NORTH LIVERPOOL FED
NEWS FROM DARREN SMITH
LES MORRIS - THE KING OF CARENTAN
Les holding 587, 1st North West Combine Carentan 2 and winner of North West Combine Gold Award for 1st, 4th and 6th Combine. He topped fed twice in three weeks.
If you ask any fancier racing into the North West of England what their immediate ambition is, the likely response would be to win a top combine event. When or if the doors to the combine winner’s club finally swing open and the spoils have been plundered, ambition and expectation often turns, realistically or otherwise, towards the conquering of a Midlands National event.
For many, even those who dominate in their domestic organisations, the ambition will remain forever that. The odds of climbing to the summit in open competition, tempering the infinitely greater set of variables in the process, just that one time, so often proving a match to their enthusiasm and a step, or two, beyond their capabilities. There is no shame when the progress made by those embarking along this path is so markedly slower, for without the driving force of ambition there would be no point engaging in competition of any type.
The summer of 2013 will live eternally in the memory of a fancier who managed to buck such a trend almost immediately. As the warmth of a glorious summer unfolded, holding the country almost spellbound in the daily act of sun worship, something very special, brilliant and unique was about to happen in a picturesque corner of pigeon perfection on the outskirts of the coastal town of Southport, Merseyside, welcoming the fancier in residence to drift into a state of Nirvana few before him have experienced at such an intense and prolonged level.
The first hurdle to fall and at only his second attempt, 1st Midlands National Flying Club Carentan from 8,406 pigeons. The North West fancy immediately became abuzz and celebrated as one of their own had brought recognition to their region and no small measure of hope to the growing number turning their attention to the bigger picture of National competition.
What came to follow in the next four weeks would find itself comparable with any truly outstanding series of achievements in any sporting field you care to mention as not once, but twice (and almost a third time) our subject found himself without peer on one of the biggest stages available to him and his pigeons, a two times winner of 1st North West Combine, doubling the brace of combine victories he had previously achieved.
Young birds out on the lawn
And so I now present to you an interview with the undisputed King of Carentan, Mr Les Morris.
I was born into the pigeon game, me Dad had them in the back when I came along and so it stood to reason I would follow in his footsteps I suppose. We lived in Fairmead Road, Norris Green and flew in the Croxteth Homing Society. When I was about 12 years old I’d be up the club helping out on marking night, on the ringer or putting the birds through as we all do. It was me Dad’s idea to help the members fly say the first ten young birds for free by selling Finishing Touch tickets.
These cost tuppence in old money and there were 600 odd tickets a set and I’d run two sets. There were about 30+ active lofts in the Croxteth at the time and I’d go round with the tickets and then collect the money every week. The pleasure I used to get out of it at the time was doing my rounds of a Sunday morning, getting to handle all the winners and being told how they were prepared and I picked up an awful lot of advice from different fliers at a young age.
I would consider the likes of Jack Bradshaw and old Jimmy Boyd as my mentors in those early years, but there was also Les Kilshaw and I ended up with a number of his Proctor Smith grizzles. As time went on I started working, doing deliveries and after I’d finish me rounds, the 2 ton transit became a training wagon and I‘d go round the lads collecting their baskets of pigeons and I‘d take them to Runcorn. Me Dad had moved by this time to Croxteth and we joined the Fazakerley Homing Society and so we had to start again.
Les holding 61, 1st North West Combine Carentan 1, a latebred from 2011.
The pigeons we had at the time were obtained from Jack Bradshaw and he had a pigeon named Mr Toppit that had won 11x1st in club racing and I think 3x1stLiverpool Amalgamation from average birdages of 5,000-6,000. You’d go up the club of a Friday and Jack would get up there and the first question would be are you sending that Toppit or number 15 as he was also known, he’d say yeah and they’d all go and scrub the money off their pool sheets!
It wasn’t long after that I started courting and the pigeons went out of the window for a few years. I got married in 1969 but couldn’t keep pigeons were we lived in Cherry Lane, so we finally got a house in Croxteth. I was round at me Dad’s all the time and Lynn was having a go at me because I was never at home so I said to me Dad I’m starting up at me own place and getting a loft and he said you might as well take the shed and everything round to yours, so I did and went from there. I made premier prize-winner in the Fazakerley around about 1975 and from memory I made a visit to the prize table every year.
