Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

BRIAN & THELMA DENNEY

OF STRENSALL

The 2007 National Flying Club Tarbes Grand National race saw Brian Denney clock nine birds on the winning day, to record 1st, 4th, 6th, 9th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 32nd Section K, 5th, 17th, 27th, 31st, 109th, 116th, 130th, 134th, 205th open (3,477 birds), flying 748 miles to his loft in York.

The Denney’s latest N.F.C. section winner is a handsome two year old dark pied cock, now named ‘Dark Charm’. Brian tells me he had another five birds home that day, that he didn’t clock and they also would have been well up in the open result. A wonderful performance by Brian, who is one of the greatest long distance fanciers this country has ever produced!

The first three birds on the clock from Tarbes were full brothers, racing on Brian own widowhood system and were bred direct off the champion stock pair, ‘Maxi’ and ‘Dark Jan’. The fourth bird recorded from Tarbes won 2nd Section K from Bordeaux N.F.C. in 2006 and he was another son of ‘Maxi’, who has in recent seasons become one of the principal stock cocks at the Strensall loft. ‘Maxi’ is a son of Campion ‘Classic Lad’ and a daughter of Champion ‘Tuff Nut’, named ‘Lynnetta’.  One of Brian’s best hens was ‘Blue Pau’ and she was a champion racer and breeder, winning 3rd. Section K. 41st. Open N.F.C. Pau, 738 miles, 4th. Section K. 201st. Open N.F.C. Pau. She was the dam of many outstanding racers including ‘Classic Lad’, winner of 1st Open Northern Classic Saintes, clocked from 573 miles on the day of liberation. ‘Dark Jan’ is a direct daughter of Champion ‘Tuff Nut’ when mated to ‘Brian’s Prize’, winner of 4th open Northern Classic Saintes, also clocked from 573 miles on the day of liberation. A fantastic loft of long distance racers!

Some say that Brian Denney’s Pau Grand National performance in the 2002 season, when he recorded 1st section K. 5th open, was one of the best performances of all time in the National Flying Club. John Ayling had the only bird on the day of liberation, in the form of his fantastic champion, ‘Home Alone’, and Brian clocked his dark white flight cock, ‘Tuff Nut’, on the second day, flying 738 miles, with north in the wind, to record 5th open. Brilliant stuff!

‘Tuff Nut’ was born at the loft of David Harrison from Brian Denney bloodlines. When I asked Brian about his wonderful pigeon he smiled and said, ‘That was a great day when we saw him coming from the Pau National and I knew that only one bird had been clocked on the night flying 519 miles. It must have given John Ayling the thrill of a lifetime to clock the only bird on the day in the Pau Grand National. ‘Tuff Nut’ had been clocked from Saintes, 573 miles on the day, flying 15 hours, in the 2000 season and from Pau I hoped that he had made it into England on the night, but that’s one thing we will never know. After clocking him from Pau, he soon showed plenty of interest in his mate, so I knew he was right and when I phoned Sid Barkel to verify him I was told ‘Tuff Nut’ was the first bird clocked in Section K. Only four birds had beaten him with 4,085 birds competing and the fact that he had flown 738 miles on two hard days and still up with the leaders made me feel very proud of my pigeon. Not long after the race, Bill Harris, the N.F.C. president, phoned to congratulate me on ‘Tuff Nut’s’ performance, which was very nice and for days after the phone never stopped ringing from fanciers with good wishes, from all over the U.K. The icing on the cake was the N.F.C. prize presentation in Blackpool when my fellow fanciers acknowledged ‘Tuff Nut’s’ wonderful performance.’

The loft is ‘L’ shaped and faces south. It has two sections for widowhood racers, with 16 nest boxes in each, a section for the hens next door, two sections for the stock birds and a large section for young birds. Brian maintains that space and ventilation are the main factors in good loft design. He says deep litter is O.K. He used it for many years and it can get dusty, hence good ventilation in the loft is needed. His family of long distance pigeons are now his own and known throughout the pigeon racing world as the ‘Bry-Den’ 700 mile family. This season he has 13 pairs in the stock section, which were paired up in late January, and his stock team are all retired premier racers, or children of his best pigeons, such as ‘Dark Peron’ and ‘The Bordeaux Cock’. If he is trying new introductions, he prefers to race them first and if they stand up to the test on the road he will take a youngster off them. Through the years he has introduced some good crosses into the Derek Smith ‘Lolita’ bloodlines, the main one being Louella Van Hee pigeons. The main thing he looks for when bringing in new pigeons is that they have good 500 – 700 mile performances in their bloodlines.

