UPDATED REPORT ON PREECE BROTHERS & SONS Of CWMTILLERY

in which Gareth Watkins gets to handle their star performers

Loft set up with ybs and stock in foreground and roundabouts at rear.

The above partnership consists of brothers Colin and Henry Preece and Colin’s two sons, John and Leigh. To describe their results in the 2008 old bird season as outstanding would be a massive understatement - something akin to describing Pele or the late Bobby Moore as “good” footballers. The partners have been fanciers out of the top drawer for more than four decades. I can remember well, visiting the partners in the late 1980’s following their great Lerwick National win of 1986 clocked on the day at 590+ miles. Since that time they have wracked up something like 9 x1sts; 9 x 2nd Open and 9 x 3rds  in National races, and  their occasional forays into cross border classic racing has seen the name of Preece Bros & Sons feature prominently in the results.

The partners joined the Gwent Greater Distance club in the winter of 2007/8 with the intention of taking up the challenge of International racing with the BICC – the Rolls Royce of classic racing organisations. Their results in 2008 old bird racing read as follows:- 11th sect 18th Open BICC Falaise 2 4,298 birds; 1st GGDC, 1st section 62nd Open BICC Saran;2nd GGDC 3rd section 61st Open BICC Tours; 3rd GGDC 3rd section 37th Open BICC Alencon. Add to these positions a top ten finish in the Welsh SRNFC Tarbes race at 600 + miles; 1st Open Welsh SRNFC Bergerac 500+ miles [8th NW sect 52nd Open CSCFC ] and one week later 1st &11th  Open Welsh SENFC Giessen  520+ miles in an absolute disaster of a race with  a little over a dozen or so birds clocked in race time from a convoy of close on 1,300, all flying over 500 miles. This constitutes an outstanding season’s racing in anyone’s estimation. The performance of the partners two year old hen in the Giessen race earned them the Queen’s Cup, a trophy awarded each season to the pigeon with the best performance or series of performances in races over 300 miles and flown under WHPU rules.

The reader might therefore assume that the Preece set up is a big, professionally run affair, with hundreds of pigeons housed in a massive range of lofts. Professionally run it certainly is, but as for big – think again, the photographs that accompany this report demonstrate just how small the set up is – which must give great encouragement to other back garden fanciers. As long as you have birds of the right calibre and the skill to get the best out of the best of these, then you have nothing to fear from the big team boys.

The loft is a 32 ft x 8ft L shaped structure. Three sections with nest boxes house the racing cocks, whilst the hens occupy the remaining section that has an aviary attached. A 10 ft x 8ft stock loft also has an aviary and this houses 16 pairs of stock birds, whilst the 64 youngsters reared annually are housed in a separate 12 ft x 8 ft section. Once the stock birds have finished rearing they are separated for the year and the youngsters have access to their section in addition to their own 12 ft x 8 ft section, so there’s certainly no overcrowding here.

The race team, which amounts to 30 pairs, are mated in mid February and are allowed to rear a youngster and sit their second round eggs for 8 days, at which time the birds are separated and race the remainder of the season on round about.  Twelve pairs are raced on the south road with the GGDC and BICC with the other 18 pairs competing on the east / west route. The old birds get something like five training tosses before racing starts and are then kept fit by twice daily home exercise until the build up to specific target races, at which time individual birds are trained specifically for those races, usually from around 50 miles. The race cocks are fed individually in their boxes and are allowed to eat their fill at each meal time following their twice daily exercise periods. There is always corn still in the pots when it comes to each feed. The hens however are controlled more strictly and are allowed access to the same food mix as the cocks but only for 10 minutes, after which time all remaining food is removed. The racers are never fed break down mixtures – they are fed a mixture made up from two sport mixes at all times and each night they get a special treat plus a pinch of Hormoform.

Clockwise Leigh, John, Colin and Henry.

The usual routine is for the cocks to be airborne by 5.30 am each morning. They are allowed to do as they please for 90 minutes before being called in for their early morning feed. The hens are then released for their morning exercise and fed in after one hour. In the evenings, all birds are forced to fly for 1 hour, until the build up to the National races, when the hen’s get just one 1 hour exercise session per day but are trained every other day from around 50 miles.

The winner of the Bergerac National is quite some pigeon. This 5 year old cock, named “Baroni” has won the following positions in classic competition:- 7th sect 7th Open National Saintes as a yearling[12 hrs on the wing];49th sect 67th Open National Cholet as a two year old before being hawked and retired for the season. As a 3 year old 3rd sect 5th Open National Bergerac[ 9th sect 13th Open CSCFC] over 15 hours on the wing .The 2007 season saw him take a week to negotiate the 600 mile trip from Pau and this leads on to the 2008 season where he was clocked to win 3rd Section 37th Open BICC Alencon and 33rd section BICC Saran in the build up to the Bergerac National. His race preparation entailed two short in land races on the east/west route, the aforementioned BICC channel races, followed by four weeks rest and just one short 50 mile race and four private training tosses of approximately 40 miles. Once again, we see in the breeding of this long distance National winner, the influence of the great Dutch long distance families. His sire is a Jan Aarden containing the bloodlines of Smaraagd 2 and Dolle 2, whilst his dam was gifted to the Preeces by Tony Haynes of Ponderosa UK at Weymouth and contains the bloodlines of the Wim Muller Aardens. This medium sized dark chequer pied cock handled like silk and had one of the best full dark circles of eyesign I’ve ever seen.

"Baroni" - 1st National Bergerac 2008.

Next, we move on to the Welsh SENFC winner from Giessen. This 2 year old hen was sent sitting 10 day eggs as she had started to show an interest in some of the other round about hens. She contains the very best of the old Lee and Cooper Lefebre Dhaenen x Verheyes via Bob Lee, crossed with Van Loons from Richie Ryder and Lefebre Dhaenen courtesy of Jeff Davies. Her preparation for Giessen included four short races through to Maidstone [160 miles] followed by three channel races with the GGDC and BICC in one of which she was 7th Section BICC. Following these she was re mated and received 2 x 50 mile tosses and a couple at 40 miles which should have taken her 1hrs flying time. Unfortunately [or fortunately] she took 4 hours as the hens were well split up and some took all day to return home. This Queen’s Cup winning hen was small to medium in the hand with short stubby legs and a strong thick neck, typical of the old Planet Brothers Van Loons.

Blue Hen - 1st National Giessen 2008 and awarded the Queen's Cup.

Also handled was a magnificent blue cock winner of 10 x 1sts whilst racing plus a 2nd Open National and five other top twenty finishes in National races. This cock’s half brother also won third and fourth Open in National races, returning to win 3rd National with all the secondaries ripped out of one wing! Both these top class cocks were bred from the phenomenal “Ryder Hen” bred by Richie Ryder from the very best of the original Planet Brothers Van Loons. She is dam, grand dam etc of a host of top class performers up to and including National level.

During my short visit to the partners’ lofts I also handled the “Saintes Cock” winner of 8th National Saintes and 1st Open National Herstal among many other top performances. He was slightly deeper keeled than the other birds handled and yet he is now the number one stock cock being responsible for scores of winning pigeons at all levels of competition, especially when mated to an old grizzle hen which contains the bloodlines of Burgham Brothers and the old Morgan & Cook Atwells.

"Saintes Cock" - 1st National Herstal.

That then is a report on one of the most successful lofts in Wales during the 2008 old bird season .Readers should take note of this loft’s amazing past winning record in Welsh Nationals – it is nothing short of phenomenal. It was a pleasure to visit the partners once more after more than 20 years and it was also good to see that both Colin and Henry were in much better health.

 

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