Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

ERIC CANNON'S NFC PAU MERIT AWARDS

I recently got a phone call from Pat Cannon, telling me that she had to have some structural work carried out on her house and had to clear out the spare bedroom. A lot of Eric’s old framed pigeon photos, some dating back to the 1950s, were stored in the room as well as his four framed NFC Pau Merit awards. I have all Eric’s breeding books, small pigeon photos and NFC diplomas stored at my house since I did his dispersal sale, following his death in 2000. Being the keeper of Eric’s records, Pat asked if I could take the photos and diplomas of merit, and keep them with his other pigeon stuff. Eric and I were great friends for many years and I’ve gone on record many times, stating he was the best pigeon racer that I’ve ever met, and was our greatest National champion. All his pigeon records are stored in a special plastic crate at my home and I think it’s so important that they are looked after, with his brilliant long distance performances being major pigeon racing history over the last 50 years. I think his record four framed NFC Pau Merit Awards should be in a museum, but that is some thing we are going to look in to in the future. What a fantastic record, four NFC Pau Merit Awards! All my mates are coming around to see them and the chances are they will never see four under one roof ever again! They should be on a museum wall so ever one can enjoy them.

At the 1999 National Flying Club prize presentation held at Bedford, Eric and Pat Cannon were presented with their fourth and last N.F.C. Pau Certificate of Merit, which is won by a pigeon that has taken three positions in the first 100 open in the Pau Grand National result. Their fourth certificate winner was the blue hen, Champion ‘Culmer Bess’, whose record reads, 1996: 4th section, 47th open Pau / Saintes, 1997: 2nd section, 6th open Pau, 1998: 170th open Pau, 1999: 2nd section, 26th open Pau, to lift the Certificate of Merit. A wonderful hen! ‘Culmer Bess’ is a daughter of one of Eric’s N.F.C. Pau section winners, ‘Culmer Joan’, and a cock obtained from Michael Spencer of Clitheroe. The Cannon / Spencer cross proved to be an excellent one, with ‘Culmer Michael’, a brother to ‘Culmer Bess’, winning 1st in the very strong Godalming club from Nantes, 17thopen N.F.C. Pau, 184th open N.F.C. Pau, 161st open N.F.C. Pau / Saintes. The Cannon loft won it’s previous N.F.C. Pau merit award with the champion blue hen, ‘Culmer Channel Queen’ and she recorded 364th open Young Bird National, 9th section, 98th open Pau, 3rd section, 29th open Pau, 5th section, 23rd open Pau, 14th section, 183rd open Pau. Another fantastic pigeon! She was a direct daughter of the champion stock cock, ‘Culmer Producer’, sire of many good Pau pigeons and son of ‘Culmer Pat’, when paired to a son of Tom Gilbertson’s ‘Treble Five’. The champion hen, ‘Culmer Pat’, won 27th, 80th and104th open Pau N.F.C. for the late Gerald Stovin and was dam of his 1st open N.F.C. Pau winner. ‘Culmer Pat’ was bred by Gerald Stovin from two Cannon pigeons and was gifted back to Eric before Gerald’s untimely death from cancer. The dam of ‘Culmer Channel Queen’ was ‘27444’ and she scored in three Pau Nationals, recording 70th., 298th and 507th open, and her dam was ‘Culmer Joan’. A brilliant family of long distance pigeons!

I was working through some old photographs recently and came across a picture of Eric’s old champion, ‘Culmer Gold’. On viewing this handsome blue cock’s photograph, it made me reflect on his wonderful racing record and I wondered to myself how you measure to find the best when it comes to racing pigeons. Performance, I suppose. The great ‘Culmer Gold’, never won the Combine or National race, some might say, Ah, but he was super consistent in the fierce competition of our supreme English specialist organisation, the National Flying Club. My ol’ mate, Eric, had countless champions in his lifetime in pigeon racing, including 1st. open N.F.C., but ‘Culmer Gold’, was his favourite and I think probably his greatest champion of them all. A once in a life time pigeon winning, 21st, 70th, 83rd,103rd and 111th open N.F.C. Pau (540 miles), winning the N.F.C. Pau Merit Award and in one season recorded 163rd open N.F.C. Nantes to win the best Average from Nantes and Pau, plus two premier Combine positions. A brilliant performance! Champion ‘Culmer Gold’ was sired by blue cock, ’40799’, one of Eric’s premier stock cocks in the 1980’s and a full brother to the champion blue cock, ‘Culmer Lad’, who flew Pau 10 times and was in the N.F.C. result 8 times, to record 22nd., 37th., 227th, 346th, 373rd, 467th, 614th. and 761st. open. ‘Culmer Lad’ also scored in two other N.F.C. races, putting 10 National positions to his name and he was also an outstanding breeding pigeon, being the sire of several premier N.F.C. pigeons, including ‘Culmer Belle’, winner of 4th, 76th, 131st. and 428th open N.F.C. Pau. ‘Culmer Lad’ and ‘40799’ were both sons of the first of Eric’s four N.F.C. Pau Merit Award winners, Champion ‘Culmer Lady’. This great hen won 26th, 27th, 48th, 135th, 140th open NFC Pau and was half sister to Eric’s brilliant hen, Champion ‘Culmer Blue Bird’. The grandsire of ‘Culmer Gold’ on his dam’s side was the blue chequer cock, ‘26792’, who is rated by some as Eric’s principal breeding pigeon. He is half brother to Champion ‘Culmer Lass’, winner of 1st open SMT Combine Bergerac (only bird on the day in the Combine). The stock cock, ‘26792’, and ‘Culmer Lass’, were both sired by the blue cock, ‘13953’, the sire of three 1st. section and a 2nd. section winners from the Pau National. The dam of ‘26792’ was the famous blue chequer hen, ‘The Challen Hen’, who bred 10 pigeons to appear in the Pau National results, including 2nd open. The nest mate of ‘26792’ was blue chequer hen, ‘26791’ and she won 2nd section N.F.C. Pau, and was also the dam of the champion red cock, ‘Culmer Sam’, who I think was Eric Cannon’s key breeding pigeon from the early 1980s.

