This week the ‘FORUM’ is going to have it’s first profile on N.F.C.
officers and where better to start than with our President, Bill Harris of Elton. He tells
me that he held his first position when he was elected as the chairman of the local
‘Boys’ club and was 15 years old and, learnt a lot. He server a long term on the
N.F.C. committee and was elected in as President at the 2001 A.G.M. and, says it is an
honour he is extremely proud of. He believes that club racing has only a few years left,
Classic and National racing is, in his opinion, the future of the sport. Many clubs
grievance with other local clubs and he can’t ever see this type of problem being
resolved. He feels that for the N.F.C. to stay as the premier club in this country, it has
to move forward and not stagnate, as some members seem to want. The committee has to look
to the next ten years, minimum, and try and, visualise what the membership is going to
want from National racing. He thinks transportation has to be looked at, not only by the
N.F.C. but every single member when we train our birds. The Animal Liberation Front ( ALF
) is already looking at our hobby and we have to be seen to be doing the correct thing for
the birds. They must come first and foremost. He has had 3 years first hand experience of
ALF and if you think you will persuade them with words, forget it, they do not and will
not listen to what you have to say. It’s their opinion and only their opinion that
they care about.
Bill Harris was born in Chatham, Kent and when he was 2 years old, moved house and,
was brought up in Portchester in Hampshire. His late father, Bill senior, raced pigeons as
does his brother, David, who lives in Gosport and races as Mr. & Mrs. D. Harris. Bill
says, he can’t remember a time when pigeons weren’t around. He joined the
Portchester boys club as a 9 year old and remembers with affection those days in the early
1960’s, following in his father’s footsteps, as did his brother, David. Bill
remarked to me, you could say pigeons were in our families blood! His first birds were
bred out of his father’s race team and were no particular bloodlines or strain. Bill
senior was a very good friend of Cyril Lowe of Guernsey and Cyril sent birds over every
year for Bill senior to try out. Bill can’t remember his first winner, but a good
performance he recalls was when he was about 12 years of age and it was with a White cock
bird from the La Rochelle race. Scrubbs & Laurel Harvey had the only bird on the day
and Bill got up early next morning to see if anything had arrived home. At about 7.00am he
had to go and deliver papers on his regular round for a local newsagent. Half way around
he saw his only entry, the White cock, coming out of the West, heading for home. Bill
threw the papers in to a hedge, raced off home, about 2 miles away, got the pigeon in the
loft, took off the rubber and then had to cycle 3 miles to Laurel’s house to clock in
his arrival. He didn’t have his own clock in those days and took 2nd. club
in the La Rochelle race. After clocking in he went back and completed the paper round,
with a few people moaning that their Sunday morning papers were late. The young Bill was
very keen on football and thought he was quite good as a centre forward, but sadly the
local clubs didn’t see what Bill thought. Hen tells me, despite of that he still
supports the best football club on the south coast, Portsmouth.
In the early days, Bill remembers the late Jack Inch of Portchester putting up some
brilliant performances. One memory Bill has, was when he was about 8 years old, seeing the
late Ron Mitcheson of Winchester at the N.F.C. Oxford marking station. He says he will
never forget him with his lumber jack style shirt, rolled up over his biceps, a most
formidable man and brilliant fancier. Bill started in 1960, joining the Portchester boys
club, formed a partnership with his dad in 1965 and flew as W. Harris & Son. Brother,
David, took over the ‘ Son ‘ role in 1969, when the young Bill got the bug for
the other type of none feathered birds. Bill got lucky and married his wonderful wife,
Julie, in 1970, but didn’t keep pigeons of his own at this stage, but visited his
dad’s loft on race days He started up again in 1987 and joined the N.F.C. in that
year. He classes his novice days when he started up in 1987, prior to that he was serving
his apprenticeship under his father.
Bill’s present loft at Elton is 24ft. long, 8ft. wide, split into three sections
and is of wooden construction, with a tiled roof. He has open door trapping, maintaining
it can’t be beat, but has stall traps for the young birds to steady them down. One
section has nest boxes for pairing up, the second parting is for the young birds and the
third is for the hens when they are on the roundabout system. He tends to use deep litter
in the winter months, this is usually Barley straw and this is just for his convenience,
because of the short days and, with his work commitments, not having much time to clean
out. He thinks a loft has got to be practical and has to be constructed to fit in with
your system and lifestyle. It has to be dry and well ventilated. The loft also has to be
of a standard where neighbours see it as part of the garden and not an eyesore.
Bill uses the Roundabout method to race his old birds. He has 15 nest boxes, so keeps
up to 30 old birds for racing and pairs up early to mid February, when he can have a few
days off work to be there in case of any problems. They rear a youngster each, some are
under laid from other pairs. When they have gone down on their second round and sitting
about ten days, the hens are taken away to let the cocks sit for as long as they want.
Usually after 2 or 3 days the cocks desert the eggs and that’s when the system
starts. The flying time around the loft is increased and training starts. At their peak
his birds fly for an hour easily, morning and evening, the hens are usually better than
the cocks and with a couple of training tosses during the week, any where, sets them up to
start the season. He feeds a good mixture during the racing season and has no preference
of brand, but it must be dust free. Motivation is the key for his system. Bill maintains
that, a bird can be the fittest in the loft, but if the motivation is not there, you might
as well save your money and not send it, because it won’t win. He tries all weird and
wonderful ways of motivating his birds. One off beat method that Bill used ended up with
him winning 1st. club, 1st. Berkshire Federation, 1st.
open U.B.I. Combine ( 3,000 birds ) from Sartilly. He says, for this, he must thank Gerry
Mason of Amcotts in Lincolnshire, who told him what, when and how to do it. Bill trains
the birds during the racing season, with a couple of tosses during the week and likes
single up training. He quite regularly drives down to Portsmouth early in the morning
leaving at about 4.00am and leaving his birds with his good friend, Cyril Hallett, who
singles them up for Bill, this being about a 100 fly to the Elton loft. Bill loves long
distance racing, but says he wants to win every race he enters, but is always prepared to
shake the hand of the winner. Sportsmanship is something that he feels is lacking within
our hobby. He likes Classic and especially the N.F.C. racing and, with the way the
National races were set up for 2002 and, previous years, his birds go to Nantes and Pau on
the roundabout system, and then repaired for the Saintes National. He prefers Nantes,
Saintes and then Pau. The reason for this is, that it’s a natural stepping stone for
the ultimate race, the N.F.C. Grand National event. In Bill’s case it’s 318
miles, 428 miles and then Pau, which is 593 miles. He says it’s like a marathon
runner, they build up for the big race, with smaller runs before entering the main event.
All his birds go to the first and last races, that doesn’t mean he sends every week,
but he picks out the races for them, and they must fly certain distances before being
entered in any of the Classic or National races.
Bill says, he has been lucky enough to win some good positions over the years
including : 1st. open U.B.I. Combine Sartilly, 1st. N.W. section,
144th. open C.S.C.F.C. Rennes, 8th. open N.F.C. Saintes, 9th.
open N.F.C. Saintes, 1st. section G. 21st. open N.F.C. Guernsey (
old hens ), 1st. old hens championship, 2nd. N.W. section, 3rd.
open C.S.C.F.C. Bergerac, with the only bird flying over 500 miles on the day, plus many
other premier positions. A good team performance was when he sent 25 birds to Saintes, 428
miles, with the N.F.C., got 22 home on the day, clocked 18 birds and recorded 12 of them
in the National result. He says, that was a good day! Bill smiled when he told me that his
most thrilling experience was in 1989, when he timed in his good Slatey hen, ‘ Wilma
‘, bred by his dad in 1987, to win 1st. N.W. section, 13th.
open C.S.C.F.C. Pau. This was the year when Avis & son won the race with their good
pigeon, ’Maddy’. The birds were held over until the Sunday, with a late
liberation and there was a strong North East wind on the bird’s faces. Bill was
working in the garden and saw her coming from a long way off, clocking the game hen at
9.40am on the Monday. Bill says, he still gets excited when he thinks of that day.
He keeps about six pairs of stock birds and usually obtains a couple of birds each
year from a winning loft. Bill will breed from these birds and under lay the eggs under
the race birds, to get a few extra youngsters off them to try out. He usually pairs the
stock birds up around mid January and generally gives the first round away to his friends.
Bill breeds approximately 40 young birds each year and tries to bring in half a dozen from
a good racing loft each, to try out. The Darkness system has never been tried, for no
other reason, other than he hasn’t got the set up for it. His youngsters are trained
well and only lightly raced, but he splits them, and races on a form of a roundabout
system. The following year they are expected to fly Saintes, 428 miles.
Bill is a projects manager for the Ministry of Defence, based at Abbey Wood, near
Bristol and says his wife, Julie, and two children, Keri and Steven, are not the slightest
bit interested in pigeon racing. Sound like they have got some brains, too me! He believes
that the British fanciers put too much faith into pedigrees. If they obtain birds from a
fancier, by all means give him the credit for the original stock, but within three or so
years it’s the second fancier’s breeding and racing techniques that are keeping
the bloodlines in front of the others. He is not interested in the eye sign theory. An eye
sign fancier came to his loft after he won the Combine race from Sartilly and asked if he
could have a look at the Combine winners eye. Bill showed him six birds, all winners,
including the Combine winner and he looked at them all, and told Bill in what order he
liked them. The Combine winner was last in his rating and in fact the fancier said he
would not have the pigeon in his loft. Bill tells me, he goes on the feet theory, the
first pair of feet through the doors on race day is your best bird! He breeds the best to
the best and the basket is the yardstick he uses for pairing up. Late breds have been
produced in the past and he has had only minor success with them. As soon as the racing
season ends, his birds are split to carry on with the moult and all the best of corn is
fed at this time of year. As the winter progresses, Barley is increased and by the end of
December, they are fed 100% Barley. The feeding stays like this until he introduces a
breeding mixture, about mid January.
I asked Bill, if he was allowed a free hand with the sport of pigeon racing, how would
he push it forward? I would stop Federations going to the continent and onlyallow the Classics and the N.F.C. to convoy
pigeons abroad. Make small clubs amalgamate, a minimum number of fanciers allowed in each
club and when the membership fell below this number, the club would have to throw
it’s lot in with it’s neighbouring club. I would throw out all puncture clocks,
only modern printers clocks would be allowed. I would stop the bickering and jealously in
our sport, I have known pigeon fanciers who have held grudges for more than 20 years. Bill
says, he would bring in the E.T.S. tomorrow. I used to ride a bike to clock in when I was
a lad and now I have a T3 clock, we have to progress. If you don’t want E.T.S., then
don’t stop some one who does! With the National Flying Club I would, purchase the
very latest transportation and make sure the National birds came first. I think every race
should be self sufficient, why should somebody who is only interested in sprint racing,
subsidise a long distance fancier? With Federations only holding inland racing, I would
increase the N.F.C. programme to about eight old bird races and have 2 or 3 young bird
Nationals. As well as the west coast of France race points, I would have races down the
centre of France, every race would be about two weeks apart.
There you have it, Bill Harris, President of the National Flying Club. If you need to
contact me with N.F.C. matters, please give me a phone on: 01372 463480 or email me on my
new address: keithmott@btopenworld.com
