The month of July
saw members of the National Flying Club send 2,739 birds to Pau for the 2003
Blue Riband race and because of adverse weather conditions at the race point,
the convoy was taken back to Saintes for liberation, after a two day hold over.
I was in Hampshire, on a fishing holiday that week and was very surprised to
hear on the telephone that the National birds were liberated at 17.00hrs. on the
Sunday, something I had never heard of before, in my nearly 35 years in the
sport. On my return home, I was given the great news that one of the sports
gentlemen, Mark Gilbert of Winkfield, near Windsor, had won the National, with a
‘banger’ of a blue cock bred from a hen that he had purchased at Eric
Cannon’s dispersal sale, after his death in 2000. This season has seen two
N.F.C. winners, 5th. open N.F.C. Dax and 4th. open N.F.C.
Saintes, bred from Eric’s bloodlines. A brilliant family of long distance
pigeons! The Saturday after the race I visited Mark’s home in Winkfield and I
must say it was a double pleasure for me to go that day. Firstly to see Mark’s
Champion blue cock, now named ‘Night Flight’ and secondly to return to the
Berkshire village ofWinkfield, as
many years ago, when I was a young lad, my uncle owned a farm there and my
brother, Phil, and I used to work on it during the school holidays. I saw one of
my first pigeon lofts in Winkfield, as a lad named David, who lived just along
the road from Mayfield Farm, had a team of ‘roof toppers’ and didn’t race.
Wonderful memories!
Mark Gilbert sent
three birds to the Saintes / Pau National, flying 394 miles from Saintes and
clocked Champion ‘Night Flight’ at 07.13 hrs. on the Monday morning, to win
the national by almost 400 y.p.m. This game blue cock was paired up on 1st.
December, being parted after rearing a pair of youngsters and was repaired on
the 1st. April, and after sitting eggs for 5 days was put on the
widowhood system. On his build up to his Saintes National win, he had several
short inland club races, several channel races, including Dax (530 miles), with
the London & South East Classic Club, when he recorded 71st.
open. Prior to this season he has only been lightly raced, having three races as
a young bird and three races as a yearling. Champion ‘Night Flight’ is bred
out of a direct Bernard De Weerdt red chequer cock and he is a full brother to
the Belgium champion’s 4th. open International Dax winner. His dam,
a blue hen, is a direct daughter of Eric Cannon’s Champion ‘Culmer Bess’,
when mated to the ‘77’ stock cock, who is half brother to Champion ‘Culmer
Channel Queen’, being bred out of ‘Culmer Producer’. Champion ‘Culmer
Bess’ was Eric’s fourth N.F.C. Pau merit award winner, recording 6th.,
26th.,170th. open Pau, 47th. open Saintes / Pau
and was the highest priced pigeon at Eric’s dispersal sales, being sold for £2,300.
I have known Mark
for several years, as he is from a brilliant pigeon racing family, with his
father being Geoff Gilbert of Windsor, who won 1st. open L.&
S.E.C.C. Pau a few seasons ago. Geoff won Pau with his brilliant widowhood dark
chequer cock, ‘The Narrow Cock’ and this pigeon was a champion in the truest
sense of the word, having won countless prizes in Classic and National events,
including: 10th. open N.F.C. Pau (on the day of liberation), 139th.
open N.F.C. Pau, 40th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Bordeaux and so on. A
fantastic pigeon! At the age of 11, Mark thought he would like to get involved
with the pigeons, so began to pester his father, who was flying in partnership
with Terry Keys of West Drayton at that time. Geoff told him he could look after
the stock birds and got the biggest telling off of his life, when he mixed up
all the eggs in the stock loft. The Gilberts flew in a very successful
partnership with John Haines of Slough, for many years and they won many premier
prizes, including 1st. open S.M.T. Combine. All the three very good
friends, now race to their own lofts, with John winning 1st. open L.
& S.E.C.C. three times, Geoff winning 1st. open L. & S.E.C.C.
Pau and now Mark, winning the N.F.C. Grand National from Saintes. Three great
pigeon men! Mark says that his dad, Geoff, is his best friend and must take a
lot of the credit for the Saintes National win, as is still really his partner
and works in Mark’s Winkfield loft every day. In fact he told me, he
couldn’t race his pigeons properly, with out his help.
Mark has only
lived at his present address for the last 18 months and Champion ‘Night
Flight’ is a broken pigeon, having flown as a young bird to his previous
house. He is only really interested in races over 500 miles and races 90 cocks
on the widowhood system. Mark and Geoff are great friends with Geoff and
Catherine Cooper of Peasedown and the Winkfield loft is managed on the
Cooper’s methods. Mark mixes his own, Geoff Cooper long distance mixture,
which is made up of three parts Maize, one part Wheat, one part Red Band and
nearly two parts protein. The racers are paired up in December and after rearing
two youngsters, are parted again, to be repaired in April. They are put on the
widowhood system after sitting their eggs for about five days and are only given
two, 20 mile training tosses before the first Federation race. The cocks have
food in front of them all the time, being fed in nest box pots and are never
broken down, at any time during the racing season. The short inland races are
used to get the race team fit and they are given about three to four weeks off,
before the main 500 mile events. The widowhood hens are given to the cocks at 5
p.m. on the evening before marking for the 500 mile races and tobacco stalks are
thrown on the loft floor. Mark told me that Champion ‘Night Flight’, had
built a massive nest before he went off to the marking station for the Grand
National. Mark’s very smart 74ft. loft has seven sections, all housing
widowhood cocks and is built to Geoff Cooper’s design. In fact Geoff came up
from his west country home and helped to erect it! This wonderful structure is
3ft. off the ground, has a Pan tiled roof, a slatted floor and the birds are
trapped through open doors, and into ‘Supertraps’. The widowhood hens are
housed in open flights on the back of the main racing loft and I say how well
they looked, being out in all that fresh air and weather. The main loft is
cleaned out every day and the flights once a month.
Mark’s 25 pairs
of stock birds are housed in three converted stables and are paired up the same
time as the racers, so their eggs can be floated in the race loft. The main
families are Eric Cannon and Bernard De Weerdt, and Mark told me that the first
season he crossed the two families they produced 23rd. open N.F.C.
young bird Guernsey. The stock sections house ten direct Eric Cannon pigeons,
all obtained at Eric’s dispersal sales and thirty direct from the Belgium
‘ace’, Bernard De Weerdt. When bringing in a new stock bird, Mark maintains,
it has to be out of the very best national or classic winning lines and has no
special type, but likes a smaller pigeon in the hand. He has 150 young birds
this season and all of them were put on the darkness system. They are given
about eight training tosses before the first race, but once they start racing
they are not trained any more and are raced through the full programme, to the
young bird national. The youngsters are housed in a big two section loft, with a
flight on the front and the two sexes are kept parted all week during the racing
season, being allowed to run together on the afternoon of race marking. This is
a semi widowhood system, with the young birds running together for a few hours
after clocking.
After looking at
Mark’s pigeons, we had a chat over a cup of tea and he told me that winning
the Grand National has been a wonderful thrill, but he thinks the N.F.C. race
controllers got it all wrong, and the birds should have stayed at Pau or at
least gone to another 500 mile race point. He says that he was gutted when they
brought the birds back to Saintes and a 5 p.m. liberation was wrong, as fresh
pigeons were flying the channel in the dark. I would like to congratulate Mark
on his brilliant National win, it couldn’t happen to a nicer lad. Well done,
mate!
Saintes / Pau
section winners were: (A) C.T. Ayling 1471: (B) A. Parsons 1349: (C) S. Jacks
1348: (D) Mr.& Mrs. P. Naum 1212: (E) M. Gilbert 1922: (F) Biss & Waite
1511: (G) B.S. Sheppard ( 1st.open International Dax 2003 ) 1335: (H)
S.G. Biss 1477: (I) L.B. Taylor 1370: (J) J.& T. Barnett & Daughter
1330: (K) F. Hinchliffe & Sons 1407: (L) F. Kay 1364. Congratulations to you
all!
That’s
it for this week! Any one with N.F.C. news, please phone me on: 01372 463480 or
email: keithmott@btopenworld