Coming back to the training, around about the mid 1970s, the Liverpool Amal got shut of their transporter and that’s where Christine Catterall came in to do the convoying. Me Dad had this big 16 tonne wagon with shutter sides and I used to drive it. He got 6 big wooden boxes made which measured 6 feet square and they had 5 tiers in each box. There was a keyhole style flap for each tier where you could put the pigeons through and on one end of the box there were two big doors like on a wardrobe and you‘d just open the doors and out the pigeons would come. We used to do open races for the West Derby Flying Club. I can recall Jimmy Weeder accompanying me as convoyer and we’d race from places like Ludlow.
Quite a few of the lads would put on with us and the round would start at 9am in Seaforth and I’d move through the city to the various pickups before making my final stop at Roy Humphries’ Yard in Halewood about 1pm and then it was off to Breeze Heath which was just beyond Whitchurch, before heading home to sort my own birds out. That was my job at the time, 4 days a week during the summer and while they were long days in terms of all the travel I used to really enjoy it.
There was an old fella called Billy Walsh who used to fly in the Fazakerley at the time and his entries would have tail flights or half a wing missing and the like, but he’d get them from places like Rennes which was near 400 miles. He might not have won, but he’d be knocking on the door with them and it had me perplexed so I asked him one day how he did it and he said the secret is son, white bread inland and brown bread across the channel!
Les holding 015 (Gaby x Persoons), half brother to 1st MNFC Carentan, winner of 4 x 1st Southport & District Federation.
Me Dad and I used to go for a late lunchtime pint in the Oak, back when the pubs would close at three o’clock in the afternoon. One day we’d been, I think it was in the February and I came home to find all me stock birds, 6 pairs in total, had been pinched. They all came back bar one the following April so obviously they’d been taken, bred off and then let go. I never ever found out who it was but you get these little set backs along the way.
I started getting into the terriers at the time attending the various terrier shows and added to this I was travelling up and down the country in my management role for Britvic soft drinks so once again the pigeons took a back seat. I had a friend who is no longer with us, namely Bernie Nelson who used to come across from his home in Bootle to help out, but it was too much for him with all the travelling so in the end I left the shed standing empty and packed in.
It wasn’t until 1994 that my interest in the pigeons was rekindled when a fella I knew named Bobby Flannery asked if he could keep a few pigeons in the shed and I said yeah as long as he cleaned it out. No sooner were there birds in residence I was involved in the sport again and Bobby and I joined forces. Sadly Bobby wasn’t so well andafter a while had to call it a day so I began flying in my right once more and selected through the pigeons I had at my disposal and not long after this I made the introduction into my loft of the Roger Persoons and Bert Braspenning pigeons and set about building my new team.
I was flying in 2 clubs at this time, the Pirrie Flying Club which was affiliated to the North Liverpool Federation and the Fazakerley Midweek Club which was affiliated to the Liverpool Midweek Federation. Competition was very keen and I was up against a good bunch of lads in both clubs and as before I made regular visits to the prize table.
It was not long after we moved up to Scarisbrick and I added the Vandenabeele bloodlines via Mark & Dickie Evans and Rik Cools to what I had and I would describe my performances as going from the third division to the premier league! There are still a number of Persoons and Braspenning pigeons in the make up of my stock but to be fair they have not been as consistent for me as the Vandenabeeles which probably account for 70% of my pigeons now.
The entire old bird loft with hens to the left
Recently I have added a number of Hofkens pigeons via Miss Jarrow of Hollywood Lofts into my Persoons and they have hit it off straight away. I have also added some distance bloodlines as flying with the Midlands National I’m going to need pigeons I can hopefully rely on for the later races. I’ve won from every race point out to 400 miles but I have to admit I struggle when it gets to the likes of Niort. Other people win with my pigeons from that distance so it might be the way I feed that I need to adapt.
At present I fly in the Southport and District Federation. The affiliated club memberships are small in numbers but what we do is we all mark and open the clocks from one central point and then once the race result is known, each secretary takes away the results of their particular club to form individual results which makes for a fairly simple system. The racing is good and we do have some great fliers up here, namely John Blundell, Mick Liddle, Jimmy Hampson and my mate Bally to name a few.
We also fly in amalgamation with the North Wirral Federation which can see birdage swell to around 3,000 pigeons during young bird racing and you’re up against the likes of Eddie Casey & Terry Rainbow, Jones & Thomas and Eddie Bateman so you know if you’re up there with these fellas you’re not doing so bad.
