WALL, LUNT, AND GREEN

OLDHAM, MANCHESTER

A NEW LOFT, NEW LOCATION, AND NEW PIGEONS: -

BUT THE SAME OLD RESULTS!

 

Winners are winners and that will never change whether in pigeon racing or any other sport or hobby that we participate in. So with this in mind I asked "The Lads" over at Irlam a few questions on their move from their racing lofts in Irlam to race over at Oldham. This is what they had to say on the new set up at the old brewery.

As one part of our pigeon career was coming to an end, a new chapter had already begun. We had decided to move our loft location at the end of 2003 and we had decided to take our good friend Andy Galley on board as a new partner. The reason for this was because the birdage had dropped dramatically in Warrington fed and the South Lancs combine. And so we thought it was time to move to an area that offered more competition in the way of birdage. We were keen to fly in Oldham with the Border Amalgamation as we thought this was the biggest and toughest competition in our area. We found a suitable location and set about building the new lofts. We had decided to put the lofts on the roof of a unit we had rented in Oldham. By the time we had moved in and started to build the lofts all the stock pigeons were already coupled and were chipping eggs so time was against us. By the middle of February all the youngsters were ready to be weaned but the loft was not yet ready. We brought the youngsters up to the roof and left them in front of the lofts in baskets and left them out in make shift aviaries all day so they could become accustomed to their new surroundings until the lofts were ready. It was almost March by the time we moved the youngsters in the new lofts. The new loft measured 88 foot by 8 foot deep and consisted of 12 compartments, each fitted with perches and boxes. So we had plenty of room for the youngsters. All the stock birds were housed either at home or in a specially built place within the unit. With the youngsters settling well into their new loft and everything going to plan.

You have been a very successful team for many years, did you consider the move and the clubs that you could possibly race with .

Yes as I said everything was going to plan but the next job was to send out our applications to join most of the local clubs. We have to say that we were very disappointed and surprised that we did not get in any. We then applied to Denton H.S., which is quite a drive away from our lofts, and we are glad to say that we were successful. Also the Danebank 10-bird club accepted our application. There are a few other clubs that are right on our doorstep that did not accept our application for membership. The reason we did not get in them was because there was no seconder to our application. We thought this to be a funny thing really, because before we actually moved to Oldham, we had heard through the grapevine that there was plenty of talk in and around the Border Amal boundaries. The talk was from local fanciers about how they thought we would get on and how we would compete. You know the sort of things people say, how we would find it much harder to win in the Border Amal compared with Warrington fed and that how "they won't get their own way up here" and "we're not scared of them". These were the types of things being said, silly things really but, now we were actually there and applying for membership many didn't want to know us. There was a strange idea about how fanciers from the west of Manchester were in some way inferior to the fanciers within the Border Amal. But having competed against the members of Warrington fed for a number of years we knew better. We know there are some top fanciers to be found west of Manchester who would hold there own in any competition, so it was funny to hear the comments about how we would not win anything like as much as we had done now we were against the "big boys",

To be perfectly honest, that is exactly why we wanted to move there. We wanted the competition. Anyway all this talk just helped to motivate us and the next thing for us was to get our plan together for the oncoming season. It was now late March and it was high time we started to think about racing. We had brought in some new pigeons from the auctions held by Northern Premier Auctions during the winter months to try against our own family. We had invested a few quid in the pigeons of C & G Koopman, Combination Verbree, Peter van Der Meerwe and Henri Van Wanrooijy. All these were Janssen orientated and were all personally selected after a rigorous selection process and we were looking forward to getting them established in the lofts. We think it's very important to bring in new stock each season, from top lofts of course, because it is our opinion that you should never keep still and never become to complacent. The pigeons that Northern Premier Auctions brought over were from the very best lofts in Holland and so it made sense to at least attend them and see what was on offer. We will let you know later in the story how these pigeons have settled at our lofts.

How did you finish at the old address and move to the new one, by that I am referring to the race teams that you already had at the two address's in Irlam.

