JOHN & SPENCER NICHOLSON

talking to Les J. Parkinson

John & Spencer Nicholson Photo Gallery

When it comes to long distance specialist races there are a few names that crop up all the time, the obvious one being Jim Biss because of the length of time that he ahs been racing in such competition. But there are also others whose name's can also be heard, we have Brian Denney, Michael Spencer, Jordan Bros and then we have John & Spencer Nicholson of Rochester whose have put up some of the best team performances of all. the one that comes to mind was sent 8 got 7 clocked 6 from Palamos.

Kate. 3rd BICC Perpignan & 5th 7th 34th BBC Palamos winning a Spanish diploma

Winner of GDSBNFC at Perpignan and Palamos twice.

INTRODUCTION

Please introduce yourself and tell us how you got started in the sport.

Our names are John & Spencer Nicholson and we fly under the name of J Nicholson & Sons. I first got started in the sport at the age of 13 when I had good results through to 500 miles, on the North Road. After three years I left the sport, returning again in 1980, with the intention of flying with my son, Spencer.

With your pigeon work do you have a silent partner i.e. wife, partner or friend, if so what part do they play.

Both Spencer's' wife Sarah and my wife Sue are a great help with training, paperwork and, when necessary, loft duties, any help is always appreciated by both Spencer and myself.

Do you consider there to be any advantage having a racing partnership.

Yes, definitely, with the amount of work we put into managing our pigeons and our attention to detail it would be a lot of work for just one man to carry out. Any loft that intends to win has to get the management right otherwise you will never achieve success in pigeon racing.

Are there any points that you disagree on and if so how do you compromise a situation where there is a different viewpoint?

We do not normally disagree, if one us wants to change an aspect of management we talk it through and a decision is made. Maybe some people would say why change a winning system, the reason is you can't stand still you always need to try and improve your management and performances.

Do each of you have an area within the partnership where responsibilities take control regarding a decision?

There are no areas where Spencer or myself take control, we have worked together with the pigeons for the last 25 years and our aims are clear. We are equally involved with all areas of loft management, if we start to disagree then the management will fall down.

Nancy

A truly great hen. A big winner from Perpignan twice, Dax, Barcelona and Palamos

Give the readers the most memorable results that you have achieved flying as a partnership and flying on your own.

We have had some very memorable races over the years, our wins at Barcelona, Pau, Dax and 3 x at Perpignan with the BICC in International races were very special, however, the most memorable race of all has to be the BBC Palamos race of 2002. Out of the 8 entries sent our first pigeon clocked was 2 nd open, we clocked a total of 7 pigeons in this race, all of which were in the top 47, in fact 6 of the birds were in the top 29 of the Open result. Jim Hooper, the club secretary, was of the opinion that this was the best team performance in the 40 years of the Blue Riband National. To underline the quality of these Palamos birds 6 were sent to Perpignan some weeks later, where they were equally successful, winning 1 st , 3 rd , 4 th , 8 th and 17 th Open, probably the best team performance out of this difficult race point. With some good positions in the Pau National in 2002 this proved to be a truly memorable season for us.

Is there anything that you have not won in the sport that you would like to achieve?

To go one better in the Palamos race and win the Marseille would be a dream come true winning all the extreme distance national races available to the English fancier.

What organisations do you race with?

National Flying Club, British Barcelona Club, British International Championship Club and The Greater Distance Single Bird Club.

Little Dorrit

22nd, 47th & 94th Open BBC Palamos, winning a Spanish Diploma

Do you hold any official position and if so do you take an active part, if no what are your reasons.

Clock setter for the past 20 years at our local club and Committee Member of BICC, every fancier should take an active part in the sport at some point, if not the sport will not prosper.

What are your lofts made of and how big are they.

Our loft is of wood construction with a pent style roof, this was constructed by me, and measures 19 x 6 ft. This structure houses everything, including the old bird race team, young birds, any stock including past winners and old favourites.

Do you attach any importance to having a tiled roof on a loft, if so are there any benefits.

We think that these lofts look very impressive but we can see no advantage to racing. From what we have seen, the roof space seems to attract a lot of bloom dust and this would not be good for me as I suffer from pigeon lung.

