TRIBUTE TO RON WASEY OF NEW ADDINGTON.

I was very saddened and up set to hear of the recent passing of my dear friend, Ronnie Wasey. He was a true gentleman and had been a close family friend of ours since the 1970’s. Ron Wasey was without a doubt one of the best pigeon fanciers I’ve met, winning many premier positions in combine, classic and national over many years. He had only sent to Pau four times in his pigeon career, the first time winning 1^st open NFC Pau, the second time winning 4^th open NFC Pau, the third time he didn’t clock in and the fourth time in the 2002 season, when he chalked up 1^st open London & South East Classic Club from Pau. Brilliant pigeon racing!

Ron was a retired teacher and raced with outstanding success for many years with his late wife, Brenda, but after leaving the sport for several years, he returned in later seasons flying in partnership with Terry Lloyd. The 1981 King’s Cup race had a record entry of over 6,000 birds and Ron won the race with his wonderful blue hen, champion ‘Nightlight Nancy’, who incidentally at 22 years of age. This was his first attempt at Pau, 553 miles and the hen was sitting on 14 day old eggs, being liberated at 06.00hrs, and was clocked at 18.45hrs on the day. Previous to winning the Pau National, ‘Nancy’, who was bred from birds off H. J. Humphrey of Tottenham and Roy Drake of Catford, won several premier positions including: 1980: 2^nd club, 2^nd Federation, 5^th open Combine Dax. Ron always geared the whole loft to be sitting about 12 day old eggs for the Pau National and proved to be most successful.

Ron began the 1982 season with the impossible task of following and living up to the fantastic seasons that had gone before. His brilliant performances had put Ronnie in the top handful of elite fanciers in Great Britain. Highlights of seasons previous to 1982 were: 1979: 3^rd section E, 4^th open NFC Guernsey, 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd open Croydon Federation Dax, 530 miles, only two birds on the day of liberation in the Federation, 1981: 1^st open NFC Pau, winning the ‘King’s Cup’ and R.P.R.A. London region award, 3^rd open London & South Coast Combine Dax, the same day as winning the Pau National. The loft had recorded many other 1^st Federations wins in these years, both inland and from France.

The Wasey’s started the 1982 season by winning 1^st club, 2^nd open Croydon Federation, 2^nd open London & South Coast Combine La Mans, with their good Hopwood mealy hen cock, ’Daphne’s Delight’, then went on to win the supreme trophy in the National Flying Club, ‘The Langstone Gold Cup’, for best average in the three National races. Ron’s national season started at Nantes and his first bird on the clock to record 27^th section E. 68^th open (12,444 birds) was his good Dordin mealy cock, ‘Elain’s Eric’, which was inbred to Ron’s champion stock hen, ‘The Hopwood Hen’. ‘Elain’s Eric’ was also second bird on the Pau national clock that season to record 87^th section E. 460^th open Pau. Previously as a young bird he had won in 1980: 1^st club, 1^st open Federation Blandford, 1^st club, 3^rd open Federation Blandford, 1^st club, 4^th open Federation Exeter and 1^st club, 21^st open Federation Blandford. A fantastic pigeon! Then came the Pau Grand National and many rate Ron’s performance as even better than when he won 1^st open in 1981, as the weather and wind did not favour his birds. In the 1982 event, he clocked his great hen, ‘Landymores’s Lulu’, to record 1^st section E, 4^th open NFC Pau. This great hen won the ‘F.G. Wilson Trophy’ for best average by the same pigeon at Nantes and Pau Nationals in the 1982 season. ‘Lulu’ was a full sister to champion ‘Nightlight Nancy’, the 1981 Pau National winner and ‘Lulu’ had previously won many premier prizes including: 1^st club, 7^th Federation Blandford, 3^rd club, 3^rd Federation, 6^th open London & South Coast Combine Dax (beaten by two loft mates), 2^nd club, 7^th Federation, 10^th open Combine Tours and also in 1982: 101^st section E, 281^st open NFC Nantes. The last race of the NFC programme in 1982 was the young bird Guernsey and Ron was 36^th section E, 74^th open with his Hetru / Dordin cock ,’Cornelius’, thus securing ‘The Langstone Gold Cup’. This game cock only had two races as a youngster winning 3^rd club Wadebridge, 74^th open NFC Guernsey and was a grandson of Bolitho brother’s ‘Crackerjack’. The only black spot on Ron’s 1982 pigeon year was the death of his champion Dordin stock hen, ‘The Hopwood Hen’. She must rate as one of the top breeding Dordins in the world, being dam of most of the Mr. & Mrs. Wasey loft at that time. She was bred by Ron’s good friends in Yorkshire, John and Daphne Hopwood, from the Jim Biss Dordins, down from ‘Spahi’, ‘Romulus’ and ‘Scout’. ‘The Hopwood Hen’ was a true champion breeding hen, producing amongst others, 4^th open NFC Guernsey, 70^th open NFC Pau, 68^th open NFC Nantes, 1^st open Croydon Federation Guernsey and 1^st open Croydon Federation Blandford.