Champion ‘Culmer Gold’ was typical of Eric’s old blue family, being medium, long cast in the hand, with good, silky feather and a nice head. The old timer loved Eric, and was always up on his shoulder or hand looking for a bit of Maize. He won a great deal of money in National racing and bred a dynasty of outstanding long distance racing pigeons for the Cannon loft and others.

If the N.F.C. Pau Certificate of Merit had started a few years earlier, Eric would have won three other awards, with the three hens, ‘Culmer Julie Girl’, ‘Culmer Beauty’ and the great champion blue hen, ‘Culmer Blue Bird’. My wife, Betty, and I have been good friends with Eric and Pat for 30 years and out of all their many champions through the years, ‘Blue Bird’, was my favourite. She was perfect in the hand and in the late 1970’s she recorded 6th, 28th, 57th, 118th and 251st open N.F.C. Pau, winning 1st section twice. The Cannon loft has won countless positions in the N.F.C. through the years, but the highlights have been: 5 times winner of the Langstone Gold Cup, for best average of three N.F.C. races, 16 times 1st. section in N.F.C. races, 1st open Sartilly, 2nd open Pau, 4th open Pau, 5th open Sartilly, 5th open Avranches, 6th open Pau (twice), 8th open Sartilly and so on. The Cannons had 74 positions in the first 100 open positions in Pau Grand Nationals and lifted the 3 bird Average from the Pau National six times.

Lion Brewery Mid-Week Club.

I received a letter from club secretary, Mick Worsfold, this week and he is just off with his wife, Pauline, to Canada for a months holiday. Have a great time mate! The club’s transporter will be doing Sunday morning training from Winchester and Hayling Island through out March and April, at the cost of 20p per bird. Thanks to Dave and Walter for all their good repair work and getting the vehicle ready for the new season.

The 2008 race programme is: Old Bird: 2nd April – Hamworthy: 9th April – Hamworthy: 16th April – Hamworthy: 23rd April – Guernsey: 30th April – Hamworthy: 7th May – Guernsey: 14th May – Hamworthy: 21st May – Guernsey: 28th May – Hamworthy: 4th June – Merville: 11th June – Hamworthy: 18th June – Hamworthy: 25th June – Guernsey: 2nd July – Hamworthy. Young Bird: 16th July – Hamworthy: 23rd July – Hamworthy: 30th July – Hamworthy: 6th August – Guernsey: 13th August – Hamworthy: 20th August – Hamworthy: 27th August – Hamworthy.  

In conclusion

Peter Taylor and I drove down to Pat’s Godalming home to pick up Eric’s photos and awards on my return from my holiday in Tenerife at the beginning of March. I must say it was great to see her again, as we talk regularly on the telephone, but I hadn’t seen her for a while. On my return from Tenerife, I read my BHW and it was all bad news for me! Firstly, I read that my hero, Cyril Medway of Southampton, had passed away at the grand old age of 86. What a wonderful fancier! One of the smallest lofts in the sport and won 1st open BBC Palamos twice. Brilliant! The second bit of bad news was that our friend and champion, Peter Bryant, is resigning as General Manager of the RPRA and will stand down in November. Peter has done so much good work for our sport and is our champion over the recent ‘bird flu’ problem. He has done a brilliant job with constant talks with the ignorant DEFRA and it’s only down to him that we got any Continental racing at all. Peter and I have struck up a good friendship over the years and I think he will be very hard to replace. Thank you and good luck with your new career, Peter!

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

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT  

26/3/08