Lancashire Social Circle

The weekend of the Spring Gathering of the Circle was held at the Inn On The Prom at St Annes-on-Sea over the weekend of 21st 22nd February. When the numbers for the dinner on the Saturday night were a little disappointing with several of our regular guests who would normally come along from all parts of the country were otherwise engaged. This did in no way detract from the weekend as only a couple of members missed the function through illness.

Back in 2011 the Circle started to hold what was later known as Friday Forums. These were put on by the secretary to keep members and guest together on a Friday night, and help with the negotiations with the hotel at the time. In the early days of these events a number of comedians helped make for a great evening with some light hearted banter. As these events took hold, the Circle held a couple of quiz nights and also provided talks from Vet Vincent Schroeder and officials from the RPRA to name just two, that resulted in debate following their addresses. On one occasion when the Circle hosted the Midland Social Circle when they were celebrating their 50th Anniversary in 2014 we even provided a Magician that proved very entertaining.

In an effort to keep the weekends fresh this Forum took on a slightly different look at pigeons, when a past president of the Modena Club of Great Britain, Mr Gary Marsden was invited to give a talk on this type of fancy pigeon. Gary kindly brought along a pair in order that the members could fully understand what the pigeons looked like. The National Modena Club was founded in 1910 with members who can only be described as the more affluent members of society, (in other words Money Men) whose principles was the promotion and development of the breed. One such member was also a past president of the Lancashire Social Circle Sir William Proctor Smith JP. Gary Marsden who has been keeping the Modena's for over 40 years had only this year been awarded the honour of Master Breeder by the Modena Club, an honour only four other members have held. Gary was no stranger to racing pigeons, as in his younger days kept them himself and only introduced the Modena's to use as droppers, something other members could relate too. Gary is an international judge who has been called upon to judge in Holland, Denmark and Germany on a number of occasions.

Gary spoke with great passion and at some length on several aspects, explaining the judging standards that are quite different from what local racing pigeon shows hold in the winter months, that are designed more for a social event or for raising funds. The big difference with this type of pigeon is their aggression and when introducing Gary the Secretary explained the racing pigeon were like the Alan Jones or Maurice McCartney's the gentle type, while the Modena were the John Dearden's of the pigeon world. Something Gary explained in more detail with the cock birds in particular being very territorial. He only feeds the birds once per day putting the food trough down for 15 minutes and then removes it, as if not the birds would want to dominate the whole floor, with their dominant nature. The number of colour variations was staggering with over 150 different colours, that I believe is one of the attractions of keeping this type of pigeon. With the crossing of different colours over several generations makes them unique in that two blue pigeons could produce a chequer or a red. The colours or not described as the racing fancier dose, where we call a pigeon a pied, in the Modena club these are called Gazzis and a Grizzle would be known as a Mottled.  

Following his address he opened it to a question-and-answer session and was bomb barded with questions. I was surprised at the number of circle members and guests who had kept this type of pigeon, with one member Bobby Brandon being a past loft manager for the millionaire fancier call Shackleton who it seemed is legendary in the Modena club. I understand one fancier was interested in purchasing one to pair to one of his roundabout hens on the floor, in order to keep the rest of his hens from pairing together. This would have to be removed in order to feed the hens and replaced it once this had been done. The talk was well received by all and proved a little different from some of the other Friday Forums held in the past. The Secretary thanked Gary for taking the time to come along and presented him with a LSC Hand Book and a copy of the Circle's Centenary Book.

President Stephen Beardmore Principle Guest John Wheatcroft Secretary Brian Dearn  

Saturday morning following breakfast members of the Management Committee met for their usual morning meeting that left the rest of the members and guests a few hours for more socialising, and with the weather being bright and sunny, many made their way out to see the seaside resort. The report of this meeting will come out in the President's Address later in the report. All to soon it was time to meet in the Ball Room for the official dinner where President Stephen Beardmore welcomed everyone and offered apologies from the members who were unable to attend and offered a special welcome to two fanciers attending for the first time Mark Barnes a guest of David Hilton and Gavin Buckley a guest of William Curtis. Stephen expressed his pleasure at seeing both Dr. Geoff Richmond and Bob Smith bask in our company, before saying Grace.

Chris Knowles had the task of introducing the principle guest, a fancier who has been attending these functions for around 15 years first coming as a guest of the late Harry Aspin,  but now the Chief Guest, Mr John Wheatcroft. John has been involved with pigeons for most of his life, and is well known throughout the pigeon game as a fancier with a dazzling array of talents. He is a widely travelled man on the continent and his pigeons are absolutely top class. As well as racing pigeons John also keeps a team of show pigeons and excels in many of the major shows. His expertise at this level has seen him appointed the Olympiad Show Manager for the RPRA. Along with being a drug tester for the RPRA, he is heavily involved with the National Flying Club alongside his RPRA duties, in other words there is no stopping this man.

