L&SECC

TARBES CLASSIC - PART 2

by Keith Mott

What a brilliant Tarbes race we all enjoyed in June! We pride ourselves at the L&SECC that we have a wonderful workforce and our Saturday team have made the best of the adverse conditions in recent months, and produced some good racing for our members this season. Having said that, the Classic’s ‘main event’ from Tarbes in late June must be described as brilliant, with the winner making 1300 ypm and some members clocking two and three birds on the day of liberation. Congratulations to George and Carol Humphreys of New Addington who won the L&SECC Tarbes Classic with their champion Blue WF hen ‘Carol’s Delight’! Well done and thanks to all our marking station workers for their good work so far this season! The CSCFC birds were liberated with the L&SECC at Tarbes and looking at the result I see my ol’ mates Martin, Clare and son Jack Norman got a day pigeon and are well up in the open result. Well done them! L&SECC convoyer Rube Johnson liberated the Tarbes birds at 06.55hrs in a no wind situation, but the birds picked picked up some keen west / south west winds en route.

James Cross of Carshalton was 2nd open with a Staf Van Reet dark chequer cock, and he previously scored in the BICC race from Tours this year. He is a full brother to Jimmy’s yearling that was 30th Open with LSECC from Bergerac last year. Jimmy has a nice set up at his home in Carshalton and he is a previous winner in the L&SECC from Tours in the 2004 season. I visited his loft at that time and this is the account of his Tours win.

In the week building up to the Tours Classic the weather forecast hinted that there would be a holdover on the Saturday and, sure enough, it rained on the day so the classic convoyer held over the 1,959 birds. The Sunday dawned with perfect pigeon racing conditions and sunshine on the baskets, so the classic birds were liberated at 08.50hrs in a North West wind. The members enjoyed a good race with nearly all their entries home on the day of liberation. The winning pigeon, a Van Loon / Van den Bosche blue widowhood cock bred by Tony Gelbrath of Thornton Heath, was recorded at the loft of James Cross of Carshalton and was one of a pair of squeakers gifted to James by Tony. His nestmate was an outstanding inland racer. James had only recently moved into his Carshalton address and all his pigeons, including the Tours classic winner, were broken birds. Having all previously flown out and raced to his old house. The classic winner had the Le Ferte Bernard classic on his build up to Tours (280 miles), plus lots of training tosses from the south coast. James raced only nine cocks on the widowhood system and paired them up in January. They reared a pair of youngsters and were put onto widowhood when the hen lays her second round of eggs. James told me at the time that he is only really interested in channel racing and shows the hens to the racing cocks on marking night for these events, but not on training or inland races. The cock has his hen for two hours on his return from the race and the birds are broken down only on easy races. The main feeding is a good widowhood mixture. The racers are repaired for the longest old bird races and sent sitting eggs. The loft houses nine pairs of stock birds and they are paired up in January, with their first round of eggs being floated under the yearling racers. Most of the stock birds are from his good friend, Tony Gelbrath, and James says when he is looking at new stock birds, he likes a nice, strong back on a pigeon. He breeds 50 youngsters to race every season and never pushes them to win young bird races. Their training starts at Guildford Cathedral (15 miles) and they have about 14 tosses up to 40 miles before the first race. The babies are never put on the ‘Darkness’ system, being fed on a young bird mixture (no maize) and if their moult is okay they go to the Guernsey Young Bird Classic, being raced to the perch. The loft is 32ft. long, with three sections and trapping is in sputniks. The floor is made of wood, but James says he wants to change this to grilles, to increase the general ventilation, which he maintains is very important for the health of the inmates. Congratulation to James on his wonderful performance from the Tarbes Classic!

Alan and Pauline Mark of South Croydon clocked three birds on the day from Tarbes and were 3rd, 6th and 15th open. Their 3rd open bird from the Tarbes Classic was a five year old Louis Corman hen sent sitting over due 18 days. Alan tells me she has been a consistent hen having flown Bergerac and was bred by Tommy Sparkes of Gravesend. Alan Mark is up there at the top of the result sheet again after a bad health year in 2011 and it’s great to see him back in good form. Because of his health problems his 2011 racing season was nearly a complete right off, but good friend George Humphreys looked after his birds well while Alan was in hospital. Alan Mark is one of the sports gentleman and one of the best pigeon racers I’ve met in my time in the sport. Well done mate!