In terms of husbandry I firmly believe in working to a routine religiously. I take me foot off the gas slightly during the winter months, but they are not neglected in any way and they don’t want much meddling with at this time as they are busy growing their new coats and are probably a bit sore. But come the Spring it is all about routine and regularity. Cocks out first thing in the morning and then mid afternoon. Young birds are darkened and are let out in between the cocks exercise periods.
I literally spend my whole day from the moment I get up until early evening, out there with the birds. This is my job now and I aim to put everything I can into them. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to race the hens and I would love to, but by the time I’ve done everything else like cleaning out, exercising the cocks and young birds, replenishing the stock birds and maintained my garden and vegetable patch I find I have run out of time.
The main widowhood loft
When it comes to the breeding side of things I spend all winter preparing. I sit here in the conservatory get all the pedigrees out and go through the bloodlines thoroughly. To me the genetic side of things is the be all, combining pigeons with the intention of creating a future champion and if I had a partner I would focus solely on the breeding and leave the racing to him or her.
It’s not solely on pedigree that I base my pairings, for example I wouldn’t put two pigeons with the same eye together and we go back to the things I have picked up during my time in the game, it is something I have come to integrate into my way. It may be right or wrong but it is how I do things and there are other selection techniques I will also adhere to such as size. I’m a firm believer that like breeds like so if you put a big’un to a small’un, you’re going to get a big’un and a small’un, that’s how I look at it anyway.
Prior to pairing up I use a combination product to get them right and to be honest I look after them so it is for peace of mind more than anything. I did used to treat with Nifuramycin but I found it hard to come by. There are fellas who give their pigeons a Baytril cure and while it might work for them it’s certainly not for me.
I’ve used the services of a vet in the past but I lost faith as every time I used them it was always coming back with the same thing even though I’d treated for it. But I think I’ve done okay since I stopped using them. I find the best way is to keep your hygiene and selection to a high standard. You can treat pigeons that go backwards but I’ve found they very rarely if ever make the grade further down the road, so to me one of the secrets if you can call it that, is to keep your standards high.
When I pair up I split my racers into 2 teams. The first team are run together the same time as the stock birds and I will transfer the eggs from the stock birds under them. Around 14 days later, I pair the second team which contains my better racers and what I do here is take 1 egg from each of my main racers and ensure every pair in the second team sit these eggs and rears one baby.
If there are young hens in there that lay late I won’t take anything from them or perhaps one of the pairs of stock catch them up and I’ll float their eggs in but if not I leave them. It is a lot of work being honest but I get what I want in a short space of time and it does me.
When it comes to motivating my widowers I will vary what I do on a week to week basis. One week I’ll show the hens, the next I won’t. One week I will put a nest bowl in the middle of the loft floor in one section and pay particular attention as to which cock earns the right to protect it. In the next section I’ll let the hens fly into the boxes from a basket and in the other just give them their bowls and take them straight to the club.
Small aviary attachment for young bird loft
Another thing I’ll do on a Sunday after the race is turf the cocks out for a bath leave the loft doors wide open so they can come and go as they please. I’ll then put a load of straw in the loft and let them build nests and you want to see the difference in them as they go about their business. There’s no logic to it, but a pigeon has to be happy and content with where it lives if you want it to really race so you do the best you can to make things right for them.
The cocks will go out as early as possible and by early May they’ll be up in the air at 5.30am and they’ll fly for a good hour but I have to stay out of the way as the minute they see me they’re down and diving for the loft. So I let them out, scrape out and then put their feed in their individual pots as you may have noticed I feed in the boxes and as soon as I open the doors they’re falling in. I leave the food with them for an hour and then I go around each box and remove what’s left over. I follow the same routine early afternoon and by 5pm we’re all done and it is off to the pub.
The corn I use is Bamfords Cool Racer and Fast & Fancy. I went on it as soon as I seen it at Blackpool. But the last couple of years I have changed things slightly and have added 2 Versele Laga mixes namely Gerry Plus, to the Cool Racer and Superstar Plus to the Fast and Fancy.
I feed the Gerry Plus / Cool Racer from Saturday up to Wednesday morning, then Wednesday afternoon they get 50% Gerry Plus / Cool Racer and 50% Superstar Plus and Fast and Fancy. They also get the same combination Thursday morning and then Thursday evening and Friday morning they receive the heavier mixture of Superstar Plus and Fast & Fancy. As the distance increases, I add Extreme Energy and dogtooth maize to the later feeds. We call it stand-back maize up here as when you put it down for them they all stand back looking at it! I use it all the time and I swear by it.