Do you use any form of heating system in any of your lofts. Do you think it would be advantages for the birds?

Not for many years now, but we have tried it in the past. We could see the advantages to the birds, in conjunction with an expelair, a controlled temperature can be maintained for a 24-hour period, this would be advantageous during the early part of the season when temperatures fluctuate. We rely on the onset of warmer weather and ambient air temperatures to bring on the form naturally; this coincides with the long races of July & August.

How do you control the ventilation in your loft.

The front of the loft is half louvered and the only control that we have are covers that go over the louvers allowing the air still to get in but stopping the cold north easterly wind and rain from driving in. The upper half is doweled, covered in glass, which we remove during the summer months.

Do you have any grills fitted in the floor or in the boxes, are there any advantages to using them.

No, we don't use grills, we clean around the nest bowl on a daily basis and a handful of kiln-dried sand is sprinkled to keep the boxes looking dry and clean. We can see no advantage of using them; the birds never seem to look comfortable using them. However, the loft floor is covered with a thin plastic sheeting, this is very quick and easy to scrape clean, periodically it is cleaned right back to the plastic, using a scourer, leaving nowhere for parasites/eggs to hide. This has been the best loft alteration we have carried out in 25 years.

What families of pigeons do you keep?

We purchased youngsters from Eddie Newcombe nearly 25yrs ago, at that time Eddie was taking many top positions in SNFC. The first couple of seasons were slow going as although the birds homed well they seemed somewhat lacking in pace but we persevered with them, resisting the temptation to outcross immediately and continued to breed around the original pigeons for the first 4 to 5 years. As we got accustomed to the birds and they acclimatised to the new location things started to improve and they have remained inbred to these originals with the exception of a few quality outcrosses for the last 25 years. I suppose now they are our own family of pigeons.

Easterly or Westerly do you set any stall by the position and if so why.

You have to make the best of your loft location, you can't change it so you and your birds have to try and make up for any disadvantage.

BREEDING AND RACE PREPARATION/PLANNING

How do you go about bringing in a new family and what do you look for.

We never bring in more than one pigeon at any time. These are only on very rare occasions and we would always go for performance over pedigree.

When you bring in that new family do you think that they need time to acclimatise, if so how long.

Personally we think that pigeons need to acclimatise, especially of they originate from a good distance away. We have experienced this ourselves and would say that the birds need 2 or 3 years to acclimatise.

When looking for new pigeons do you look for a particular family, one for specialist races or club races or just by name .

We never look for new families of pigeons, what we do is bring in the occasional quality inbred pigeon to try as an outcross, but over the last 24 years these have been few and far between! If the outcross is successful judicial breeding back the original baseline is of paramount importance.

Which of the two sexes do you consider is the most important when it comes to breeding?

Both are of the same importance, both have to carry the winning genes for stamina, speed and, of course, intelligence.

Some fanciers like big hens for breeding does the size of the hen make any difference to the quality of youngsters that she breeds in your past experience .

We don't like anything big in pigeon conformity. Our birds are small to medium, and some of the smallest hens have bred some of the best pigeons. As with all things that are required to fly, the bigger it is, the more energy required to keep it in the air.

When it comes to breeding do you line-breed or use a first cross or just pair winners to winners.

We in-breed, we think this is the best way to keep a tight winning gene pool, with out-crossing you're never quite sure where the winning birds are coming from, and, of course, larger numbers have to be bred. This is not possible with limited space, having said that, a good outcross brought into an in-bred family can increase the vigour.

Do you think that fanciers change for the sake of changing or do you think a loft can breed a winning team out and lose track of the winners.

As with the previous answer you will see people bring in a successful family that races well for them but after about 3 or 4 years the original owners breeding skills run out and their success begins to wane. Good stockmanship cannot be bought and unless a fancier can produce quality pigeons their success will be short lived.

What method do you use to select your breeders?

We use known successful breeding pairs, we also pair pigeons together that have performed well at the extreme distance races.

Did you find your best breeding pigeon by luck or judgement?

We would say judgement, but with a complex thing like breeding luck will of course play its part! As with a pigeon like Mighty Mac, our best ever producer, who we kept solely for stock, perhaps this would be indicative of judgement!

