“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT

CH. ‘NANCY’ 

Mark Hylands of Port Talbot

Mark Hylands is one of the premier showmen in this country, having won consistently at the highest level in the Show Racer world. The lad from South Wales first started up with racing pigeon at the age of nine and tells me there were no pigeon fanciers in his family. The young Mark had his first Show Racers from the late Will Morley of Port Talbot at the age of 13 and these were housed in a 10ft.x 6ft. loft. At that time, although he had some show birds, he was still hooked on the racing pigeons. Like all true Welsh men, when Mark was younger he played Rugby for his local club, Aberavon Green Star R.F.C. His first really successful show birds were obtained from David Shuttleworth of Bridgend. David was a great all round fancier and had the best Reds and Mealies at that time. When Mark worked in Essex he visited the great Bill Meader at every spare moment he had, to learn the showing ‘trade’ from one of the all-time greats. Mark says, Bill Meader was the ‘master’ and he learnt a lot from him. One of the best birds he ever owned was a mealy pied hen gift from ‘wee’ Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Glasgow and she was the mother of his loft at that time. Mark says what a pigeon! He maintains ‘wee’ Jimmy is the best all round pigeon man on the show scene today and there is nothing he hasn’t won. Mark’s first society was the very strong Monmouth S.R.S., which at that time had a membership like a ‘who’s who’ of some of the best Show Racer fanciers in the sport. He won his first Best in Show in the Monmouth and it was like winning an open show. After some time off from the sport, Mark restarted with show birds in 1989, with birds obtained from David Shuttleworth, ‘wee’ Jimmy Fitzpatrick and a very good friend, Donald Brown of Campbell town in Scotland. He combined the birds from these great fanciers together and they ‘clicked’. All his very successful dark chequers are bred down from his champion hen, ‘Nancy’, which was bred by Mark’s good friend, Russell Davison of Edinburgh. Even to the untrained eye you can tell this hen is very special, as her record tells you: Best in Show ‘Old Comrades’ Show 2004, twice Best in Show Edinburgh Show, twice Best in Show N.E.H.U. Peterlee Show and to finish it off, twice Reserve Supreme Champion B.H.W. Blackpool Show. What a pigeon!

CH. ‘THE IRISH BLUE COCK’ Donald Spedding of Cleator Moor

Donald Spedding is one of the legends of the Show Racer world in the UK and one of the nice guys of the British show fraternity. Don was born in Cleator, Cumbria and his father and uncle raced pigeons for many years. He first became interested in the Show Racers during his National Service days in Oswestry and used to visit an old fancier named Mr. Simpson, and he had some lovely birds. After he finished his Army Service, he watched the Classic Show results and saw that at that time Bill Meader of London was the top man, so wrote  to him for a pair of birds. Bill, ever willing to help, sent him a blue chequer cock and a blue white flight hen. The hen won for Don and he was ecstatic! He had many birds over the years from Bill Meader and visited his loft in Leytonstone many times. Don told me, Bill was a brilliant show man, who taught him a lot about showing and breeding winners, and remains a great friend to this day. He was lucky to live near Keswick, where the great H. E. Dalzell lived and obtained quite a few birds off this wonderful fancier’s, winning blue chequer family. Harold Dalzell had won Best in Show at the G.Y.A. twice, at what Donald says, was the height of the showing era in this country. Donald told me he had many great years showing his birds, but one of his biggest thrills was the year he bred his champion mealy hen, ‘Lady Di’. She won seven Classic shows in succession as a young bird, then went on to be Best in Show (1,300 birds) at the G.Y.A. as a yearling. At the G.Y.A. she beat Bill Meader’s, Champion ‘Princess Asti’, winner of 30 firsts and many times Best in Show. Don says his greatest thrill was showing in the 1970’s and 80’s when showing pigeons was at its height in this country. He won Best in Show at the mighty G.Y.A. Show seven times! The two great fanciers, Harold Dalzell and George Greenshield, had both won it twice, so it was a wonderful thrill to win it seven times.

