At the 1999 National Flying Club prize presentation held at Bedford, my good friends,
Eric and Pat Cannon of Wormley, were presented with their fourth N.F.C. Pau Certificate of
Merit, which is won by a pigeon that has taken three positions in the first 100 open in
the Pau Grand National result. Their fourth certificate winner was the blue hen, Champion
‘Culmer Bess’, whose record reads, 1996: 4th. section, 47th.
open Pau / Saintes, 1997: 2nd. section, 6th. open Pau, 1998: 170th.
open Pau, 1999: 2nd. section, 26th. open Pau, to lift the
Certificate of Merit. A wonderful hen! ‘Culmer Bess’ is a daughter of one of
Eric’s N.F.C. Pau section winners, ‘Culmer Joan’, and a cock obtained from
Michael Spencer of Clitheroe. The Cannon / Spencer cross proved to be an excellent one,
with ‘76956’, a brother to ‘Culmer Bess’, winning 1st. in
the very strong Godalming club from Nantes, 17th.open N.F.C. Pau, 184th.
open N.F.C. Pau, 161st. open.F.C. Pau / Saintes. The Cannon loft won it’s
previous N.F.C. Pau merit award with the champion blue hen, ‘Culmer Channel
Queen’ and she recorded 364th. open Young Bird National, 9th.
section, 98th. open Pau, 3rd. section, 29th. open Pau, 5th.
section, 23rd. open Pau, 14th. section, 183rd. open Pau.
Another fantastic pigeon! She was a direct daughter of the champion stock cock,
‘Culmer Producer’, sire of many good Pau pigeons and son of ‘Culmer
Pat’, when paired to a son of Tom Gilbertson’s ‘Treble Five’. The
champion hen, ‘Culmer Pat’, won 27th., 80th. and104th.
open Pau N.F.C. for the late Gerald Stovin and was dam of his 1st. open N.F.C.
Pau winner. ‘Culmer Pat’ was bred by Gerald Stovin from two Cannon pigeons and
was gifted back to Eric before Gerald’s untimely death from cancer. The dam of
‘Culmer Channel Queen’ was ‘27444’ and she scored in three Pau
Nationals, recording 70th., 298th. and 507th. open, and
her dam was ‘Culmer Joan’. A brilliant family of long distance pigeons!
Eric started to keep pigeons in his early school days, with his first birds costing
only a few pence each and trained his birds on a pushbike. He joined the local Godalming
club as a junior member. The club comprised of some the best N.F.C. members, such as L.
Raynford, winner of 2nd. open San Sebastian in 1935, F. Seaman, winner 2nd.
open Mirande in 1937, H. H. Boshier, winner 4th. open Mirande in 1938 and 2nd.
open Mirande in 1939, J. Pattman, winner of 5th. open San Sebastian and C. R.
Gush, who recorded 8th., 11th., 17th., 18th.
and 21st. open from San Sebastian. Growing up with fanciers of this calibre
enabled Eric to learn the trade of long distance racing. He always maintained that these
great fanciers would take only one position inland to give novices encouragement and would
always congratulate the youngsters when they won a prize card. Eric had to pack up pigeons
due to four years in the Army, on war service and after picking up a bad foot injury, he
met his wife, Pat, a nurse at a war time hospital in Liverpool. His family of pigeons
started in 1950, when he purchased a blue chequer hen, ’50 – 1753’, from
Mr. Wiggins of Ipswich, costing him 30 shillings, her dam being a big winner from Lerwick.
This wonderful hen was dam and grandam of 34 pigeons to score in channel races. One
season, Eric paired a daughter and a grandson of ‘The Wiggins Hen’ and they
produced Eric’s champion hen, ’Pat’, winner of 1st. open Combine
Bordeaux, 35th. open Combine Bordeaux and 73rd. open N.F.C. Nantes.
‘Pat’ was the dam of ‘St. Swithin’, winner of 1st. open
Combine Bordeaux, 8th. open Combine Bordeaux and many more premier positions.
The sire of ‘St. Swithin’, was bred by Mr. H. J. Chandler off a pair of big
winners at Thurso and Lerwick. Eric’s family of long distance pigeons went back to
the originals although he brought in a cross every now and then, but Eric always thought
it better to have a family of pigeons, providing the base is sound. One of the best
crosses was ‘The Challen Hen’, a pigeon bred in 1971. She bred 10 pigeons to
score at Pau (540 miles) and a daughter of this champion bred Cyril Medway’s 1st.
open Palamos B.B.C. winner. Another premier cross for the Cannon loft was the blue hen
called ‘The Wood Hen’, a daughter of Mr. Wood of Horsham’s, ‘Pride of
Sussex’, a big N/F.C. winner. ‘ The Wood Hen’ was the dam of Eric’s
champion blue hen ‘Blue Bird’ and she won, 98th. open Young Bird
National, 247th. open N.F.C. Nantes, 1st. section, 6th.