Alan has been in the sport most of his life and his racing achievements in that time is second to none! Probably one of the most famous pigeons to win the Pau Grand National was Alan Mark’s blue chequer hen Champion ‘Pauline’, which was finally sold to the Louella Stud in Leicester. This Alf Baker / Jim Reilly hen was clocked on the second day at 13.47hrs and won £2,000, which was a record amount of cash at that time. This great hen’s sister, also a blue chequer, was a very good Channel racer, winning many major prizes including 5th section, 48th open Palamos. Champion ‘Pauline’ won, in her brilliant racing career: 1972: 2nd club, 26th open London South Road Combine Bergerac (5,299 birds), 1973: 5th club Niort, 1st club, 5th Federation, 24th open London South Road Combine Bergerac (3,000 birds), 1974: 1st section, 1st open Pau Grand National (5,609 birds). A true champion!

The S.M.T. Combine amalgamated with the London & South Coast Combine for the longest old bird race of the 2002 season, from Bergerac (450 miles) and the race turned out to be a very hard event. The 3,070 birds were liberated at 08.25hrs in a north west wind and only three game birds were clocked on the day of liberation in the amalgamation. The overall and S.M.T. Combine winner was Alan Mark, who recorded the only bird on the day in the Combine, in the form of his two year old blue widowhood cock ‘Breakaway’, and I think I’m right in saying that this is the first time this had been achieved since ‘Culmer Lass’ was the only bird on the day of liberation in the S.M.T. Combine from Bergerac for Eric Cannon back in the early 1980s. ‘Breakaway’ was the only bird in the big convoy to record over 1000 y.p.m. He had 15 races in the 2002 season before winning the combine. He was paired up on Boxing Day and after rearing two young birds was put on the widowhood system. His sire is a direct son of Alan’s Bromley Open San Sebastian winner, when the Sanderstead loft sent two birds to this 560 mile event and got the two birds together to win 1st and 2nd open. A wonderful family of long distance racers!

The L&SECC ‘Brooker Gold Cup’

One of the main trophies in the L&SECC today is the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ competed for each season in the Tours Yearling Derby and is won by the first nominated yearling on the open result. When the old London Columbarian Society disbanded a few years ago their magnificent array of trophies were donated to other clubs in 1998 and the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ was donated to the L&SECC by the Society. This wonderful trophy is solid gold and is now insured for £5,000. I was chairman of the London Coly in the 1980s and my good friend, the late Dick Brooker of Claygate was president for a number of years at that time and there was always confusion that he had donate the ‘Gold Cup’. In fact it was a memorial trophy for the late Mr. W. J. Brooker presented to the London Coly by his wife in 1930. Betty and I won this wonderful cup in 1985 with our Dordin mealy cock ‘Gold Strike’ and I remember in those days it was competed for from Nantes. One of the record holders must be the late ‘Pop’ Burgess and son, Roy, of Kingston who won the trophy three times with the London Coly in the 1980s.

I recently had a phone call from Roy, who is still racing pigeons successfully and now lives in St. Leonards near Ringwood in Hampshire. Looking back to the old Kingston days Roy said, ‘my dad and I won the Combine and Federation many times, but one of our best performance was winning the London Coly ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ three times’.

My good friend Terry Haley of Watford won the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ from the Tours Classic in 2012 and what a good season he has enjoyed. His ‘Gold Cup’ winner was his yearling natural blue pied hen ‘Gold Strike’ and she recorded 4th section, 25th open, and was the only bird on the Tours Classic result flying over 300 miles. A great performance! This game hen flew most of the young bird programme in 2011 and recorded 20th section, 63rd open BBC Fougeres. The Haley loft in Hertfordshire races both South and North Road, and Terry tells me his yearlings have raced really well on the north this season, winning a list of positions including 1st Newark, 1st Weatherby and 1st Newark. His good mealy hen, ‘Miss Anticipation’, has won 2nd section BBC Carentan and ‘Kerry’s Gift’, bred by Terry’s friend, Kerry Mellonby of Bridlington, recorded 3rd section E NFC Cholet. A great 2012 season for Terry Haley!

Winners of the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ in recent years are: 1998: Tony & Dol Fletcher, 1999: Steve Appleby, 2000: Tony Haynes, 2001: Cyril Luxton, 2002: Mr. & Mrs. Joe Langbridge, 2003: Skeete & Keen, 2004: Skeete & Keen, 2005: J. Richards, 2006: Steve Appleby, 2007: Mr. & Mrs. R. Maybey & Son, 2008: A. & G. Young, 2009: Mr. & Mrs. R. Maybey & Son, 2010: Keith Gosling & Michael Jarvis, 2011: Ken Wise, 2012: Terry Haley. Member please note that the new L&SECC Internet Website is now live on www.lsecc.com

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