What materials do you use for nesting?

We like to use dried twigs from a large Clematis in our garden. This with some barley straw and also a few tobacco stalks, makes ideal nesting.

When do you pair your pigeons and why then.

Normally they are paired between the 1 st & 10 th March, with our slow moulting pigeons these dates seem to give the best wing conditions for the longer races later in the year.

How many stock birds do you keep and do you breed off your race team also how many pigeons do you think that you need to breed off any individual stock pair each year to see if they are quality producers.

We only bred off our very best racers and we keep 3 pair of stock birds, if you are fortunate enough to get one good pigeon from a stock pair you are doing well. Some years are better than others, but really good pigeons will never be bred in large numbers.

Please explain the method used from pairing up until the first race.
Pretty relaxed really, once the eggs are laid it's a process of exercise around the loft and training. This is normally 3-4 training tosses of around 30-40 miles, also the loft is left open whenever possible for the birds to come and go, collecting nesting materials from the garden.

What is the farthest distance that you would train your old birds or young birds?

We have a training spot for both young and old birds, which is around 30 miles. Occasionally young birds are given some longer training tosses before the Young Bird National, around the Southampton Area, circa 80 miles. We don't believe that training over 50 miles has any beneficial effect and we never ever single up pigeons, be it young or old.

Do you breed off the top widowhood cocks after the racing has finished, do you breed late bred youngsters and what do you think of those later bred youngsters.

We don't fly widowhood but we have found late breds to be some of our best racers.

For every 50 pigeons that you breed realistically how many of them would win at 500mls, based on your past records.

This is a difficult one, some years we have bred 6 or 7 top national pigeons from the 25 bred in that year. From 50 we would hope to get at least 10 to score at the distance this all depends on the quality of pigeons housed but that is our view on this point.

RACING

How do you race your pigeons and how many .

We fly our birds naturally and the old bird team is normally around 40-50 pigeons.

Do you compete in the National events, if not why not? Or are you happy to race in the club.

All the races that we compete in are National races, with the BICC, NFC and the BBC. Having said that we do fly the first 3 old bird races with our local club, but we don't have a clock set, using them only to get them started. The racing system that we use is based on National type racing but we still like to help out and support our local club where necessary.

Do you ever think of competing for averages, if not why not?

Not really, but they are an indication of a consistent fancier throughout the year.

Do you race your pigeons every week or do you prefer to condition them for a specific race.

After the first 3 club races, our birds are racing over the channel on a weekly basis. The pigeons destined for the 600+ mile races would have two or three 200 mile channel races in preparation for a big event, they would then have 4 weeks rest before basketing.

In your view do you think that a loft needs different pigeons for different distances?

We think that today's pigeons are versatile and can be competitive from 100 miles up to around 500 miles. However, for the longer International races of 600-700 miles there are special qualities required - stamina, intelligence and the ability to fly many miles on their own. These individuals are the epitome of pigeon racing and are not easily come by.

Is there any specific condition that your pigeons perform best at, or any particular time of the year?

As our birds race 2, sometimes 3, 500-700 mile races each in any one season they cannot always be sent in their favoured nest condition. A quality fit pigeon will perform well in any nest condition. If we were to only send a bird to one long distance race a season we would aim to send the bird sitting around the time of hatch, a few days either way. This would be both cocks and hens.

When do you allow your racers to take a bath?

Generally 2-3 times a week a bath is offered and a little iodine is added to the bathwater. This acts as a disinfectant; occasionally we put a handful of sea salt in the water, normally on a Sunday after racing.

Do you use any floor dressing or do you clean the pigeons out daily.

No, we don't use any floor dressing as these always seem to be dusty and we don't feel that they can be of any benefit to the birds, and it certainly isn't for us. We scrape the loft out twice daily, 365 days.

Do you like to have plenty of room for the pigeons?

Not really, some of the lofts are too big for us, all of our time would be used up keeping it clean and hygienic. We only have a small loft and house a few more birds than is ideal but our attendance to cleanliness, hygiene does compensate for this.

Do you measure the amount that you give to each pigeon, or are they fed according to the individual pigeon.

We assume that this is aimed at the widowhood flyer; however, we would never measure food out for the birds. Pigeons that are working hard can never be overfed.

