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Ced Allwright90th Birthday 02-05-19

 

KEITH MOTT

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

 

Happy 90th Birthday to Ced Allwright.

 

Happy 90th birthday to my great friend, Ced Allwright, which he will be celebrating on Thursday, 2nd May! I have been a good friend of Ced and his son Clive for many years and have never met two nicer people in the racing pigeon fraternity. They are certainly two of the best pigeon racers I’ve met, winning consistently at all distances over a sixty-year period. Ced has been in the sport for 60 years, starting during the war years with the help of a friend who was a local National Pigeon Service rep. His father was an outstanding fancier in London and specialised in long-distance racing, winning many premier positions in the London N.R. Combine. In turn his father was a great fancier, making Clive the fourth generation of pigeon fanciers in the Allwright family and Ced has racing diplomas dating back to 1912. For many years Ced flew on the north road in partnership with his late wife, Vera, and says that she was a great worker with the pigeons. She clocked in many winners from the long distance, when Ced was at work. Clive became interested in his father's pigeons at the age of four and has been a partner for over 30 years. Ced says, Clive is a great worker in the partnership and selects and purchases the new stock for breeding. They race their 25 pairs on the natural system, with Channel racing in mind, but like to compete in the shorter races. They have raced the odd pigeon on the widowhood system, but say they enjoy seeing their birds in the garden. Ced has been an all-round bird man for most of his life and for many years had a big bird room at the top of his garden where he bred prize Canaries and foreign Finches. On my many visits to the Allwright’s Kent home, I took great delight in looking around Ced’s bird room, when they were breeding. The partners enjoy showing their Racing Pigeons and at one time they kept one or two Show Racers, and have been very successful, winning most of the local club shows and points trophies. Ced Allwright is a great stock man and is always being asked to judge at the premier local shows. The main families kept are the Frank and Anne Tasker 'Filmstar' family; Jim Biss, Eric and Pat Cannon and their own long-distance family, which they have blended over the years. When bringing in new stock they go for good winning lines and say the only type they like is 'the winning type'.

 

Ced and Clive enjoyed another wonderful season in 2008, winning several firsts in the local club and Federation, but the highlight for the partners was recording 3rd Section E, 3rd open NFC St Malo (Old Hens) National, and coming so close to winning their fourth 1st open NFC National. The 2007 season saw the Kent partnership finish up by winning their third National Flying Club race. This must be something of a record to win the National three times and I wouldn’t think many fanciers have achieved it’s equal in past years? The Allwright partners won the Guernsey Old Hen National in 2007 and to make it an extra special day also recorded 9th open Young Bird National. Their latest National winner was their champion yearling blue chequer hen, ‘Vera’, and she was bred down from the best of De Klak Janssen and Jim Biss bloodlines. Ced and Clive’s 9th open Young Bird National winner was a game little Tasker / Haelterman blue hen named, ‘Amy’, and she was sent to Guernsey feeding a small youngster. She paired up with an old hen and hatched one of their four eggs, and Ced told me that the old hen sat at night and ‘Amy’ pushed her off the baby to sit it during the day. Ced maintains successful pigeon racing is mostly opportunist and pigeons quite often produce their own winning conditions. The partners were very proud that ‘Amy’ was the first pigeon into Kent from the Guernsey National and won ‘The Vera Allwright Memorial Cup’, which they presented after Vera’s very sad passing three years earlier. I’ve been a close friend of the Allwright family for over ten years and when this wonderful lady passed away, it was a great blow to all of us, and I must say it is very pleasing to see the partners win her beautiful cup. ‘Amy’ was bred from the very best Haelterman bloodlines, Frank and Ann Tasker breeding her sire, and Clive says he can’t praise his late friend, Frank, enough as most of their success over the past ten years has come through the Tasker pigeons.

 

The National Flying Club ended the 2003 season with a brilliant Young Bird National from Falaise in northern France, when members entered 6,175 birds and enjoyed excellent returns. The day of the National started off dodgy with rain in northern France, but the sun soon broke through and the NFC chief convoyer, Colin Bates, cut the strings at 0835hrs and liberated into a light south-west wind. The wind was north-west in the Channel, turning to west in mainland England and favoured members on the east side of the country, especially Section E, as the final result confirmed to be correct. This National proved to be a great delight for me personally, as my good friends, Ced and Clive Allwright of Ashford, won the young bird race and recorded their second NFC win. The father and son partnership sent 15 youngsters to the National, recording their first bird, a 'darkness' blue chequer cock, now named ‘Falaise Supreme’, at 11.28, flying 164 miles. They topped up a brilliant day by recording the best five young birds and best old hen, by 30 minutes, in their local clock station. Ced and Clive's old bird looked like finishing up 7th Open in the Old Hens National result, this hen being clocked approx. 18 minutes after the Young Bird National winner. The partners won the Young Bird National for the first time from Pontorson (6,469 birds) in 1998 with their champion Haelterman blue pied hen, Champion 'Starlett', and both the parents where bred by Frank and Anne Tasker, from their fantastic 'Filmstar' bloodlines. Frank's 'Filmstar' was a champion racer and breeding cock, winning many premier prizes, including 26 times first, 12 times 1sst open Federation and is responsible for breeding countless winners. The National winner, Champion ‘Falaise Supreme’, was a Haelterman/Allwright distance family cross with the dam of 'Starlett' being the grand dam of the Falaise National winner.

 

Happy 90th birthday Ced! Hope you have a great 2019 racing season and win your fourth National Flying Club race this year. Keith & Betty Mott.

 

KEITH MOTT (MAY 2019).