NORTH ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP CLUB

by George Wheatman

Perth Sections 2014 

 

This year’s Perth race was the 293rd organised by the famous and prestigious North Road Championship Club since the first one back in 1901.

During that time there have been hard races and easy races, but always someone, somewhere, has come along with a top-class performance.

The Perth race, after a two-day holdover and a release that left no room for manoeuvre when predictions were for more bad weather, proved to be a test for both pigeon and fancier but a fair test with good returns being possible, and open placings being scattered around the sections.

Roy Wilson, of Norwich, produced an excellent pigeon which hit top form on the day to take the open prize.

Here we take a look at more outstanding performances, this time from the section winners.

 

SECTION ONE F and T SALT Bros and Son, KIMBERLEY

 

John Salt is the man who runs this successful loft, and his Section One winner from Perth was a three-year-old blue pied widowhood cock bird, a very consistent performer which had shown he was on form by also winning the previous week from Berwick.

He is a home-bred Soontjen and is a descendant of birds John bought directly from Jos Soontjen back in 1989.

He bought six on that visit, and sold one to cover his outlay.

Since then he has brought in various pigeons, but found nothing to match the offspring of those original Soontjens.

The section winner is also second open, and this is the second time John has been runner-up in the NRCC from Perth. He has also been second open from Dunbar but, before you start thinking that he has been plagued by bad luck in missing the top spot, let’s recall that he won the open from Thurso in 2011 with a three-year-old blue Soontjen widowhood cock that has not raced since and is now in the stock loft.

Now, as then, he has declined to have his photograph published. “It is the bird that won, not me,” he said.

It was raining pretty well all of the day in Kimberley, but John had 13 of his 15-strong team home on the day, with another appearing later.

The provisional result listed Rouse and Webster, who live just down the road from John, as section winners, and both Dave Rouse and John believe that the two pigeons came together. “His pulled away, mine came on the trap and straight in. I won it on the trap,” said John.

“This pigeon has always done well when the wind has been on his nose.”

John competes with both cocks and hens, on pure widowhood. “I have done this for the past two years, but the NRCC Berwick race spoilt my widowhood hen team when I dropped five. So now I have six out of the original 11, but these are still flying well, and I have 33 cocks, having dropped two.”

Now aged 66, John has been a pigeon fancier for 60 years and has gathered a wealth of experience during that time, as well as a fund of stories to tell. He competes at club level against a number of top-class fanciers in the Eastwood club.

One of the things he has discovered is that he does not like south road racing. “I did try flying from the south, but did not like it,” he said.

But he has fond memories of his schoolboy days when he used to accompany the convoyer on the train trips to racepoints. “That was a big adventure,” he recalls.

John Salt, and fanciers like him, are the backbone of NRCC racing, and are the reason that winning sections, let alone the race overall, is a tough task.

 

SECTION TWO Mr and Mrs BOB BOULTON, ADDLETHORPE

 

Every sport has competitors who turn up trumps when the pressure is at its highest, when preparation and temperament is the key to success. Big match players, we call them.

Bob Boulton could be termed one such man because he so often produces the big performance on the big occasion.

And, here he is again, supported, as usual, by wife Phyllis, winning the strong Section Two with a blue yearling Vandenabeele roundabout cock bird which had shown its promise by being second pigeon to the loft from Berwick on a day when Mr and Mrs Boulton were fourth section and eighth open.

It had done little or no racing as a young bird, as Phyllis was ill at the time, and this curtailed young bird racing.

Bob missed seeing his birds arrive from Perth because he, too, had been taken ill, requiring a rushed hospital visit. He is now back home and, hopefully, on the way to making a good recovery but has had to rely on friends to help out with the pigeons in the build-up to the Arbroath race.

Of his latest section winner, Bob says: “I think he could be an exceptional pigeon.”

This assessment comes from a man who knows a thing or two about quality pigeons, having won NRCC Dunbar open back in 2002 and making everyone sit up and take notice with a resounding open win from Thurso last season.

Again a man with a wealth of experience in pigeon racing, and never short of a story to tell, he puts great faith in sending yearlings to big races.

“You can’t beat youth,” he will tell you. But perhaps what he will not tell you is the amount of work, particularly training and motivation, he puts into the preparation of his pigeons for the big races.

Bob is a big fan of the old adage: “Fail to prepare prepare to fail.” He prefers to prepare!

Bob and Phyllis Boulton

 

SECTION THREE ARNOLD BENNETT, CROWLAND

 

Another veteran and long-time NRCC member, 82-year-old retired farmer, Arnold Bennett, is the winner of Section Three, just coming out on top of a fierce competition with Spalding’s Tony and Edie Woolsey who added second and third section to their section win from Berwick two weeks earlier.

