A. G. CLEMENTS

of Audenshaw

by Les J. Parkinson

It is now 24yrs since I first put pen to paper and started to write about the sport that I have been connected with since the age of 7yrs and during that time I have met them all. Some are fanatical with the sport and concentrate on their own pigeons and take no interest in how everything is run. Some stick to the official side of the sport and do not go into great depth when it comes to racing their own pigeons.

There are also those who are happy to have the sport as a hobby and be content with the birds down the garden and send them to the races for their own personal enjoyment. Then there are those who not only take an interest in everything but also take part and do their bit to keep the sport going, that is the way Gerry Clements has been over the years. Having said that he has now decided to take things a bit easier and his one big headache every week is his position as race controller. I know that he is up in the early hours on many occasions looking at the weather systems to see when it is the best time to liberate the pigeons that he is in control of. That doesn't always go as planned because of the erratic weather patterns that we have in this Country, race controllers always manage to upset someone through no real fault of their own and it is a position that not many want.

Anyway let's look at this fancier in more depth who is one of the most prominent fanciers of recent years in the Manchester Area and as already mentioned in the heading is Gerry Clements who has been a major force not only as a winning fancier but also with the administration side because there are many fanciers who seek his help and advice,. His wins at all levels of competition are second to none in the area and the members of the North West Classic Club have felt the power of his racing capabilities over the years when the specialist racing comes into force. For the new Millennium Gerry has turned over a new leaf and is setting his sights less on club racing and more with the specialist races through to National level, this is a path that he has chosen and is happy to stick to at the present moment. Knowing how keen he is to compete I wonder how long it will last before he gets back to some kind of weekly racing.

Gerry was born in Derry Northern Ireland where there has always been a love of animals and an even better understanding of how to get them right for competition. It was during those early years in his native country that Gerry was encouraged to take up the sport by his father who not was not really a racing man himself. However he did believe that it was a good track to go down for a young man, an interest that would take up his time. However when it came to the then young Gerry racing the pigeons every effort was made to see that the job was done right, a point at has carried on throughout his pigeon racing career and has kept him as a regular in the prizes.

The best way to tell any story is to let the man himself tell you which goes as follows, 'I was possibly six or seven years old and living in an area where I very often saw pigeons around in the fields and I would try to trap them using a potatoes creel balanced on a piece of stick to which l would attached a piece of string hoping to pull it sharply should a pigeon go under the creel!. This first wetted my appetite for pigeons. Later when my father was working in Belfast some 80 - 90 miles away. He arrived home one evening with six pigeons a gift from a fancier friend who worked with him and who raced in the Belfast area. 'In 1956 I had some high flying tipplers which I messed about with and one evening a red cheq cock dropped with them. It was a Scottish bird, which I reported. The fancier (I cannot remember his name now} told me that I could keep it and that it was of the Dr Anderson blood.

This was the beginning of a life long connection with the Sion breed. There was a chap called Jim Whiteside who lived on a farm near by my house and he had some excellent pigeons and he very kindly bred me eight youngsters for that season. These along with four which I bred from the Scottish Cock paired to a hen who was the only remaining pigeon from the original six from Belfast and by now quite old made up my team of twelve birds. I was at that young age when the pigeons were there as pets and I was not a member of any club at this time but I trained the twelve birds up to 60 miles. Then one of the local fanciers, Lowry Alford would send them as trainers for me free of charge to the race points with the race birds. I sent the eight y/bs that were remaining in my loft to Haverfordwest some 200 odd miles. This was a very difficult day and I got a nest pair of cocks from the Scottish Cock, plus two of the Whiteside hens, this on a day when many fanciers had not had any vitamins etc. Incidentally Jim Whiteside is a Forest Ranger in Northern Ireland and has a lot of unusual birds in his care and I am aware that his first love was breeding pheasants and not racing pigeons. For years been intending to call and visit Jim when on holiday there but it has always been one of those trips that I never seemed to get around to.

