KEITH MOTT
Writes about winning fanciers past and present;
“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT
The late John Ellis of Wellbank near Dundee in Scotland
I was very sad to hear of the recent passing of the legendary Scottish long distance racer John ‘Jock’ Ellis of Wellbank. John was a legend in the truest sense of the word! I had the very good fortune and pleasure of visiting his home near Dundee in the mid 1990’s and this is a little account of that visit, as my little tribute to one of the ‘all time greats’ of Scottish pigeon racing. I was very happy when my good friend, the late Ian ‘Smokey’ Gray, told me he had arranged a loft visit to the great John Ellis, as John was a fancier I have admired since I started up in the sport 45 years ago. Back in the 1960s, when I was learning the 'trade', I read about John's long-distance performances and his champions, ‘Wellbank Endurance’, winner of 1st, 2nd section, 27th, 82nd open British Barcelona Club Palamos (1,044 mile) and ‘Wellbank Pride’, winner of 1st section, 8th open Rennes in the Scottish National Flying Club, flying 583 miles and so on.
John started in the sport in 1958, with only long-distance racing in mind. His loft has won countless positions in the first ten of the Scottish National Flying Club Open results over the years and recorded 1st and 2nd section, 27th and 28th open BBC Palamos (1,044 miles) in the 1970s. If a pigeon won from 400 miles he was looking for it to win from 600 miles. John had been in the Scottish National Flying Club results every year since 1962, apart from the season when his father died. At that time, one of his most recent champions was the blue chequer hen, 'Wellbank Reliable' who won the Gold Award in the Scottish National Flying Club; by the time she was three years old, winning five times from 540 miles or over. Her best position was 8th open Sartilly Scottish National Flying Club, 540 miles and she liked to be sent sitting week-old eggs or feeding a small youngster. At the start John obtained birds from several top long-distance fanciers in the north and blended his own family. Crosses were brought in from time to time and he told me Stichelbauts obtained from his late friend, Bernard Miles, were produced outstanding birds when put into his own pigeons. He had a grandson of the 'Tee' and a Pol Bostyn hen which were breeding well at the that time. Some more of John’s great racers were: ‘Wellbank Endurance’, 1st, 2nd section E. 27th, 82nd open B.B.C. Palamos (1,044 miles): ‘Star’, 2nd section, 5th open Nantes: ‘Paris Cock’, 11th open Nantes, 30th open Paris (smash): ‘Faithful’, Gold Award winner: ‘The Mealy Pied Hen’, 21st open Nantes (643 miles on the day): ‘Patricia’, 9th open Beauvais.
John had a very smart 40ft loft with landing board and drop hole trapping and the old birds were raced on the natural system. John's 30 pairs of old birds were paired up the first week in March and were given about three 250-mile races in the local Dundee and District Club before being entered in the National events. The best racers were consistently paired to stock birds, so their mates were always there in the box on their return from the races. Old birds may have been asked to fly in two or three long distance races in one season. John fed a first-class mixture, based on beans and maize and said he was a very heavy feeder. Because of the extremely bad hawk problem around John’s Wellbank home, he bred a good team of about 50 or 60 young birds each season. He told me they were not raced heavily, but he liked them to have a few races to set them up for later life. His local Federation was very John had a very smart 40ft loft with landing board and drop hole trapping and the old birds were raced on the natural system. John's 30 pairs of old birds were paired up the first week in March and were given about three 250 - mile races in the local Dundee and District Club before being entered in the National events. The best racers were consistently paired to stock birds, so their mates were always there in the box on their return from the races. Old birds may have been asked to fly in two or three long distance races in one season. John fed a first-class mixture, based on beans and maize and said he was a very heavy feeder. Because of the extremely bad hawk problem around John’s Wellbank home, he bred a good team of about 50 or 60 young birds each season. He told me they were not raced slow getting the birds down to the distance, so John had to jump his youngsters 200 miles into the Young Bird National. They were fed on first class mixtures and got plenty of it. We had a great day out at John’s loft and handled some of the best long distance ‘doos’ in Scotland.
The late John Traill of Thornton
Another wonderful Scottish long distance legend I visited on the same tour of Scotland was the late, great John Traill of Thornton. When John Traill passed away in June 2001, the sport of long distance pigeon racing in Scotland lost one of its greatest champions. I met ‘jock’ in the mid 1990’s, when I visited his Fife loft while on a ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tour with Albert Taylor and we found him to be a real gentleman pigeon fancier. He loved long distance pigeon racing, with the highlights of his 55 years in the sport being twice 1st open Scottish National Flying Club.
John was born in Balmalcom in Fife and when he was five years old his family moved to Ladybank. As young lad he had a pair of pigeons which were housed in an orange box screwed to the wall, but became first interested in racing pigeons at the age of 19, when made regular visits to the loft of his friend, Wullie Henderson. John purchased his first birds, basket and clock from Sandy Stevenson, the local cobbler in Ladybank, who was leaving the sport and top flyers at that time were Norman Dall, Jack Andrews and his old friend Wullie Henderson. John Traill liked to play Bowls and loved to dance, taking lessons in ballroom dancing at one time. The first club he joined in 1951 was the Howe of Fife Club in Ladybank and raced to a small 10ft.x 6ft. loft built by his Uncle Sam. John raced what he called the ‘Heinz 57’ strain and won out of turn at the club races in the early days, but all the time he wanted to acquire birds that would compete and win at the long distance. John’s early mistake was trying to compete in every club race and wearing the pigeons out. He moved from Ladybank to Thornton in 1965. His old original family are J. J. Baird of Liverpool (Barker strain), obtained from Wullie Henderson of Cupar.