Arnold’s winning pigeon is a four-year-old JanssenxVan Reet blue widowhood cock, always a reliable pigeon with four previous wins to its credit.

“It was a hard race,” said Arnold. “The weather was fine at our end, overcast with a south-west wind, but I did think that they would be a little bit faster. I sent 17 and had ten home on the day, eventually finishing four short. I thought it was a very good race, and the convoyer did a good job.”

Arnold did not have the best start to the season, and felt that his pigeons were not quite right. He sought veterinary advice, had the birds tested and treated them as recommended.

“They altered within a week,” he said. “I rested them for a couple of weeks and then they were fine.”

He has kept pigeons since he was six years old, although he did take a ten-year break to enjoy his daughter’s successful involvement in show jumping.

Once the pigeons were restored to his life, Arnold has had an unbroken run in the sport until the present day. “I love my pigeons,” he said, although painful knees mean that he cannot walk far and he has to use a mobility scooter to get him from the bungalow to his loft.

He doesn’t like driving these days, and Billy Pell is a big help in taking him to marking stations etc.

Arnold says he has spent a lot of money on buying pigeons over the years, and one of his best purchases was when he acquired eight young Janssens from Louella some 25 years ago. They cost him £60 each, which was quite a lot of money at the time, but he says he has never been able to find a family quite like them since. “They were very good up to Thurso,” he said.

He is also pleased with more recent purchases of Perry Bros and Son Vandenbrouckes, and also has some Ceulemans which are racing well.

He has been troubled by a raiding sparrowhawk which has killed eight of his pigeons this year.

Arnold reckons he has been a member of the NRCC for at least 50 years, and recalls the halcyon days of Tom Ferrer, John Lovell and Frank Perkins among other great fanciers.

As a concession to advancing years “although I am all right apart from the knees, everything else is OK” he is planning to sell his stock birds. A lot of fanciers, no doubt, will be interested to hear that.

 

SECTION FOUR ROY WILSON, NORWICH

 

Roy (Rocky) Wilson was the winner of the strong Section Four, and also winner of the race outright with an experienced blue five-year-old widowhood cock bird. It was, says Roy, the best moment of his 30-year pigeon racing career, and the success has already been reported in the pigeon magazines.

 

SECTION FIVE MISS M JUDD, RAMSEY

 

Without doubt one of the most successful lofts in NRCC racing is that of Michaela Judd, of Ramsey, run by 62-year-old Gary Wilkes, a formidable competitor since 1966.

He has seen this section disintegrate around him in recent years but, no matter the opposition, he has regularly seen multiple returns placed in the open result.

Most notable thing about the latest section winner from Perth was its impressive fourth open placing on a velocity of 1233ypm compared to the winning velocity of 1248, and certainly not being in the best location on the day. Distance from Perth to the Ramsey loft is 306 miles.

Gary also won the section from Berwick.

The winner from Perth was a two-year-old dark chequer, whose brother is a previous winner, bred by Terry Robinson, of Cheshunt, whose pigeons are an important line running through the loft.

From an entry of 20, there were four adrift a few days after the race.

In addition to the Robinson pigeons, there are also Alf Bakers via Terry Phillips among the 50 pairs in the loft.

Gary believes in breeding best to best regardless of origin, and this policy has kept him consistently at the top over the years. Many will remember the name of Miss M Taylor appearing in the NRCC results. Those wins were also as a result of the work of Gary, whose Perth team was pretty well the same as the one that competed from Berwick a fortnight earlier.

He said he had two good pigeons missing from Perth, including a Lerwick winner.

 

SECTION SIX MICHAEL JAMES, CHATTERIS

 

Fifty-seven-year-old builder, Michael James, of Chatteris, is a first-time winner of Section Six with a four-year-old blue pied Soontjen widowhood cock bird that won the club from Thurso last year another example of an experienced bird coming up trumps on a difficult day. It was overcast at Chatteris but, with a small window of opportunity, he thought the convoyer did a good job.

From a team of five sent to Perth, Michael had four home on the day, but he said he did not do very well from the previous race from Berwick.

He also said that he had lost several older pigeons this year which had left him a little bit short.

He had hoped to send a team to Arbroath.

Michael flies his birds on the widowhood system and, like many other pigeon fanciers, has an interest in other animals. In his case it is horses, a Shire (and hoping to get another) while his partner has a horse which she rides.

The Chatteris club meets at Michael’s premises and he says that there are some good fanciers in the membership.

