Gareth Watkins'
MARATHON SERIES
Part 4
ALAN TURNER'S '93' & '73'
In this article I would like to highlight the long distance performances of not just one, but two top class long distance pathfinders bred and raced by Dover fancier Alan "Wally" Turner.
Alan with one of his winners
Alan is a retired miner and races his birds to the small former mining village of Elvington a few miles to the north of the town of Dover. Since his introduction to International racing with the BICC in the mid 1990s, Alan has enjoyed consistent success in International races and in this article I will concentrate on the performances of two of the loft's long distance team, both dark chequer cocks, with multiple turns in International races. Here goes.
I have visited Alan's lofts on two occasions and to say that they are pristine both inside and out would be a massive understatement.
THE LOFTS
The lofts are literally “shoe horned” into his tiny back garden and were a credit to both Alan and the fancy. Immaculately maintained they housed a terrific team of pigeons. The racing loft is a 40 ft x 9 ft L-haped structure containing five sections and facing east. All sections are scrubbed out and emulsioned each winter and the internal environment was first class. The old bird sections were fitted out with a combination of the German style “up and over” nest boxes and the more conventional “English” style boxes. The section that houses the hens in winter and young birds during the racing season had easy to clean lift off perches and all sections are cleaned daily 365 days of the year. A small stock loft bought for Alan by his wife Barbara housed a team of around eight pairs of stock birds.
Alan Turner's loft
THE BIRDS
The birds themselves are a combination of the old reliable Delbars with the addition of Van der Wegens, Jan Aardens and Kuypers brothers. Recent introductions have come via Jimmy Roy of Margate and John Searle of Cambridge. All birds handled similarly, being long cast and just on medium sized with some of the cocks being just a little over medium sized. There was not a deep keeled pigeon in the loft which has proven to be a common factor in all the fanciers’ lofts that I have visited that have long distance aspirations.
So we come to one of the subjects of this article, a great hearted slogger, the dark chequer cock “93” who has the following prizes to his credit:-
8th Open BICC Barcelona 2009
3rd Open BICC Barcelona 2010
7th Open BICC Barcelona 2011
Plus 27th Open Pau BICC, 37th Open Bergerac BICC and 98th Open BICC Bergerac.
In 2011 “93” had just one preparatory race before going to Barcelona and that was Poitiers 380 miles so Alan certainly doesn’t burn the birds out before their long distance target race.
The pedigree of "93" shows that his sire was an unrung son of one of Alan's other good long distance racers "The Hawk". The Hawk contained all the very best of the late J L Roberts' Delbars, a family of pigeons which won top long distance prizes wherever they went.
"93's" dam was bred from Dutch imports from the loft of Cees DeJong and contained the bloodlines of birds that had won from Barcelona, Perpignan and Bordeaux into north Holland.
'93'
The pedigree of '93
Then we come to the second of the two cocks to be featured in this report, another dark chequer cock known simply as "73". This cock's performances at the distance, all with the BICC, are also outstanding and are listed here:-
70th & 57th Open Pau [plus 55th Open BBC Pau]
2nd, 56th& 89th Open Perpignan
13th Open Narbonne
17th & 40th Open Barcelona plus 5th Open GDSBNFC Barcelona.
The pedigree of "73" shows once again the influence of Alan's old tried and tested Delbars with a cross of Dutch long distance bloodlines through Jan Aarden and Van De Wegen.
'73'
I should also mention in passing the performances of yet another of Alan's great long distance racers, “True Grit” a dark chequer Delbar x Kuyper who has a sheaf of long distance prizes to his credit including the following:-
3rd Open BICC Perpignan
132nd BICC Bergerac
4th Open Tarbes [on the day]
5th Open BICC Pau
39th Open BICC Perpignan
18th Open BICC Perpignan
23rd Open BICC Pau.
6th Open BICC Pau and 380th Open International Pau against 8,555 competitors.
Although True Grit hasn't been entered in the Barcelona International race I felt that his record in many other long distance International races merited inclusion here alongside his illustrious loft mates.
YOUNG BIRDS
Young birds are well trained and receive a couple of 100 mile races in their first year and as yearlings they go out to 300 350 miles in easy stages. Three year olds and over go to 5, 6 and 700 miles if fit but Alan does like to make sure that the birds entered in the Barcelona International race have had a good grounding before their first attempt, and more often than not the Barcelona candidates are at least four years old before their first trip to the Catalan capital.
Club racing is regarded as preparation for the long distance Nationals and Internationals and yet Alan can still hold his own once the race distance extends beyond 300 miles.
One of the coloured sections
MANAGEMENT
The yearlings are mated in February followed by the older pigeons in March. Alan’s usual practice is to switch the eggs of the old stalwarts and then separate for a few weeks before re- pairing the birds in final preparation for their target race. He likes cocks feeding a big youngster and just “looking” at their hen again. However it all comes down to the individual pigeon’s preferred nest condition as Alan is constantly watching the birds and looking for signs of extra keenness.
Winter feed for the birds is a combination of farm beans, wheat and barley with the addition of chicken pellets and Hormoform plus various oils at different times. When racing the racers are fed the very best continental racing mixtures with the addition of farm beans and peas plus sunflower hearts, peanuts and extra maize in the build up to the long distance races.
There you go then, the background breeding and preparation of two top class long distance racers managed by Alan Turner, one of Kent's most consistently successful long distance stalwarts.
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Elimar - February 2014