On my visit John told me, he could trace his National winning family back to some of those original pigeons he had in 1951. He always raced on the Natural system and kept 25 pairs of racers and 8 pairs of breeders. John paired everything up at the same time, the first weekend in March, and told me he liked to wean all his young birds at the same time, so they were all the same age. When he was asked about the widowhood system, a distasteful expression came on his face and he told me, he would never entertain it for long distance racing. John’s great old 24ft. ‘L’ shaped loft was in a wire compound, with a lawn out in front of it and he said it was built with the pigeons comfort in mind. It was well ventilated, with wire bays and drop hole trapping, and he didn’t use deep litter, but had a few wood shavings scattered around the floors. John was a scrapper man and maintained you shouldn’t be able to smell pigeons in a loft, with dryness being essential to keep the birds healthy. He made up his own mixture of wheat, maize, beans and maple peas, which was fed all the year round, but a few weeks before the main 500 and 600 mile events he took out the wheat and added more maize. He didn’t like to train his birds when they were feeding youngsters, but would train cocks from 20 miles, if the weather was very good and he thought training yearlings early in the season was very important. During the season he would train twice a week and liked his long distance National candidates to have a 7 to 8 hour fly in a club race about three weeks before the main events. John raced his yearlings down to Fareham (350 miles) on the south coast, his two year olds over the channel to Sartilly and his old birds had to go all the way to Nantes (620 miles) and Niort (690 miles) with the Scottish National Flying Club. His favourite nest condition for sending birds to the long distance events was sitting 10 to 12 day old eggs on the day of basketing and never sent feeding youngsters. He didn’t like jumping pigeons long distances and started them in a 60 mile club race and built them up to 600 miles. The birds were fed in pots, in the nest boxes and he told me they always had corn in front of them at all times. He liked to see the hens sitting 10 days, low in the nest bowl with that staring look, and said that was the sign of a hen being keen and in good condition.
John Traill had many premier positions in the S.N.F.C. through the years, with his best being: 1995: 20th. open S.N.F.C. Niort, 80th. open S.N.F.C. Rennes, 1996: 1st, 8th. open S.N.F.C. Niort (690 miles), 1997: 11th. open S.N.F.C. Rennes, 1st, 30th. open S.N.F.C. Nantes(620 miles) and he also won 2nd. open S.N.F.C. Nantes (620 miles) and 1st. open Fife Federation Dorchester (400 miles). He won numerous positions in the first thirty open in the Scottish National Flying Club. His National winners were: CH.’TRAILL’S SPARK’, dark chequer cock, winner of 1996: 1st. open S.N.F.C. Niort (690 miles, liberated at 06.00hrs and clocked 10.20hrs next day), 1995: 27th. open S.N.F.C. Niort, 1992: 1st. open Fife Federation Dorchester (400 miles). CH.’NANCY’, the frill blue chequer hen named after John’s wife, Nancy. She won in 1997: 1st. open S.N.F.C. Nantes (620 miles) and in 1996: 8th. open S.N.F.C. Niort (690 miles).
The main stock pair was a blue chequer hen bred down from the old Traill family and before being put to stock, she was a useful racer, winning many major prizes including 2nd open Federation. John told me she was the dam of the loft! Her mate was a handsome blue chequer pied, being produced from a gift egg from Keith Cochrane, and he was bred down from the Eddie Newcombe bloodlines. This wonderful stock pair bred the Niort National winner, CH.’TRAILL’S SPARK’. When John introduced new stock he preferred to bring in a good hen, bred close to good 600 mile winners and out of a consistent loft. He didn’t have many crosses over the years, but some successful ones were from Dennis Dall, Bobby Carruthers, Keith Cochrane and J. & J. Keir.
The loft normally had about 50 youngsters for racing each year and these were fed on a first class young bird mixture, with no maize. They were raced natural to the perch and if the weather was good, John would started to train them three weeks before the first Federation race, which was about a 60 mile fly. He started to train them at one mile to teach them to come out of the basket and worked them up in stages to 40 miles. All the babies were raced through the Federation programme, but if he fancied one or two, he had no problem about stopping them at the 100 miles stage. He told me he had tried the nest bowl in the corner trick, but had more success racing them to the perch on the natural system. The Traill young bird team were never put on the darkness system and liked them to have as much fresh air and sunshine as possible in their early life. John liked to race his youngsters well, as he maintained it was important for good experience and would keep them in good stead in later life.
John’s work was a driver on the railway and told me, he had great support from his wife, Nancy with his pigeons and his family as a whole was very interested in his hobby. He was president of the Thornton Club and Fife Federation for 23 years. A well respected fancier! John would like to see a good eye on a pigeon, but always relied on handling and feather quality, and would quickly discard any bird that didn’t come up to his requirements in the hand. When he judged handling shows, he soon turned the class over, being very quick to returning undesirables back in to their pen. John used to advice novices to go to the premier local fancier to obtain their starting stock, have plenty of patience and establish a winning family by testing them well in racing. John Traill established a line bred family with out going to close; he never paired brother x sister or father x daughter, preferring half brother x half sister or grand sire x grand daughter matings. His main aim was test any crosses to the full, before let it in to his loft. John would take the odd late bred off any special pairs for the stock section or for breeders for his friends. John always maintained the season started when the young bird races finished the season before! Nest boxes came out of one end of the loft and fitted out with perch for the hens to winter on. The cocks remained perched on the front of the closed nest boxes in the other two racing compartments and the young birds remained together for another month, and then separated for the winter. During the moult the birds were given a good quality mixture and a bit of linseed every two days. They got plenty of regular exercise and baths in the resting period.
Well that’s it for this week! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)