A TRIBUTE TO JOHN ADCOCK OF CROYDON

by Keith Mott

I was very sad to hear the news that John Adcock had passed away over the New Year holiday, after several months of ill health and going into hospital last November. The sport of pigeon racing has lost one of its greatest fanciers! He was a very interesting man to talk to, with his wealth of pigeon racing knowledge, gained in a lifetime in the sport. He was a brilliant pigeon racer and certainly one of our best convoyers.

John Adcock started racing in the old Croydon club in 1945 and won the first Channel race as an 18 year old. He was a convoyer for ten years and told me he really enjoyed the job, but maintained he didn’t like races over 400 miles and said Pau is too far. John told me he thought the main problem with modern day racing is far too many small clubs and in the Croydon area there should only be one big club.

John and son Mark raced 36 cocks on Widowhood and liked racing every Saturday, sprint or long distance, with the same team. Mark said the cocks started racing in the first Open races at the end of March and raced every weekend through to Bordeaux with the odd special cock being raced every two weeks from France. The loft housed 36 Widowhood cocks which were paired up with the stock birds on January 14th and the first round eggs from the breeding loft were floated under the race team. John and Mark raced a basic Widowhood system, with the racers rearing a pair of youngsters and the day they were weaned, the females were taken away, and the cocks were on the system. The cocks were not trained after the first race of the season and were then exercised around the loft for an hour, twice a day. They were fed a first class Widowhood mixture and were broken down on Saturday and Sunday during the racing season. The main family kept were Janssen, with the odd Busschaert and through the years the Adcock loft had won the Federation countless times. The partners enjoyed a wonderful 2004 season, having won prior to their San Sebastian Classic win, 3rd Open L&SECC Tours (beaten be a decimal) and 1st Open SMT Combine Poitiers. The San Sebastian Classic was the partnership's second L&SECC win, having recorded 1st Open Bordeaux in 2002 and won the Combine a staggering six times.

The members of the London & South East Classic Club sent 632 birds to its Blue Riband Classic from San Sebastian, Spain in 2004. This was the event that every one had been waiting for all season, the longest old bird classic, and that weekend at the end of June, saw some wonderful performances put up by our quality membership. It was a weekend of thrills and spills, with the convoy being held over for two days and then having a hard push home in a strong westerly wind. The convoyer Phil Fishlock had to hold the pigeons over, with adverse weather conditions at the racepoint, but finally liberated at 6am in no wind on the Sunday with bright sun on the baskets. The race was hard and four game pigeons were clocked on the day of liberation. The brilliant Croydon partnership of John & Mark Adcock won the race clocking their Widowhood blue chequer cock at 7.50pm flying 560 miles and Mark told me at the time his latest champion had more or less raced the programme on his build up to his Classic win. He had scored on the five weekends leading up to the San Sebastian Classic, including 2nd Surrey Federation (beaten by a loft mate) and as a yearling in 2003, won 50th Open L&SECC Bergerac. This wonderful cock was bred from the very best at the Croydon loft, with his dam being 'The P Ring', the partners' number one Janssen stock hen when mated to a Busschaert cock which had won the Federation three times. A brilliant loft of pigeons!

KEITH MOTT (L&SECC PRESIDENT).