We had talked among each other and we decided that we would send the current old bird team, that were still at the old address in Irlam, racing in the Warrington federation for the last time. it was also decided that all the youngsters would be raced at the new location in the Border Amal. So this was to be our farewell season in Warrington fed and Cadishead club, this was a sad thought really as we do have some good mates in Cadishead club. It was important to us though, that the pigeons perform well in our final season, as we dearly wanted to bow out on a high note, so the season was just about to start and we had to get the old birds into racing condition. We trained the old birds about 12 times before the first race and all our preparation work had gone well and to plan. By the time the first race was on us we thought the birds looked well and they were flying well around the loft. The first race was from Wolaston on the 3 rd April. It was a blustery day with a strong southerly wind and a fast race was on the cards. The birds were liberated at 9.00 am on a strong south, southwest wind. After just 59 minutes we got 2 together and 6 more on the hour. We timed them on to win 1,2,6,8,10 12 13 16 fed and 1,2,8,12,15,18,20,25, combine with a velocity of 2058 ypm. So we started the 2004 season well and we were obviously delighted to get our first win in the combine under our belt. The following week we had poor weather and come the weekend we saw a totally different forecast to that of the week before. It was a cold northeast wind with hardly any sun. The visibility was not that bad though and the liberation took place at 12.50. They were liberated on an east, northeast wind but it was more northeast at the home end. It turned out to be a dickey race but we managed to time one on at 14.52 and another 2 at 14.53. Many members had a very bad race with a lot of empty perches come nightfall and some that did time in were over an hour and a half behind the winners! We finished up 1 st 3 rd and 4 th fed and 1 st 3 rd and 5 th combine. This was a pleasing result and we had only 2 yearlings missing at clock checking so all in all we were very pleased. The following week saw the weather all over the place, some days warm and sunny and the next day cold with rain. So there was no consistency and some days we could not even let the birds out for exercise. The third race was from Cheltenham, a distance of 106 miles to our loft, we sent 30 birds with Cadishead and they were liberated at 11.10. It was a strange type of day, very dark and atmospheric one minute and then it would brighten up with sunshine for a while only to turn dark and windy again within 10 minutes. The wind was southwest and it was fairly murky. We thought we might be in for another strange race but this did not prove to be the case, as after one hour and forty-seven minutes, we got 15 together and finished 3,5,6,7,9,10,12,13,14,15 fed and 12,18,19,20,22,23,25,27,29, 30 combine and we had 100% returns. So we were happy enough, well not 100% happy as we hate to be beat but all in all we had a good result. Our next race was from Cheltenham again and a nice day was forecast with a light southwest wind, the cocks had been flying well all week and looked really well. The birds were liberated at 11.00 and at 12.55 six come together and another 22 come within a minute of them. It was exciting to get all these pigeons at the same time and we timed 6 on to win 4,5,6,7,8,12 fed and 4,5,6,7,8,12 combine. It was now the end of April and all our youngsters at the new location were looking great, they were flying well and all were going out twice per day and flying for about an hour each time. We decided we would start to train them in another month. Back at the old bird loft in Irlam the racing was turning serious, as this coming race was the first of 5 central Lancs combine races that had been organised by the chairman John Winder. It was hoped that we would get over 6,000 birds for these races. The first one was on the 1 st of May from Mangotsfield, a distance of 135 miles to us. We sent in 2 feds that day namely Warrington and Altrincham, as they were both members of the central Lancs combine. The weather was not fit for liberation on the Saturday so Sunday dawned and the birds were given their freedom at 11.00 on a light southwest wind. After 2 hours and 30 minutes we got 8 pigeons together, 2 for Warrington fed and 6 for Altrincham fed. We finished 1,4,5,6,11,14 Altrincham fed, 2,3 Warrington fed 1,5,6,712,17 section 4.850 birds and 2,3,4,9,10,11,16,21, open combine 6,257 birds. Even though we did not win the combine we were very satisfied with the end result, no other fancier had a team performance like ours and we were very happy with the way our pigeons had performed. The following week saw us racing with the central Lancs combine again and again the race was from Mangotsfield. Once again the weather was against us and liberation was not possible on the Saturday. We had sent to both feds again and we were expecting the team to perform well as they had been fantastic round home all week and they looked really well. Sunday was not much better than Saturday to start with and the weather was dull and murky and totally overcast. It was trying to brighten after dinner and the cloud had lifted, the sun was trying to get through. The liberation took place at 11.00 on a light northwest wind. The bird's come well when we finally got them, we got 5 together all for Warrington fed. They were 20 minutes later than we had expected them, they had probably not cleared the liberation point or had got held up on route somewhere but anyway we won 1,2,3,4,5 Warrington fed, 1,2,3,4,5 South Lancs Combine, 1,2,3,4,5 section and 4,5,6,7,8 open central Lancs combine 6,313 birds. Once again our birds had put up a great team performance and considering the race as a whole we were truly delighted with the result. The team was really starting to hit a bit of form and with 3 big races still to come we were very happy with the way we were shaping up. The next race was from Mangotsfield again and we had sent to both feds. It was a lovely day sunny on route although it was rather cloudy at the home end with a light northwest wind. It was 11.00 when the birds were liberated and the convoyer said the wind was light and variable. After 2 hours and 48 minutes we got 5 together, they all trapped brilliantly although one was timed in the wrong clock, we timed 1 in for Altrincham fed and 3 in for Warrington fed. The result was 1,2,3 Warrington, 1,2,3 South Lancs Combine, 2 nd Altrincham fed, 1,2,3 section 4,6,8,9 central lancs combine 5,585 birds. Once again our team had done us proud although that first open position was eluding us, but we really could not complain with the way the birds were performing as a team. The next race was from Portland and the day was a perfect day for racing. Light northerly wind, great visibility and warm sunshine. The birds were liberated at 10.00 on an east-n-east wind but the wind at home was north n-west. We had sent to both feds again and preparation could not have gone any better, the cocks had flew out of their skins all week, disappearing for long periods after release for exercise and flying hard and straight. They were in top form. After 4 hours and 16 minutes we got 7 cocks together and they were rocking, they trapped like rockets straight through the open doors and into their boxes. They were all for Warrington and they were quickly timed, we rushed out of the loft checking no more had come for the other fed as we were still looking for our first Altrincham pigeon. We got one shortly afterwards with another couple of Warrington birds, we only timed the Altrincham pigeons on and after that they tumbled in. We won 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Warrington fed 3,6 Altrincham fed 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 south lancs combine, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 section and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,12,17 central lancs combine. 5,460 bird's. At last we thought; we've won one. This was one of the best performances we had ever put up and we were over the moon. This result is what dreams are made of really and we were on a high all week. We had a week off the following week as the fed program moved across the channel and we had no intention of racing over the water this season, so we had a bit of time to start the young birds off training. We always start them short and always in the evening, everything was going to plan and the youngsters had been injected against paramyxo and paratyphoid. They were really looking terrific and we could not wait to get them going, we trained them from 3 miles all week and they were responding well. The next week was the last of the central lancs combine races and this one was to be flown from Mangotsfield again. We sent to both feds and the cocks were in great form. Liberation took place at 11.00 and the birds were away on a northwest wind. After 3 hours and 3 minutes we got 3 for Warrington and one for Altrincham, they went in great and we finished 1,2,4 Warrington fed, 2 Altrincham fed 1,2,4 south lancs combine 1,2,4 section and 1,3,4,15 central lancs combine 4,409 birds. We were chuffed to say the least; to win one first combine was great but to win it again was fantastic. We had 2 races left with the old birds, which were both comeback races from Cheltenham. We sent 15 cocks to one of the Cheltenham comeback races 0n the 19 th of June. The weather was very changeable with heavy downpours blustery west-southwest wind and some glorious sunny spells between the showers. The birds were liberated at 11.20 on a fresh west wind. We waited for 2hours and 16 minutes after which we got 6 together to win 1,2,3,4,5,6 fed and 1,2,3,4,5,6 south lancs combine. This was to be our last race to our Irlam lofts. We decided not to send to the last race, as we really wanted to spend as much time with the youngsters as possible from now on and their first race was now only 2 weeks away. So to summarise our old bird season we had competed in 10 races with Warrington fed and the south lancs combine and we had won 7 first fed and 7 first combines. We had won 80 prize cards in the first ten in both organisations. And we had won 5 first prizes in the sections and 2 first open central lancs combine and had finished in the first ten positions 22 times from the 5 races with the birdage between 6.313 and 4.409 birds. All in all we had a brilliant old bird season which saw us win 4 RPRA awards within the NW region including champion pigeon of the region all categories. By now most of our attention was turning towards the young birds and they were the main priority. We had moved the youngsters on to 14 miles by now and they were coming well. We treated them for canker with Ridsol 10% and we were very happy with the way they were looking. The first race for them was 5 weeks away and the tension was beginning to build. We continued to train them as much as we could and up to now everything was going to plan.

