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PAUL BECK

of Duckinfield


Small Team, Big Wins

 

by Les Parkinson

 

At 35 years of age Paul Beck is representative of all that makes up the successful modern day fancier He has been in the sport for over 20 years and has served a typical "pigeon apprenticeship" starting from caring for a lost stray as a boy. He then progressed through the various levels of this fascinating sport where today, Paul is a very successful and well respected fancier. Along the road to which l have just referred, Paul has compiled a most impressive C V winning over 20x1sts in a season, winner of the converted RPRA awards for single and dual Channel performances and the last two seasons has won the East Cheshire Federation Young Bird averages. In summary he is a top class all rounder.

As you will se from the title Paul lives in a place called Duckinfield which for those of you who are not to familiar with the geography of the North West, lies in the far North Easterly corner of Cheshire not to far from the famous Pennine Chain. Paul has a modest lift set up by modern standards but has ensured that the space that he has available is well used. Situated in an elevated position he enjoys an excellent view of arriving pigeons, as the saying goes he has a "Good Drop". The widowhood loft is only 10ft x 5ft and houses 15 cocks, mostly 1st prize winners several that are multiple winners. This loft has a pan tiled roof, a feature also used on the other loft which is 20ft x 5ft and split into three sections, for young cocks, young hens, and widowhood hens, both lofts have partially glass fronts with louvers where trapping is stall traps for y/bs and open door for widowhood cocks, .

An average season will see around 34 youngsters housed, who are reared from 8 stock pairs and single youngsters from the widowhood cocks. You will by now have a reasonable picture of the racing set up of Paul Beck, . There is however one or two key fact to add before it becomes clear why a young man with such a modest facility can become so successful. Firstly Paul has excellent support from Dawn his lovely wife who holds the post of Secretary at Hyde Homing Society. Now that's a place that most folk will have heard of "Hyde" the home of the Legendary Fred Shaw of Gurney Fame. One of the original pioneers of widowhood racing in this country, flying to "The Grange" where he built at the time the controversial all class loft. It's hardly surprising that an area with such history continues to produce fanciers of renown. The other essential facts to be aware of, if you wish to understand formula of success in this story are that Paul works extremely hard with his pigeons and keeps only modern day pigeons which are proven to perform on the system that he flies widowhood for old birds and darkness with motivation for youngsters.

Before moving on and discussing some of the views and methods of Paul Beck, l think that Paul would appreciate my making reference to fanciers who's pigeons make up the present day team at Duckinfield. The common thread is Janssen and two sources in particular. There is no significance in naming one fancier before the other as both lofts that l am about to mention in stock terms have made equal impact. One is a very well known partnership name in the East Cheshire area Mr & Mrs Crabtree of Stalybridge who until leaving the sport recently, dominated proceedings in the East Cheshire Federation with their fabulous family of Janssens. l think it is far to say that the friendship with Mr. & Mrs Crabtree has had a significant influence on Paul. The other sets of famous names that contribute to the overall equation are the mega successful partnership of Curtis, Wall Lunt & Green whose pigeons need no introductions at all.

Paul came to obtain the latter pigeons when he topped the Converted "Three Counties Combine" where as a prize C/W/L & G had donated youngsters as a prize. It goes without saying that top class fanciers provides top class pigeons on such occasions the rest cane be seen from Paul's results

THE PIGEONS IN A LITTLE MORE DETAIL

When thinking about individual pigeons, l suppose the obvious one that springs to mind is the blue white flighted cock who in his year as a 4 year old but an extremely rich vein of form! . It is also good to begin with cock that won for Paul the Duel Award from the RPRA, . The two performances were each excellent in their own right but when coupled together were MAGNIFICENT step was Sartilly where the Janssens Cock won 1st Club 1st Fed, 1st Cheshire Combine and 1st Three Counties Combine Flying 328 miles step two was Nantes where 431 miles this game cock won 1st Club 4th Fed 3rd Cheshire Combine and 8th Three Counties Combine. For good measure he was duplicated into the Northern Counties 2 bird Nantes Club where he took 3rd. The origin of this great cock is Janssen as already mentioned, originating from stock of another successful fancier in the area namely George Hazel. There is also a link between George and the pigeons that Paul values so highly from friend Les Crabtree yes you probably guessed it Janssens that Les Crabtree raced so consistently were based on cock from George Hazel and a hen from Keith Slack of Manchester.

I think that you would agree we would all like to own a cock like the blue w/f and achieve the success that Paul enjoyed in the process. The above demonstrates the versatility of the Janssen pigeons when in the right hands, especially when you consider that Paul excels in both Old and Young bird racing in the Club and Fed sprints events. Today's success in the sprint races is largely influenced by the pairing of what can accurately be called a Golden Couple, The cock a medium chequer who is slightly long cast and gravel in eye coloration is from Marlborough Lofts the home of Wall, Lunt and Green. He is bred from two of the p/ships Dutch stock, "The Narrow Bond" when paired to "Kras 38". This cock is full of the famous "O5" blood along with the winning genes of the famous "Glamourboy" , . As you know there are two sides to every balanced equation and in this case the answer was a dark chequer hen from local Aces Mr & Mrs Crabtree. The hen being bred from Les;s famous "650" when paired to "Radio2" . Between them, 650 and Radio 2 won 26 1st's clubs & 7x1st Fed it is logical to think that a mating of such rich genetics would produce some good pigeons!

Well, when you consider that both pigeons of this Golden Couple are only 97 bred birds, it is true testimony when you read results of there progeny in such a short time together. They have already produced children to win 21x1st Prizes including 4x1st Federation in their first breeding season they produced 5 youngsters, all of which won a 1st prize that season. Up to the time of my writing they have produced 8 individual 1st prizes winners. The star of the loft at the moment is "70" who has won 7x1st prizes and topped the Fed, not bad for a 2year old! . Having handled Paul's race team, l can confirm that they are very uniform in type, being apple bodied with good balance, mostly dark chequers and bearing that familiar gravel eye.

In summary Paul has a young team of exceptionally good pigeons with a big future in front of them To sum up 2000 Paul won the Northern Counties 2B from Nantes and was more often than not near the top of the fed results. I shall leave at that and thank those who have helped with this article.