The Joe Murphy Column

My dear friend Billy Holland is giving up the pigeons and his sales will take place on the 8th December (stock birds) & then on the 22nd December (Racers) Both sales will be held in Newmains Pigeon club with viewing from 11 o’clock sales start 12 noon. There will be 65 birds in each sale. Billy has won 6 SHU Awards; been 5 times x 1st West Section in SNFC races; he has also won 19 times 1st Region, he has twice won 1st 2nd & 3rd West Section SNFC races, he won 1st & 2nd west section from Tours flying 625 miles and won 10 west coast combines. He bred the SHU Dewar trophy winner, also 1st open SNFC winner for Billy Bilsland of Ayton. He bred 1st national cock for Jimmy Mack of Tranent and 1st Grampian Combine and SHU winner for Danny Henderson of Dundee. So, you will see that Billy is a top-quality fancier and breeder of some very good pigeons. To highlight the quality on offer in these sale some are; dark chequer cock bred by Billy; you can see a tube video on with this cock; there is also a SHU Dewar Trophy winner on sale he was raced by Billy Bilsland of Ayton and won 12th open Alencon & 87th open from Claremont both with the SNFC.

Billy Holland

There are sons & daughters from this cock in both sales The sire of Dewar Trophy Winner is known as BVM being a son of De Narbonne (you can see a video on u tube of this cock) who won 1st from an entry of 3773 birds & was 2nd International from 14457 birds, also a ½ brother to 1st National Cahors from 10381 birds; sons & daughters are in both sales. Reference bird ‘Energy Recycle Girl’ and SHU award winner who won 1st west section by 2 HOURS and was 15th open from Tours; sons & daughters in sales. There are also birds from Billy Bilsland a multiple Scottish national winning loft; birds direct from SNFC winners and breeders of national winners. Ref birds; dark chequer cock a full brother to Farmer George winner of 1st International Bordeaux (Agen) beating 10,622 birds plus he was the fastest bird from an entry of 22,029 birds. Reference bird; ‘Henderson Boy’ an SHU award winner for the Best Performance under 300 miles, sons & daughters of the above reference birds are in both sales: For a sale list contact Billy on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. phone bids can be arranged by prior arrangement watch out for the advert nearer the times.

Dewar Trophy Winners 2019

Jocky Scott of Kennoway who has a 3-year-old chequer cock SU16F1726 now appropriately named ‘Whisky’ after winning the trophy donated by the famous Dewar Scottish Whisky firm. He was a late bred in the year of his birth and was only trained in the Kingdom of Fife from Crail in the east and Aberdour to the west of his Kennoway loft. As a yearling he flew to Maidstone with the SNFC a distance of 376 miles. Then as a 2-year-old he was entered into the national Buckingham race and from an entry of 4170 birds entered by 495 members and he won 3rd section C 97th open flying 303 miles 636 yards doing a velocity of 1068ypm. He returned hawked with no tail feathers from a training toss and was therefore stopped for the season. In 2019 he was raced with the federation out to Wakefield and prior to the channel events he was trained from Dunbar and Bellford on the east coast. He was racing natural and was sent to the SNFC Gold Cup race from Burdinne a distance of 513 miles and was sent sitting 3-day eggs as he was flying natural and he won 1st Fife Federation 1st Section C 14th open recording a velocity of 1416 ypm from an entry of 1251 birds entered by 358 members.

Jocky Scott

He was then set up in the same nest condition for the last old bird race of the season from Roye a distance of 510 miles were 215 members entered 935 birds and he was 4th Fife federation 10th section C 21st open doing a velocity of1107 ypm. Parents of ‘Whisky’ were purchased from Red Star Lofts auction from Dutch long-distance fancier Sjaak  Bulwada from Holland who is a marathon and extreme long-distance enthusiast with the base of his family being Jan Aarden. Jocky put in a bid for a pair of pigeons on the site but had to go out and on return checking the web site and found that he was not successful. However, he did notice that 2 of these Bulwada family had not been sold and as they were a pair, he phoned Alun Jones and purchased them for the asking price plus carriage and they were sent up to him. They were paired together have bred Jocky 9 SNFC prize winners since their purchase including now the Dewar Trophy Winner for Scotland’s Bird of the Year Award. This shows you that LUCK plays a big part in the pigeon sport Jocky’s words not mine: I have attached a photograph of ‘Whisky’   