Don told me, that he only had a small loft, so could only keep a small team and kept a family of blue chequers, which he enhanced by introducing a cock from Harry Spratt of Belfast. Don also obtained a young blue cock he fancied from Harry Spratt and he went on to become the famous breeding cock, ‘Irish Blue Cock’, and he is the sire of Alan Speddings loft today. He says, his cousin, Alan and his wife, are now showing the Spedding pigeons with outstanding success, having won Best in Show at the ‘Old Comrades’ Show twice. The two ‘Old Comrades’ champions were both typical Spedding blue chequers in the form of, ‘Mr. T’ and ‘The Old Comrades Hen’, and both were bred down from the ‘Irish Blue Cock’, with him being the sire of ‘Mr. T’. This wonderful blue cock was very successful in the show pen himself and won many firsts and BIS, including BIS at the G.Y.A. Show (1,300 birds). Don still goes down to Alan’s loft regularly to see the birds and enjoys his limited time with them. I visited Alan Spedding loft in Cumbria a few years ago and handled ‘The Irish Cock’, and Alan told me he was the backbone of his loft, being a champion breeder. This cock was bred by Harry Sprat in Ireland and gifted to Donald Spedding in 1987, as a squeaker. As well being a ‘gold mine’ at stock, he was a champion in the show pen.

CH. ‘ALICE’S CELTIC LASS’ John & Alice Bell of Catrine in Ayrshire

John Bell finished with racing pigeons and concentrated solely on Show Racers in the 2006 season and won the Hurlford open show, recording his first Best in Show with a Dark Chequer cock bred from his ‘Old Silver Hen’. The following January this wonderful looking cock went to the BHW ‘Show of the Year’ at Blackpool and won ‘Supreme Champion’. Alice told me, this was the best day of their Show Racer life, to win the Supreme prize on their first attempt. It was a dream comes true! John and his wife, Alice, have now won ‘Supreme Champion’ BHW Blackpool Show three time, including 2014, and three times reserve ‘Supreme Champion’. John tells me the 2014 / 15 show season has seen him win about 23 trophies in his club, the East of Scotland SR Society, which is a very strong and sporting organisation.

John told me his best show racer is his seven year old dark chequer hen, ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ and she has won many premier positions including: the Hurlford Open Show,  the Kingdom of Fife Open Show and the North Eastern Open Show, with over 450 birds entered. The beautiful hen has been a class winner at many open shows, even in 2014 at the age of seven, but she has been a champion in the stock section, breeding champions with different cocks each year. In the 2009 season she bread a nest pair of chequer cocks, one of them won Best in Show at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2011 and he also went on to be reserve ‘Supreme Champion’  at the same show, being beaten by his brother. The chequer cock’s nest brother won Best in Show at the North Eastern Open Show in 2010 and then won most consistent bird Scottish East Region Show Racers Society 2010 and the went to Blackpool, winning ‘Supreme Champion’ in 2011 and beating his nest mate. John said, ‘I don't think this has ever been done at Blackpool by a nest pair before. ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ also bread a chequer hen in 2011 and she won the Kingdom Open Show, and then went into the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at BHW Blackpool Show. The next year this hen went to Blackpool and won the Inter Society Yearly Hen Class and then went on to win reserve Best in Show. This great hen then went on to other top cards at the Blackpool Show. She bred a chequer cock in 2012 that won ‘Supreme Champion’ at the East Region Show Racer Society Show in 2013. He went on to win five firsts in the Society and was the most consistent bird award, and represented Scottish East Region in British SR Federation class at Blackpool in 2015. The champion chequer hen, ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’, also bread a chequer cock in 2013 which won Best in Show at the North Eastern Open Show, then went into ‘Supreme Champion’ this year. As you can see she has bred champions each year with different cocks each time. Her father was a 2002 bird, with her mother being bred in 1997, so as you can see old birds can still breed champions Show Racers. ‘Alice’s Celtic Lass’ father was five years old and her mother was ten years old when I bred her and I hope she lasts as long as her mother did and still breeds champions’.

The Brain Tumour Charity

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a preview to this year’s RPRA Southern Region Show and in it I mentioned the donation the show made to the Brain Tumour Charity in 2015. As a direct result of the article Mr. A. Holtby of York phoned me to tell me his dear friend had had the problem and donated a further £200 to the charity. A wonderful gesture, thanks to Mr. Holtby! The RPRA Southern Region show and pigeon auction have donated thousands of pounds to charity over the last 35 years and one of the charities last year was the Brain Tumour Charity, which is based at Farnborough in Hampshire. Show worker, ‘Jock’ Price and his wife, Liz, lost their dear daughter a few short years ago to a brain tumour and they were happy with the decision to donate to the charity from the 2015 show. ‘Jock’ and Liz were presenting the £500 cheque at the Brain Tumour Charity head office in Farnborough and he asked if I would like to come along and take some pictures for the fancy press. Goes without saying, I was more than happy to attend and enjoyed meeting Liz and the Charity staff.

This week’s article is the first part of a four part Show Racer special, featuring some of the best UK champions of recent years. 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)