Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

Bill Bearder & sons of Nottingham 

I was first introduced to Bill Bearder, by my good friend Mat Bentley of Guernsey, at the BHW Blackpool Show last January and on having a conservation with him, I must say, I was very impressed with his pigeon performances over recent seasons, including winning 1st open North Road Championship Club Lerwick in 2004. Mat Bentley originates from Nottingham, with his dad and mum still living and racing pigeons in the midlands, and Bill is a good friend of the family.

Bill Bearder was born in Nottingham and although no other family member was interested in pigeons, he obtained his first pair as an eleven year old school boy. His first birds were Tumblers, Rollers and Fantails. One day a stray racing pigeon came into his loft and on getting the phone number of the RPRA from Ted Harris, a local fancier, the young Bill reported it. The stray bird was a Bruton blue chequer hen and belonged to the midlands fancier, George Watson, who then started Bill off with the Bruton and Fuller Issaccsons bloodlines. His first pigeon racing club was the Bulwell Scots Greys club and his first loft in 1965 was an 8ft x 6ft shed, with doweled front and box traps. Bill says in the early days the late L. Green, founder member of the Beacon F.C, was a great help to him and was an excellent long distance racer in both the club and the Federation. Bill has now been in the sport 47 years and recalls his big mistake in his first season was racing his youngsters, not realising that they needed training. In those days Bill was a very keen footballer and now enjoys watching his grandson, Josh, play the game.

The present day Bearder loft is ‘L’ shaped, with plenty of light and good ventilation. The partners have two sections housing 36 pairs of natural racers, which are raced in two clubs and a third section containing 12 widowhood cocks. The widowhood cocks race all races and are not re-paired for the long distance events, and get their hens for about half an hour on their return from the races. Bill likes the natural birds sitting 14 day old eggs or a ten day old youngster for the long distance events, which are his favourite races. All the old bird racers are fed the same mixtures, light for the short sprints and heavy for the 400 miles and over races.

Bill has recorded many good winners through the years and of course his best being his NRCC ‘King’s Cup’ winner from Lerwick in 2004. His winning pigeon was his champion barless mealy hen, ‘Bill’s Pride’ and she is bred from the very best Van Wildemeersch bloodlines, with a slight cross in her. This natural hen won Lerwick sitting 14 day old eggs and at the start of that season was laid up with a badly knocked wing. Bill told me it was looking doubtful that she would go to Lerwick in 2004, but she had four races, including 12 hours out of Perth and proved that she had got over the knock. She has a wonderful racing record: 2000 (young bird): 5th club Ripon, 4th Northallerton, 2001: 1st club Thurso, 3rd club Northallerton, 2002: 5th club Thurso, 3rd club Ripon, 2003: 88th open NRCC Lerwick, 1st club Lerwick, 2004: 1st open NRCC Lerwick, 1st club Lerwick, 2005: 39th open NRCC Lerwick, 1st club Lerwick. Won the North Road Championship Club Certificate of Merit. A fantastic hen! ‘Bill’s Pride’ has bred many winners including the good mealy cock, winner of 1st club, 5th Federation. She is the grand dam of one of Bill’s best racers, ‘The Mosaic Cock’, which was the 2007 ‘Bird of the Year’ in the Ruddington F.C. and has won 2 x 1st, 2 x 2nd and 1 x 3rd in the club, and 5th Federation (886 birds), 14th Federation (1173 birds), 15th Federation (1021 birds) and 8th open Amal.(2206 birds).     

The main families raced are Frans Van Wildemeersch and Janssens, with the stock loft housing 24 pairs. Bill told me he likes to introduce new stock most years, just to try and find something to beat his own winning families. Some new introductions which have been very successful have been birds from the Midlands ‘ace’, Adrian Duggins and a Soontjens cock purchased at the BHW Blackpool Show recently. He is not in to the eyesign theory, but is very keen on deep litter on the loft floors and maintains it has to be kept dry. Bill puts his 35 young birds on the ‘dark’ system and told me he kept a biggish team to allow for losses to hawks and intense racing. The babies are trained every day when ever possible, but not on a Friday, when they are locked up in the loft. They are allowed to pair up and are get all races up to 255 miles. Bill says he likes line breeding and keeps one or two late breds for the stock loft. The birds are parted straight after the young bird racing has finished so the birds can into the moult and he feeds a moulting mixture and plenty of seeds, including Linseed.