Friday the troops are confined to barracks but I feed them at the same time as in the day’s leading up. So 7am say, I’ll go in and feed them and leave the food in for an hour. They may not eat much but they are never stinted. You’ll have one cock will leave safflower, another something else and others who’ll clean the lot off. This is where observation comes into it, learning what each individual pigeon needs and seeing the signs they have provided when winning in the past, to help you take advantage in the future.
At about 1pm I’ll go back in and give them a bit of conditioner and a couple of peanuts and that is about it. The reason I give the conditioner and peanuts is to ensure they get a good drink before they go the race. I’ll also put water pots on the boxes so that they head straight to the box on return from the race.
Once we hit the water, I will add the Extreme Energy and stand-back maize for the last 4 feeds, as much as they will take in. In the water the pigeons receive Vita Pro-Combo on a Saturday. I also use a lot of garlic and the birds receive it Tuesday and Thursday. Monday I give Gemthepax on the corn and everything gets it, old birds, stock and young birds. On Wednesdays I also use Garlic & Oregano oil on the corn and that is basically it.
A good tip I was given by Paul Beaumont was on the use of tea tree oil in the bath water, you only add a drop and you won’t see a thing on the birds after you use it. It’s cheap as well, I think you can pick a bottle up most places for around 3 or 4 quid.
A view inside the young bird loft
I’m always on the lookout for indicators all is well and that winning form is not far around the corner and if you know your own pigeons you can tell by the way they fly once they start exercising out of the ordinary. You can look to see that they are resting properly and you know this when you see their droppings all in a little pile not scattered all over the box and then the down feathers everywhere like someone has burst a pillow. It’s little things like that I look for.
I know lads who look for the skin to be all nice and pink and clear of scale but I‘ve won with them when they haven‘t been in this condition. I can’t say exactly why but I’ve long had the ability to take a pigeon in the hand and know it was right. Maybe it was all those winners I handled when I was a kid and the experience I gained then has stayed with me, I can’t explain it really.
There used to be a fella that flew in the West Derby called Biffo Williams. We were sending to the Liverpool 2 Bird and this day we’d took the birds training. We were stood there in the middle of Breeze Heath and he’s got hold of this hen with a parrot beak, her crop packed out with corn and he said this is going to the 2 bird. So I asked him if I could have a handle of her and she handled lovely. I said in jest I won’t bother sending mine I’ll just back her and I wish I had as she won the race!
With regards to the type of racing I prefer it doesn’t really matter to me I like them long and short and I send to win. With the young birds results don’t matter so much. I train them hard and if they’re knocking on the door, or getting the occasional win I am happy with that. I feed them plenty of corn as they are my future racers and stock birds.
The 26 Cock, renamed Black National and now housed at Myrtle Lofts, 1st MNFC Carentan 8,406 pigeons.
A lot of fellas race them to the belly, they’ll never do anything later on with them, especially when it comes the water but that’s sprinters for you. I feed heavier as I have more in mind for my pigeons. I do use a spoon and people say well that’s a measure but it’s a big spoon and they get their feed heaped on it so it’s not measured in the strictest sense.
I administer a combination coccidiosis and canker treatment every three or four weeks during racing and it is one you see advertised in the Homing World. But the one ailment I fear more than most is respiratory and I try to keep on top of this at all costs. I also use Respiro San Dry loft treatment and it gives off a nice menthol smell as the cocks and young birds are standing in it, but to me respiratory has to be kept in check.
The young birds are fed on a mixture of maples and a breed and wean type mixture I obtain from Dennis Gerrard’s corn shop and as soon as I start training I will change the feeding until they are being fed the same way as the old birds. I buy all my racing corn for the season in at once and as I get to the end of one bin I mix last 10 or 12 pound of corn into the top of the new bin of corn and again it is something I have always done to try and provide some continuity in what they are eating.
When it comes to how I feed my hens what I have found is that if you feed the hens too well the pairing up and egg laying will follow shortly, so while I don’t starve them in any way I keep them on a short leash with a lighter mixture. By that I don’t mean rubbish either as a good widowhood hen is as valuable to your success as a good widowhood cock so the hens need looking after correctly. I also have an old cock and his mate paired up on the floor of the hens section and this keeps the hens up on their v perches as they claim the floor space, but the advantage it provides usually only lasts a few weeks before he gets fed up with his lot.