Gary Wall

What were your thoughts on the start of the young bird season at the new address?

The first young bird race was only a week away and our preparation had gone as well as we could have wished. We had our little set backs just as all fanciers experience, such as young birds wired and so on but overall we were ready for the first race. We knew we were under the spotlight a little, this was to be expected as we were the new kids on the block as far as the Border Amal was concerned and we were as anxious as anyone to know if indeed we could compete at this level. We had no doubts about the quality of our pigeons or about our own ability to fly them, but when you are at a new location competing against new opposition for the first time, you never really know how it's going to pan out. So the first race came and the race point was Stafford, which is a short race of only 50 miles. We sent in both the Danebank 10-bird and Denton clubs. To be honest I don't think there was any one of us that was not a bit nervous and excited on the Saturday as we waited to hear of the liberation time. The Saturday though was a bad day and we had no liberation up to 2.0 clock in the afternoon. The weather improved enough in the afternoon and the birds were away at 3.15.pm on a light Northwest wind. After one hour and 20 minutes we got 2 together, one for each club, as luck would have it, we timed them within 9 seconds of each other and watched for any more. 2 minutes after, the birds started to come well, tippling in from all over the place and within an hour and a half we were all home bar one which turned up on the Sunday morning. So within 20 minutes of timing in the phones were starting to ring and times were coming through. We soon got to know we had a couple of 'good'ns' as other fanciers were phoning and telling us "there's now't to beat ya" but we know that it is a big Amal and we would just have to wait and see. We took the clocks in to learn we had indeed won both clubs, as you could imagine, we were absolutely over the moon. So we all slept contentedly that night and on the Sunday the federation result is remarkably published by about 6.0. Clock and sent to all club secretaries. We were informed that we had won 1 st and 2 nd fed and as it turned out we were also 1 st and 2 nd Amal 3,065 birds. We were ecstatic, our first race with the Border Amal and to finish 1 st and 2 nd was a dream come true and to a certain extent the pressure was off us. We continued with our training through the week and sent to the second race which was from Kempsey, we again sent to both clubs and all the team looked and handled well. We got about 20 youngsters together in the second race from Kempsey and duly timed 5 in for Denton and 1 for Danebank. At the time of clock checking we had 4 youngsters missing and our time was once again a good one, we finished 1 st , 3 rd , 5 th , 6 th and 9 th in Denton and 3 rd in Danebank. In the fed we finished 2 nd , 6 th , 10 th , 12 th etc. and 7 th , 21 st and 27 th in the Amal against 4,399 birds. The next week saw us treat the youngsters against canker as we thought they were not tight enough. We treated them on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with Ridsol 10% then gave multivitamins for 2 days. They seemed to look better after the treatment, brighter than they were before, we had continued to train them when the weather was good enough and they were coming well from training and exercising for over an hour at a time when let out round the loft. The weather had not been great all week really with some low cloud and drizzle and the forecast for Saturday was not much better. We decided we would send to both clubs again and sent a strong team. The weather in the morning was poor in our area with very low cloud and mist, rain and drizzle, all in all a very gloomy morning. We got all the loft cleaned out and we phoned a few friends down the line of flight and they said that they had rain and it was quite heavy in places, so we thought we might not get a race until later in the day. This was at 8.45 and just after 9.00 we were very surprised to get a call from the secretary to tell us the birds were up at nine o' clock. We phoned our friends again, one of which lived only a couple of miles from the race point, and he said the weather had not improved, in fact we could actually hear the rain bouncing off the conservatory roof as we were speaking. The fact that the weather never improved all morning did not bode well for a good race and that is how it turned out. We thought the birds should be due home at about the 1 hour 55 minute mark but in fact we got them on 2 hours and 10 minutes, 6 together and then nothing else for over 20 minutes. They were coming all day, single file, not a good race at all considering we were only racing from 70 miles. We did not do too badly though as we won 1 st place in Danebank, 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th in Denton, 7 th , 9 th , 10 th and 11 th fed and 25,27 and 28 th in the Amal 4,369 birds. Because of the way the birds had returned home on the Saturday and some on the Sunday, we decided not to let them out until Monday evening and we wanted to put them back on the road on Wednesday but the weather had other ideas. We had thunder storms, heavy mist and very hot with high humidity. As many fanciers are aware this is not ideal training weather so the birds did not get a toss until Thursday evening, by which time it had become much fresher and clear. We trained them on Friday morning as well and they really did train well, we released them in small batches one minute apart and that is just how they come home. So they were fed up for the day and later we basketed them for the race the following day. We sent to both clubs and we were obviously hoping for a better race than the previous one. The race was from Cheltenham a distance of almost 113 miles to our loft and the weather was lovely, blue sky, hot and sunny and no cloud. Liberation was at 9.00 on a light south wind, so we knew we could be in for a fast race. At 10.08 we got one hen on her own and she landed on the roof, which is not like our pigeons at all, but anyway she didn't stay there for more than 15 seconds when she went in, quickly followed by 5 more. After that the youngsters were literally tumbling in and we had a great race. The result was pleasing also as we won 1 st prize in Danebank. We were 2,4,5,6,9,10 in Denton, 2,4,5,6,9 and 10 th in the fed against 1.589 birds and 3,9,10,13,16,17 th Amal, 3,555 birds. This, almost a thousand birds down on the week before, but that was because of the bad race everyone had incurred. All in all we were happy enough with the way our season was going. We had won 4 first in the club, 1 st , 2, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 9, 9,10,10,10 in the fed and we had topped the Amal. As well as winning other prizes in the first ten of the Amal, and when we considered we had not had a race over 113 miles yet we really were quite pleased. Our pigeons always seem to perform better as the distance increases so we were looking forward to the rest of the season. The following week brought bad weather for the Monday and Tuesday so we were unable to train the youngsters and only let them out in the mornings. The weather had improved enough on the Wednesday evening for us to train them and again on Thursday twice. Friday was another poor day weather wise and we did not let the youngsters out. The race this week was from Swainswick and the weather was very bad, black murky skies, poor visibility with a light southwest wind. The weather was better further down the line and the worst of the weather was at the home end. When the weather is like this we suffer more than most, as the loft is very high above sea level. It can be quite nice a few miles in front of the loft, but around the loft, at the top of the valley, the weather can really close in. This was the case this day and this was all new to us, anyway liberation took place at 10.30 and we expected quite a fast race. We got one pigeon on it's own, then 8 more together about 2 minutes after it. We waited a few more minutes and about 35 youngsters come together, but they had all come from the northwest. This is a bad way to come and it turned out to be our worst race. We were 4 minutes behind the Amal winner and knowhere on the result. This stung a bit and our first thoughts on the Sunday was that there must be something wrong with them. Had they got a touch of the dreaded young bird sickness that had up to now left us alone? Or was it that we had just had a bad day at the office, so to speak. Well only the next week would give us the answers to our questions and we would keep a close eye on them as they trained through the course of the next week. The following week we gave the youngsters 7 tosses and they come well from them all. So we decided that nothing was wrong with them and did not treat them for anything. We had checked them every morning to see if there was any corn retention and that the droppings were ok. All of these things were perfect, the corn was going through them fine and the droppings were perfect every morning and there was a good fall of down. In fact the youngsters looked really well and were chasing about, pairing up and nesting in the corners etc. so we sent them to the next race which was from Frome. The weather was perfect, clear sunny skies and a light northwest wind, this was a no excuse type of day. If your pigeons are right then you should be knocking about the top of the result on these types of days and we really thought our youngsters were all right, despite the result the week before. Liberation took place at 9.00 and we waited with baited breath. We were hoping for a better race than the week before and to be honest we were more nervous than usual, after all we thought the team was all right the week before but they performed badly. Anyway we need not have worried as we got 14 together bang on the time we thought we should have them. We timed 8 on the clock for Denton and 3 on the clock for Danebank. The result was a great one for us as we won 1,2,3 in Danebank, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 in Denton. We were also 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12 fed and 1,2,5,6,7,9,11,13,14,16,17 Amal 3,068 birds. This result was a real tonic for us after the week before and it gave us real confidence for the oncoming Lancashire combine race from Fareham. We trained the youngsters the following week 5 times and they shaped up well, everything looked good for the big combine race and so we sent a strong team once again. The birds were liberated on a west wind at 10.00. The race turned out to be a bad one in terms of returns for nearly all fanciers competing, there could be many reasons for this and one we are sure comes in to it is the fact that the race point is so far off the normal racing line. It is right into the East and with the wind in the west a lot of the birds stayed on the wrong side of the Pennines. This is backed up by the fact that a lot of members had birds reported up the North East Coast line during the following couple of weeks. Getting back to the race, we timed our first one on it's own after 4 hours and 4 minutes. This was good enough to win 1 st Denton, 1 st fed 1 st Amal and 1 st Lancashire combine. He was also the breeder buyer pigeon that was also being held in conjunction with the combine race. He was winning that as well as £800.00. But bitter disappointment was to come our way a couple of weeks after the race. We had made an error on our race sheet and the marking committee of the combine had not spotted it on the marking night. This mistake cost us the race as we were later disqualified from first position and from the breeder buyer. This was a bitter pill to swallow and we were all quite gutted about it. But under the circumstances there was nobody to blame except ourselves and that was that. But maybe there was a lesson to be learned from it as the marking committee had only read the last 3 numbers of the rings listed on the race entry sheet and not the full ring number, contrary to the rules of the combine. We will live and learn we suppose. So our next race was with the NW Classic Club from Poole we sent 30 youngsters and finished 2,4,8,9,10,15,20,21 section and 2,4,8,9,10,15,20,21 open. We then sent 2 to the lancashire Nantes 2-bird club and we finished 3 rd . We also picked up over £300 in the race. The weekend saw us sending in the Bamfords Gold ring race, we finished 6 th open and won over £700.00. After this we had a race from Frome with the Border Amal, we sent in both of our clubs again and finished with a good result. We won 1,2,3,4,5,7 in Denton and 1 st in Danebank. In the fed we finished 1,2,3,5,8,9,11and 2,3,4,7,11,12,15 in the Amal against 1.652 birds. We topped the Amal again from the last race and we had one more go at the NW Classic Club where we won 1,2,4,7,9,12 section and 1,2,5,8,10,13 open. To summarise the season we finished champions of the fed and Amal in our first season although we only sent to the young bird programme. We also won "bird of the year" in the fed. We finished champions of the Warrington fed and South Lancs combine despite missing 14 races. All in all we had a very good season but we were already looking forward to our first full season in the Border Amal.