Dewar Trophy Winner 2019

Frank Mitchell of Comrie in Fife

Runner Up to Dewar Trophy Winner

Franks forwarded me details on his yearling blue cock SU18F5482 that won the runner up to the 2019 Dewar Trophy winner. His sire is a stock bird from Jock King of Kirkcaldy national winning family of pigeons, and he contains the bloodlines of Jock’s champion pigeon ‘Mary’. ‘Mary’ was bred by Pete Patrick of Thornton and was an 11 times winner from France into Scotland and won a SNFC Gold Award and a Gold Award in the SNRPC for Jock with the following positions; 106th open SNFC Newbury: 140th east section Clermont: 8th 30th 35th 92nd & 92nd open Falaise: 17th & 66th open Reims: 19th 58th & 70th open Alencon. ‘Mary’ is bred from the best of top SNFC national winning bloodlines. Sire was SU00F13050 his sire was a direct son of Jock McKinnon’s of Ladybank ‘Lorna’ winner of 1st SNFC Falaise in 1979, the Dam of 13050 was bred from a son of Traill’s Spark winner of 1st Fife federation Dorchester 400 miles in 1992; in 1995 he won 27th open SNFC Niort 690 miles and the following year he won 1st open SNFC Niort.  The son of ‘Spark’ was paired to a hen from Jim Hannah of Blantyre (Jim gave Jock Traill 2 hens: one was from ‘Pied Queen’ winner of 13th open SNFC Rennes and the other was direct from ‘Blue Girl’ winner of 1st west section 2nd open SNFC Sartilly she was a granddaughter of ‘Westsound’ winner of 1st west section 4th open Rennes for Jim in 1984). Therefore, one of these hens was the dam of 13050.(I have spoken to Jim Hannah and he kindly told me about the 2 hens he bred for Jock).

Frank Mitchell

The dam of ‘Mary’ was 01F3697, her sire flew Niort twice for Jock Traill and was bred from the dam of Jock’s loft she won 2nd open Fife federation Avranches for him; and was mated to a cock from a pair of eggs he received from Keith Cochrane that contained the best of Eddie Newcombe bloodlines. The dam of 3697 was ‘Survivor’ winner of 2nd & 50th open SNFC Nantes 620 miles for Jock Traill and sold for £3000. ‘Survivor’ was bred from a direct son of ‘My Little Lady’ winner of 4th open SNFC Rennes 560 miles for Mr & Mrs Keir & son of Thornton and her dam was a daughter of Bobby Caruthers famous pigeon ‘Moneymaker’. The nest mate to 3697 was 3696 and she was the dam of Pete Patrick’s 1st SNRPC Saintes winner. As a matter of interest ‘Survivor’ obtained her name as she was in the race basket when a youth broke into Jock Traill’s loft and killed all his pigeons including his national winners.

This was a very sad day for the pigeon sport not only in the Kingdom of Fife but for the whole of Scotland. Going back to Franks yearling cock ‘5782’ his dam is a stock pigeon and is a granddaughter of the late Jock Trails famous pigeon; ‘Nancy’ winner of 1st SNFC Nantes 620 miles and 8th open SNFC Niort 690 miles; when paired to ‘Traill’s Spark’ mentioned above.  So, you will see that Frank’s yearling ‘5482’ is bred in the purple. He has always been a steady, reliable pigeon; as a young bird he flew every race with the Fife federation out to Wakefield a distance of 188 miles, often being in the first 4 to the loft. This year 2019 as a yearling he had 6 club races on roundabout, again being steady without winning any cards. He was then sent to the SNFC Inland National from Buckingham inland national flown on 1st June with 3876 birds competing sent by 465 members and he won 311th open flying 302 miles 871 yards recording a velocity of 1188.06ypm. He was then sent to the SNFC Gold Cup race from Burdinne chasing his hen to the nest on the 28th June with 358 members sending 1251 birds and he won 7th section C 37th open flying 522 miles 1204 yards to record a velocity of 1362.17. He handled extremely well on return from this race and Frank thought about trying him at the Roye national but was a bit hesitant as he was only a yearling! However, after 10 days rest Frank gave him 3 short training tosses and as he was handling and looking so well decided to send him to the Roye national sitting 7-day eggs. 

Runner Up

  He competed against an entry of 935 birds on the 19th July and won 14th section C 34th open recording a velocity of 1056.23 for the 515 miles and 170 yards. These 2 performances were good enough to merit him the runner up to the Dewar Trophy Winner in 2019. Although he is still a relatively young pigeon’ hopefully he can go on to greater achievements in the future. We congratulate Frank on winning the runner up award and wish him all the best for 2020 with all his team of pigeons. As a matter of sportsmanship Frank would to congratulate Jocky Scott on winning the Dewar Trophy. The 3rd pigeon that had 2 channel performances in 2019 belonged to William Borthwick of Annan whose chequer cock SU16S6056 won the following positions in 2019. From the Carnforth race with the Solway federation he won 1st Annan club from an entry of 113 birds flying 62 miles and recorded a velocity of 1000ypm. He was then set up for the SNFC Gold Cup race from Burdinne a distance of 462 miles and he won 5th section A 73rd open doing a velocity of 1315. He was then sent to the last old bird national race from Roye a distance of 444 miles to his loft and he won 5th section A 54th open doing a velocity of 1002ypm. Our congratulations go to William and his pigeon on these outstanding results and wish him well in future national racing.

Joe’s Joke

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, 'Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great I would recommend it very highly.’ The other man said, 'what’s the name of the restaurant?’. The first man thought and thought and finally said, 'What’s the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know the one that's red and has thorns’. 'Do you mean a rose?’ 'Yes, that's the one,' replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, 'Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?’

Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE or you can also view online editions on: www.elimarpigeons.com www.fancierchat.co.uk www.pigeon-chat.co.uk - www.Pigeonbasics.com - Pigeon Racing the Basics! - thecanadianpigeoninternational.com www.internationalracingpigeon.com or

https://sites.google.com/site/internationalracingpigeon/

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