I’ve visited Belgium on numerous occasions and I have been a regular visitor to the Blackpool Show and can recall many a trip from Liverpool with the likes of Jimmy Bauress senior and Tommy Hughes, but I tend not to go visiting other lofts nowadays as I am so busy here with my own pigeons.
When it comes to introducing new stock I don’t fall into the trap of chasing after the new flavour of the month families as you would never stop. I look for steady pigeons that have been performing at a high level for a number of years. And when you look into these designer German families that are all the rage now they are based on the old families such as Krauth, Delbar and even Koopman which go back to the original Janssen and Van Loon pigeons of the 70s.
Lately I’ve been looking at these pigeons of John Whittaker. They have produced a lot of good performances and the nucleus of the family is Vandenabeele crossed with the Koopmans and these are proving to be a good cross so maybe I’ll add something like this to my own family in due course.
The Vandenabeeles have really elevated my performances and I have them from a number of sources namely Mark & Dickie Evans, Jack Walker, Rik Cools and Darren Peters who had them all direct from Myrtle Lofts. It has taken me a while but I have put together what I consider to be a good team of stock. In the three years that I have raced them I have taken 60 cards in the North West Combine and most of those have been in the top 20 and whether it was me or any other flier you care to name, that is some return.
For the future I am looking to extend the distances I can get my pigeons to win at, but it is going to take a few years to get a team together. As I said earlier we have won out to Messac and I have topped the North West Combine 4 times, but going back to the 70’s I had a few close calls as well as topping the Liverpool Amal and the North Liverpool Federation. But as it stands, the task in hand is to remove the thorn in my side and try and conquer the distance. Other people win with them so I’ll have to study up on alternative feeding systems or feed them some more stand-back maize!
In terms of selection the conformation has got to be right and one of the things I place great importance in is the vent of a pigeon. There are always exceptions to every rule but if the vent is not tight I’m not interested. As youngsters it takes a while for them to harden up but you just have to wait don’t you. Of course you have to also take into consideration the family of pigeons that you fly and whether they are short, medium or long cast but it all boils down to how they conform once they mature. I’ve got some very big pigeons who some would dismiss out of hand as yard dogs but they come.
Les holding PJ, bought for stock from PJ Lofts, a breeder of 2x1st, 2x3rd and 4th North West Combine.
The big problem I find is people are too impatient and don’t give their pigeons long enough. Those that have done well last year are 4 year olds. Don’t get me wrong they’ve won and taken prizes along the way but for some I know they wouldn’t have been given the opportunity. It’s all about consistency. I’ve got pigeons there that are always knocking on the door, they’re my poolers as I know they’ll be knocking about come Saturday and that they’ll be in the top half of the result.
If they are consistent to your loft you have to give them their chance because they will have their day. But people are too impatient and it’s like 2 years old gone, 3 years old gone. One fella was talking about a pigeon he owned to me and said it’s only had 5x2nds it’s going and I said you must have some good pigeons then lad to say that.
I race 40 widowhood cocks minus those lost to hawk attacks or having hit wires. This year there are 38 out there and we haven’t had a training toss yet so it could be less come the first race, it’s not all written in stone. With the young birds I’ll wean 60 over and after I go through them and select we get down to around 45-50 and then you might lose one or two during training. But by the time we get to racing I don’t lose many and after a full season including the Carentan race with the MNFC I think I only lost about 8 pigeons. I house around 20 pairs of stock birds but I aim to drastically reduce these numbers at the end of the year as there are a number of older pairs out there.
I will only train my old birds once racing starts if need be. If they are not flying with their usual vigour around home I’ll pop them into a trainer with Frank Houghton, a lad who picks up in Kirkby if I think it will do them any good. I can be here and have the hens in waiting for them as they come. Otherwise I don’t bother. Prior to racing I aim to get about 6-8 tosses in from the end of the motorway which is around 18 miles away and I feel that is enough. When the channel comes around I will send those that didn’t go to that week’s race on the wagon to wherever he is going.
I work hard with the young birds training wise. I start 2 weeks before the first race at about 7 miles from a place we call the flower shop, then onto Ashworth which is about 9 miles, then onto Knowsley working my way up the road until I reach the end of the motorway. Once they are beating me back I move them on to the next point. If the weather is good I will go morning and night with the babies, Monday-Thursday.
I’ve won a lot of races with hens as young birds with high combine positions over the last few years and they are all sisters to my winning cocks and so when I select through my pigeons these will be the hens I put to one side to add a bit of youth into the stock loft.
