in Torquay

'I was so excited during the rest of the day that I kept going back to have a look at him and he was fine and keen to fight with me. I rang Albert Bennett to tell him about the events and that the mealy was fighting fit. The next morning I opened the doors and he was the first out, flomping, clapping and gliding across the sky. I rang Albert to tell him and he said, "Roy, he's hurting inside but you can't see it". "But." I was about to counter, when Albert added, "He's just showing you he's happy to be home". Sure enough, on the third day he slept all day; every time I went to him he was fast asleep. Then the next day and ever since he's been fine.

'What made me decide to retire him? Albert kept telling me that Van Bruaene had only one regret, selling Barcelona I, and this made me think. There were also one or two silences on the other end of the phone when I was telling Albert I was going to send him to Pau the following year. I mulled it over and rang my friend again. I told him I knew I'd regret it if I lost him, just as I'd always regretted losing the Ashley Cock on his fourth trip. It was only stupidity and greed that had made me send him a fourth time and it was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I said to Albert, "I've stopped him," and Albert replied, "Thank God for that. He'd do it again but there are so many pitfalls and what more can he do anyway?" He finished by saying, "It's not for me to interfere, Roy, but when you get off the phone will you go and get him and put him in the stock loft where he belongs". And that is where he is now and where he will remain. What clinched his retirement was the answer to another question I put to Albert: "Albert, how many of your pigeons have put up a super performance at Pau and then gone on to to better it?" To which he replied, "None, and neither did any of André Van Bruaene's Barcelona pigeons".'