Brian races cocks and hens on the widowhood system and normally keeps 25 pairs of racers, which are paired up in February. He likes the yearlings to fly from France a couple of times, which can be 350 to 400 miles, and the only time he would re-pair for Pau is if he had some good hens he wanted to send. Brian has raced hens and cocks on the widowhood with equal success, and says the disadvantage of re-pairing for Pau is they soon throw flights. The Denney pigeons are hopper fed beans as a base, mixed with a good widowhood mixture and the birds get a lot of Hormoform. Sometimes the hens are let through to the cocks on basketing night and sometimes Brian just turns the nest bowl over. The short club races are used for training and on their return from a long distance race they sometimes stay with their mate overnight.

Brian says at one time he used to win at all distances, but he is now only interested in long, hard races where only the best come through. He likes the wait and as long as there is a chance of getting one home he is there ready to clock them in. Other principal pigeons in the Denney loft include: ‘The Pau Hen’ 1st. Section K., 118th. Open N.F.C. Pau ‘Whitetail’ 4th. Section K., 51st. Open N.F.C. Pau, 5th. Section K., 234th. Open N.F.C. Pau ‘The Bordeaux Cock’ 7th. Section K., 109th. Open N.F.C. Pau, 8th.Section K., 133rd. Open N.F.C. Saintes, 3rd. Section K., 85th. Open N.F.C. Nantes ‘Dark Peron’ 3rd. Section K., 33rd. Open N.F.C. Saintes and the grandsire of ‘Tuff Nut’. A wonderful loft of 750 mile racers!

Brian has about 40 young birds to race each season and they race natural to the perch. They are trained in stages up to 55 miles and are raced to the south coast, about a 220 miles fly, and are hand fed twice a day on the same mixture as the old birds. Brian is now retired from work and says his wife, Thelma, has always been interested in the pigeons. He told me that she is very capable of doing anything in the loft and has clocked in for him many times when he was working. Their two daughters, Susan and Lynn, have always taken an interest in Brian’s pigeons. Brian is not interested in the eyesign method, although he likes to see a nice bright eye with plenty of colour, and he maintains the basket is the true test if a pigeon is good or not. He has been secretary of the local club for 20 years and says he thinks the sport is going backwards, with clubs getting smaller. The future is with the National if it gets it’s house in order, with entry fees and prize money. He likes inbreeding and line breeding and practices it all the time, saying it is the only way to keep a good family going strong. Brian likes latebreds for stock and in the winter months increases the beans and peas for the heavy moult period.

Brian Denney was born near Malton in Yorkshire and his father kept a few pigeons, but never raced them, although he enjoyed taking them for short flights on his bike. Brian first had pigeons when he was a school boy and used to visit two fanciers in the next village, who really got him into pigeon racing. He went into the army for nine years and started up racing pigeons in 1962, at his present home in Strensall, near York. Brian’s first birds were obtained from Albert Witty and Derek Smith and both these fanciers helped him with eggs from their best birds. The Derek Smith ‘Lolita’ family are still in Brian’s bloodlines today. He says he remembers his first winner, it was a little dark chequer which came like a rocket and won the first race he ever entered. In the 1960s Brian admired the performances of Frank Cheetham who flew 709 miles from Pau and says he was on the front page of the pigeon papers every year after putting up brilliant performances from Pau. His first club was the Acomb MWC in York and he has the same loft that he started with in 1962, though he has made it bigger through the 45 years he has been in the sport.

Once again this “ON THE ROAD” has given me extra special pleasure to write as Brian and Thelma are good friends of mine and are two of the nicest people I have met in my time in the sport. I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT 

13/7/07