A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE JAKE COTTERILL OF BOUGHTON

by Keith Mott

I was very sad to hear the bad news that Midlands north road ‘ace’, Jake Cotterill, had been killed in a tragic road accident. I first met Jake when visited his loft about twelve year ago with the ‘Many Mile with Mott’ video camera and found him to be a very nice modes type of man. His pigeons and loft were outstanding, which was a credit to him and reflected in his wonderful result he won in the mighty N.R.C.C.  

Miner Jake Cotterill worked in Bilsthorpe Colliery, near Ollerton. He started racing in 1981 and won the NRCC twice, including the King's Cup Lerwick race in 1991. His winning pigeon was the Wi1demeerschwidowhood blue cock 'Jake's Dream' which was eventually put in the stock loft, where he bred many winners. This handsome pigeon handled big in the hand, with nice silky feathers, and had not raced since his King's Cup win.

Jake worked shifts and had a great loft manager in Henry Machin, who kept the wonderful loft in great shape. Jake's very smart loft had four sections with two flights and the birds were trapped through open doors. Widowhood hens were housed in one flight and the stock birds went in the other for sunshine and a bath. Henry liked to see good hygiene and ventilation in a loft. The grille-floor young bird section housed about 50 youngsters each season. Jake raced 24 widowhood cocks and seven natural pairs which were put together at the end of January. The Cotterill team raced well from the shortest to the longest race and Jake enjoyed all races but he did say one of his biggest mistakes in the early days was falling asleep after coming off night shift while waiting for long-distance NRCC pigeons. The widowhood cocks were shown the hens on Friday nights and were given them for about half an hour on their return from the race. The cocks were fed on a standard widowhood mixture and were broken down in mid-week.

Although Jake had a few natural pairs he said he prefers the widowhood system as he thought it gets the best out of the birds. One of his best natural pigeons was the Lefebre Dhaenen blue chequer hen which won 1st Open Midlands Championship Club in 1988. The 1991 season was a fairy tale for Jake because as well as winning the King's Cup from Lerwick, he also recorded 1st Section, 3rd Open Thurso NRCC. Jake's loft was mainly made up from Frans Van Wildemeersch pigeons and in recent seasons he introduced Janssens to try out. His management was very simple, with plenty of training, good corn, clean water and lots of attention. The birds were trained several times a week in any weather except fog. Jake's motto was quality and not quantity and he rated Charlie Wooff as the best local fancier as he is at the top of the result sheet every week. Jake Cotterill one of the greats of the N.R.C.C.

TEXT & PHOTO BY KEITH MOTT.