Keith Mott reports on

PAUL STONE

OF WEST DRAYTON

More or less since he started up in the sport in 1969, Paul Stone has been a long distance enthusiast and tells me he has never really been interested in sprint racing. He started up with old George Burgess’ white and grizzle family, which were successful from the outset, winning races at club and Federation level. After a few seasons he obtained his first long distance pigeons from Jimmy Shepherd of Chichester and this is the family he races successfully today. Paul told me Jimmy Shepherd’s dark chequers are basically bred down from the old Norman Southwell bloodlines and are brilliant at the long distance on hard days. In the early years he flew north road and put up some good performances from Lerwick (600 miles) with the NRCC. Paul tells me he won 1st open BICC Barcelona in 1997, 1st Greater Distance Club San Sebastian in 2001 and to win Palamos with the BBC is his biggest ambition today. The 2007 season saw him record 14th open BICC, 1st Greater Distance Club Barcelona (707 miles) with his good Shepherd dark hen ‘Barbie’ and she was sent on the round about system. Paul has named his great hen ‘Barbie’ because when she came from Barcelona he had just lit the Bar BQ and says he was lucky to get her into the loft as the garden was filled with smoke! This game little hen has been a very consistent racer and only had two races in 2007 from Lulworth and Alencon, before her Barcelona win. She is bred from a half brother, half sister mating and her grand sire won several good prizes, including 30th open NFC Pau. 

Paul races nine pairs on the round about system and has a smart 36ft Blake’s loft, which has six sections, drop hole trapping, and an aviary for the stock birds. The Stone pigeons are fed on ‘Irish’ mixture all the year around and are given regular training tosses off the south coast through out the racing season. He says that is the art of successful pigeon racing, knowing how to feed and train the birds. He houses 15 pairs of Jimmy Shepherd stock birds and says he has too many breeders, but are mostly retired good racers and children of his best racers. The whole loft, racing and stock birds, are paired up at the end of February and only breeds about 18 youngsters to race each year. The babies are trained well along the south coast and some times are only give one race, just to educate them, as Paul is not interested in young bird races and wants them for long distance racing, later in their life. He has sent his youngsters over to France in their first year, but says he doesn’t any more because the losses are too great and it doesn’t prove any thing. When he bring in a new stock bird he likes to handle it and hates to obtain birds ‘blind’, with his main preferences being good type and winning lines. He maintains that you have to like a pigeon or they don’t seem to do well for you and has found racing latebreds is a complete waist of time, although they make good stock birds. Paul has sent the odd yearling to 550 miles, but this is not normal practice, with them normally going through to Nantes (300 miles) to educate them and into Pau as two year olds.

He is not great fan of the ETS and says he would like to see the NFC go back to it’s old programme of two old bird races, Nantes and Pau, and one young bird race. When I asked him who was the best fancier in his area, he replied Gary Inkley, who is outstanding from 80 miles through to 550 miles every season. Paul never shows his birds, although he thinks they are a good type and would do well, he says after doing his job as a skip driver all day he can’t be bothered to take his birds out to shows on cold winter nights. He has bred several outstanding racers for other fancier, including 2nd open BBC Palamos and the sire of 1st open BICC Barcelona for John Nicholson, pigeons to breed Federation winners for Noel Mounce and 1st club, 3rd Federation, 5th Combine Bourges (580 miles) for Ken Dodd of Durham. Congratulation to Paul on his wonderful performance from Barcelona in 2007!

“Downing Maggots” (Part 6.) 

Fly Fishing in Pembrokeshire.  

When you boil it down, I think it is fair to say that I’m 100% coarse fisherman, who loves the rivers and lakes in the English country side. I’ve never been sea fishing, but did try fly fishing for Rainbow in Wales a few years ago and really enjoyed the experience. We had a week’s holiday in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, and stayed at my good mate Peter Taylor’s, daughter’s pub, The Harbour Inn at Solva. Jimmy Jones was a premier pigeon fancier in the Haverfordwest Club and it was pre-arranged that we would fly fish his private trout lake on the Thursday morning. With us being novices with the fly rod, we had a short practice session on the lake, on the Monday evening and Jim’s son, Charlie, gave us some tuition with the casting. The short practice session was very successful and produced five 1lb Rainbow Trout. The lake held a good head of Rainbow and Brown Trout, with the biggest being a double figured Brownie caught by one of Jim’s sons.

The weather on the Thursday was brilliant and full of anticipation for a great days fishing, Betty and I arrived at Jim’s country home nice and early on the arranged day. When we turned in to the car park it was full, as most of Jim’s family were there, as were several pigeon fanciers from Fishguard and Haverfordwest, who were there for the barbecue, to be held on the bank of the lake. The fishing was brilliant, with us catching about 50 Rainbow Trout up to 4lb and the first 15 caught went on to the barbecue with the chicken legs and burgers. The experience of catching the fish and eating them a few minutes later was a bit strange. It turned in to a bit of a pigeon fancier’s ‘do’ on the bank. It was a great day!

Jimmy Jones raced pigeons in partnership with his son Charlie and, although he had been in pigeons all his life, Jimmy had only been racing in the Haverfordwest Club for about five years. The Joneses raced on the natural system and enjoyed all races, short and long distance. The partners flew the Ponderosa / Janssens obtained from their good friend John Davies of Fishguard and they won from any distance. The weekend before our visit, Jimmy and Charlie had a good race from Newport (86 miles) when they recorded 1st, 2nd and 4th club with their young birds.

After a brilliant day’s fishing at the Joneses lake in Haverfordwest, Jimmy presented the fly rod and reel to me as a gift, and that bit of tackle is still in my kit today. About a year after our visit I was told that some poison from a local farm had penetrated the lake and all the fish had been killed. I sincerely hope Jim and his wonderful family have sorted out the problem and the lake is back to its former glory!

Betty and I would like to send our good wishes to Pat Cannon, who celebrating her 82nd birthday this week. Happy birthday darling! I can be contained on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTO BY KEITH MOTT