Adrian Ware

ADRIAN WARE & DAUGHTER of BEDDAU

Record Breaking Welsh Loft

by Gareth Watkins

The above partnership must rank amongst the very best in Wales as their successes at club, Fed, National and Combine level over the past six seasons has been nothing short of phenomenal. This ongoing success story was culminated in 2006 with both the Queen’s Cup and Taffy Bowen Sprint Trophy being awarded by the Welsh Homing Pigeon Union to the Ware loft. This was the first time in the history of the WHPU that both these prestigious trophies have been awarded to the same fancier in the same season!!

The Queen’s Cup is awarded annually to the pigeon with the best performance or series of performances in races OVER 300 miles raced by a member of an organisation affiliated to the WHPU. The Taffy Bowen Sprint trophy is also awarded annually, under the same criteria, to a pigeon with outstanding performances in races UP TO 300 miles. Appended at the end of this report are the record breaking performances of the two award winning widowhood cocks.

The Ware loft has been top prizewinner at club level in 2003/4/5/6 and this in a club that boasts a membership with 10 x 1st National wins to their credit!!! They now have their third Queen’s Cup winner to add to this incredible list.

At National level Adrian’s team has the following impressive list of wins:-

2005

24th, 27th & 29th Open 5,756 birds; 16th, 17th & 21st Open 5,132 birds; 23rd & 24th Open 5,084 birds; 10th & 15th Open 2,323 birds; 7th, 12th & 21st Open 6,902 birds.

2006

41st, 53rd & 59th Open; 18th, 19th, 48th, 49th, 56th & 60th Open; 42nd & 43rd Open; 6th Open; 28th, 35th & 60th Open.

The above standard of performance is mirrored at Combine level e.g 20th, 21st, 59th & 60th Open 10,729 birds; 23rd, 24th & 29th Open from 14,242 birds as typical examples that represent the norm.

The Ware loft topped the Federation twice during the 2006 season and has been confirmed as Fed “European” champions for old birds. These two Fed wins include 1st, 2nd & 3rd Fed from Maidstone O.B. against 2,716 birds and 1st & 4th Fed Newbury Y.B. against 3,916 birds. Not surprisingly the Ware loft has been top prize winner in the South West Glamorgan Fed for the past three seasons and it has recently been confirmed that Adrian is once more overall Federation Champion for the 2006 season making it four in a row.

The Wares really burst onto the National racing scene in the 2000 season when the loft won 1st Welsh National Nantes and 1st Welsh National Maidstone with young birds. This young bird National winner was in fact a son of the Nantes National winner. To win one National race is every fancier’s dream but to win two Nationals in the same season is almost beyond belief. To win these two Nationals with a father and son is absolutely incredible!! The same birds are still doing the winning in the loft up to the present day. In fact the Queen’s Cup winner is another son of the Nantes National winner when he was mated to a daughter of the Dam of the loft, a direct Bert Hession Staf Van Reet.

The Taffy Bowen Trophy winner is incredibly inbred to the Nantes National winner as his sire is bred from a brother to the Nantes cock when paired to a daughter of the Nantes cock and his dam is a direct daughter of the Nantes cock. Definitely a case of concentrating the winning genes there! A fact to note is that the sire of the T B Trophy winner is also the sire of Adrian’s 4th Open RPRA single loft winner in 2006 picking up a nice little earner of £5,300. Both the WHPU trophy winning cocks are of a similar type as they are both medium sized powder blues with excellent eyesign.

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the stream of success for the Ware loft has continued unabated since the turn of the millennium. The 2003 season in particular being one to cherish as Adrian’s young Staf Van Reet cock “Ben’s Boy” won the J.O. Davies Trophy for Champion Young Bird of Wales with the following performances:-

1st Penrhiwfer Open Newbury; 6th sect 31st Open National Littlehampton 1,610 birds; 29th sect 70th Open National Maidstone 3,805 birds; 7th sect 13th Open National Ramsgate 2,000+ birds. In addition this great little racer won the following Fed positions:- 4th Open 2,837 birds;7th Open 2,597 birds; 17th Open 1,615 birds and finally 1st Open with in excess of 1,000 birds competing.

With performances such as these the reader might think that the Wares have a large team of racers at their disposal – not so. These performances have been achieved racing a maximum of 16 widowhood cocks and a small team of widowhood hens. The hens have been brought into play since Adrian retired from work due to ill health. As a result he now has more time with the birds hence the hen race team. This ensures that maximum use is made of all the best birds in the loft. A small team of 30 – 40 young birds is reared annually. Indeed, for many years whilst Adrian was working, the young bird team amounted to just 24 babies.

Not surprisingly, bearing in mind the above facts, many astute fanciers regard the Ware set up as probably the best small team loft in Wales.

The family of pigeons that has brought about this phenomenal success is the ever popular Staf Van Reets originating from the Blackpool maestro Bert Hession. Since introducing the first of these, Adrian and Bert have developed a close friendship which sometimes involves the swapping of inmates between the two lofts. Obviously Adrian has also gleaned a great deal of knowledge from the Blackpool sage and this has been applied to the pigeons with great effect.

The sixteen widowhood cocks and the hens that are to be raced are usually mated in mid January and are allowed to rear a pair of babies in the first nest followed by incubation of the second round eggs for a few days prior to separation. The widowers get a few tosses before the first race and the occasional toss thereafter especially in the build up to a specific race. Hens are only shown to the widowers before basketting in the early races. Thereafter various motivational tricks are played on them as the cocks “learn the game”.

Until recently, Adrian was employed at a foundry and this meant long hours of shift work requiring Adrian’s absence from the loft for 12 hours each day. As a result the birds were fed and exercised just once per day when they received their daily allocation of one and a half ounces per bird. This was fed in each nest box so that Adrian could keep an eye on every individual bird’s appetite. For inland racing the cocks receive a fairly light carbohydrate mixture but this is changed to a mixture with a higher fat content as the race distance increases. All mixtures fed to the birds are made up by Adrian himself. Gem products and Gervit are regular additions to the birds feed and drinking water and Adrian keeps a close eye on their health and if something seems amiss they are quickly treated to ensure that the season’s racing is not disrupted.

Youngsters receive an excellent early education with as many training spins as possible before the first race. The first of these tosses is from 15 miles and Adrian keeps them at this training spot for as long as it takes the team to beat him home. From here they then move on to 25 miles with the same proviso that they beat him home before moving on to the final stage at 35 miles. Throughout the season they undergo daily training from 35 miles in all but the worst weather conditions so that they are prepared for anything come race day. The young bird team do not exercise at all at home and the only exercise they get is from their daily early morning training spin. Once again Adrian uses various motivational tricks to get the best out of the team on race days always making the birds think.

That then is a brief report on one of Wales’ top lofts-one which relies on quality not quantity to win races. To finish off this report I give you the 2006 performances of the two record breaking cocks :-

The Queen’s Cup Winner “Iwan’s Boy”.

1st club, 7th Fed 1,348 birds, Brussels 345 miles

10th Sect [1,041 birds] 42nd Open National [3,074 birds]

14th Sect [1,816 birds] 68th Open Combine [6.819 birds]

2nd Club, 4th Fed [1,126 birds] Liege 393 miles.

2nd Sect [911 birds] 6th Open National [2,834 birds]

2nd Sect [1,627 birds] 9th Open Combine [6,063 birds]

The Taffy Bowen Trophy Winner “Keith’s Boy”

3rd club [169 birds] Marlborough.

4th Club [185 birds] Woking.

1st club [165 birds] 4th Fed [2,761birds] Maidstone 1

11th sect [1,722 birds] 41st Open National [4,893 birds]

12th sect [3,634 birds] 61st Open Combine [15,057 birds]

109th sect [733 birds] 286th Open National [2,275 birds] Ramsgate 1

1st club [129 birds] 1st Fed [2,412 birds]

6th sect [1,253 birds] 18th Open National [4,256 birds]

7th sect [3,252 birds] 20th Open Combine [10,729 birds] Ramsgate 11

2nd club [81 birds] 7th Fed Woking [1,869 birds]

Due to failing health and other personal reasons, at the end of the 2006 season Adrian resigned from his local club, and as from 2007 will be competing only in National races with the Welsh SENFC; The Welsh SRNFC and the BICC. He has also become a member of the newly formed Gwent Greater Distance Club in a quest for new challenges. Watch this space for news of further successes to the Ware loft.