A RACE OF DESTINY!

The epic is on the horizon when champions are found and boys become men. Soon in the heat of the Spanish sun, winged warriors, urged on by primal instincts, will drive on through sultry air for a hallowed place in fame and history. Feathered athletes representing the hopes and dreams of the common man will overcome the forces of nature on huge migration flights to reach the sanctuary of the loft of their birth and their resting place. This is the race that inspires the imagination of the world of pigeon sport. A single timing in the mother of all races will linger long in memories and sweet nostalgia and may inspire you to wonder.

 

 

Jim Emerton

 

 

 

A SENSE OF NOSTALGIA FOR THE PAST

In those days the 500 mile winner was King and the old characters ruled the roost.  We gathered on the pub veranda exchanging personalities and buying rounds of drinks on the pool winnings, acting daft and telling stories. It was the social club culture, where you tried to fathom out why certain men made winning easy. My clock was a Skymaster and then I got all posh with an STB Quartz. The old strain names like Gits, Osmans, Barkers and Logans were popular and the back garden lofts ruled with natural pigeons fed on beans, tares and maize. In those days we sent to every race with the same birds and right through the year from April to September. We were not so concerned about the weather and stock was sent by British Rail. Louella was the stud, with British based birds like The Extreme Distance Family. The top dogs were the distance men, when man and woman would enjoy training with a flask. To be honest all that competitive stuff was hard work and I prefer my life as a specialist strain builder, writer and mentor. In those days the Mecca of racing was in working men’s clubs, or posh village societies. We lived with fewer sparrow hawks and falcons and allowed the birds free range fielding. Old hand was the sage and permanganate of potash turned the water purple.

 

Jim Emerton

 

 

DARK ENCHANTMENT

As the sun goes down on a warm summers evening, with the roosting crows and the biting midge, I sip another cooling drink. The doubts set in as the street lamp flickers, with emergent bats and fluttering moths. The witching hour is marked in time, by the good old hen that swoops down, fresh from the twilight zone. It was Pau 735 miles and the little hen would create a little dynasty of her own. I called her Dark Enchantment in memory of some magical moments. This feeling accompanies birds that fly great distances to the place of their birth and captures the essence of marathon racing.

 

Jim Emerton

 

 

AUTHENTIC STICHELBAUT BASED PIGEONS

There are no pure ,unadulterated Alois Stichelbaut based birds, since the mans demise in 1946.Looking at archive pics and original documents dark and black chequer birds were dominant when the gentleman raced into Belgium. As all pigeons under the mantle of one mans name the birds were of mixed origins. In 2015 certain fanciers have bred closely to the old DVH/LABEEUW and other people, where it is thought their birds were based on archetypical STICHELBAUT birds. From my key 4 originals I inbreed today, always testing the progeny up to “BARCE INT. LEVEL” 710 to 879 miles. We have some lovely dark ones in our breeding and recent introductions of a STICHELBAUT nature include specimen SCHLEPPHORST birds and a hen to come from Ponderosa UK stud, with the FRANS LABEEUW birds in the genes, along with some of Vanhee origin, similar to those earlier intros by Denney-lines of which are in my strain of birds from 31 to 879 miles. I like the small medium, dark birds with great feather quality, so you can spot condition as it rises-they look like traditional distance birds, yet we can win the sprints with them. We exchange them in a network of enthusiasts over the British Isles where generosity is the key parameter. With a solid base we put certain inbred birds back in for vigour as experiments, always racing the progeny out.

 

INBRED EMERTON COCK-OVER 100 TIMES NO1 PAIR IN THE BREEDING

 

Jim Emerton