Bill took early retirement from work and says he is very lucky that his three sons are all interested in the pigeons. He is not a driver and told me, ‘the boys do the training, club work and look after the loft when I go on holiday. They are great!’ He likes all racing, long and short, but get’s his biggest buzz from the long distance events, with the NRCC races being his favourites and says his biggest thrill was to win the ultimate prize, the ‘King’s Cup’ and to own the only winner to lift the NRCC Certificate of Merit. He is the Treasurer of his local club, after being the Secretary for three years and maintains the sport has declined over the last few years because it has become very expensive and there is lack of encouragement for young fanciers. He says when he was young and coming into the sport, you could walk in to a club or pub and a fancier would be more than happy to help you or perhaps give you some squeaker to get you started, but these days it’s all about money, and the sport has become a business. Bill says Kevin Lawson of Ollerton is the best all round fancier in his area and has been the man to beat for many years. Congratulations to the Bearder family on their wonderful ‘King’s Cup’ winner.

Rick and Julie Cleverley of Basildon 

I don’t think it is common knowledge that I earn my living doing Carpentry and have worked in the building trade all my life. I have been general forman on several big projects through the years and have worked in the homes of several ‘stars’ including Leslie Grantham and John Pertwee. I’ve had 30 happy years working self employed and for the last eight years have enjoyed grafting for Wallakers of Surbiton. It’s no flannel, but the Wallakers crew are a great crowd and we enjoy a good laugh! I recently made a visit to the Surbiton office for a meeting and our Becky told me a new girl had started work there and her dad is a pigeon fancier. It’s a small world! The girl was Kay Cleverley, daughter of Rick and Julie Cleverley of Basildon in Essex. Rick and Julie visited my home in 2005 when they won the L&SECC from Tours and I covered their win in the BHW. Kay is now living in Surrey with her partner and has been working at Wallakers a few months now. She is lovely girl and likes to hear the pigeon news when I visit the office. I recently spoke to Rick on the phone and the Cleverley’s have move house and now live in ‘Budgie’ Crathorne’s house in Essex. The Crathorne & Parrott partnership won the NFC Falaise Old Hens National in 2003 with their blue hen, ‘Kiln Falaise’, and now live in the Manchester area.      

In the first few weeks of the 2005 season the wind had been fixed in the South and West, producing very fast racing every week. The London & South East Classic Club sent a record birdage of 2,738 birds to the Tours event and true to form, the wind was in the South West and produced another fast race. The birdage was 300 birds up on the previous highest in the mid-season classic, with most of the leading pigeon being recorded on the East side of the club. The day of the race had perfect racing conditions, with blue sky and sun shine, and the convoy got off to a good start being liberated at 06.35 hrs.

The winning pigeon was clocked at the Basildon loft of Rick and Julie Cleverley and their champion yearling blue chequer hen was recorded at 12.12hrs, flying 290 miles into Essex. Rick had named his Tours classic winner, ‘Fred’s Girl’, after his late father who was an outstanding North Road fancier in the 1970’s. She was raced on the natural system and was given a big youngster on the Tuesday evening prior to marking and never wasted a second trapping into the loft, on her return from Tours. This wonderful little hen was bred from stock obtained from John and Meg Murry of Essex and flew the channel twice from Alencon, the two weekends prior to her Tours Classic win. Rick only trained his old birds lightly and ‘Fred’s Girl’ was given several tosses off the south coast on the local club transporter, before the start of racing. As a young bird she was put on the darkness system and raced the whole programme. Well done to Rick and Julie on their wonderful success!

Well that’s it for this week! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT