MARK BULLED

of Harlow

L&SECC Fancier of the Year 2012

by Keith Mott

The L&SECC Average winners in the 2012 season were: ‘Fancier of the Year Trophy’ - Combined Average (Alencon, Tours, Tarbes, Bergerac, Vire 1 and Vire 2) - Mark Bulled of Harlow Vel 1086; ‘Old Bird Average Trophy’ (Alencon, Tours, Tarbes and Bergerac) - Mr & Mrs Humphreys of New Addington Vel 1139; Old Bird Same Bird Average Trophy’ (Tours and Tarbes) - Mr & Mrs Humphreys of New Addington Vel 1208; ‘Wally Dann Memorial Trophy’ - Young Bird Average (Vire 1 and Vire 2) - K. Wise of Isleworth Vel 1375; ‘Young Bird Same Bird Average Trophy’ (Vire 1 and Vire 2)- K. Wise of Isleworth Vel 1306; ‘Iris Mott Memorial Trophy’ - Old Bird 2 Longest Races Average (Tarbes and Bergerac) - Mr & Mrs Humphreys of New Addington Vel 1206.

Mark Bulled of Harlow won the L&SECC ‘Fancier of the Year Trophy’ and what a fantastic 2012 season he enjoyed winning many premier positions including 1st NFC Tarbes Grand National and 1st BBC Fougeres! He has one of the best lofts in the South of England over many years and is the winner of 1st Combine on the South and North roads. Mark is also a winner of 1st L&SECC Tarbes in 2009! When I saw Mark Bulled’s name at the top of the provisional result on the Sunday evening of the Tarbes race I was highly delighted, in fact it made my weekend! Mark is a very nice lad who has been setting them alight with his pigeons in recent seasons and of course he is the son of one of our greatest London NR Combine champions, the late, great Cecil Bulled. If his dad was here now he would be very proud of Mark’s fantastic performance, winning 1st and 8th open L&SECC Tarbes (588 miles) and lifting nearly £1,000 on what turned out to be one of the hardest races in recent years in 2009 and now 1st open NFC Tarbes Grand National in the 2012 season.

The London & South East Classic Club held its long old bird classic at the back end of June 2009, when members sent 570 birds to Tarbes in the south of France and after a one day hold over the convoy was liberated at 06.00hrs in a west / north west wind. There were no pigeons recorded on the day of liberation and the race turned out to be very hard, so hard in fact some members never clocked in and have never seen a feather home since. A very testing 550 mile classic! With no birds on the day, Mark clocked his winning four year old blue chequer hen at 05.16hrs on the Sunday morning and on our reckoning she had to be well over the English Channel and probably in the London area on the Saturday night to be recorded at that time on the second day. This champion hen, named ‘Sergeant Cecil’, was sent to Tarbes feeding a three day old baby and was bred from the very best of the Cecil Bulled London NR Combine winning family, being a grand daughter of ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Day Return’, two London NR Combine Thurso ‘Hall of Fame’ pigeons. Mark tells me her pedigree can be traced right back to the legendary Champion ‘Owl’, winner of 1st open London NR Combine Thurso (only bird on the day in the combine). A wonderful family of pigeons! ‘Sergeant Cecil’ was always raced on the natural system and had always been something special in classic races, previously winning: 19th open L&SECC Bergerac, 48th open L&SECC Tours, 52nd open L&SECC Tarbes and then 1st open L&SECC Tarbes 2009. Mark sent a team of eight birds to that Tarbes classic and his second bird on the clock to record 8th open was his little sparrow sized blue hen, ‘Little Miss Tarbes’.

Mark races 32 cocks on the basic widowhood system and likes these birds to race the programme. On his system the birds are paired up in January, after the BHW Blackpool Show, they rear a pair of youngsters, being parted from the hens before they lay their second round of eggs and then are given six training tosses. Normally these six tosses are all they get, but Mark has been known to give them the odd trainer during the season if they are not flying around home too well. He breaks the racers down from Saturday to Tuesday every week through the season, always shows the hen on marking night, and on the return from the race the cocks get their mates for about an hour. He races a few hens in the long distance events and these are paired up according to their chosen races. Mark tells me he has won 1st open London NR Combine Lerwick (583 miles) with a widowhood cock and 1st open L&SECC Tarbes with a natural hen feeding a small baby. Both these champions were off the same bloodlines! Mark's basic feeding is widowhood mixture, Gerry Plus and depurative, but mid way through the season extra maize and peanuts are added to the diet with the long distance races in mind. He has two basic Blakes lofts and says they have no tiled roofs, no corridors, no heat settings, nothing fancy, just a dry contented set up. His 18ft loft is for the youngsters and long distance racers, and the 30ft four section ‘L’-shaped loft houses the widowhood racers. His stock birds are housed in a small shed. Mark commented to me, ‘I see all these great palacial lofts, but doubt if I would change mine even if I could afford it. I think the most important thing is that the pigeons are content and some of these sheds look fantastic, but when inside the atmosphere feels all wrong to me’. He uses deep litter but only in the young bird section and maintains it is good for the immune system.