Do you attach any importance to grits and minerals or can the pigeons get what they want they are out of the loft .

Grit we think is important, so are minerals we noticed many years ago that any of our pigeons that are away from our left for any amount of time when they returned they would eat minerals avidly. We can only assume from this that they didn't get all they required from the fields. Grit and minerals is put down in our loft clean and on a daily basis.

Is there a way that your pigeons let you know when they are in form?

A fancier would have to be blind not to notice a pigeon in so called 'form'. Having said that we have had top race winners that did not appear to show this sort of condition.

Do you have any secrets about what you do with your pigeons and how you get them right?

There are no secrets apart from keeping your birds in good health 52 weeks of the year. If your birds have good health and vitality you are 50% of the way there. The only real secret in long distance racing is good management and hard work

Do the pigeons need any special treatment on their return from the race to help them relax? Is any such treatment needed for the short or long distance races or the hard races compared to the easy races?

Honey is added to the tepid drinking water and the birds are fed on a light mix for that day. Generally speaking if a pigeon arrives totally worn out from a long race the pigeon wasn't sent in the right condition in the first place. One thing we would say about our own birds is they seem to recover very, very quickly from the long distance events.

If your race team went off form during the season what action would you take to restore their condition?

The first thing we would do is check for any illnesses or parasites, using our microscope. There could be a drag on vitality, health, and we would treat accordingly and obviously we would cease racing until we were happy with their condition.

Is a favourable loft location the single biggest factor in sprint racing.

In our own area it seems that the best pigeons prevail regardless of loft location.

Do you treat pigeons differently with their preparation if they are to go to the bigger races whether National, Classic, Specialist club or open.

No, the birds will not receive different treatment when prepared for national races, they will, however, have four weeks' rest before competing.

Do you think a pigeon has the capabilities of racing both short and long distance races? Also what distance can a pigeon actually still "RACE" as opposed to homing from any race point?

We believe that good long distance pigeons have the capabilities of winning in short distance racing and it is factual that many 700 mile birds have won at distances between 100-250 miles. The only difference is with the 600-700 mile winners is that they have the stamina and ability to fly many miles on their own in a quest to reach home. Around 800 miles is the limit for birds racing, greater distances than this would become more of a survival course.

What proportion of you pigeons get better on subsequent trips to the long distance races and what do you call distance.

With our birds they seem to get better as they become more experienced over the long distances. We would call a distance race a race over 550 miles.

Which is the more difficult, establishing a team of sprinter's or distance pigeons and why.

We would say that it is more difficult to produce a loft of long distance pigeons, as everyone must accept it is always easier to loose your best pigeons when the distance increases. Added to the fact the you have to wait to maybe 3 or 4 year olds to get some measure of the real quality of the pigeons. Sprint pigeons can show their worth at a much younger age, with less chance of losses.

Sprinter or distance, there is no difference; it is all in the feeding.

There is no difference between sprinters or distance, it's more a case of individual birds which have the stamina to fly the long races. We feel sure that there are birds from so called sprint-based families that if fed and managed correctly could then become so called long distance racers. We already know that many long distance racers have won at short distances.

If you could pass on one piece of advice or tip, at this point to fanciers old and young, what would it be?

Spending time in the loft with the birds, getting to know them as individuals and winning their trust, we feel is one of the most important aspects of success.

What problems do you think are most detrimental to race condition in modern day racing, both Old Bird and Young Bird?

Respiratory and canker we feel are the biggest drawback on performance on racing pigeons today.

How far do you race your yearlings.

Normally up to about 300 miles this would be in the form of 4-5 short channel races. A select few will then go on to fly Pau or Dax and we have to say that we have had a good degree of success with these yearlings at the distance. If you were trying to build up a team of long distance racers perhaps sending to these distances would not be advisable.

What races do you send your long distance candidates to before their chosen race.

Two or three 200-mile channel races. There are no hard and fast rules but we like to generally get around 6-8 hours flying in each of these races.

Can you tell the readers your routine for preparing pigeons for the longer races? Do you look forward to the channel racing.

The past answers outline our distance preparation, we really only fly the channel races and if these were to finish then so would we as channel racing is the be all and end all for us.

YOUNG BIRDS

Young bird sickness is a problem; have you had this in your loft and if so what have you treated them with.

We have had it in the past but not for the last two or three years, we treated with cider vinegar, electrolytes, actimel yoghurt and the birds are put on a light diet, ie; super depurative, but any appearance of secondary infection the birds are treated with anti-biotics.

Do you race your young birds, if so how many races, if not why, do you think they are better off in the longer events if they are only raced lightly.

Yes we used to only race our young birds at the young bird national. However, recently we give the birds 5 or 6 inland club races to about 130 miles, we then send approximately half or our young bird team to the young bird National. This would include any that we had doubts about. The birds that return from this race will then go to the BBC Lamballe race the following week. But having said that all young birds are raced inland and extensively trained from any location that is available.

Do you use any preventative medication? If a pigeon goes ill do you try to put it right or does the bird have to go.

Yes we do, many pigeons have been treated for different conditions and many have gone on to win top racing positions. We never kill pigeons, unless they are beyond help, one thing we would say we have no problem with antibiotics being used providing they are used correctly.

Earlier in the article we discussed the wind direction, do you consider that good pigeons will win in any position.

In NFC races if the wind is easterly the winners will be in the West and vice versa but good pigeons will always win good open positions against the wind. We feel that as the distance gets past the 500-mile mark the wind is less influential, possibly changing direction 2-3 times during the flight.

Some fanciers go out and purchase good quality winning pigeons but never appear to make the grade, why do you consider that this happens.

We think that fanciers need to be a bit more patient. It can take a year or more to get used to the pigeons and for them to get used to you. With our own family racing performances were disappointing for the first few seasons but with perseverance race performances began to improve dramatically.

Do you give any special treatments when the pigeons return from the race as a precaution against anything that they may have picked up in the basket?

We alternate every Saturday with cider vinegar and a product against canker and cocci. Fanciers should always be on the lookout for signs of illness when birds return from a race. There is a lot of potential for illness in the baskets, paratyphoid is always present and we always keep a really close eye on our international candidates. Some of these conditions are virilant and treatment must be administered at the first sign of trouble, i.e; antibiotics, delaying this may well be fatal.

Do you use the darkness system for the young birds, if so for how long and do you think it affects them later in life.

We have never tried the darkness system, we can see the advantages and how the birds would be more competitive. It does not seem to have any adverse effects in later life but its not a system we would use, as we only use young bird racing solely for educational purposes.

Are there any feeding methods for the young birds i.e. do you break them down, do you keep them hungry for control purposes, do you give them a trapping seed mix.

We feed our young birds on a widowhood mix with 25% barley added. They are fed this mix morning and night throughout the season, until they start leaving the barley. We do use a few handfuls of red band to trap the birds from racing, training flights and daily exercise. We also go around after their evening feed and give each pigeon a few peanuts, we believe this to be important and they really enjoy it.

Do you attach any real importance to the pigeon's wing i.e. back wing, end four flights and do you look at the wing to see if they have cast before a race. Any other comments on the wing.

With our young birds we pay no attention to wing condition.

If random drugs tests were carried out on your pigeons, would it reveal any substance, illegal or otherwise?

No, we only use recognised feeds and supplements.

THE MOULT/WINTER

What criteria do you set down for the pigeons you winter with your thoughts on the following seasons racing and breeding?

All pigeons that are wintered, including late breds, have carried out the workload that we expected of them during racing. People who are aware of our results know that our pigeons race very hard with many birds flying 2 x 600 mile races in the same season. All of the pigeons have earned their perch for that year, we never, EVER , kill pigeons to make space, selection is always done through the race basket, as this is the only sure way to judge your birds ability.

Are there any special treatments that you give your birds once the season has finished what do you recommend the readers to do with the birds

Once the racing is over the next major event is the moult, this is a very important time for the birds, we feed them with a top quality moulting mix and to this is added extra linseed. We try to give the birds every assistance to get them through this potentially stressful time.

What were the last four things that you put in your drinking water, when and why and did you notice any benefits.

We do not use many additives in the water but the last four things, in no particular order, would be garlic, iodine, cider vinegar and multi vitamins. The cider vinegar we feel is the most important, the garlic is a fresh bulb cut in half and placed in the drinker.

