A Published Book and One Yet To Be Written

by

John Clements

My book, 'Long Distance Pigeon Racing’, is coming up to its tenth birthday. It was first published in 2007. At the time it was thought to be a risky project for pigeon fanciers (the expected buyers of the book) are not huge book buyers and video films were and still are the preference for most.   But the format (interviews with nine top fanciers of the day) has proved itself to have stood the test of time, drip feeding itself onto more book shelves and bedside tables every year, so there must be something in it.

Yet there is another great book that should keep to the same format that has yet to be written. This book should be about ‘Sprint’ pigeon racing as opposed to the ‘Long Distance’ pigeon racing. There are thousands of fanciers across Europe and in the UK who would love to read about top Sprint fanciers from Germany - The Netherlands - Belgium and the UK so they could compare their methods and of course also compare themselves. Such a book could be a definitive work of reference both of breeding and of method. It would have the possibility of emerging as a ‘classic’  of its kind, but researching, choosing  the subjects and writing it would be difficult - The author would have to be a very good and successful sprint fancier himself even to attempt such a task.

When writing any book a part of the unconscious mind comes into the writing. The great thing about the  pigeon racing is that all strata of social life, the rich and poor, man and women, young and old  are fascinated by pigeons that in the right hands can and does achieve super speeds. . . It does not matter if you are highly educated or of limited learning - a big athlete or someone who is disabled. What matters much more is you are humble enough to know that you and your knowledge is still limited and be still humble enough to be willing to learn more. I myself have learnt more after my book was written than before the book was born. From my point of view ‘Long Distance’  must be viewed it as a gift from heaven but Sprint fanciers must have a similar feeling when their first arrival comes screaming in at top speed.  I suspect these sorts of feelings feeling never completely leave. They are a part of everyone’s unconscious mind, a part of what turns you on.

Probably the Janssen strain would emerge as one of the biggest influences in sprint racing  but there could be others not so well known who could also figure. I would love to hear about them. It would also be fascinating to compare the methods various sprint fanciers from different countries use to get their results.  One thing is certain, if such a book were well researched, well written and published it would be a top seller but perhaps we are asking too much of fanciers to reveal their secret methods honestly. I hope not.

My book didn’t have this problem for only a few pigeons are ever capable of flying 700 miles so seconds do not matter at these distances.  In my case it is more the pigeon not the system. With sprint pigeons it is more likely to be more the system than the pigeon. Nevertheless both types of books would be dead in the water if any one of their chosen fanciers eventually turned out to be a cheat after their book was published. . My book has been lucky in that respect. The sprint book may not be so lucky for sprinting is in a more dangerous place because only seconds determine the difference between first and second and seconds are more easily manipulated.  Still a sprint book is a challenge worth taking on by someone who feels as passionate as I did about their kind of racing as I did about mine. Such a book would probably enjoy a ten year birthday as mine has. I hope someone will take up the challenge - I for one would rush to buy a copy just to see what the worlds top sprint fanciers are all about. .