Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

 The Champions of Yesteryear (Part 62)

RAY & ANNE SKILLCORN OF SOUTH YORKSHIRE

The Skillcorn loft had housed many outstanding racers including 'Charlie 1', who had several outstanding Amalgamation prizes to his credit including lst Club, lst Federation, 1st Open Amalgamation (6,000 birds) Le Mans. Another star was '55' who was clocked every time he raced and recorded lst Federation Fareham (twice). lst Doncaster 2­Bird Championship Club, lst Open Fareham (twice) and lst Moorends 2-Bird Open Wallingford, in his 30 card tally won in his wonderful racing career. The weekend that I visited the South Yorkshire loft, Ray took the first six positions in his club from Newburv. He had a very unusual widowhood system, where he races cocks and hens. Ray said his best performance was when his little blue pied hen won lst.Club, lst. Federation, 7th. Open South Yorkshire Amalgamation Poitiers in a thunderstorm and was only bird home on the day in two local Federations.

Ray & Anne's main loft was 56ft, with tongue and groove boarding and a tiled roof. It was self built and had a 3ft. corridor running the full length, with 8ft. wide sliding doors for quick trapping. The main loft housed racing birds only, with stock birds being kept in a breeze block shed and the widowhood hens had their own small loft. The Skillcorn loft housed 20 widowhood cocks and hens, 30 pairs of stock birds which were all paired up on January 28th, with 70 youngsters being reared each season. The racing team consisted of Lefebre Dhaenen from Louella and some Van Leemputten, which were intro­duced in 1994. Ray fed natural corns and he bought most of their different mixtures and then mixed his own depending on the length of the races. Old birds raced through to 500 miles and he told me, all young birds must see the south coast, which was about a 200 mile fly, and occasionally if there was a young bird Channel race he would send some hens.Ray was a retired miner and both partners were great workers for the sport, being club secretary, Federation president, Federation treasurer, clockset­ters and Anne said chief cook and bottle washer for most of the fanciers in the club.

BRIAN STONE OF RIPLEY

Brian Stone was born in Ripley and he started up in pigeon., the dav he started to walk and looked after his dads birds. I first met Brian when I visited his Derbyshire loft factory of ‘Econolofts’, to video his team making up lofts for my fifth video. He was a regular advertiser in British Homing World and is well known for his ‘Stoney's Gone Mad’ slogan but not many people know he is a ace pigeon racer.

The Stone loft had had many premier wins through the years winning up to forty eight 1sts. in one season, also being top prizewinner in five clubs and two Federations in one season. One of Brian's best birds was, 'The 01' Dark Hen', winner of eleven times 1st Club, three times 1st Federation, 2nd Federation and bred four Federation winners. The 1995 season saw the Stone loft being premier prize­winners in Belper SR Club and North Derbyshire Federation, lifting Old Bird Average, Channel Average, Two Longest Races Average and Combined Average in the very strong Federation. Brian had been top prizewinner countless times in different clubs and the Federation.

Brian's 60ft x 10ft loft was self built and the main shell was an old porta-cabin from Derby hospital. It housed 20 pairs of racers, 10 pairs of stock and all old birds were paired up in the middle of January with about 80 young bird being reared each year. Brian raced cocks and hens on the widowhood system, but paired up mid way through the season and to get the hens sitting for the long distance.He raced several families, the main ones being   Busschaerts, Van Hee, Babington Van den Bosche. Staf van Reets and Janssen all had to race from 60 through to 500 miles. Brian maintained no fancier should be refused membership of a club just because he is successful. He was a  great believer in deep litter and rarely cleaned his loft out.

TEXT & PHOTO BY KEITH MOTT.

29/4/07