If you could only give your pigeons one supplement what would it be .

It would be a special conditioning cake that we make (our own secret recipe!), we feed this just prior and after the long distance nationals.

GENERAL

Irrespective of how your pigeons have flown what are your views on the past season whether good or bad or the management of the sport in general.

We think that there are too many races now with organisations having their long races on the same weekend, giving lower birdage than if these races were to be more sensibly spaced.

Taking into account distance, which is more difficult racing to your area, is it; a case of a 600ml race is a 600ml race regardless of competition or route .

A 600-mile race from the Pyrenees in Southern France will always be harder than a 600 mile race from, say, Saintes or Nantes. The conditions in Southern France with temperatures often at up to 40 degrees plus, and the channel to cross after some 500 plus miles this will, of course, always be a more difficult race.

Which fancier has influenced you most, in the way in which you fly your pigeons?

No-one really, we have always tried to do it our own way, and will live or die by our own decisions.

Which Champion pigeons over the years have left an impression on you and perhaps influenced your direction in the sport.

The list seems endless, pigeons like Maggie Ada, Hermana and Hermano, Lancashire Rose, Twilight, Trixie, Knightsdale Lady, Natrix, Lols Pride, Channel Queen, Morning Glory and some of our own pigeons, like Barkis and Little Dorrit - 18 times at 600 miles nationals, between them both winning Spanish diplomas in the British Barcelona Club. Also the best racing hen that we have ever owned being Nancy, who was lost to a hawk attack on a 30-mile training flight.

Whenever I have visited a loft fanciers always look at the pigeon's eye. Do you consider that the eye has any importance in (a) the breeding, (b) distance races (c) sprint races. (d) The pigeon's health. Or do you steer clear of the subject and if so why.

We used to look at the eyes on the pigeons hoping that this would indicate some special quality, but we have come to the conclusion that it has a) no importance in breeding and b) no importance in distance racing, but it certainly is an indication of a pigeons health

Who do you consider being the best fanciers in the Country and for what reasons.

We would not like to select a best fancier, there are obviously some very good fanciers throughout the country and these can generally be seen at the top of the national results year in and year out.

What do you think can be done to take the sport forward?

For the sport to flourish youngsters have to be given every assistance and encouragement. The high cost of racing will always be a problem, perhaps lower subscription and birdage fee for the youngsters and special prizes for the young novices will perhaps encourage them to persevere with the sport.

What percentage do you consider it takes to win with racing pigeons for Management and pigeons and why.

We consider it takes 60, possibly 70% fancier, 40% pigeon. If the percentage were higher for the pigeon different names would come to the top in the long distance events. It seems to be the same names year after year, many of these people sell, or give away, pigeons but not all other fanciers win with them. If it was the case as some people think 80% pigeon, anyone with enough money could buy their long distance success.

What past mistakes have you learned from?

The biggest mistake we have made was when our good racing cock Pencil returned from Perpignan International and became ill shortly after, our delay recognising the symptoms and treating him resulted in him dying from salmonella.

Who or what motivates you to remain successful?

Winning is the driving force. The pleasure of seeing your bird land from these long distance race points is motivation enough.

What qualities do you think must be present for a fancier to be classed as a top fancier and at what level must he/she have achieved results to be rightfully so-called a "Champion".

A top fancier is someone at the top of the result sheet in national events, consistently over a good number of years, and a champion is a fancier who wins more than his fare share of national races.

Do you think winning fanciers should move on from club racing once they have reached a certain level of consistency? Are club performances paramount for personal satisfaction or sales purposes?

If a fancier gets enjoyment from club racing then that's fine. National racing doesn't suit everybody and the costs can be prohibitive. One only has to look at the birdage costs, i.e £6.00 per bird to fly a long distance national event and the result is a reduction in birdage.

To term a phrase are you a professional pigeon fancier and do your circumstances make a big difference.

If being professional means being totally dedicated and single minded then we fall into that category. If you mean by professional do we make a living from it then the answer is no.

Is pigeon racing as a hobby going beyond the average working man? Is it becoming too technical and complicated or can you keep everything simple and still win with the pigeons.