Were there any changes for the start of the new season being 2005, did the extra member of the team have any effect on the way you were used to working?

As any top fancier will probably tell you, a new season starts the very day an old season finishes and this is how it is at our lofts. After the last race all the youngsters are separated and left in the lofts for the autumn. They are fed top quality corn and we give them as much as we can get them to eat. This way we encourage the moult and usually within a fortnight of stopping them they start to fall to pieces. We feel it is important to do this if you have had the young birds on the darkening system as we like them to cast all of their primaries before the end of December. We have flown the dark system since 1994 and we have only ever had one pigeon hold onto his last flight and this was only in one wing. At this time of the year we also give a lot of multivitamins, grit and minerals to aid the moult. All the lofts are scraped out every day and the water changed twice. We do not give any medication to the birds of any kind at this time of the year. The birds are left like this until December, at this time we give them the injection for paramyxo and start to get them out of the loft for some exercise. We do not force it but let the birds do what they want for an hour or so on fresh dry mornings. We pair the stock birds in late December and the Widowers in January. All the widowers rear 2 youngsters if they hatch two, even the yearlings, we feel if they are not strong enough to rear 2 youngsters when they have all the corn they need in front of them, then we don't want them. During the time they are sitting and rearing they are let out every morning so long as the weather is not to bad. The youngsters are weaned at the age of 25 days and the cocks are split from the hens again until one month before the first race. We repair them and start to train the cocks. By this time they are given their exercise twice per day but they are not forced to fly, they just do what they want. The week we take the youngsters from them they are treated for canker for 5 days. When we repair them they then start training almost straight away, so long as the weather is not to cold they go on a few short tosses, only about 6-8 miles. They are driving their hens now and are very keen to return home and trap through the doors without hesitation. This goes on until all the hens have laid. There is a big change in the cock's attitude now; they are much more reluctant to trap when they return from training so we increase the distance to about 20 miles. We will give them as many tosses, as the weather will allow us to. One week before the first race all the hens are removed and the cocks are left to sit out the eggs, there is no more basketwork for them now, just exercise around home and plenty of good food. It is no good giving them only depurative or rationing them at this time, if you do that, we feel they do not work around the loft the way we want them too. It is important that the birds fly hard and fast while they are out and that they respond to you when calling them in. We also feel that it is important for any fancier who wants to win to have some control over his team of pigeons. As the start of the 2005 season grew nearer we knew we had to edge on the side of caution and not to take any unnecessary chances with regards to the weather. After all we only had a team of yearlings and it was more important to us to start to build a race team for the future and not be too eager to chase first prizes for the sake of it. With this is mind we had also prepared some widowhood hens in the same way as the cocks and it was our intention to race them in the Danebank 10-bird club. As the first race came closer we were more and more nervous, it is always hard to compete against established lofts and good fanciers with only yearlings and we did not want to end up with egg on our faces.

