Keith Mott’s ‘Champions of Yester Year’ (Part 96) 

 MR & MRS BERNARD BUNDY

OF PRIVETT

Bernard Bundy of Privett, near Alton, made a good 1980 season great by winning the Central Southern Classic Flying Club blue riband race from Pau (531 miles). The Bundys were always a force to be reckoned with at any distance, but excelled in the long distance events. They had clocked in race time from Palamos five years on the trot, up to 1980. A few of their highlights at that time were: 1974: 1st Federation Niort, 1977: 6th open BBC Palamos, 1978: 1st club Dax, 1979: 9th open BICC Narbonne, 1980: 10th, 17th open CSCFC Saintes, 1st open CSCFC Pau, 3rd club Bergerac.

Central Southern Classic Flying Club liberated 734 birds at 06.30hrs in a south west wind for the Pau Classic and Bernard clocked his yearling blue hen, ‘Privett Princess’, on the day of liberation at 20.32hrs. A wonderful performance! Only six pigeons were recorded on the day and ‘Privett Princess’ lifted five CSCFC trophies for her win. This game yearling was sitting eight day old eggs and had two Rennes races on her build up to the Pau Classic. She was a Dordin / Bostyn cross and her dam was of ‘Sky King’ bred by the late great Jim Biss.

Bernard Bundy had two lofts, one 22ft x 7ft, three sections with a louvered front and the other 16ft x 8ft with two sections. He paired up his two pairs of stock birds in mid February and his ten pairs of racers at the beginning of March, and bred about 20 youngsters to race each season. The Bundy partnership raced on the natural system, with an open loft and he maintained the pigeons were happier this way. Bernard was a self employed builder and told me his most thrilling experience in the sport was the 1972 NFC Pau Grand National. There was thick fog and didn’t expect to see any birds home and hid dark chequer hen appeared out of the fog to record 27th open and his other entry won 117th open.

The loft housed four main families: Spangles, Schuman, Bostyn and Dordin, and they all crossed well, scoring up to 660 miles. When selecting producers, Bernard looked for a strong eyesign, preferably violet, strong back and good feathering. He was very interested in eyesign and said it is essential to know the strength of an eye and retain it. The Bundy’s hopper fed maples with a little maize and found after trying other diets this was the most suitable for the job they wanted their pigeons to excel at. The old birds were trained every Sunday from Bovington (55 miles), with a few 20 mile tosses mid-week, and the young birds were given a bit more work. Bernard told me he had a high regard for Les Davenport, because of the success he had achieved at National level.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT