Keith Mott's

The Champions of Yesteryear (Part 70) 

TOM McGOLDRICK OF WALKERINGTON

On my video tour of the North Midlands I visited the lofts of Tom McGoldrick of Walkerington, which is near Doncaster in South Yorkshire. I think to call Tom's loft set up fantastic would be an under statement. The lofts were set out in an `L' shape, in Tom's massive garden. The two 60 ft lofts were well ventilated, which was paramount in Tom's view, and all the Natural racers were trapped through open doors.

Tom and his partner son, Tim, kept 100 race birds, 20 pairs of stock birds, which were all paired up in February and he raced about 80 youngsters each season. His birds were raced on the natural system, as they were mainly a Channel based loft, so natural suited them. They could beat the widowhood lads sprinting with the jealousy system, which Tom thought they had perfected over the years, with cocks and hens. The partners were not lovers of young bird racing and said the stress factor is detrimental to youngsters. Main families raced were Janssens from Mr & Mrs Blakewell and Freek Romain of Holland. Albert & Dennis Taylor of Eastwood had bred a lot of good pigeons for the McGoldrick loft, including a 1st Federation winner from their 1990 N.R.C.C. Lerwick King's Cup winner the ‘Tamed Red’. Tom had four pairs purchased at R. & K. Besant of New Malden's clearance sale including several children of champion ‘Besant's Bishop's Pride’, their Bordeaux National winner. Other families in the stock loft were Busschaert, Rex Doe / Herbots, Cattrysse and Verheye.

The McGoldrick's were very selective with their racing and in 1995 only had eleven club races, winning seven firsts and 1st, 2nd, 3rd Federation, 5th, 7th, 8th Open Amalgamation (9,102 birds) Falaise. They had one N.F.C. race recording 2nd. Sect K, 64th. Open (11,670 birds) Nantes and two Northern Classic races winning, 1st. Sect, 15th. Open Rennes and 3rd. Sect, 23rd. Open Niort. The cock that won 64th Open Nantes N.F.C. was a pure Lefebre Dhaenen bred from two direct birds. The two top posi­tions in Northern C.C., 15th. Open Rennes and 23rd. Open Niort, were won with one pigeon, a wonderful blue chequer pied hen, bred by Albert & Dennis Taylor of Eastwood from their N.R.C.C. Lerwick King's Cup winner ‘Tame Red’. In the two young bird races that Tom competed in, in 1995 he recorded 1st, 3rd, 4th (902 birds), all with R. & K. Besant youngsters.

Tom was a very hard trainer, and the birds got lots of tosses from the south coast, with Channel racing in mind. The Natural racers got an open loft all day and were fed on a good heavy Channel racing mixture. Tom said his best performance of all time was in 1978, while in partnership with his wife Sheila, he sent eleven birds to Falaise and recorded lst, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, Open South Yorks Amalgamation (14,000 birds), a fantastic performance and one which Tom thinks will never be equalled.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT