The National Flying Club’s longest old bird race from Pau, in the south of
France, must rate as the premier event in the British long distance race programme.
It’s certainly my favourite event and of course the fantastic Pau National
performances put up year after year by my late friend, Eric Cannon, have influenced my way
of thinking. Eric always used to say to me that Pau at 550 miles was the right distance
for an on the day race and racing in the National Flying Club you were competing against
the best of pigeons and fanciers. In my 30 years as a pigeon scribe I have visited many
Pau National winning lofts and over the next few weeks, I’m going to feature a few of
them.
Jed and Joan Jackson of Worthing.
When I look back over the many years of wonderful performances put up by national
winners from Pau, Jed’s win in 1980 must rate as one of most remarkable, with the
race being hard enough to win by a sighted person, but for a blind fancier to win, it was
fantastic. Although the great Jed Jackson is famous for being the blind man who won the
Pau National, his great racing performances go much further back than that, having won
cups and averages in the club and federation for many years. His wonderful wife, Joan, is
a great worker for Jed’s pigeons, doing bookwork, training and general loft
management, with Jed. I have been in the Jackson’s garden on race day and it’s
brilliant watching Jed clocking in his own pigeons. Once the bird has trapped, Joan calls
out the nest box number that the racer has entered and Jed goes straight to it and clocks
in, with no time wasted.
Jed’s Pau National winner was his natural blue chequer hen, Champion
‘Genista’, and she was bred in 1978 from a blue hen obtained from John Langstone
of the west Midlands, and won the national at her first time at Pau, with 5,884 birds
competing. John Langstone was a great fancier, winning 1st. open N.F.C. Pau and 1st. open
N.F.C. Nantes, and presented the famous ‘Langstne Gold Cup’ to the National
Flying Club. The sire of ‘Genista’ was a blue chequer, down from Jed’s old
long distance family. Champion ‘Genista’ died in 1982, being buried under the
genista tree next to the loft, and Jed maintains that she died from the effort of winning
the Pau National for him. A wonderful pigeon! Many present day winners are bred down from
her including Jed’s good blue hen, which spent most of her time on his shoulder,
talking in his ear, as did ‘Genista’. She was a granddaughter of
‘Genista’ and this lovely blue arrived home from Thurso (550 miles) at 07.00hrs,
landing on Jed’s shoulder and he clocked her to win the race. Jed races both North
and South road, with the same pigeons and an interesting fact is that, ‘Genista’
flew Berwick five weeks before she won the Pau National.
Jed’s famous self built loft is 12ft.x6ft., having two sections and open window
trapping. He says when he built his loft, being blind, he worked after nightfall and
worked so late he lost the good will of his neighbours. In recent years his wonderful old
loft front has shown some wood rot and has been recently rebuilt. The loft has nice big
deep drop boards and is scraped out every day, with no litter used on the floor. Jed only
races natural and says useful racing does not start until the birds get over the 250 mile
stage. He keeps no more than 14 pairs of old birds and he knows every bird by handling
them. He says his finger tips are his sight and he knows when a stray bird is in the loft.
The birds are fed on farm beans, peas and maize. Jed breeds 24 youngsters each season and
these are raced to the perch. He pairs up in March and likes his old birds to race through
to 500 miles, north and south road. He says winning the Pau National was wonderful, but
his best memory in pigeons was when he was a young lad in the north east of England and he
had pigeons in four nest boxes in the coalhouse. He says in those days he was ankle deep
in coal dust and when he won the Pau National, he was ankle deep in stardust. A wonderful
fancier!
Jim Biss of Brundall.
The weekend before the 1996 Pau Grand National I went to Hillside Lofts in Brundall,
near Norwich, to visit one of the world’s greatest long distance fanciers, Jim Biss.
He started in the sport in 1936 and had 1st., 2nd. and 7th.
open N.F.C. Pau, plus several other useful positions in 1993. On leaving Jim’s
Norfolk home after the video shoot, I shook his hand and wished him good luck in the
N.F.C. Pau National the following week. Little did we know that he was going to win the
Saintes / Pau National with his partner, Tony Waite, at their loft in Whitchurch,
Hampshire.
Jim races 90 cocks on the widowhood system in Norwich and is only interested in long
distance racing. The racers are not broken down, but get a light feed in the morning and
heavy mixture in the evening. The birds get a few training tosses before the first race,
then are allowed to fly around the loft for one hour in the morning and one hour in the
evening. The hens are never shown to the racing cocks on marking night, but are left
together for about an hour on their arrival from a race. The Hillside Lofts breeds 100
young birds each season to race and replace old widowhood hens. The youngsters are raced
through to 160 miles and some are stopped and set aside for the widowhood system. The
young birds are well trained up to 40 miles before their first race, but after that no
training is given. Jim takes no notice of young bird performances and says these races are
only for learning from. All Jim’s old birds are paired up on 13th. January
and he picks out the breeders on their winning bloodlines. After 60 years in the sport he
races his own family of pigeons, based on his old English family of 1936, with different
introductions through the years. A lot of his champion racers are bred down from a hen he
had in 1936 and seven generations of National winners have come down from her. Jim Biss is
a living legend in the world of long distance pigeon racing and has won many firsts in
National races through the years.
Jim and Tony Waite formed their very successful Hampshire partnership in 1992 and won
the section from the Pau National in 1995. From the 1996 Saintes / Pau National the Biss
& Waite partnership of Whitchurch clocked 25 birds in an hour and recorded many
positions in the first 50 open, including 1st. open National. The 1998 season
saw the partners win 1st. open Palamos (679 miles) with the British Barcelona
Club and since have won 2nd. open N.F.C. San Sebastian. Brilliant performances!
Jim Biss breeds all the pigeons from his champion stock at Hillside and Tony Waite races
them at his home, which is set in the Hampshire countryside. The partner’s 1996
Saintes / Pau National winner was a pencil blue pied widowhood cock and he had previously
won several good prizes in club races. Jim breeds all the Hampshire birds from his
champions in Norwich, and although the pigeons have won federations in sprint races, the
main aim each season is the national and long distance events. The Whitchurch birds are
raced on both, the widowhood and natural systems, the main team being 72 widowhood cocks.
Yearling cocks are raced on the natural system and are not put on widowhood until they are
two years old. The 60ft. widowhood loft has a pan tile roof, six sections and open door
trapping. The nest box fronts are the same as Jim’s at the Norwich lofts and at
Whitchurch, the lofts all have grilled floors. Tony started up in the sport in 1969,
winning the federation many times sprint racing, and in his best season won 14 times 1st.
club, lifting an R.P.R.A. Southern Region Award for sprint racing. When Biss & Waite
won the Saintes / Pau National at Whitchurch in 1996, Jim also won his section at the
Norwhich Hillside loft. Jim Biss, a brilliant fancier!
Any N.F.C. news can be given to me on Telephone: 01372 463480 or Email Address: keithmott@btopenworld.com