Mark has been in pigeon racing all his life, coming from a brilliant family of pigeon fanciers, with his father being the late, great Cecil Bulled and his grandfather being Sid Marsh of Croydon. He tells me his dad started up in pigeons on meeting his mother, Barbara. Pigeons were always a part of Mark’s life when he was a lad, cleaning out the loft and training the birds with his dad, but he started to get really keen at the age of about 14. He was very close to Cecil and the pigeons gave them a lot of time together. Mark has always been a keen sportsman, playing semi-professional football for Harlow Town and other local non league clubs. He has only fully retired from football this year, but still enjoys a game of cricket. His dad’s hero was Bill Bailey, who was a real character and a truly great pigeon fancier. Bill won the London NR Combine twice and bred Cecil’s first LNRC winner, ‘The Owl’, winner of only bird on the day of liberation with 5,500 birds competing, the same bloodlines as ‘Sergeant Cecil’ some 35 years later! When he started racing the man to beat was the LNRC champion Vic Shaw and he says Vic is still the man to beat today, and their close rivalry has really spurred them both on to great success in the LNRC races. Mark started racing at his own address in 1996, at the age of 25, and the majority of his pigeons were from his dad. He has had winning pigeons from several good friends, including Robbie Wilton, Vic Shaw himself and a great red sprint pigeon from John Taylor. These red pigeons are still Mark’s best sprinters today. He told me he was lucky that his dad knew many premier flyers and as a boy they shared their ‘pearls of wisdom’ with him, which he still remembers today. Mark has been racing on his own for 13 years, turning South Road three years ago, and enjoys racing from the sprints through to the long distance.

Racing on the North Road he has won the Federation over 25 times in ten years racing mainly sprints and has won ‘London North Flyer of the Year’ three times, plus twice RPRA London Region best North Road loft. He also lifted ‘Tommy Long’ and ‘Victory’ Trophies, won 1st open London NR Combine twice and many, many premier prizes when in partnership with his dad. Mark’s best pigeons are probably his LNRC ‘Hall of Fame’ winners ‘Die Hard’ winner of 3rd, 3rd and 45th open LNRC Thurso and ‘The Combine Cock’ winner of 10th, 19th, 26th, 32nd and 84th open LNRC. Another great pigeon at the Bulled loft is the ace sprinter, ‘The Red’, winner of three times 1st Federation and a hatful of other major positions. Mark won the first race he competed in on his own, also he won the Federation Young Bird Average in his first season and was then ‘North London Flyer of the Year’ with his first team of yearlings. Mark says the best feeling in pigeon racing is to clock in late at night from 550 miles and thinks his real love in the sport is the long distance events. His best pigeon moments were just sitting with hid dad waiting for the Combine pigeons!

When I asked Mark about any mistakes he has made through the many years he has been associated with the sport he said, ‘I make the same mistake every year, taking my youngsters on stupid disaster training tosses. The birds I get home usually stay with me’. He normally starts the season with about 60 young birds which are raced on the natural system and he doesn’t do much good with them. With his wife, Hana, recently home on Maternity leave, he had his first try at the dark system, which he says was a bit half hearted because of his lack of real interest. He has his concerns about the system and if it affects his old birds next year, he will scrap the idea for good. Young bird performances are of little concern to him, but he likes them to race the programme and is more interested in their form from the yearling stage and onward. He lets the youngster pair up if they want to for classic races, to produce a prize or two.

The main bloodlines housed at the Bulled loft are his dad’s long distance family, Busschaerts his dad purchased in 1980 and Soontjens that Mark purchased from Frank Sheader in 1992. Mark told me, ‘When my dad died I kept too many of his pigeons, these being mainly the old favourites and I have now got 15 pairs of stock birds, which I would like to reduce down to 8 pairs. I have recently brought in some stock from Darran McFadden’s 2008 L&SECC Tarbes winner, ‘Razor’s Girl’, and he has been enormously helpful with feeding techniques on my transition from North to South Road racing’. Mark pairs his stock birds up the same time as the racers and has a preference for small to medium sized pigeons, with anything too big rarely making the yearling team. He likes a good eyed pigeon and uses the theory in his breeding programme, and maintains all the best fanciers he has visited have good eyesign in their stock lofts. The Bulled family has been line bred and inbred for 40 years and crossed occasionally with good performance pigeons. Mark breeds the occasional latebred from premier performers for stock purposes.

Mark's profession is a Civil Servant and he says his wife Hana puts up with his mad obsession and helps out with the management of the pigeons with his detailed instructions! His mother, Barbara, looks after the stock birds and is a good fancier in her own right, noticing things that many fancier wouldn’t. Mark and Hana’s ten month old daughter, Abbie, is following in her dad’s foot, loving her time crawling about in the loft and could be a forth generation Bulled pigeon fancier. Mark is the Secretary of the local pigeon club and says the use of the computer on National and Classic races has been a great step forward, finding out your race position quickly rather than having to wait three weeks for the result to be published! He says there are many top flyers in the LNRC and now he has gone South Road he can appreciate just how good the top National racers are. He can’t help but to admire flyers of the great quality of Mark Gilbert of Windsor, who have many premier positions in the National results and in Essex, pound for pound, he doesn’t think there are many better fanciers than Robbie Wilton, who wins North and South from 100 miles through to 600 miles.

Well that’s it for another week, next time we are going to have look at the L&SECC 2012 Tarbes Merit Award winners! This weekend sees the climax of the showing season with the staging of the BHW ‘Show of the Year’ at Blackpool. Have a great time!

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