Hampshire weekend racing pigeons

HAMPSHIRE AWAY DAY

With

Gareth Watkins

Following on from our recent foray into darkest Surrey, the four intrepid Welshmen namely Ray Strawbridge, Ted Garwood, Jimmy Bullock and yours truly set off on a fact finding mission to visit three of the top long distance lofts in Hampshire. So it was, that on a cold ,crisp sunny day in late January we travelled down to view the lofts and pigeons of A & T Deacon of Waterlooville; Alan Holdaway of Portsmouth and Mick Bunney also of Portsmouth.

We arrived at Albi and Jeannette Deacon’s home a little after 10 am and after a welcome cup of coffee we were soon amongst the pigeons. Albi has one of the best records in Hampshire from NFC Pau, having appeared in the first 500 Open from Pau/Tarbes every year for the past 25 years and only once being out of the first 200 Open from these races. The Deacons have also won the Langstone Gold Cup with the NFC; this is awarded to the fancier with the best series of performances in all NFC races during the season. Four outright wins have also been recorded with the BICC in long distance races, plus many other top ten finishes.

Jan & Albie Deacon and lofts below

The base bloodlines of the lofts are the old reliable Southwells which excel in long hard races when the elements are against them. On handling they proved to be small to medium sized and predominantly black velvet chequers with silky smooth feathering. The team are housed in three self built lofts, one for stock birds a second for the young bird team and a large three sectioned loft for old birds. Now that Albi has retired from work and has more time on his hands, the lofts are cleaned daily, whereas the birds were previously kept on a deep litter of straw. The natural system is employed here and the old bird racers enjoy an open loft from dawn till dusk once mated. Albi likes to have his long distance teams nicely down on eggs of 12 – 14 days in preparation for their specific race. The Deacons are stalwarts of the BICC and Jan has only recently retired after a very successful period as secretary. A period that saw the club expand to its present size with more than a thousand members. During this period of expansion, Albi held the office of chairman, a position that he still retains with great pride. It was good to meet up again with this hard working, self effacing and thoroughly likeable couple. I hope you both enjoy a long, happy and well deserved retirement. A full loft report on the loft and birds of A & T Deacon can be found on the Elimar website.

Next we were off to visit the highly successful Alan Holdaway of nearby Farlington . Alan, like the Deacons, has an excellent record in NFC Pau and BICC long distance races and in 2009 his chequer hen was clocked on the day of toss from the Tarbes International to win 1st Open BICC. I compiled a loft report on the Holdaway team of long distance racers as part of the Southwell series that appeared in the BHW during 2003 and it was good to meet up with Alan, handle his team of pigeons and view his self built lofts. I won’t go into great detail regarding Alan’s racing systems and loft design here, as I intend to compile a comprehensive loft report in the near future. However, what I can report is the fact that the Holdaway team were in excellent order when we visited which augers well for the forthcoming racing season. Alan has two lofts for old birds and young birds. The young bird loft measuring 12 ft x 10 ft, is situated at ground level whilst the twenty pairs of old birds occupy a four sectioned loft built on the roof of his garage. Certain alterations to the loft have been carried out in the past couple of years and Alan has noticed a vast improvement in the birds’ condition as a result of these seemingly minor, yet significant changes in loft design. Once again, we see the prepotent Southwell bloodlines dominating in this very successful long distance loft and a great deal of the credit for these can go to Albi Deacon who supplied Alan with some of his foundation stock. Alan has added other top class long distance blood to this sound base to produce the present day team of racers. These were mostly dark chequers and chequers with the occasional blue plus some reds and mealies. The reds and mealies being the result of a recent introduction of the “Red Barcelona” bloodlines which have not yet been tested at the distance. More on this exceptional long distance fancier in a future loft report.

The lofts of Alan Holdaway and below holding one of his champions's

The final loft visited on our Hampshire Away Day trip was to that of BICC President Mick Bunney. Mick, once again, has an excellent record in long distance races, but in recent seasons the Bunney loft has suffered greatly from rats [the four legged kind] that have entered the lofts and caused a massive loss of form in a previously highly successful team of pigeons. However, fingers crossed, the rodent problem has now been solved and it is to be hoped that the Bunney team will soon be back to its winning ways in long distance classic races. The lofts that house the birds are extensive to say the least. Set in a U shape they have a total length of 100 ft and a depth of 10ft. The main body of the loft faces direct south over Portsmouth water. This houses the old bird racers which are raced on round about. The nest boxes are of the German self cleaning type and these; along with the grid flooring greatly reduces the daily cleaning work load. The sections on either wing of the U house the young birds and the racing hens when separated during the racing season. A further large stock loft and aviary completes the loft set up. The main bloodlines housed are the old Dordins and these were certainly impressive specimens, mostly blues and chequers, they were typical of the handsome looking pigeons that were all the rage in their heydays of the70’s. Once again, a full loft report will appear shortly. Watch this space.

Lofts of Mr & Mrs Mike Bunney