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DEREK REID
of WEYBRIDGE by Gareth Watkins Derek Reid, the subject of this loft report, is a retired businessman who did not enter the sport until he was in his late forties. Derek’s introduction came as the result of a chance encounter with a pigeon fancier named Tommy Mist who was a regular customer at Derek’s business premises. One day Tommy asked permission to liberate some pigeons in the company’s car park – and the rest as they say is history! Derek set about building a small loft “for his son” and immediately began stocking it with introductions from Louella Lofts. The year after his inaugural season in the sport Derek ordered a brand new Kidby loft and it was obvious by this time that the pigeon bug had bitten deep. Membership of The National Flying Club followed and Derek immediately won 30th Open in the young bird National with 8,512 birds competing. By 1989 the Reid team was well established with consistent winning performances at club, fed and national level. However, in this year disaster struck in pigeon terms, as Derek was promoted to a senior position in the company and his new post entailed extensive travel across the globe. This left very little time for pigeons, nevertheless they were kept on and managed in his absence by Derek’s charming wife Elaine.
In 1993, although they didn’t realise it at the time, the Reids were to make an introduction that would change their whole outlook on the fancy. This sea change took the form of some Wim Muller pigeons obtained from Ponderosa U.K. at Weymouth. More about these top class long distance pigeons later. The 1998 season saw Derek join the British Barcelona Club and it was at this time that his love affair with long distance racing really began. The 1999 season saw the Reid loft win 2nd Sect 3rd Open Nantes, 1st Sect 4th Open Palamos and 1st Sect 13th Open Bordeaux plus 7th Sect 96th Open Lamballe in the young bird National, all with the BBC, amassing 11 trophies in this highly prestigious club. It was at this time that Derek began to appreciate the ability of his original Wim Muller pigeons as he had, as he admitted to me, ”wasted six years by not really breeding from them”. This initial oversight has certainly been made up for since as the Reid loft is now based predominantly on the aforementioned Muller pigeons. Between 1999 and 2005 the loft was consistently successful, on many occasions finishing the season as highest prize-winner in the local club. It was in the 2005 season that Derek finally retired and what a season this proved to be. The first four club races saw three red cards and a number of other prizes taken by the Reid team of widowers. At St Nazaire with the BBC Derek clocked “Ryan’s Express”, a Janssen widower, for 3rd Sect 19th Open and in the very next race, again from St Nazaire, but this time with the NFC, “Ryan’s Express” was clocked once again to win 1st Sect 1st Open from more than 8,600 entries. Not a bad start to retirement! This National winner is bred from a Brian Clayburn Smits Van Winkel cock which was purchased as a young bird and was thought to be a hen. He certainly proved everyone wrong as he has since sired more than 25 x 1st prize winners and is rightly regarded as the sire of the loft in sprint terms. The National winner’s grand dam is a Janssen hen obtained from none other than the great loft of Planet Bros. More success was soon to follow, as in the BBC’S blue riband race from Palamos at a distance of 675 miles, a dark chequer Wim Muller widowhood cock was clocked on the second day to win 1st Sect & 1st Open to top a truly remarkable season. Incidentally, the grand dam of the NFC winner and the grand dam of the Palamos National winner are one and the same, the Planet Bros Janssen hen! The success story continued throughout the old bird season as at San Sebastian [560 miles] the Reid loft again featured well up in the result with two crackers for 1st & 6th Sect 10th & 47th Open. The Bordeaux National saw another top widowhood performance with Derek’s first in the clock winning 2nd Sect & 18th Open at 447 miles. I’m sure you’ll agree, not a bad season’s work.