Pigeons were never always the only sport that I ever took part in because I was a keen amateur boxer and travelled around quite a bit because of the competitions that were available to compete in. However it was a sport that more often than not had to take a back seat when the pigeons were training or racing because they were my number one priority at the time, in fact most of the time ever since. Because I could not be fully committed to the sport myself I did carry on for a time training youngsters in the ring but found it too time consuming".

Q. who were the fanciers who impressed you most in the early days?

A. There were two fanciers whom I admired greatly for there powers The first was a fancier by the name of Brown of Wolverhampton and his wife, they were secretaries of their federation. The second fancier was George Rylands of Altrincham, this man could make flying look really easy and he was the first person I ever heard to to come out with a very true saying in the sport. "There is no drag at the front" {how right he was} these two fanciers reunited me with the Sion blood again which resulted in a visit to 'Tourcoing' the home of Robert Sion and the famous lofts. I raced the Sions up until the late seventies at which time my lofts were 'cleaned out' by burglars on no less than eight occasions in one year',

Q. How long have you been racing pigeons and what was your first club.

A. I have now been racing for well over 40years either in Northern Ireland or England and I started my first serious racing with the Londonary RPC.

Q. Was there a change when you moved to England.

A. I have always found pigeons a good sport to compete in and have always been able to hold my own which was the case when I restarted after our move. The first race I flew in after restarting in Manchester was with the old Ardwick Social Club and I won the first race l flew in and topped the West Manchester Fed, by eight yards per minute which was some 9 mins in a head wind and rain. As a matter of interest, I had a break from racing another time because of business commitments and on restarting won 1st Sunnybrow H.S. 1st Manchester and Dist Fed making it a very nice treble. (Les, A sign of a good pigeon man)

Q What kind of mistakes did you make at the beginning?

A I have a saying that more fanciers in fact more people in general should take notice of. ' The man who never made a mistake never made anything'.I think that l have made plenty of mistakes over the years and will no doubt continue at some time in the future because if you are to go forward you have to try different things and they do not always work out. Over the years the most common error of judgement is in not realising when a good racer has had enough and sending them to the race once too often when they are not quite right. Some fanciers are not committed enough and in my case as a novice l used to cycle 10 -14 miles almost everyday training my 12 youngsters, that is commitment that fanciers are short of today, they expect everything to come to them on a plate. On the subject of training, this is an area that I have always been a strong believer of because plenty of training stands them in good stead for the rest of their lives. As my old boxing trainer used to say "Come on Gerry boy, no pain no gain"..

Q. What about lofts, what did you start with.

A. As I pointed out to you in our earlier conversation I started with the old tea chests that is if you can call that a loft construction. It did the job that I wanted at the time and even had a landing board and bob wires for the pigeons to drop on and enter. After seeing so many lofts I designed my own and that has stood me in good stead for many years. Ventilation is the most important factor in any loft and by that I mean that you should never be able to smell pigeons, it is not damp or cold but always have a felling of freshness. I would suggest to anyone constructing a loft to bear one thing in mind, that if you have room of say 12 nest boxes measuring 30" x 15"x15" actually build 6 boxes measuring 60"x30"x15" The same applies to perches. If you have room for 24 perches, keep only 12 pigeons because of overcrowding causes big problems loss of form and sickness in pigeons.

Q. You can sit there in the pub after a race and here all sorts of explanations and what we should use for top condition.

