Keith Mott's Champions of Yesteryear (Part 73)

BRIAN CLAYBURN OF PONTEFRACT

Brian Clayburn races 72 cocks on the widowhood system and pairs them up in stages to maintain form. He says that 72 cocks seem like a lot of pigeons but he races in two Federations, the Midlands National Flying Club and South Yorkshire classics and needs a large number of cocks to compete in them all. He has had pigeons most of his life and started racing in 1969.

We visited the Yorkshire loft on a nice, sunny February morning. Brian's set-up is very impressive, to say the least, and includes his own busy pigeon corn shop. He has been premier prizewinner in the Federations many times but a good performance that stays in his memory was when he recorded 1st open Catteralls Nantes race (28,000 birds) in 1980. He says that he used to be sprint crazy but, with the decline in club racing, he is now only really interested in M.N.F.C. and Classic Club racing. On our visit, Brian showed us several of his racing champions, including the blue chequer pied cock ‘Superstar’, which had won nearly £2,600 in national and classic events. This handsome widowhood cock is a Soontjens / Van Loon cross and is a direct son of Brian's champion stock cock, the ‘Red Ring Cock’.

Brian started racing on widowhood in 1975 and starts to pair up the cocks on January 23rd every season. The loft has 6 sections, which house 12 cocks in each, and he pairs up a section every 10 days. Most of the racers are not bred from but rear eggs from all the premier stock birds. To put a cock on the widowhood system, the hen and one youngster are taken away at 14 days old, leaving the cock to finish off rearing the other youngster. The cocks are re-paired on the third week in March and are trained while sitting eggs if the weather is alright. The widowhood cocks are raced up to 500 miles and are sometimes repaired for the long distance events at the end of the season. The hens are shown to the cocks on marking night. Brian's two very smart widowhood lofts are 24ft long with tiled roofs and the birds are trapped through open windows.

Brian studied the brilliant performances of Jos Soontjens. In 1988 he purchased a full round of youngsters from the ‘master’ and has never looked back. Although the Soontjens are the main family raced. Brian also keeps Herman, Cattrysse and Van Loon pigeons. He maintains that the Soontjens have raced brilliantly for him and other fanciers who he has let have them and are the backbone of the Clayburn lofts. He has 60 pairs of stock birds and says that good breeders must have good eyesign. The two main stock cocks are the ‘Red Ring Cock’ and the ‘Black Ring Cock’, both bred by Jos Soontjens.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.

3/10/07