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M T U C K

 

MICK TUCK

of Witley

by Keith Mott

This is an article which I think is well over due. Mick Tuck has been a premier fancier in the Surrey area for many seasons and has had very little recognition. I have known Mick for some twenty plus years now, as he races in the Godalming Club and was a friend of my late friend, Eric Cannon of Wormley. Mick is very special pigeon racer and is definitely a man with a small racing team and big performances! He enjoyed a brilliant 2013 season with the climax being the longest old bird race from Bergerac (450 miles). The Bergerac birds were liberated at 05.40hrs into a strong head wind and Mick recorded the only four birds on the day of liberation in the very strong Godalming club, and won 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th South Coast Federation. This wonderful performance is typical of Mick Tuck’s performances from Bergerac year in and year out. He sends only about six birds and finishes up at the in the top few in the Federation and Combine. A brilliant fancier!

 

Mick tells me the Bergerac race was very hard, with only 16 birds recorded in the Federation on the day of liberation and his Federation winner was his beautiful blue chequer pied hen, ‘Tucky’s Favourite’. She is an Eric Cannon / Van Gill cross, being sent to Bergerac sitting ten day old eggs, and this two year old had a brilliant 2013 season, recording 1st club, 1st Federation Bergerac, 2nd club, 10th Federation, 10th Combine Saintes and 4th club, 16th Federation, 16th Combine Messac. Second bird on the clock from the longest old bird race to record 4th Federation was the Cannon / Jan Aarden blue chequer hen, ‘Tucky’s Treat’, and Mick calls her the bridesmaid as she was also beaten in 2012, when she won 2nd club, 12th Federation, 12th Combine Bergerac. The third bird to be clocked from Bergerac, ‘Tucky’s Return’, has some interesting history behind him! This five year old Eric Cannon blue chequer cock is a son of Mick’s champion racing hen ‘Tucky’s Delight’ and was lost from the NFC Fougeres race as a young bird, and returned one year later as Mick was basketing his young birds for the NFC St Malo race. Just unbelievable, but it’s true! He came back with most of the webbing gone from his flights and his perished rubber race rings intact. Mick kept him for a year and raced him unpaired to win several premier prizes in that season including 1st club Alencon (by 25 minutes) and 28th open NFC Cholet. ‘Tucky’s Return’ has never looked back and has won a long list of prizes including: 2013 - 3rd club, 5th Federation Bergerac, 2nd club, 12th Federation, 13th Combine Fougeres. 2012 - 4th club, 18th Federation, 18th Combine Bergerac. 2011 - 4th club, 26th Federation, 26th Combine Bergerac. Mick’s forth bird on the day from Bergerac, clocked at 20.30hrs, was the game little yearling blue chequer hen, ‘Tucky’s Secret’, and she has had a great 2013 season, winning 1st club, 8th Federation, 12th Combine Fougeres and 4th club, 8th Federation Bergerac. A brilliant loft of long distance pigeons!

 

When I asked him what sort of racing he liked he replied, ‘Definitely long distance. There's nothing worse than getting a phone call to say that the birds are up and predicting that they will be in the loft within 15 minutes, that’s rubbish. I like just a few birds on the day, that's my sort of racing.’

 

One of his best early performances was in 1990 when he had two nestmates, both cocks, which were bred from a cock purchased from local fancier Bill Gelder. The cock was a Massarella gay pied cock which he had paired to a very good Cannon hen which he purchased off Eric Cannon. One of the cocks was sent to Mick's first ever Pau race and they were liberated at 06.15hrs on the Friday into a light south-west wind and Mick sat in the garden until the bats came out. His mum came out to the garden and told him that it was nearly 10pm and the tired Mick walked to the loft slowly, to remove the clock from the nest box. As he slid the loft door open he heard a flutter, flutter, bonk! He stepped back and looked up at the loft roof, but couldn't see anything, so went to the back of the loft and moving in the long grass with its wing outspread was his good old blue chequer cock, GB85X75657, one of the nest pair. Mick picked him up, gave him a drink and some trapping mixture and then clocked him in at 9.58pm. There were only four birds on the day and Mick was 4th in one of the strongest clubs in the south of England. Two weeks later he had the Bergerac race so he sent the brother, but the only problem for Mick was that he was going on holiday on the Saturday and the pigeons were being liberated at 05.35hrs in a light north east wind on the Friday. Mick says it was a very hot day, but sure enough he clocked his blue chequer pied cock, GB85X75658 at 8.29pm, to record 1st club Bergerac (450 miles) with only five birds recorded in the club on the day. Mick was the highest trophy and card winner, lifting 18 trophies in the mighty Godalming Club in the 2002 season. He had a very good Eric Cannon hen named ‘Tucky’s Delight’, bred in 1999 and in the 2003 season she recorded 1st club, 2nd Surrey Federation, 6th Open SMT Combine Alencon. Mick took it easy with her for the rest of the season and sent her to Bergerac on 12-day-old eggs and she won 1st club, 5th Surrey Federation, 19th Open SMT Combine. This wonderful pigeon went on and won many other premier prizes. A real class hen!

