A TRIBUTE TO JOHN NORRIS OF GRANTHAM.

I was very sad to receive a message informing me of the passing today of my good friend, John Norris of Grantham. John was one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet and would help anyone in trouble! He was a premier pigeon racing man, winning many major races and was also one of the sport’s best workers over many years. He was the convoyer of the North Road Championship Club, so we had a lot in common and John and I always had out little met ups at the marking stations and at the premier winter shows. What a great lad he was! Our sincere condolences to John family at this very sad time.

At the age of 15 John joined his first pigeon club, Grantham Invitation Flying Club where members included D. H. Templeman, J. Wallwork, Graves Brothers, K. Meadows and John's great friend Bernard Charles. That year he left school to undertake an engineering apprenticeship as a plater, with a firm called Aveling Barfords. Where, his first tutor was Peter Collishaw, a pigeon man from Sleaford, who at that time was a very successful long-distance flier on the south road, flying Westcotts from Wally Grantham of Ipswich. Over the next few years John made many trips to see Wally Grantham and spent many hours listening to his wealth of knowledge of pigeon racing. John had come a long way since those early days and had been in the sport over 60 years but he said his fascination with distance pigeon racing, especially Lerwick, started in those days working with Peter Collishaw.

A few years ago on one my video tours, we went to the east side of the Midlands, to Grantham to the visit loft of John Norris. John was a convoyer with the North Road Championship Club, which he said he enjoys very much. He had been convoying off and on since the late 1970s. John won the Lerwick North Road Championship Club King's Cup race in 1995 with his champion Busschaerts dark chequer cock 'Naylor's Pride'. This above-medium-sized widowhood cock was bred by J. Naylor and Son of Murton, Co. Durham and was down from Mitchell Brothers of Bilsthorpe Busschaert bloodlines. John and his son, Peter, purchased 'Naylor's Pride' as a squeaker for £50 at the Murton Charity Auction and he had proved to be the best money they have ever spent on a pigeon. John had a silent partner and loft manager in Len Hart, previously of the Hardy and Hart partnership of Grantham. It was Len who clocked 'Naylor's Pride' in from the North Road Championship Club Lerwick and won the King's Cup, as John was at the Lerwick race point as chief convoyer for the North Road Championship Club. John and Len spent a considerable time selecting four pigeons for their race entry. They chose three Mattheeuws and one Busschaert and their small team recorded 1^st, 4th, 25th and 228th Open Lerwick North Road Championship Club, with a convoy of 2,970 birds taking part in this 500-mile race. A brilliant performance!

John's main racing loft was self-designed and features open-door trapping, with sections for widowhood cocks and young birds. The loft raced only the widowhood system, never hens, and the partners were only interested in the long distance events. John thought the nest bowl as the main factor behind successful widowhood racing, and showed the hens on marking nights but never for sprint races. The cocks were never broken down, being fed a standard widowhood mixture all week and they were given the hen for anything up to five hours on their return home from the race. John and Len had a wonderful brick built stock loft which was full of quality. The ten pairs housed in this loft were mainly Busschaerts.

 and Maurice Mattheeuws which were paired up on February 18th. The inmates were kept in perfect condition with plenty of space and good ventilation. John Norris RIP.

KEITH MOTT (8^th February 2025)