In the seasons after ‘Nightlight Nancy’ won the Pau National, she bred many outstanding racers in Combine and National events. ‘Nancy’ and ‘Lulu’ had an outstanding blue pied brother called ‘Sole Survivor’ and he won 1^st club, 1^st Federation, 4^th open Combine (4,007 birds) Nantes, 1^st club, 1^st Federation, 4^th open Combine (7,501 birds) Le Mans and 1^st club, 2^nd Federation, 9^th open Combine (6,490 birds) Tours. Ron said he had several good winners the same way bred to his National winner and a blue, full sister he gifted to John Barratt, won 1^st open London Federation (by 20 minutes) and 3^rd London Federation in races from France.

The 2002 season saw Wasey & Lloyd win the very hard Pau race, in the London & South East Classic Club, with their good blue pied cock, ‘Bambi’. At that time this was a great thrill for my wife, Betty, and my self, as Ronnie had been a good family friend of ours for about 25 years and he was a brilliant pigeon fancier and a true gentleman. Ron said his champion cock had always been called ‘Bambi’ since he was a young bird in 2000, because he was a small pigeon, but had a big heart! He was off Peter Titmus bloodlines and was sent to the Pau classic sitting 14 day old eggs, and on handling him the day after clocking, I noticed he was casting his second flight. Ron drove many miles to purchase these Peter Titmus stock birds and paid over £200 for them at the late Colin Brough dispersal sale. This game little pigeon flew only Guernsey as a young bid and took 15 days to come home from the Perth Classic in the 2001 season. His build up to his Pau classic win in 2002 was lots of training tosses off the south coast and two races from La Ferte Bernard and Tours with the London & South East Classic Club.

Like Ron, Terry Lloyd was an ex-Battersea boy and had been friends since their mid-teens. Terry had a very successful small building firm, but had cut down his workload, because of some health problems. He loved horse racing and regularly attends meetings at Kempton Park, Epsom, Sandown Park and Ascot. Terry did not take an active part with the pigeons, but loves watching them dive in with wings folded like darts, as they race in. Ronnie said it is only because of Terry’s financial backing that he was able to race, as he paid half the cost of everything including the petrol for training. He took an avid interest in the breeding side of the pigeons and often spent a few hours during the close season discussing the breeding plans for the following year.

Ron raced only the natural system and paired up in mid-March, with the long distance National and Classic races in mind. He was a great believer in working the racers hard and they got a lot of training off the south coast, on their build up to the main events, and he fed ‘Irish’ mixture, obtained from our late ol’ friend, Wally Dann of Cobham. The main families kept were Eric Cannon, Brian Denney, Tom Gilbertson and the highly successful Peter Titmus pigeons. The main racing loft had grilled floors, drop hole trapping and it’s biggest feature was Ron’s closed in nest boxes, which he liked, to give the inmates peace and quiet. He always told me, that he had no special type of pigeon he liked the best, he was only interested in good winning long distance pigeons, no matter what they look like. His massive stock loft and flight houses only a few selective pairs, mostly of the Eric Cannon lines. He had a team of about 30 young birds each year and these were raced on the natural system, to the perch. The youngsters were not let out of the loft until their eyes had changed colour and they had dropped flights, but were put out on top of the loft in a wire cage every day from weaning. Ron maintained he had used this method with his youngsters many years and had very few losses. He had no Saturday Federation club and at that time gave his birds Guernsey racing, with the East Grinstead Continental R.P.C., on their build up to the main National and Classic events.

There you have it, the late, great Ronnie Wasey, one of the best long distance fanciers in the U.K. ever! I write this tribute to my dear friend with a tear in my eye. Ronnie Wasey RIP.