ON THE ROAD WITH KEITH MOTT
McGEE/TYERMAN BARCELONA CHALLENGE LOFTS
After several months talking about it, the last weekend in March saw me take up a long standing invitation to visit the McGee / Tyerman Barcelona Challenge Lofts, sited in the little farming village of Hernicourt, in Northern France. This area of France is a hot bed of pigeon racing, being near the town of St. Pol in the Nord Pas Calais Region, about a one hour drive south of Calais and many premier International positions have been won locally. The idea of the two day visit was for this article and to shoot a promotional DVD to show fanciers who have birds at the loft and have not been to France to see the set up, and new fanciers who are interested in sending birds out in the future. Peter Taylor and I met up with John and Linda Tyerman early on the Sunday morning at ‘Clackett’ services on the M25, with the view to catching the 10.20hrs train through the Eurotunnel, so as I could make a start on film shoot that afternoon. It all seemed great but we all forgot the clocks went forward the night before and we lost an hour, making it a really early start from home. We arrived at Hernicourt just after lunch time and must say it was nice to see John and Lou McGee looking so well and enjoying life in rural France.
John Tyerman tells me it costs £185 to enter a bird in the loft, but fanciers can send two youngsters for that money in case one is lost, but if they are both still there at the end of the season, the second bird can be activated. The young birds are not raced in their first year, but trained hard up to 60 miles and the yearlings are raced and tested through to Angouleme 350 miles. Over the years it has proved very difficult for the fanciers in the UK to compete successfully in the International events with the English Channel being a very formidable barrier for the tied pigeons returning to the UK. This is one of the reasons the lofts were established as the partners believe that it now gives all the UK competitors an equal chance with the rest of Europe to test their pigeons where annually some 24,000 pigeons from eleven different countries compete in the world famous Barcelona International race. The McGee / Tyerman Barcelona Challenge loft has whipped a lot of interest from fanciers all over Europe and go into the 2009 season with 196 yearlings. The loft has some very good sponsorship and the ETS timing system is sponsored by Bricon. Patrick De Muylder the technical adviser for Beyers pigeon feeds was at the McGee’s home when I stayed there and we had a good chat about his company, which has celebrated its 100th birthday recently. Beyers sponsor the Barcelona lofts for all their feeding and I must say the pigeons look brilliant on it!
The two Barcelona Challenge lofts are sited on top of a hill at the rear of the property and over look the rolling hills and wonderful French country side. John McGee tells me there is no real hawk problem out there and in the two years he has been living there he has not lost one pigeon to the predators. A perfect place to race pigeons! The loft location is 630 miles from Barcelona and was set up two years ago by John McGee and John Tyerman with sole intention of competing in International races. John McGee’s wife, Lou, is a major worker in the one loft project and as well as looking after their two children, Sophie Louise and Connor, general work around the loft, she dose all the training in the partner’s Geraldy trailer. The birds are raced on the round about system and there will be 80 two year pigeons set up for the Barcelona International in the 2009 season. These birds will get three races up to Angouleme, 350 miles, in preparation for the Barcelona race and will be repaired the day before marking, and given the open hole and straw for their nest bowls. John says cocks and hens will be sent to the Barcelona International and the following season, as three year olds they will be sent to Barcelona and Perpignan. When I spoke to John on my visit he was very excited at the prospect of sending 80 top pigeon to compete from Barcelona in the 2009 season!
John and Lou McGee were formally of Worthing in Sussex and were out standing fanciers at all distances, when they raced in England. John won 1st open NFC Pau, 1st open L&SECC Alencon, 1st open BICC, over 400 first in club racing and over 100 times 1st Federation. Brilliant pigeon racing! I think it is common knowledge that Lou writes in the BHW and is a very hard worker at the lofts in France. It’s not quite so well known that she is the mum to two lovely kids in the form of Connor, aged 12 and Sophie Louise, aged nearly 2. Both the kids really enjoy the pigeons and on my visit to the McGees home young Connor was hard ever seen, as he was up at the loft working! Sophie Louise was born in France and both the kids now speak very good French. Little Sophie Louise loves to get in the pigeon lofts and feeds John’s young birds by hand ever day with maple peas. Another fancier of the future!