 

Mick is totally natural with only Channel races in mind. He has only 15 nest boxes in the racing section but never keeps 15 pairs as he likes the inmates to have plenty of room. He only breeds 20 youngsters, as he thinks if you keep a small team, you can concentrate on them more and get them ready for races easier. He feeds a ready-mixed corn from a local corn chandler, called Cranleigh No.1 and says it is first class corn and just adds a few tic beans for the long distance races. The birds are paired up on Valentine's Day or the nearest Saturday to it. Trapping the birds on race day is through ant bolts but this is never easy, as where the Tuck family live is infested with cats and the pigeons are always spooked. Mick starts training the old birds two weeks before the first Federation race, with two tosses every day, morning and evening. He and his work partner, Russell Barker, also a Godalming pigeon fancier, train together and go 28 miles and toss at a place called Cheese Foot Head (you must be joking!), near Winchester in Hampshire. Mick likes early morning training tosses for his Cannel candidates off the beach in Hayling Island. When they arrive at the training liberation site, they let the birds stand for ten minutes then liberate in one big group. Mick says that Russell lives in Aldershot, 12 miles away from Witley and training together gives the birds practice at breaking. The birds get Sundays off and are given a bath. He says being a natural flyer, he is stronger with hens than the cocks and the birds fly the federation programme, with selected national and classic races for some birds. His ideal condition for a hen going to the long distance is sitting between 10 and 14 day old eggs, sitting quiet more often than two eggs. Mick maintains that he likes to have as much air flow in the loft as he can and says the loft should not be damp or overcrowded.

 

In the 2006 season the S.M.T. Combine sent 1,012 birds to Bergerac in south west France for its longest old bird race. With very high temperatures and a stiff north east wind, the pigeons encountered one of the hardest Bergerac (450 miles) races ever, and certainly the hardest event of the 2006 season. Only five game pigeons were clocked on the day of liberation, with only two making over 900ypm and both these were at the Godalming club in the Surrey Federation. Mick Tuck clocked two on the day of liberation and had five in the Combine result. Brilliant pigeon racing! The Tuck loft had very little racing in the 2006 season, but chalked up: 2nd, 5th, 18th, 19th, 21st open SMT Combine Bergerac (438 miles), 117th, 430th, 470th open N.F.C. Bordeaux Grand National and won the first three young bird races in the very strong Godalming club. Mick’s 2nd open Combine Bergerac winner was a natural yearling blue chequer hen and she was sent to Bergerac paired to another yearling hen and sitting four eggs. He named her ‘Tucky’s Supreme’ and she was bred from the very best of Eric Cannon’s long distance blood lines and her dam is the champion racing hen “Tucky’s Delight”, winner of 4th club, 6th Surrey Federation, 7th S.M.T. Combine Bergerac, 1st club, 2nd Surrey Federation, 6th S.M.T. Combine Alencon, 1st club, 5th Surrey Federation, 19th S.M.T. Combine Bergerac, 51st open L.& S.E.C.C. San Sebastian, 17th section A, 102nd open N.F.C. Tarbes (550 miles on the day of liberation.) A brilliant hen!

 

Mick was born in Chiddingfold and is a joiner by trade. He says he makes anything out of wood and has made quite a few pigeon lofts. His son, Ryan, takes a keen interest in the pigeons and has a few birds of his own in the loft, normally the most colourful ones. Mick told me, unfortunately his wife and daughters hate pigeons and think they take too much of his time, which could be given to them, but his wife will water and feed the birds if he is working late. Mick first became interested in pigeons at the age of 17 and at that time his hobby was exotic pheasants, as he wanted to be a game keeper. In his home village of Chiddingfold there was a very good pigeon fancier named Dick Keen, and he introduced Mick to pigeons and gave him his first pair of racers. One day the door of the shed got left open, with the birds flying and to Mick's surprise, they returned and so started him on the road to pigeon racing. His first stock birds, baskets and clocks were obtained from an old fancier from Milford called Bill Gelder, and he and his sons, George, Sam and Danny, got him really started. Mick recalled that his first winner was from Weymouth and says he still gets the same buzz out of winning that he had when he started up all those years ago.

