Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past & present

The Champions of Yesteryear (Part 56)

JOHNSON & WILSON

OF HULL

While in Yorkshire we had the great pleasure of visiting the lofts of Paul Johnson and Harry Wilson of Hull. Harry Wilson's father had a pub and in 1977 he started up in the sport when he got involved with a local pigeon club that used the pub to mark their birds for races. Harry formed his partnership with Paul Johnson in 1984 and have set the local clubs alight, racing at all distances.

Johnson & Wilson had won countless prizes in the Federation including many times 1st Open. Harry said he thought their best performance was when they recorded 2nd & 3rd Open from 500 miles with only five birds home on the day of liberation. The pigeon that won 2nd Open from 500 miles was a handsome Herman / Cattrysse blue chequer cock raced on Widowhood and the week previous to being 2nd Open, he won 1st Open Hull S.R. Federation.

The partners raced 40 cocks on the Widowhood system and these were paired up on February 1st., with the hens being taken away after the first pair were weaned, the cocks were not generally trained, but might have been given one 15 mile toss before the first race. The cocks flew out around the loft for one hour, twice a day and were only broken down in the early part of the season. The corn was beefed up for the longer races and for seven days before a distance event they were given as much to eat as they wanted. Another outstanding widowhood cock in the Hull loft was a Cattrysse blue chequer and he had won lst Open Federation from 318 miles and 2nd Open Federation from 200 miles.

The main family kept was Cattrysse and only 15 pairs of stock birds were retained. When obtaining new stock Harry said he liked them to have all round quality in the hand, but must be out of good winning lines. The partners best racer was a blue Cattrysse widowhood cock and he won the Yorkshire Middle Route Federation Channel Average on his own in 1996. This fantastic pigeon had won many premier Channel prizes in the Federation and lifted the Humberside Trophy.

The partners 70 young birds were housed in a smart loft, with a pan tiled roof and sputnik traps. The youngsters were raced to the perch, but Paul said they were going on the ‘Darkness’ system for the 1998 season. They were trained well and most of the team raced through to 210 miles, with a few young cocks being saved for the widowhood system. The babies were fed very heavy, but were cut down just before racing to bring them into line.

Well that’s the article for any other week! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.