I believe ventilation is of key importance, especially in the fight against respiratory infections and it is something that should be at the forefront of every pigeon fanciers thinking. My loft has ventilation from all sides and the air circulates freely at all times. With regard to artificial heating I don’t believe in it. My garden has good exposure to the sun and I prefer for any heat to be provided naturally. The ample ventilation throughout my lofts sees to it that there is no build up of excess heat.
A view of the widowers
2013 was without any shadow of a doubt the finest year of my pigeon career and I doubt very much I will be able to repeat the fantastic racing of the early summer. I only started racing with the Midlands National Flying Club in 2011 and raced one race that year, I didn’t send at all in 2012 and last year competed in 2 old bird and 1 young bird race, so it was my second attempt when I won. I sent 5 pigeons that day and as well as winning it, I also took 7th section and 12th open with my second timer and my third pigeon also made the result. I was on cloud 9 as you can imagine, I just didn’t know where to turn.
I wish I could say there was something different in the pigeon’s behaviour that I noticed leading up to the National victory but there wasn’t as they had been coming well and winning in the weeks previous, always fighting at the front of the result with sometimes multiple timings in the first ten of the federation. Added to which I am up against a lot of fliers using ETS and I am still using a T3.
Never in my wildest dreams did I dare contemplate that I would then go on to top the mighty North West Combine twice over the next fortnight, earning me the nickname of Mr Carentan amongst my mates up here! It was a truly magical period of racing. The following week I sent my better pigeons to the National and my domestic results dipped slightly at Fougeres 1, but the following week we came out and topped the fed again and took 4thNorth West Combine Fougeres 2.
When it comes to advice for novices or new starters, what I would say is find pigeons that suit your management and it is not as easy as it sounds. I have spent a small fortune bringing in pigeons that were winning out of turn for other fliers but I couldn’t get them to do a thing for me and then in the case of my Vandenabeeles, the minute I introduced them my results went up and up.
The stock lofts
I admire many in the sport, none more-so than Kenny Simpson and Brian Maguire and closer to home men like John Blundell and Jimmy Hampson. If I was looking for advice today I would go and see the likes of Kenny or Brian who are not only good pigeon men and have been for as far back as I can remember, but they put so much back into the sport and deserve every success they achieve. I take my hat off to that type of flier, not the kind who just want to turn up on basketing night, stand back until their name’s called, put their pigeons through and then disappear.
I love the sport of pigeon racing, especially the banter on marking night and the day to day enjoyment I derive from just being around my pigeons, but what drives me insane are fliers that send to one or two races a year and who have a minimal input when a bit of effort is required for the greater good as it were, but who then like to try and dictate the direction in which the club is being steered.
I race against a great set of lads and they are much like the lads you will find racing in most clubs dotted around the country. You can send as many as you want because that is what keeps the cost down. Many years ago, Les Kilshaw, Roy Humphries, me Dad and possibly Albert Tarleton, wanted to buy Lockerbie Hall up on Lockerbie Road in Kensington and use it as a central headquarters for a combined racing organisation of Liverpool Amal and North Liverpool Fed members, split the city into 4 sections but have an overall winner each race.
This was as far back as the 1960’s. Had something like that happened, Liverpool would now be looked upon as a beacon by those flying in other parts of the country and I don’t mean to belittle either organisation when I say that as I have raced in both the Fed and Amal and have many friends who still do. But from a financial sense it is a no brainer as it would reduce costs substantially and what an honour to say you were the best in the city on any given weekend?
There are a number of similar organisations who operate in this way from a position of strength both here and abroad and one such example is in Malta where all race marking is from a central point and it is a successful, self financing operation. But sadly throughout the fancy, people are obsessed with what they stand to lose due to being 100 yards west of such and such and this is the real killer in the sport. Just race your pigeons and if they win they win, if they don’t then try harder.
FIN
Thanks to Les for inviting us up to view his set-up. You would be hard pressed to find a more idyllic surrounding where everything appears in harmony and the high quality residents are clearly content. It is probably safe to assume that there is far more to come from Les and his team at both combine and national level. His vast knowledge, experience and hard work are coming together nicely in the creation of a family of pigeons only too keen to meet the rigours and demands of getting out in front in the best of company and racing home to where their affections lie.
Thank you also to Lynn, Les’ wife for welcoming us into her home and for keeping us refreshed throughout the morning.
Thanks for reading.
Darren Smith
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Elimar April 2014