open N.F.C. Pau, 1st. section, 28th.open N.F.C. Pau, 57th.,
118th. and 251st. open N.F.C. Pau. Another champion daughter of
‘The Wood Hen’ was the blue hen, ’Culmer Lady’, winner of 26th.,
27th., 48th.,135th. and 140th. open N.F.C. Pau
and she was Eric’s first N.F.C. Pau Certificate of Merit award winner. The wonderful
‘Culmer Lady’ is the grandam of Champion ‘Culmer Gold’, who won 21st.,
70th., 83rd., 103rd. and 111th. open N.F.C.
Pau, 163rd. open N.F.C. Nantes, winning Best Average Nantes and Pau, 1st.
Club, 3rd. Federation, 9th. open Combine (5,049 birds) Niort, 1st.
Club, 3rd. Federation, 11th. open Combine (4,248 birds) Bergerac and
was the winner of the Cannon’s second N.F.C. Pau Certificate of Merit award. Eric
also used some of the best of Fear Brothers’ bloodlines and one cock crossed into
Eric’s family produced the red cock, ‘Culmer Sam’, who won 6th.,
6th. and 8th. section N.F.C. Nantes and 89th. open N.F.C.
Pau. When this great cock was stopped for stock he proved to be a champion breeder,
producing many premier racers, including ‘Culmer Rose’, winner of 30th.,
56th., 389th. and 541st. open N.F.C. Pau. This wonderful
red hen was dam of ‘Culmer Joan’, winner of 1st. section, 12th.
open N.F.C. Pau and grandam of Champion ‘Culmer Bess’, Eric’s fourth Pau
Merit Award winner.
The Cannon pigeons were raced on the natural system with the Pau Grand National in
mind, but Eric rated the widowhood system for races up to 400 miles. The birds were paired
in mid- March, with the date being worked back from the Pau National, so the birds got a
natural cycle up to the race. The shorter races were used for training and the birds were
tossed along the south coast. Eric maintained it didn’t matter where the birds were
trained from, for if they were super fit, their minds would be right. Eric remarked that
he enjoyed Combine racing years ago, but in later years all his energy was spent on the
National races. In spite of that, the loft won the Combine four times in recent years,
with the blue chequer hen, ‘Pat’, winner of 1st. open London S.R.
Combine Bordeaux, grizzle cock, ‘St. Swithin’, winner of 1st. open
London S.R. Combine Bordeaux, dark chequer cock, ‘Evil Eye’, winner of 1st.
open London S.R. Combine Le Mans and the champion blue hen, ‘Culmer Lass’,
winner of 1st. open S.M.T. Combine Bergerac, only bird on the day of liberation
in the Combine. The Cannons won the Surrey Federation’s longest old bird race shield
outright for winning it three times. Eric’s most recent Combine winner, ‘Culmer
Lass’, went on to win 1st. section, 12th. open N.F.C. Pau the
year after her Combine win. This game hen also won two more positions from the Pau
National, plus 49th. open N.F.C. Nantes and is the grandam of Champion
‘Culmer Marion’, 1st. open N.F.C. Sartilly in 1990.
The loft was a converted 48ft. x 12ft. stable divided into four sections and Eric
thought one of the most important items of good loft design is good ventilation. The
Cannons had a really bad hawk problem, living in the Surrey country side, so early in 1999
Eric and I built a massive 48ft. wire flight in front of the loft, so the birds could come
out and bathe, but still be protected from the bandits in the sky. He liked to change the
birds’ diet from time to time, but mostly a good mixture ofbeans, wheat and maize was fed. His race team was
his old family of pigeons he had since the war, with the odd cross in from time to time.
When bringing in a cross he looked for pedigree of work, long lines of distance winning
pigeons and not fancy ring numbers.
I was working through some old photographs recently and came across a picture of
Eric’s old champion, ‘Culmer Gold’. On viewing this handsome blue
cock’s photograph, it made me reflect on his wonderful racing record and I wondered
to myself how you measure to find the best when it comes to racing pigeons. Performance, I
suppose. The great ‘Culmer Gold’, never won the Combine or National race, some
might say, Ah, but he was super consistent in the fierce competition of our supreme
English specialist organisation, the National Flying Club. My ol’ mate, Eric, had
countless champions in his lifetime in pigeon racing, including 1st. open
N.F.C., but ‘Culmer Gold’, was his favourite and I think probably his greatest
champion of them all. A once in a life time pigeon winning, 21st., 70th.,
83rd.,103rd. and 111th. open N.F.C. Pau (540 miles),
winning the N.F.C. Pau Merit Award and in one season recorded 163rd. open
N.F.C. Nantes to win the best Average from Nantes and Pau, plus two premier Combine
positions. A brilliant performance! Champion ‘Culmer Gold’ was sired by blue
cock, ’40799’, one of Eric’s premier stock cocks in the 1980’s and a
full brother to the champion blue cock, ‘Culmer Lad’, who flew Pau 10 times and
was in the N.F.C. result 8 times, to record 22nd., 37th., 227th.,
346th., 373rd., 467th., 614th. and 761st.
open. ‘Culmer Lad’ also scored in two other N.C.C. races, putting 10 National
positions to his name and he was also an outstanding breeding pigeon, being the sire of
several premier N.F.C. pigeons, and was grandsire of ‘Culmer Belle’, winner of 4th.,
76th., 131st. and 428th. open N.F.C. Pau. ‘Culmer
Lad’ and ‘40799’ were both sons of the first of Eric’s four N.F.C. Pau
Merit Award winners, Champion ‘Culmer Lady’. The grandsire of ‘Culmer
Gold’ on his dam’s side was the blue chequer cock, ‘26792’, who is
rated by some as Eric’s principal breeding pigeon. He is half brother to Champion
‘Culmer Lass’. The stock cock, ‘26792’, and ‘Culmer Lass’,
were both sired by the blue cock, ‘13953’, the sire of three 1st.
section and a 2nd. section winners from the Pau National. The dam of
‘26792’ was the famous blue chequer hen, ‘The Challen Hen’, who bred
10 pigeons to appear in the Pau National results, including 2nd. open. The nest
mate of ‘26792’ was blue chequer hen, ‘26791’ and she won 2nd.
section N.F.C. Pau, and was also the dam of the champion red cock, ‘Culmer Sam’,
who I think was Eric Cannon’s key breeding pigeon from the early 1980’s.
‘Culmer Gold’ is typical of Eric’s old blue family, being medium, long
cast in the hand, with good, silky feather and a nice head. The old timer loved Eric, and
was always up on his shoulder or hand looking for a bit of Maize. He won a great deal of
money in National racing and bred a dynasty of outstanding long distance racing pigeons
for the Cannon loft and others. One of Eric’s best friends, David Bacon of Pettswood,
has a red chequer stock cock direct off ‘Culmer Gold’, when paired to
‘Culmer Rose’ and he has bred several premier Pau racers for the Kent loft.
If the N.F.C. Pau Certificate of Merit had started a few years earlier, Eric would
have won three other awards, with the three hens, ‘Culmer Julie Girl’,
‘Culmer Beauty’ and the great champion blue hen, ‘Culmer Blue Bird’.
My wife, Betty, and I have been good friends with Eric and Pat for nearly 30 years and out
of all their many champions through the years, ‘Blue Bird’, was my favourite.
She was perfect in the hand and in the late 1970’s she recorded 6th., 28th.,
57th., 118th. and 251st. open N.F.C. Pau, winning 1st.
section twice.
The Cannon loft has won countless positions in the N.F.C. through the years, but the
highlights have been: 5 times winner of the Langstone Gold Cup, for best average of three
N.F.C. races, 16 times 1st. section in N.F.C. races, 1st. open
Sartilly, 2nd. open Pau, 4th. open Pau, 5th. open
Sartilly, 5th. open Avranches, 6th. open Pau (twice), 8th.
open Sartilly and so on. The Cannons had 74 positions in the first 100 open positions in
Pau Grand Nationals and lifted the 3 bird Average from the Pau National six times. Eric
and Pat had a lot of problems with sparrowhawks and had many top class pigeons ruined by
these birds, including the Pau section winner, ‘Culmer White Flight’. Soon after
this handsome cock won 14th, open N.F.C. Pau, he came home from an inland
training fly ripped open by a hawk and mentally he was never the same pigeon again.
Eric Cannon passed away in July 2000 and I was asked to arrange his three dispersal
sales, which were held in Nottingham, Sutton and Paulton in the autumn of that year. The
Nottingham sale produced the highest priced pigeon at £2,300 – 00 in the form of
Champion ‘Culmer Bess’, Eric’s fourth Pau Merit Award winner. Her sire was
bred by Michael Spencer, who went to the Nottingham sale with the sole intention of
purchasing ‘Culmer Bess’. He won the bid and took this great hen back to
Lancashire. When Eric passed away the sport of pigeon racing lost the ‘King’ of
the Pau National and one of it’s greatest champions!
Any N.F.C. news can be given to me on Telephone: 01372 463480 or Email Address: keithmott@btopenworld.com