John won the 1990 Pau Grand National with a Janssen blue hen on the widowhood system and in 1998 he won 1st open London & South East Classic Club from Alencon with another blue widowhood hen bred down from the same lines. The 1990 season was one of his best, winning 1st open Pau National, 33 times 1st club and several times 1st Federation. A brilliant season! John has recorded some outstanding performance in the N.F.C. in recent seasons including: 1st section A, 67th open Pau, 19th section A, 84th open Sennen Cove, 4th section A, 89th open San Sebastian, 2nd section A, 102nd open Guernsey, 7th section A, 102nd open San Sebastian and 8th section A, 216th open Guernsey. In the 1998 season members of the London & South East Classic Club sent a record, 2,905 birds to the first race of the season from Alencon, which is a good 200 miles fly to the home lofts from the race point in France. The weather at the home end was wonderful and early birds were clocked on the south coast just after noon. The winning pigeon, a Janssen blue hen, owned by John McGee, was clocked at 12.06hrs and trapped like a bullet, being raced on the Roundabout system. The day after the race I made the 60 miles drive down to the south coast to have a chat with John and see his latest champion. His Alencon hen was medium in size and apple bodied, and had previously won several firsts and 4th open Tours Yearling Derby in the L.& S.E.C.C.
John started up in the sport in 1975 and has enjoyed outstanding success every season, racing from all distances. The English McGee loft had won the Federation countless times through the years and John says he enjoys any race, from 60 through to 600 miles. He raced mainly cocks and hens on the roundabout system, with a few cocks on the widowhood, all of which were paired up in mid-February. The sexes were trained separately, but were often sent to the same race, with no real problem with trapping if the cocks and hens arrive home together. John had two smart racing lofts in Worthing and both were closed in for the roundabout system. The old birds loft had a pan tile roof, three sections, and the old birds were trapped in a corridor and through open doors. The young birds loft had sputnik traps and the inmates were raced on the light system. His wonderful team of youngsters were on the light 20 hours every day and followed John around the garden, like a flock of sheep, looking for their peanuts. John’s pigeons were 90% Janssen, with a few Jan Aarden and were bred down from Belgium Gold Wing champion bloodlines. He had the ‘Houdini’ bloodlines and says his best racers including his Pau National winner are from these lines. His 16 pairs of stock birds were housed in a nice big stock loft, with a wire flight. One of John’s stock birds, which I looked at on my visit to his Worthing lofts, was a handsome blue chequer cock, a retired champion racer which had won 20 times 1st on the road and he was half brother to the Pau National winner. His full brother was the sire of the 1998 London & South East Classic Club Alencon winner. A wonderful family of pigeons!
John has two personal lofts on the edge of his property in Hernicourt and still races his old English Janssen family in France today with outstanding success. John told me the Nord Pas De Calais Region of Northern France is a great place to race pigeons and is a hot bed with between 8,000 and 10,000 fanciers in that area. John had a bit of fun sprint racing with his yearlings in the 2008 season and won nine firsts. He raced 12 cocks on the roundabout system and his best pigeon, a Janssen blue cock related to his 1990 NFC Pau National winner, won five firsts.
John Tyerman and I have been good friends for many years and we have been through several pigeon campaigns together, including serving on the NFC and L&SECC committees and convoying pigeons together. We roomed together when we travelled for the National Flying Club committee meetings and in 2003 we convoyed the International birds to the waiting train in Belgium, when Brian Sheppard of Trowbridge won the race with his wonderful blue chequer cock, Champion ‘Legend’. When the members of the NFC sent their birds to their first International, no one really knew what an outstanding success it would be and that British racing history was in the making. That Dax International marked the start of a new era in British long distance pigeon racing and John and I were very proud to be a part of it. John was a founder member of the London & South East Classic Club and in the early days of the club, he was one of the main workers in making it a success, including convoying the Classic birds out to France on a lorry. In those days John and his wife, Linda, lived in Dorking and he was a member of the famous ‘Dorking Mafia’, a band of fancier in the Box Hill area, who supported and worked very hard for the Classic. John was a great committee worker for the L&SECC for many years until he moved to Bracklesham Bay and was the Classic’s President for three years. John likes middle and long distance racing and has been very successful in National and Classic race for many years. John and Linda still live in Bracklesham Bay and will be in residence at the Barcelona lofts in France for a month before the Barcelona International, to assist John with the preparation of the candidates for the big race.
That it for this week! I would like to finish by thanking the McGees and Tyermans for a very enjoyable couple of days, and wish them the very best of luck in the Barcelona International race later this season! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments on Telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!