The 2006 campaign proved to be another milestone season. The season began with the first classic race with the BBC from Ingleton, a distance of just 210 miles. The Reid loft won 1st Sect 28th Open in this sprint dash. The ban on continental racing that had been imposed by DEFRA at the beginning of the season was then lifted and in the Bordeaux National at a distance of 447 miles, two Wim Muller widowers were clocked to win 1st & 2nd Sect 1st & 2nd Open. The winner was a two year old dark chequer bred from a son of 4th Open Palamos when paired to a g.dtr of Invincible Spirit. His dam is a direct daughter of the original Wim Muller Foundation Pair. The second cock clocked in this race deserves special mention as does Derek’s wife Elaine. The 2nd Open winner returned from an early season race in a terrible state as he was cut open and was given very little chance of survival. This is where Elaine’s dogged determination, skill and compassion was most clearly demonstrated. Twice a day, every day for two weeks Elaine tended to the injured widower, applying Savlon to his wounds and not a little TLC. Slowly but surely he recovered and within weeks was well enough to exercise with the rest of the team. He soon regained full racing fitness and was well enough to be entered in the Messac race where he returned fourth to the loft. So fit and well was he on his return that he was immediately earmarked for the Bordeaux National. A previous winner of 6th Sect 47th Open San Sebastian, this 4 year old widower proved the old adage that “blood will tell” as his sire is a direct son of the Foundation Pair of Ponderosa Wim Mullers whilst his dam is a grand daughter of Black Giant again via Ponderosa. The final race of the BBC calendar was a young bird event from Sennen Cove, a distance of 246 miles to Derek’s Weybridge loft. The team once again came well with the first in the clock winning 1st Sect 8th Open. I won’t detail any more of Derek’s classic performances here, as after a while, some readers will switch off and lose interest. I can however assure you that there are very many more top class performances in the Reid C.V. Since the initial small back garden loft was built for Derek and Elaine’s son in the mid 80s, the range of lofts at the Reid’s lovely detached Weybridge home has expanded considerably. A team of 28 widowers earmarked for classic long distance races are housed in a 16ft x 8ft loft whilst the 24 widowers that are expected to compete in sprint/middle distance races are housed in a similar sized two-sectioned loft with tiled roof. The 16 pair stock team are comfortably housed in yet another loft, with aviary attached and, like the widowers’ lofts, this faces south-east. The young bird team enjoy spacious accommodation in a further range of lofts which face south-west. The sprint widowers and stock birds are mated in late January whilst the long distance widowers are held until mid to late February/early March before being paired. All widowers are allowed to rear a youngster, not necessarily their own, and are then placed on the widowhood system. The cocks get a few training spins before the season begins and in 2006 this amounted to just three tosses at 20 miles. The sprinters are usually expected to race weekly in the inland programme whilst the long distance cocks enjoy a couple of “pipe openers” before being selectively prepared for their target races. The widowers are exercised around home for one hour twice per day. During these exercise periods they are locked out of the loft but are not forced to fly. They are simply allowed to do their own thing. All birds both young and old are fed exclusively on Versele Laga mixtures and Gem supplements. The young bird team receives its first toss at 20 miles and the youngsters are kept at this distance with regular tosses up to the first race and throughout the season. Elaine is responsible for the training and is quite capable of covering any of Derek’s duties in his absence. The Wim Muller young birds in the young bird team are normally only trained to the coast in their first season whilst the rest of the team usually complete the programme. As yearlings the Mullers are once again raced lightly out to 250- 300 miles but as 2 year olds they are expected to do the business out to 500 miles. Derek has developed two distinct families of pigeons for two distinct types of races. The sprint team are mostly blues and chequers and are strong and robust in the hand with excellent pectoral muscle development. The Mullers on the other hand are small to medium sized dark chequers and dark chequer w/fs, some of which are rather “wirey” in the hand and they certainly don’t like to be handled as they are constantly struggling to get free. For what it’s worth, all birds exhibited excellent eyesign with the Mullers in particular showing extremely strong iris colouration. To sum up, I can only say that I was extremely impressed with the families the Reids have developed and would expect their high level of performance to continue for some years to come. Congratulations Derek and Elaine on your marvellous results to date and many thanks for your kind hospitality. 19/7/07 Report
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