Copied from Facebook 15th October 2025
Solway Federation Fancier of the year is David Little of Hoddom Fc(Ecclefechan).
Top guy, top fancier and above all the best club member you could wish for. Well done Davie from all the members of the Fechan.
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Davie Little from Hoddom is the Solway Federation East Section Fancier of the Year for 2025. Davie’s wife, Margaret, who is regrettably now deceased, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Ferguson who initially kept pigeons at Cummertrees, being members of Brydekirk Club and subsequently moved to live at Ecclefechan then becoming members of Hoddom Club. In time they took Davie into the partnership with them and whilst Jimmy continued to take an interest in the pigeons, the loft title was changed to Mrs. Ferguson and D. Little. Some years later Jimmy Ferguson unfortunately died and with the loft remaining in Mrs. Ferguson’s garden, Davie and Margaret’s son, John took control of the pigeons with Mrs. Ferguson and Davie in the background offering meaningful encouragement and advice. The loft flourished in John’s hands gaining a succession of good results from the Classics. Amongst the positions gained were 1st Open S.N.F.C. Vire, 2nd Open Frome and 1st National Hen, 2nd Section 5th Open Reims, 4th Section 5th Open Chenoise, 2nd Section 2nd Open Alencon, 1st Section Bovingdon, 1st Section 2nd Open Marlborough etc. etc. Two pigeons of particular note were ‘Mary’s Choice’ and Little Miss Darci’. ‘Mary’s Choice, which won the Vire National, was in fact a full sister of the pigeon that was 2nd Open Frome. John purchased a Verheye performance cock in response to an advert in the pigeon Press. At that time he worked for David Jamieson who for a time lived at Annan but now resides in Bathgate. When the Verheye arrived, John showed him to David, who went into his loft and selected a hen to couple to him, which had been bred by Derrick Nordon from Langholm. The Verheye cock and the Derrick Nordon hen proved to be a magical stock pair and left a number of winners including the 1st and 2nd Open National. Blue Chequer hen ‘Little Miss Darci’ was a superb pigeon and in 2009 came close to winning the S.N.F.C. Blue Riband event from Alencon when she was 2nd Section 2nd Open. She was home bred from a pair of pigeons that were purchased from Andy Gregson at Blackpool. John took a real fancy to the Sire at the Blackpool Show and Andy selected a hen to pair to it. The cock was actually raced by Andy Gregson, before John bought him and he scored on a number of occasions through to Fourgeres, 378 miles. He gained 1 x 2nd, 1 x 3rd, 2 x 5th and 2 x 6th in the Club and 1 x 15th Federation. The two pigeons purchased from Andy were bred in different years but were identically bred, the Sire and Dam of which were both bred by Jac.Van Der Wegen from Steenbergen. Contained within both sides of the pedigree was the famous ‘De Barcelona’. In 2010 ‘Darci’ went back to the Gold Cup race and was once more up with the winners, gaining 5th Section 20th Open. On this occasion she won the Joe Murphy Sporting Challenge. She didn’t get to the National in 2011 but came good again in 2012 when she was 5th Section 130th Open Clermont and secured an S.N.F.C. Silver Award. In 2013 she went back to Alencon and was once more up with the leaders to be 3rd Section 36th Open. She proved also to be a good breeder, consider for example that in 2015 John was 3rd Section 5th Open Alencon with a direct daughter. The years moved forward and John moved residence to Annan and commuted each day to the loft. In time, however, he stood back from the loft at Ecclefechan with Davie moving into the void, forming a team of pigeons in the original shed and joining Hoddom Club in his own name. During the season past, racers were housed in the original loft in Mrs. Ferguson’s garden with the stock birds being kept in a dedicated stock shed in Davie’s own garden. Pigeons enter the loft through the door passing over an ETS Pad situated on the floor adjacent to a small door used for trapping that has been built into the base of the main door. Pigeons are worked on a bare board system with the shed being scraped clean every day. The team comprises a mix of popular bloodlines, he currently houses ten pairs of stock pigeons and 28 racers. All pigeons were coupled the week after Blackpool Show, racers reared at least one youngster and were then separated from their mates and worked on the Roundabout method. They had two or three pre-season training tosses and were then lifted
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into the first race, thereafter going every week through the programme. They were not basket trained during the racing season and exercised at home around the shed. During the season past he bred forty youngsters, which were worked on the conventional method. The plan is, if in good feather, that the youngsters go through the Federation programme, which in 2025 terminated at Lymm. All pigeons are fed in troughs on the floor. Davie is a right nice person who has been involved in our hobby for a long number of years. With respect to selection he knows exactly what he is looking for and importantly he knows also how to race them, evidenced by the succession of good results he has achieved. Significantly also I was told that “he is a hard working club member and so dependable, a real go to guy if anything needs done“. I compliment him on winning the Solway Federation East Section Fancier of the Year Trophy for 2025.
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