 

SECTION SEVEN GEORGE CHALKLEY and SON LONDON

 

There was an outstanding performance by a pigeon now called Willsdale to earn George Chalkley and his son, Steven, victory in Section Seven and finish in an impressive eighth open position. More evidence that one day, given the right conditions, there will be an open NRCC winner from among the many dedicated London fanciers who are an increasingly important part of this famous old club.

The Chalkleys’ winner, at a velocity of 1229ypm over a distance of 365 miles, was a yearling described by Brian Woodhouse (popular columnist Woodo who kindly, and quickly, responded to a request to take a photograph of George) as “A beautiful specimen. Hopefully it will go on to win many more races for George and Steven.”

This yearling chequer pied cock bird, flying natural, carries the name Willsdale because of its origin, the sire being bred by Dennis Dall, of Scotland, and the dam by John Wills, of Frimley.

 “I am so pleased,” said George. “The pigeon did very well. He was also up front from Berwick and I think it is an outstanding pigeon. I will rest it now and put it away for next year.”

George, who is one of those special fanciers who goes out of his way to help the sport in general, races his pigeons on the natural system, while son Steven has a team of about a dozen on widowhood.

He doesn’t follow the race on the internet and, indeed, is one of the old types who does not want to know the result until clocks are checked nevertheless this performance provoked quite a few congratulatory ‘phone calls.

The name Chalkley has been a feature of pigeon racing for many years. George relates the moving story of how the family were bombed out three times in World War Two and his dad came out of the Army not knowing where they were living.

When they were re-united in Bethnal Green, he noticed a house nearby had been bombed and immediately re-cycled the floor boards to build a pigeon loft in his new garden.

George says this season so far has “not been too bad” (which, I think, many of us would translate into pretty good!) but there are many successes in the past by which to compare it, including four London Combine wins.

He also says that many London fanciers really enjoy racing with the NRCC, accepting that often conditions will not be in their favour. Many of them are good friends and celebrate each other’s success in the true manner of sportsmen.

One group of George’s friends are the Ling brothers, winner of this section from Berwick, and runners-up in this Perth race.

George, now 74, was enthralled by a recent visit to the legendary Peter Crawford in Ipswich when he discovered, in conversation with 85-year-old Peter, that some of their pigeons had the same ancestors from a long way back.

To illustrate the tough nature of the Perth race, the Chalkley partnership sent eight birds but, at the time of speaking, were still four short.

George Chalkley

 

SECTION EIGHT ROBERT and PENNY SMITH, LAINDON, ESSEX

 

At 370 miles, the husband and wife partnership of Robert and Penny Smith were the longest flyers of the eight section winners from Perth.

Their winner is a blue pied hen now called Penny’s Girl to acknowledge the part wife Penny plays in the partnership. “She is a diamond”, said Robert, of his wife.

“I prefer hens for the longer races,” said Robert. “They seem to give that little bit extra.”

The Smiths race their pigeons on what Robert describes as a “tease” system. The cocks and hens are parted and are housed in adjoining sections but there are flaps around the partition and, when the cocks beat their wings, they can see the hens. The only time they are together is when they come home from races.

“It seems to work,” said Robert. “In fact it seems to be working very well because the birds have been in very good form this season. They have just come into form at the right time.”

They enjoy NRCC racing although often getting “the rough end of the stick” as far as the weather is concerned. “But it is different and you have to be in it to win it,” he said.

Robert and Penny Smith

The weather in Laindon on Perth day was “rubbish” but the partners sent five and had all of them home, three on the day.

Robert first had pigeons at the age of three from a man working on the roof of his mother’s house. Subsequently he took a spell out of the sport to follow the path of many fanciers before him into dog racing.

Now 63, a trained welder and semi-retired after twice suffering the blow of redundancy, he has stayed with pigeon racing since 1989.

He was the driving force behind the formation of his present club, New Laindon, where weekly competition is pretty stiff.

There is a big contingent of Soontjens in the loft, acquired from a friend about 12 years ago, and Robert regularly goes to Belgium where he buys pigeons from Lier market.

“Every time I have been there, I have managed to get some fantastic pigeons,” he said. Their first pigeon from NRCC Berwick was a Belgium-bred bird.

Robert said he was “over the moon” with the Perth section win. It was a good feeling, he said.

He had tried south road racing but lost too many pigeons, something which those local to him who still race from the south continue to do.

Penny’s Girl will not race again this season. “She has done her business,” said Robert. “It was a hard fly.” She will now be paired.

He hopes to have a team of three for the 600-miler from Lerwick on June 21st.

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