As any fancier knows there is a lot of work that goes into any winning loft, does the extra person make it much easier or is the race/stock team bigger.

We thought that our preparation had gone pretty much to plan and we were ready for our first old bird race with the Border Amal. The Friday of the first race saw us send 29 cocks to Denton and 10 hens to Danebank with the race point being Penkridge. Saturday started cold with a Northwest wind, good visibility but not much in the way of sunshine. The weather was supposed to be better further down the line of flight. The birds were liberated at 9.40 on a West, southwest wind. We have heard it said many times that it takes the yearling widowers time to get used to the widowhood system, but over the years our yearlings have always performed well. We were hoping this would be the case this season because that is all we had, yearlings. As it turned out the race was a good one and we got 5 together, 1 hen and 4 cocks, and as we timed them in the clock more were arriving and trapping through the doors, we timed 6 in to finish 1 st in the Danebank, 1,3,4,5,6 at Denton. In the fed we won 1,3,7,9,13,14 and the icing on the cake was to win 1,3,7,9,13,14 Border Amal. So all the hard work and preparation had paid off, we were delighted to have topped the Amal the first time of asking with old birds just as we had done with young birds the season before. There was 2,564 birds entered in the Amal and the winning velocity was 1462 y.p.m. The pigeon that won it was a hen that we call "CARRERA" she had won the NW Classic as a youngster and she had won 4 th open NW Classic as a youngster, coincidentally it was her brother that won "Ace Bird" of the fed as well. After races we do not let the cocks out again until Monday morning and they are left with the doors open to fly in and out as they please, the same goes for Monday evening. Tuesday morning, the cocks are let out and the doors closed, they are forced to fly an hour. Most times they will do this without prompting, but if they are reluctant then they are forced to do it. After their exercise period, the doors are opened and the cocks are called in and fed. We repeat this process for the rest of the week including Friday morning. On a Friday evening all the cocks and hens are cleaned and we start to get them ready for basketing. We first turn all the bowls over for the cocks and let them in to them, and then we lock them in to the half of the nest box, which contains the bowl. They are left for a few minutes calling in the bowls and then we release the hens into their respective sections. All the hens are on the front of the boxes (we fly to the German up and over type boxes) for a couple of minutes and then one by one we let them in to their cocks just for a minute or so. If both sexes are racing from the same box then we basket both of them at the same time, otherwise the cock is basketed and the hen remains in the box or vice versa until his/her return from the race. All the cocks and hens that are racing are from the same sections; we do not have a section of racing hens and a section of racing cocks. Everything that is raced is done so to the same sections and we often race the cock and the hen from the same box. Many is the time when the pair will arrive together, but when they are on their job they don't mess about, they will trap quickly together in to the same nest box. The pairs are left together for about an hour after their return, but this can vary and they are sometimes left for much longer. The longer you leave the hens with the cocks the better it is for the hens as they will not pair together as much, this can be a problem with racing hens on widowhood.

The second race of the season was from Worcester on the 16 th of April, we sent to both clubs once again. We entered 10 hens in to Danebank and the cocks went to Denton along with some other widow hens. Once again the weather was cold and it was freezing up on the roof, it had actually snowed in the morning and everywhere was white. The wind was south; South westerly and the visibility turned out to be fantastic, very clear skies but still cold. The wind started to strengthen and we thought we would get a fast race, this is indeed what we got with the velocity of the winner being 1717 ypm. We had a very good race, we got 3 together, all cocks but they decided to do a couple of laps of honour this week. As they did so four other pigeons joined them. Two of these four were hens; they turned once more then started to go through the doors. We had lost about half a minute, but that is what sometimes happens with yearlings, especially when the race is fast. But we were very happy with the result as they finished 1 st in Danebank, 1,2,3,4,5,6 in Denton. The fed result was just as pleasing for us, we won 1,2,4,6,8,9,10 and in the Amal we finished 3,4,11,18,20 against 3,171 birds. The winner of Danebank was "POLLY" she is the hen that topped the Amal in our first race from Stafford as a youngster. The winning pigeon in Denton was "SUPER TWELVE" he had also come to top the Amal as a youngster, only to be beaten by loftmates. The only down side to the race was the fact that we dropped 2 pigeons, one cock and one hen, the hen had been a consistent prizewinner as a youngster as well.