Financially it is coming close to that point, with costs of £60.00 to send 10 birds to a national event and £80.00 to send the same number of birds to an international race, these prices are becoming beyond the average fanciers pocket. Keeping things simple is the way forward, pigeon racing isn't complicated, it's just hard work and common sense

What is your view on pigeon "moots" or "panels", are they over played and outdated and what do you think may bring as much or more interest to the quiet season when racing is not taking place?

If respected fanciers want to give up their time and other fanciers want to go along to hear their views and advice then that's fine with us. As far as being outdated, knowledge and good advice will always be invaluable, providing fanciers are prepared to keep their mouths shut and their ears open!!

What do you think about the vaccination programme for the pigeons and do you think it affects the pigeon's longterm.

We have vaccinated since it was introduced and apart from the very rare localised reaction we have never had any problems and we don't think that it affects performance in any way.

What do you think of veterinarians in the UK and have you had any dealings with them.

We do occasionally go the vet for medication but in general most of the vets that we have dealt with in our area have limited knowledge of pigeon ailments.

How do you consider that the British sport is going compared to the continentals and do they have any ideas that you think would benefit the sport in the UK?

British pigeon keeping seems to be going the same way as on the continent, where selling pigeons seems to be more important than the actual keeping and racing of pigeons. You only have to see someone with a small amount of success and the next week he's got an advert to sell pigeons in the fancy press. What's worse is people making money selling pigeons on other peoples performances. As to the second part of the question it seems that the continentals have a better transportation system with air-conditioned transporters, similar to the one used by the CSCFC.

What is your view on pigeon shows and showing?

For those that want to do it its good and gives an interest during the winter months but is not for us. We don't see any benefit of having our pigeons pulled out of the loft on cold winter nights to be put into a cage and poked and prodded with a stick.

Do you read many magazines/Articles, if so which type of article do you find interesting and why.

Yes, we have the weekly magazines to keep abreast of what's going on, the articles we like to read are those on long distance fanciers, past and present. Also some of the veterinary columns are of interest, but as for pigeon politics, these are a real turn off.

What aspect of the sport interests you the most?

Breeding is always an interesting time, will the new pairing produce the goods?, will the known breeding pairs throw another class pigeon? And its always an enjoyable time to see the spiky youngsters blossom into possible future champions.

Is there anything that you do not like about the sport, something that you feel needs changing for the good of the sport?

As mentioned earlier pigeon politics is a real turn off for us, also all of the squabbling, which seems more prevalent since the advent of the Internet where people's views can be more readily bandied about.

If you went into another fanciers loft and were given the opportunity to leave with a pair of pigeons, how confident would you be that you had selected the best pair, or in other words do you consider that you are a good judge of a pigeon.

No, we wouldn't be confident of picking the best pair in another loft, however, we would probably select birds that met the criteria that we look for in our birds, should they be present.

Is your loft of pigeons as strong as it was 5yrs ago?

Five years ago we had a fantastic team with 25 multiple 600-mile pigeons. It would be hard to be as strong now, bearing in mind that over the last 7 years we have flown in excess of forty 500/700 mile nationals, with the majority of these being over 600 miles. With this amount of racing good pigeons will be lost but with well-planned breeding and testing of the bird the strength of the loft can be maintained.

Do you have any further comments about anything that we may have missed in any area of the sport?

One thing that we would like to say to all new fanciers, you don't need a 50ft loft, you don't need to keep 150 pigeons and you don't need to breed 60 plus youngsters to be successful at the highest level in our sport. A small loft with 10-15 class pigeons is all you need to be competitive against the best in the country at the distance, providing your breeding and management is correct. When people visit our loft they can't believe that so many top national positions have been won to such a small set up. All we can say its much easier to look after a small loft filled with quality pigeons than to labour away trying to keep a huge loft ship shape and where the birds can't possibly be given individual attention.

We would like to thank all of the dedicated hard workers, at marking, clocks etc, in particular Allan Cecil and his wife Molly, nothing seems to be too much trouble for them. Allan, himself a long distance enthusiast, has been a great asset to the fanciers of Kent for many years and is also a great clubman. If it weren't for people like him pigeon racing would not survive.