John was next to his feet giving this his first ever public speech, showing no sign of nerves produced one of the best speeches we have had for some time. John started by telling us as an 11year old along with his parents who were shopkeepers took their annual weeks holiday in Bridlington. At the time there were a number of white fantails and young John would buy a small bag of corn for a penny and feed the pigeons. Like many youngster he had a dog and rabbits but the pigeons were his biggest fascination. One day a local fancier came into the shop and it was from him John got his first pair of pigeons, it was 3 weeks or so before his dad found out he had them, when young John could never be found at home. As time moved on and being a member of the club and eager to learn handling birds, ringing them on race nights and setting clocks all added to his CV. A little later he use to set the clocks for the NFC clock-station. Eager to have a team of better pigeons at the age of 15 he wrote to Eddie Newcombe asking if he could purchase a pigeon. Eddie wrote back asking him how much money he had from his paper-round. John replied £15 and Eddie sent him a pair of young birds. John asked his dad if he could go to the Edinburgh Tattoo which he agreed to, but said behave yourself. This 15 year old with a £10 return ticket to Edinburgh returned with two eggs in his pocket from Eddie. This became a twice yearly event and the two of them became the best of friends. Billy Parkes of Downpatrick Northern Ireland was also approached and once again pigeons came his way along with much appreciated information on stock-man-ship. One hen from Billy won the eye-sign classes over a number of shows around 1974. At 22 years old and now having a driving licence Gilbert Harrison asked him if he would use his car and drive him over to Belgium on loft visits. This was the start of his many trips to all the top fanciers on the continent.  Alongside these visits John also made loft visits to many of the leading lofts in the UK.  On one visit to Pros Roosen there was a pile of dead pigeons that had not made the grade and John though this was a man you could trust to buy pigeons from  as he could have sold any number of these pigeons to unsuspecting UK fanciers. On one such visit John attended an auction and fancied a blue pied late bred in the sale, but with time restraints was unable to stay for the sale. He spoke to Ad Schaerlaeckens about the late bred and Ad told him it was from Heremans Ceusters and if he wanted any he should contact him now, as in 3 years time he would not be able to afford them. John went home and put together all the money he could raise and asked if he could purchase any of the older stock cocks as the Belgium fanciers sell the 3/5 year old breeders. John purchase several cocks so later wrote back and bought hens to pair to them. These pigeons have formed the foundation of his stud producing winner after winner for a great deal of fanciers. John was first to admit he owes a great deal to the sport of racing pigeons as through them he has been able to visit countries around the globe as far as Australia. When his parents passed away he stopped racing as it was his father who helped look after them for him, and now breeds winners for other fanciers while his partner looks after the show pigeons at his home address, giving them the best of both worlds. John explained how the price of pigeons had gone out of the price range of most fanciers and this has not helped the sport going forward. The proof of this goes back to his start up dealing with genuine fanciers who were prepared to help you get involved. John explained how he was the Olympiad Show Manager and how the classification worked, feeling the members of the Lancashire Social Circle would have the no problem qualifying with the performances achieved in national races. He also explained how Olympiad pigeons were of great value in particular the Chinese fanciers paid top money for them. He finished his address with three stories of his trips to Belgium where he had difficulties with car problems but with the help of the pigeon fanciers he had now become friends with had helped save the day. The first of these was when he broke a front spring on his car while on the way to catch the ferry home. He rang a fancier friend who got a mate to work all night to repair it and changed the ferry crossing to a later time. The second was when he had travelled over to Belgium and had left his wallet at home with his money and on his return needed diesel another fancier friend got him filled up and gave him some Euros to get him on his way. Now the third episode was when he was stopped by the police who asked for his driving licence which he did not have on him, the police asked if he could ring home, but he explained he lived alone. He then asked could he ring a Belgium Policeman also a pigeon fancier to vouch for him and this resolved the situation and he was once again on his way. John then asked all guest to stand and made the toast to the Lancashire Social Circle.

The President thanked John for his address and then made him a presentation of a Hand Book and a pair of LSC Cufflinks. It is usual for the Circle to present guest speakers with a Centenary Book and Tie but as John has been attending our functions for several years he has both of these.

The final speaker was Brian Walsh who was called upon to make the reply. He thanked John for an excellent presentation to the Gathering on this his first time as a public speaker. He was amassed how he found time to do so many jobs within the sport and still have time to keep pigeons. He touched on his connection with John through the drug testing something he had been involved in himself in the Liverpool area.

President Stephen Beardmore asked all members to stand a made a toast to the guests. Then thanked everyone of the speakers who had made this one of the better weekend Gatherings, with the addition of the Friday night talk on Modena's that was the idea of the Secretary who had introduced yet again another aspect to the weekend having come up once again with an idea to keep the fanciers entertained. He finished by saying at the morning meeting it had been decided to have another Ladies Weekend this October at Llandudno and anyone interested should let Peter Latham know. Full details of the event will be communicated to everyone over the next few days. With this he closed the evening wishing everyone that was travelling home to have a save journey. The evening closed a little sooner than normal with the efficient way the hotel staff served the meal giving plenty of time for conversation until the early hours of the Sunday morning. When after breakfast and many farewell the many guest made their way home to all parts of the country.

 Brian Dearn Tel. 01254 772515.