The following week's race was from Cheltenham but we decided not to send because the forecast was not very good at all. Everything had been prepared as normal but the forecast was for bad weather for the whole weekend. As it turned out the race was not that bad at all but the forecast gave a bad weekend and we did not like the idea of the pigeons being in the baskets for what could have been 3 nights. So we looked forward to the next race, which was again from Cheltenham. The cocks and the hens had been flying well around the loft, we had tossed the hens a couple of times but the cocks just flew around the lofts. They had been going off for 20 minutes or so at a time and coming back in batches of fours and fives then all getting together and flying hard and fast, just like a team of young birds. This told us that they were fit and well and that they did not need any training by car. We were quietly confident as we basketed the pigeons on Friday evening, they handled well, they were hard and buoyant and very silky to the touch. We sent to both clubs again and 10 hens went to Danebank with the rest entered in to Denton. Saturday started badly, there was rain, drizzle and it was very murky. There was not much chance of liberation yet; the weather was the same all the way down to the race point. By midday it had started to cheer up a bit and the cloud had lifted. The birds were liberated at 3.40 on a light southwest wind. This race turned out a bit farcical. Some birds had somehow escaped from the transporter and were identified to come from Denton's baskets. So we were all given a wrong liberation time by one hour and the Denton club was disqualified from the race. This was all OK we thought because we had our Danebank entries to come anyway. We got 7 pigeons together, 3 for Denton and 4 hens for Danebank; we timed them all in as the decision for disqualifying Denton had not yet been made. As it emerged later, the Denton result could not stand because of the escapees. Which we thought was the right and proper decision. The four we timed for Danebank finished 1,3,5,6 in the club and 1,3,7,11 in the fed. Now we could not understand the next decision, which was to make the Amal result void, even though all fed results stood. We were puzzled and disappointed at this decision because had the Amal result stood, we would have finished 1,3,7 against 3,352 birds. Our velocity was the fastest from all the competing feds within the Amal.

Gary Wall and Les Green inspecting the mother of "Wonderboys 05 & 06"

The season progressed to the next race, which was from Swainswick and up to now our team of yearlings had performed well, winning 3 first fed from 3 races entered. We were very confident, as most other fanciers would be, the team looked as good as they had all year and the forecast was for a good day with a fresh northwest wind. This would be the toughest race yet and as a rule our pigeons usually perform well in such conditions. So Saturday dawned a nice day and we had sent to both clubs. The weather turned showery with good clear spells between them and a fresh to strong northwest wind. Liberation was at 9.30 and the race was on. We all had a discussion as to when we thought the birds should arrive and it was decided that about 3 hours 17 minutes would be a decent time. In fact the birds arrived 6 minutes earlier than that, 3 of them together and 3 more right behind them. In the first batch of three was one cock and 2 hens and all three went straight through the doors and were timed in quick succession, with the second batch of three being timed within a minute of them. After a further minute the birds started to come in-groups of three's and fours and one hour after timing our first three we had 2 cocks missing. We finished 1,2 in Danebank with the 2 hens and 1,2,5,6 in Denton. They also finished 1,2,3,6,7,8 in the fed and 1,2,3,7,9,10 in the Amal against 3,209 birds. The winner of the Amal was "TEE-3" he is the cock that had won a T-3 clock in the combine race as a youngster. He had been a very consistent racer as a young bird and was bred from 2 of our new pigeons. The sire comes from Peter Van Der Merwe and we purchased him at the sale held by Northern Premier Auctions in 2003. He is a brother to "WONDERGIRL" his National winner against over 18,000 birds. He is bred from "DE BLAUWE CRACK" and "GWEN". The mother of our winner was a Janssen hen from Henri Van Wenroojy, we bought her from another of the Northern Premier Auctions sales and she has bred 2 separate Amal winners in 2 seasons, Janssen brothers bred both of her parents. This was pleasing, as it is always nice when new pigeons start to perform, it raises the bar within your loft and the standard of your pigeons just gets higher. We know we have got some very good pigeons and for these new ones to be competing with them gives us confidence for our future. The pigeon in 2 nd place was "POLLY" she is becoming a very good hen, she has won 1 st open Amal and she has been 2 nd twice only to her loftmates.

We sent to the second Swainswick race the week after and once again sent in 2 clubs, 10 hens to Danebank and the rest to Denton. The wind was east northeast but the weather was warm and clear. We had a decent race with 100% returns and finished 1 st in Danebank, 3,4,5 in Denton, 6,9,10,23 in the fed and 6, 16 and 17 th in the Amal against 3,051 birds. We were not to chuffed at getting beat but when you are in a club that is the strongest in the Amal, as Denton is, then you just have to except that you are not going to win them all, there would be something wrong if you did. We decided to treat the birds for canker the following week, not just because they had been beaten but because they were not looking quite as tight as they had been, we also smoke bombed them on the Sunday after the race. The following race was from Kingsdown a distance of over 207 miles to us. We sent in the 2 clubs again and the hens went to Danebank. The birds were liberated in no wind but it was southerly at home and we were on our toes, as we knew it could be a fast one. After 3 hours and 18 minutes we got 2 hens together they were sisters and one had come to top the fed as a youngster. They showed the cocks the way home that day as they were well in front, we had got another pigeon and timed it in not long after them but then there was a gap until we got any more. We finished 1 st at Danebank, 1 st and 3 rd at Denton, 1,2 in the fed and 1,2 in the Amal against 2,889 birds. The 2 sisters are bred from our own family of Janssen based pigeons that have served us so well over the years. By now the date was 21 of May and the channel programme was starting the following Saturday. We had already decided we would not be sending to the channel this season so we had a fortnight to wait for our next race and we had time to reflect on the season so far. Our team of yearlings had won 10 firsts in the clubs from a total of 11 starts and in the fed they had won 5 firsts from 6 starts. They had also topped the mighty Border Amal on 3 occasions from the 6 races we had sent in. (not including the void race where we had the fastest velocity from the liberated feds) plus seconds and thirds in the Amal, So we had a lot to be glad about. We had 3 comeback races to go at in the Amal and all of them were from Cheltenham. The first of them was flown on June 4 th on a blustery, windy day that also had rain and overcast skies. The wind was from the West-southwest. Liberation was at 12.30 and 2 hours and one minute later we got a hen on her own, she is a daughter of our great cock "GREY GEM" and her mother is our wonder breeder "02" which bred the fantastic "MOONRAKER" and "COBRA". She was timed 2 minutes before our next one which, was another loner. Most of the fanciers we spoke to after the race had experienced a similar race, gappy returns and well split up. We only timed the two on, one for each club and finished 2 nd at Danebank, 1 st at Denton. In the fed they finished 2, 5 th . And in the Amal they were 8, 16 th against 2,464 birds. The next comeback race was flown on 18 th of June; the weather was hot over 25 Celsius and the wind was southerly. The birds were released at 10.15 on a light wind. We had sent the same 10 hens to Danebank and the rest had gone to Denton. We had a great race and timed 9 pigeons in the clock in 50 seconds. Something we could not quite understand is the Danebank birds did not come until 35 minutes after the first nine and when they did come we got 6 of the 10 together and 3 more of them 3 minutes later. So we did not time in for Danebank, even though the same 10 hens had won all but one race this season. The 9 we timed in finished 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11 Denton, 2,3,4,5,8,11,12,13,17 fed and 2,3,5,6,912,13,16,20 Amal 1.657 birds. The winner was " BLUE WONDER " he is the cock that won "Ace bird of the fed" as a youngster and is a full brother to "CARRERA". He topped the Amal as a youngster and has now won 6 straight firsts. Our final old bird race was held on 2 nd July and we sent to both of our clubs again. It was a great day, warm and sunny and you could see for miles. The birds were up at 11.35 in light winds. We timed 4 together, all for Denton; the Danebank birds were miles behind again. Anyway we ended up 1,2,3,4 in Denton, 1,2,5,6 in the fed and 1,3,7,9 in the Amal against 1,557 birds. The cock that topped the Amal this week is another very consistent young pigeon that we have named "YOUNG APACHE". That ended our old bird season and looking back over the season as a whole we had to be very happy.