 

The two main fanciers who first drew his attention to pigeons were the two late Godalming fanciers, Eric Cannon and Arthur Bridgewater. Mick told me that in those days Arthur was on the widowhood system and was the main man winning everything inland. Mick smiled when he told me that Arthur was quite an elderly fancier, but there's nothing he didn't know about pigeons, but if you picked his brains, he never told you all his secrets, you had to fill in the gaps yourself. Mick says the late Eric Cannon was a magnificent pigeon fancier, probably one of the best National flyers. Mick's loft was formed with pigeons obtained from these two great Godalming fanciers and he has crossed them with outstanding success. In recent years, Mick has brought in pigeons from Vince Durrant, and other Combine winning Godalming fanciers and these have blended in well with the Cannon and Bridgewater bloodlines. The first club he joined was the 30-member strong, Godalming and District FC and he still flies in it today. The club is south road and is a member club of the South Coast Federation. The Tuck loft is the same design as the one he started with 30 odd years ago, but has made a few modifications through the years. The structure is 16ft long with two sections, one for old birds with 15 nest boxes and the other with 20 box perches for the young birds. He has no stock birds or prisoners, mainly because he hasn't got the room in the loft and any bought or gifted pigeons are broken into the loft as quickly as possible. He maintains that his friend, the late, great, Eric Cannon, was the best fancier in the Surrey area and his National achievements were second to none. When it came to racing in the Pau National, he really knew his stuff.

 

The Tuck loft has won 1st Federation ten times plus and three times 1st Open SMT Combine from Bergerac, La Ferte Bernard and Wadebridge with young birds. Some of Mick’s best pigeons over the years have been: “Tucky’s Pride”, a fantastic 550 mile racing cock, being clocked from Pau and Tarbes many times: “Pau Star”, a pure Eric Cannon blue chequer hen, bred by Mick Tuck and she recorded 2nd section A, 9th open N.F.C. Pau, 550 miles on the day. This hen is a champion breeder, producing many premier Pau racers and is the dam of ‘The Blue Cannon Cock’, winner of 1st open S.M.T. Combine Wadebridge (3.987 birds): “Tucky’s Delight”, 4th club, 6th Surrey Federation, 7th S.M.T. Combine Bergerac, 1st club, 2nd Surrey Federation, 6th S.M.T. Combine Alencon, 1st club, 5th Surrey Federation, 19th. S.M.T. Combine Bergerac, 51st open L.& S.E.C.C. San Sebastian, 17th section A, 102nd open N.F.C. Tarbes (550 miles on the day of liberation.) A brilliant hen!: “Tucky’s Choice”, 2004: 45th open N.F.C. Pau (on the day), 2005: 41st open N.F.C. Tarbes (on the day). This wonderful blue chequer hen was up for the N.F.C. Merit Award at that time: “Tucky’s Girl”. This game Grizzle hen won 96th open N.F.C. Saintes, 27th open L.& S.E.C.C. Dax and flew Pau (550 miles): “The Blue Cannon Hen”, 2004: 1st club, 5th Surrey Federation, 13th S.M.T. Combine Poitiers (very hard race): “The Blue Cannon Cock”, 1st club, 1st Surrey Federation, 1st S.M.T. Combine Wadebridge (3,987 birds).

 

Mick’s 20 young birds start training when they are running for two or three hours. Their first training toss is always early on a Sunday morning from The Windmill at Butsa Hill and if they are any good they will get home normally, just before Mick. He doesn't pair youngsters up, but says you always get some that do, so he has a couple of nest boxes in the young bird section and has always done well with the ones that do pair up. He only breeds one round of babies, all the same age and they fly the full race programme. As regards the dark system, he can't see that there is any advantage to be gained by it. The system might moult them through quicker, but does it actually do them any good? I don't think so, says Mick. His youngsters get the same food as the old birds, but he uses peanuts a lot, mainly to encourage them in the trap.

 

Mick likes showing his pigeons and runs the winter shows at the Godalming Club. His view on eyesign is that there must be something in the theory. The more he reads about it, the more he understands, but he honestly believes that it is only a small part of the bigger picture. He maintains that there are other things to consider in the make-up of a good pigeons, like the balance in the hand, good feather and wing. He doesn't believe at all in inbreeding, but says most of his best birds are the tamest, but he doesn't really know why. With the moult in mind, he pairs up in late February to try and hold the flights for the longer races. As regarding special feeding for the moult, they get no different corn from normal, but are kept quiet and well rested during the heavy moult period.

 

I hope my readers have enjoyed this insight in to Mick Tuck's pigeon management. He's a very special fancier!

 

Well that another article done and dusted! It’s given me great pleasure doing this week’s ‘ON THE ROAD’ as Mick Tuck is a good lad and is a great worker at the Godalming club. The club has a brilliant team of workers, as all great clubs have and Mick is always in the thick of the action. A great lad! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or my new email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)

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