My good friend,
Eric Cannon of Godalming, passed away in 2000 and I took over the management
of his wonderful team of long distance pigeons, until I sold them four months
later, at three dispersal sales. I made the 25 miles drive to Eric and Pat’s
Wormley home, nearly every day, tending the birds and there was one young blue
hen, which caught my eye every time I went to the loft. There was about 80
youngsters in the loft at that time and this little gem stood out from the
rest, and I said to Pat several times, ‘she’s the one!’. She was bred
down from the ‘Culmer Producer’ lines and a very good Cannon hen that Eric
had obtained from his good friend, Ron Dodd, when he gave up the sport, a few
years ago. When the time of the dispersal sales arrived, I received countless
phone calls from all over the U.K., from fanciers asking about Eric’s
pigeons and I recommended this blue hen, to the Cannon’s close friend, David
Bacon of Pettswood. I told him, I fancied the hen very strongly and after
inspecting the blue, he purchased the pigeon at the Sutton dispersal sale.
Dave recorded 3rd. section E, 4th. open in this
season’s Colombovac Saintes / Pau National, with a granddaughter of that
original Eric Cannon blue stock hen, that he purchased in November 2000. The
Bacon loft is normally flown on the widowhood system, but this season, Dave
flew a few pairs on natural and his 4th. open winner was a blue hen
sent to the Grand National, sitting a two day old youngster.
David’s father
was an outstanding distance fancier and raced the Red Logans. He says that as
his dad had no car, he found it very hard to train his pigeons, but
nevertheless, did very well in the long distance events he loved. David has
inherited his father’s keenness for the long distance and is only interested
in National Flying Club racing. His ambition is to win a National race, which
he says is like winning the lottery, but has come close many times. His list
of National Flying Club positions won through the years is endless, but the
main ones are: 3rd. section, 3rd. open Cherbourg: 4th.
section, 4th. open Sartilly: 1st. section, 5th.
open Pau: 2nd. section, 6th. open Pau, 15th.
section, 29th. open Pau, 20th. section, 26th.
open Pau: 11th. section, 19th. open Pau: 11th.
section, 20th. open St Malo: 9th. section, 30th.
open Pau, 24th. section, 67th. open Pau: 18th.
section, 64th. open Pau: 29th. section, 55th.
open Sartilly: 42nd. section, 77th. open Sartilly: 85th.
open Saintes: 47th. section, 87th. open Sartilly: 20th.
section, 97th. open Pau and so on. Apart from his wonderful record
in the N.F.C., he has won many club firsts in channel racing, including only
bird on the day several times. A brilliant loft performance!
The main
families raced at the Pettswood loft are Albert Bennett, Fear Brothers and
Eric Cannon. The very best of long distance. David visited Fear Brothers with
Eric in 1978 and purchased an eight year old red chequer cock, which had won 1st.
open West of England Combine from La Reole, before being put to stock by Sam
and Roly. After David purchased this great pigeon a lot of his offspring won
Classic and National races for the Fear Brothers, including the bird’s son
which won 1st. open N.F.C. Pau, for the west country ‘aces’.
David bred a wonderful family of long distance pigeons around the great old
red cock, before presenting him back to the Fear Brothers at the age of 14.
One of David’s
premier pigeons in recent seasons, is his good Albert Bennett blue cock,
winner of 1section E, 5th. open N.F.C. Pau in the 1999 season. This
game cock was raced on widowhood and had two Nantes races before being sent to
the Pau National. David’s second bird from Pau that season, was a half
brother to the blue cock and he recorded 64th. open National. This
widowhood blue chequer cock had previously won 1st. club Laval as a
yearling, being the only bird on the day of liberation in the club. On a
recent visit to the Bacon loft in Kent, he showed me his wonderful red chequer
cock, which had won many premier positions in the N.F.C., including 30th.
open Pau. He is a son of Dave’s good Eric Cannon red stock cock, which is a
son of Champion ‘Culmer Gold’ and ‘Culmer Rose’, when paired to a hen
bred from the original red cock from Fear Brothers.
David races 20
cocks on the widowhood system, but tells me he is thinking of going back on to
the Natural system fully next season, because he has always done so well with
hen in past years. The only ‘downer’ for him racing Natural is he looses a
lot of pigeons to the hawks, with the open loft, which he likes to give the
Natural birds. When I asked him about his system of racing long distance
pigeons on the widowhood, he told me he paired up on March 1st. and
only reared one youngster from each of the cocks. The hens are taken away at
about 10 days on their second round of eggs and the cocks are on the widowhood
system. Training is kept down to only two 16 mile tosses because of the very
bad hawk problem in his area and flies the race team around the loft twice a
day. He never trains in the racing season, but uses the club to get the
widowhood team fit. The birds are never broken down and are fed twice a day
with a heavy mixture, which contains Bean, Peas and Maize. A few seasons ago,
David repaired for the long distance races and sent three hens to San
Sebastian, clocking all three in half an hour. He maintains that hens take
some beating on long day flies from the long distance events.
The Bacon’s
very smart 32ft. tiled roof loft has five sections, one for young birds, one
for stock birds and three for the widowhood cocks. Each of the old bird
sections has 12 nest boxes and trapping is through open doors into a corridor.
David keeps his hens in a small loft at the rear of his wonderful big garden
and when he brings in a new bird for stock, he says he uses his ‘stock
sense’. He keeps about 32 young birds each season and these are raced to the
perch, never being paired up. He likes young bird racing, flying in the local
club most weeks, but is only really interested in the Young Bird National. The
youngsters are trained twice a week and if there are some nice cocks in the
team, they are not sent to the National, but saved for the widowhood system.
David says,
Albert Bennett’s pigeons are the back bone of his loft. The two men have
been good friends for many years and although Albert hasn’t raced for
several years, David says his advice is invaluable and he is always trying to
coach him to his first National win. One of the top stock birds at the
Pettswood loft is the pencil blue cock, a direct son of Albert’s 1st.
open N.F.C. Pau winner, Champion ‘Hermes’, who has bred many winners for
David Bacon. Dave says, that you need a good family, to be consistent at the
long distance and Albert Bennett has one of the best.
Silk
Eric’s Pride’.
I recently
received an email from Ged Hinchliffe of Glossop, telling me about his great
Saintes / Pau pigeon, ‘Silk Eric’s Pride’:
I thought you
might be interested in a few details on our six year old pencil blue cock,
‘Silk Eric’s Pride’, winner of 1st section K, 13th.
open N.F.C. Saintes / Pau and named in memory of the late, great Eric Fox of
Bakewell. He is of our own family, which has taken 25 years to establish,
being based on our original direct Vanhee pigeons, obtained in the 1970’s
and introductions from my very good friends, Eric and David Fox of Bakewell.
This game blue cock is our fourth section winner, also winning several times 2nd.
section and we are proud of the fact that flying deep in to the Derbyshire
hills, we have won well over 200 National flying Club and M.N.F.C. prizes. The
sire of ‘Silk Eric’s Pride’ is ‘Silk Courageous Lad’, winner of 2nd.
section K. Pau (701 miles) in 1995 and his dam is a stock hen bred by Eric and
David Fox, from their very best long distance bloodlines. ‘Silk Eric’s
Pride’ has previously won 12th. section K. Saintes, 14th.
section K. Saintes and has flown San Sebastian (700 miles).
Congratulations
to F. Hinchliffe & sons on their wonderful performance in this season’s
Saintes / Pau National. Great stuff!
A phone call
from the President.
I was sitting
watching Coronation Street the other night and my ‘dog and bone’ rang. On
getting up from my armchair, I said to my wife, Betty, ‘ who can this be,
every one in pigeon racing, knows not to ring here when Coronation Street is
on the box’. I lifted the receiver and a chirpy voice on the other end said
‘Hallo mate, how are you, could you include something in your next
‘NATIONAL FORUM’ for me please’? It was my ol’ mucker, Bill Harris,
and needless to say, the President is not a Coronation Street fan!
Bill asked me to
relay his words and he said, ‘I recently had the pleasure of visiting the
Wiltshire home of our first International winner, Brian Sheppard, and the
reason for my visit was to oversee the sample of droppings being taken from
Champion ‘Legend’. These samples from Brian’s loft and the four birds he
clocked from Dax, were to be taken and tested in Belgium. I am pleased to tell
you that I have had communication from Belgium and all tests carried out were
negative. Our congratulations from all the N.F.C. members to Brian Sheppard,
on his wonderful Dax International success and also to Anna Crowley and
Richard Green, who are confirmed as 2nd. open International. Well
done! I have received a letter from Albie Deakon of Waterlooville, informing
the club that he is relinquishing the I.C. role of the Portsmouth clock
station. I would like to thank Albie and Jan for their help and dedication
over the years. At the time of writing there will not be a clock station at
Portsmouth for the Young Bird and Old Hens race. If anybody would like to run
the clock station, please contact the N.F.C. secretary, Sid Barkel, or myself.
The club has started receiving entries for the Young Bird and Old Hens
National, to be staged from France in early September.. Good luck, to all,
that enter! As you can imagine over the Pau National weekend I, and several
committee members, received many phone calls regarding the race. I have asked
the club’s race controllers, Ray Barrington and Roger Sutton, along with
chief convoyer, Colin Bates, to compile a report on the race, for submission
to both the British Homing World and the Racing Pigeon papers’.
Well that’s it
for another ‘NATIONAL FORUM’. Any good club news, please let me have it on
Tele: 01372 463480 or Email: keithmott@btopenworld.com