By now all attentions had to be turned to the young birds. They had been trained from a few short tosses and we were looking fantastic. We had already given them their injection for paramyxo and they had been treated for paratyphoid. We now gave them a treatment against respiratory with Linco-Spectin for 6 days. They were being trained every day, weather permitting, and we were looking forward to the young bird season. We all like young bird racing, it's exciting and everyone is always up for it, especially in the early races. Most fanciers can get their youngsters trained these days, especially around this area as there are a few of the lads who take birds training for a reasonable price. So the first race was from Stafford, which is only a short race and some members think that it is too short. But it has been pointed out that we have to consider that some members of the Amal fly as much as 30 miles further than the shortest flying member and if we increase the distance of the first race many of these flyers will find it hard going. So that's why our first race is Stafford, now you would think that a race of such a short distance would be no trouble for the youngsters to navigate. When you also know that many of the members young birds have been trained from this very race point, you think you can only have a decent race from there and that you should get very near to 100% returns. This did not turn out to be the case at all; it did not help when the youngsters were released at 7.30 in the morning in a cold blustery Northerly wind. All the hard work and preparation just went out of the window, what makes it all the more annoying is that the forecast was for a beautiful warm sunny afternoon and that is exactly how it turned out. Now you may think that we are just moaning because we did not win the race but to be honest it was not what you could call a race, the winning velocity in the Amal was 900ypm and the winning velocity in our club was 862. We were like every other fancier; we had to wait all daylong for what we got and we only had 3 pigeons in 15 minutes from 50 sent. The pigeon in 10 th position in the club was doing 583ypm. This is not the start to a young bird season that any fancier would want. It does the youngsters confidence no good and it does nothing for your own sanity to be honest. We were gutted on the night, as were many other fanciers. We finished 3 rd in Denton and 20 th in the fed our velocity was 839. We could only wish for things to get better as the season progressed but as many fanciers were to testify, the season just got worse and many federations were well down on the usual amount of birds they sent. We did not send the week after and decided to start the youngsters training again from short distances and try and rebuild their confidence. So we sent to the third race of the programme from Worcester. But the weather was poor, there was a cold east-northeast wind blowing and the visibility was not great. We checked down the line of flight and things were improving gradually throughout the morning. By 12.00 it had improved enough to release the birds. The wind had gone Northeast and the visibility was much better, we knew that we would get a bit of a sticky race, you always seem to get them when the season is still early and the youngsters have to face a stiff Northeaster. As it turned out, the race was another bad one and many fanciers timed in late and a lot of youngsters were missing at clock checking. We had sent 50 and we were 9 missing overnight, 6 come back during the course of Sunday and the other three are still coming. The ones that turned up on the Sunday looked as though they had been out of the loft for a week, not a day, they looked as if they had flown a thousand miles or more. Anyway we timed our first two birds at 14.15 and 14.17 to finish 1 st and 3 rd in Denton, 3, 8, in the fed and 9 th , 18 th in the Amal against 3,423 birds. The only good thing to come from the racing so far was the fact that our new pigeons were starting to show well.

By now there was a lot of talk about the dreaded young bird sickness and we were getting a lot of phone calls from fanciers from all over the UK who were suffering with it, all of them were asking the same questions we all ask. How can we get rid of it? What should we treat them with? We only wish we had the answers but we don't, as what works well for them one season does not seem to do anything for them the following season. One thing we are sure of though is that you MUST rest the youngsters. We had not yet suffered with any sickness but we know that when it is about and you are sending in the same baskets as fanciers who have it, then it is usually only a matter of time before you get it in some form or other. The 6 th August saw the Amal at Cheltenham and we had sent 60 youngsters. The weather was terrific for racing, there was great visibility, a very clear day, you could see for 40 miles and the wind was only light and Northwesterly. The birds were up at 11.45 and we thought about 2 and a quarter hours would be a good time to get one. As it was, this time come and went and 9 minutes later than we had thought we got 4 together followed by 7 more shortly afterwards. The youngsters arrived home in great style, and in 4 minutes we had 17 home, this was more like it we thought, this is how young bird racing should be. Other fanciers experienced a similar race and we thought the young bird season had started to settle down at last. The result was also great as we won 1,2,3, in Danebank and 1,2,3,4 in Denton. In the fed we finished 1,2,3,4,9,10,11 and our day was complete when we won 1,2,3,5,14,17,18 in the Amal against 2,646 birds. The youngster that won the race is a daughter of "YOUNG APACHE" and her mother is a daughter of our great cock "THE BULL" which had herself won 3 rd Amal when "TEE-3" topped it from Swainswick.