A. Many fanciers talk a good race and are always looking for some magic elixir out of a bottle, but fail to put in the required work to bring results that they so desire. You often see them on a Friday or Saturday night looking through a pint of beer and here the same old tales, 'if only my birds hadn't gone over' or "if only I had got a training toss in this week". It is always someone else's fault the fact that they are not working with their birds doesn't appear to be the problem but it is. No matter what the sport you can only get out what you put into whatever you do in life. There are many theories in the pigeon world but unless a fancier is prepared to put 100% effort into keeping his birds in a fit and healthy condition thereby providing fair competition against other races they would be better to be without them

Q. How many birds do you like to house and when do you pair your birds and how do you race your birds.

A. I keep around 20 pairs of stock birds 24 old cocks for racing along with 24 yearlings and approx. 70 young birds. I don't classify my yearlings as proper racers as they are only learning the game. So my family do not mature properly until they are 2years old. After that they must do whatever is asked of them up to 600miles. I generally pair upon or about St Valentines day {the day for lovers} and pair all my birds at the same time, by doing so I can float eggs from stock pairs is under the racers. However I have tried some early bred youngsters pairing well for me so this may try it again and could very well be the pattern I follow in the future. On the subject of racing I race totally on the widowhood system as I believe it is the only method whereby it is possible to keep your pigeons on song for anything up to 16 weeks. I just fly a standard method of widowhood i.e. 1 hour exercise morning and evening. Once racing has commenced I rarely train but will give them an occasional toss of around 50 - 60 miles if I feel they are becoming a bit sluggish.

Q. What family of birds do you keep and are there any preferences.

A. My family of birds are based on the best of the old George Busschaert blood ie "LITTLE BLACK" "BULL" "PLUTO" and "RAPIDO" I actually have grandchildren of these great pigeons in my loft now. I have found that these lines perform well in head winds especially N.E Winds They once took the first five positions in the Manchester and Dist Fed. In a strong N.E Wind l had 10 birds drop through the doors together three and a half minutes plus clear of the fed at 138 miles. That record stood until last year when I took the first seven in the Fed. 5 mins clear in a N.W Wind when 14 birds came together, but I must say they also excel at the longer distance events and specialist races that as previously pointed out are my preference. However I am always on the look out for something to better the Busschaert family and every year try one or two. To date the pigeons which I have found to give them a run for there money are the HOFKEN - JANSSEN family. I am now in the process of blending these with a couple of HUYBREGTS and one or two of the HERBOTS.

Some fanciers have been known to say that the HOFKENS are sprinters but l have had them win 1st fed Rennes in a N W Wind and score through to Nantes in a N.E Wind I believe that strain names are only for the men who run the studs. Fanciers should just continue to look for good pigeons irrespective of name origins Over the year's I have had some excellent performances with different pigeons. My old mealy hen sion blood won from 106 miles to 537 miles on one occasion beating the entire Liberation from Saintes including the Northern Counties 2 bird club The Great Northern and Lancs. Combine or the time when my very good pigeon "Tracker" won the North West Classic from Rennes in a N.W Wind and rain by over 20 mins. There was also the time I sent a team of 8 youngsters to the St Malo National and timed in six on the night in a N.E Wind after flying 333 miles my first pigeon being "NATALIE" who finished 16th open out of approx.10,000 birds.

However l feel that last years performance in the North West Classic Picauville race when I timed ten pigeons in the first 16 in the open must rank as my best yet. I generally give a good run down of results but I believe fancier's world wide are now aware of the top class performances that these pigeons put in over many years at all levels of competition. Gerry is now in the position where he can enjoy the pigeons because he is in a state of what can be described as early retirement due to a long standing back problem that resulted in surgery and has since resulted in limited participation. Competitive clubs for Gerry include the North West Classic Club, Midland National Club. The National Flying Club, Lancashire Nantes 2 bird and a couple of the local clubs all on the south road.

Gerry does very much have a preference towards racing with the specialist clubs where he take's every care in preparing the pigeons properly. If they are not prepared properly for these races then they might as well be left at home. I have seen some of the results from the later races and this fancier has taken the sheet by storm and that is something he is good at. If you want to win on a regular basis you would not go far wrong in following the systems of a fancier like Gerry, but then I would think to myself what percentage of fanciers would put in the kind of work that he does to achieve his goal. Winning does not come easy, always remember that.