But just as we thought everything was rosy in the garden things took a turn for the worse. On Tuesday we noticed that the fall of down feathers had almost stopped and that the loft had gone very quiet. On closer inspection of the birds we noticed that some of the droppings had become thick and slimey. We then went through all the youngsters to find that over half of them had corn left in them from the night before. It was not like the young bird sickness of old as none were vomiting, that was until the next day when a few of them started throwing up. We shut the youngsters in and started them on a light diet of depurative and we put them on a product from Belgium, which was specifically formulated for treatment against the young bird sickness. The youngsters started to look much better after a couple of days and their appetite was coming back OK. We missed the next race but decided to let them out for a fly at the weekend, they were looking much better and the down feathers had re-appeared, they flew for over an hour and everything seemed to be getting better. By Monday the buzz had returned to the loft and so we decided to try them down the road. We trained them every day and they were coming brilliantly, they were doing very good times and on release they were clearing like bullets. All seemed to be OK with them and we decided we would send them to the race at the weekend from Swainswick. We sent 50 in total, 10 with Danebank and 40 with Denton. The weather was perfect for a pigeon race, clear, sunny light N-northwest wind. The weather was the same all the way up the country and a good race was in store for everyone. The birds were released at 9.30 and we guessed that the birds would be home by 12.50. At 12.49 we got 5 together, there was 4 for Denton and 1 for Danebank. As we were timing them in another 3 entered the loft and they were also timed in to the clock. Overall it was the best race of the season so far, we had 100% returns and they looked really well, this just goes to show that they will win after being ill with the sickness. We took the clocks in for checking and we had won 1,2 in Danebank, 1,2,3,4,6 in Denton, 1,2,3,4,5,8,9 in the fed and 1,2,3,4,5 in the Amal, 2,142 birds. Superb, we were back on track. The winner was bred from the sire of last year's combine winner which, was later disqualified, he was bred by Piet and Co Verbree. The mother of the Amal winner is a full sister to "GREY GEM". The same weekend we had also sent to a race with the NW Classic, it was a gold ring race and a futurity race all in one. It was from Chale on the Isle of White.

We finished up OK really as we were 5,6,section and 10,11open in one race and 4 th sect 5 th open in the other and we won a total of £1,600. So we had a good weekend in all. The following week was spent watching the youngsters very carefully for any signs of sickness and we were happy not to see any signs of it.

Lofts of Wall, Lunt, Green & Galley of Oldham

The next weekend was the big one, it was time for the Lancashire combine race, and this is the race we had been disqualified from the season before. This race was from Kingsdown and we sent 50, all with Denton, it was not the best of days on the Saturday morning although it did start to brighten up as the day went on. The birds were released at 10.45 and there were reports from fanciers on the line of flight of rain in front of the birds and some of it was heavy and prolonged, so we waited with baited breath and we hoped for a good race. At 2.44 we got one on it's own, a black cock bred from the same black cock that bred "TEE-3" the Amal winner from Swainswick old bird race. He was a brother to Peter Van Der Merwe's National winner from Sourdun against 18.000 birds and we call him "SHADOW".

This young black cock had won Danebank earlier in the season and was 8 th Amal, he come like a rocket, he was high in the sky and he folded up and went straight through the doors to be timed at 14.44.54. There was a bit of a wait for our next arrival and overall they did not come well at all. We phoned around the members for times and it was soon apparent that nobody had a good race and some members were still waiting for their first arrival half an hour after the winner. The pigeons got through in the end and there were not many missing when the clocks were checked. At clock checking it was confirmed that we had won 1 st Denton and the next day it was confirmed that we had topped the fed. We had to wait a week or so to be told we had topped the Amal and the Lancashire combine. We were absolutely chuffed to have won the combine, especially after what had happened to us the year before, now it was confirmed that we had won 1 st prize and the combine gold medal for first open and the T-3 clock nom. The young cock is now known as "REDEMPTION" and his mother is another of the pigeons we purchased at the Henri Van Venrooij sale held by Northern Premier Auctions. It may be interesting to know that her mother is a full sister to the great "LOWIEKE" of Jan Van Der Pasche. Our next race was a mid-week affair with the Lancashire Nantes 2-bird club, we entered our combine winner and pooled him right through. The weather was bad with some heavy thunderstorms and very heavy rain. The lib took place at 1.0 clock and by the time the birds were due in the area the lightning was flashing and the rain was hammering down, but despite that "REDEMPTION" come the same way he had done on the Saturday and trapped the same. He finished 3 rd open and won just short of £350.00. Our eighth and final race was a comeback race with the Amal from Cheltenham and we sent 30 youngsters. We had decided to stop 20 cocks after the combine race. The birds were liberated at 11.30 and at 13.31 we got 15 together, we timed 12 on in a minute and 30 secs to win the first twelve in Denton and the first eleven and 13 th in the fed. We finished 4,5,6,8,9,10,12,13,14,19 Amal, 1,657 birds. Our fed winner this time was bred from a pair we purchased at the G & S Verkerk sale, once again held by Northern Premier Auctions. A point worth mentioning is that Mike Lycett bought the nest sister to our hen and that bred him his good cock "HOUDINI".

This brings our season to a close and now we will work on the pigeons and hopefully get them through the moult. We have finished the season with the following list of prizes. Within the season we have won a total of 39 first prizes, 25 seconds, 28 thirds, 16 fourths and 16 fifths. We have topped the fed 10 times, which we are told is a record within Oldham fed. And we have won 7 first Amals this is also a record and we believe this should have been 8 firsts as we did win the fastest velocity the day the race was deemed void. We have won "Ace bird of the fed" with "BLUE WONDER" He also won this title as a youngster, we are also the highest point's winners within the fed and the Amal and should be fed and Amal champions. Since our time in the Amal, which spans over a total of 25 races we have won 10 firsts (also 1 disqualification and 1 void). 9 times second, 9 times third, 4 times fourth and 5 times fifth. A total of 37 prizes in the first 5 of the Amal. In Oldham fed we have won a total of 15 firsts in a season and a half and 15 seconds, 10 thirds, 7 times fourth and 8 times fifth. This is an achievement we are proud of especially so when we consider we have only raced young birds and yearlings so far. We look forward to 2006 with great enthusiasm.

We would like to thank Les Parkinson for giving us the chance to put this information together, it was nice of him to phone and ask how we were getting on at our new location.

Other fanciers have also asked the same question because we do not get a lot of coverage from any local scribes as we do not have a club press officer to send off any information. So we were grateful when Les contacted us and asked us to put something down on paper to let anyone who may be interested know how the move had gone. We hope you enjoyed reading it and we wish everyone good luck for 2006.

Wall Lunt Green & Galley.

As anyone knows if a fancier/fanciers are winning then we will cover them, whether I like anyone or not if they are winning they deserve credit because pigeon racing is getting harder and harder, sometimes I wonder if it is just a case of me getting older.