Rooster J. Cogburn

will try later. A lot of big names on it. Still not mastered this print screen thing and my scanner is goosed.

not a kick in the baws off 11grand in today's money. Top dollar!!

SNFC Rennes 1979 7268birds libbed at 0545 in a NW Wind

Ah right. I may do, will see what's happening at the time. It's a good wee gathering to get out the house for a wee while whilst it's still getting dark early. Nights beginning to stretch now though. No long til we'll be counting down the weeks to the racing in single figures

Couldn't make the feeding on Monday night, probably see you this Monday coming. Guinness and Harwood will be back on the scene tae I'd imagine

I wasnae talking about you Derek, re read the post- I said successful fliers :lol::lol: Nah, you're probably right derek and will be saving yourself a few bob

You might be onto something John, I'm sure it was the unsuccessful fanciers that had won f * ck all they asked to contribute to the pigeon yearbooks back then I'm the opposite from you and have never met a top flier that uses nothing except clean water,clean feed and grit. By supplements don't think I mean the top fanciers I've met have birds that are off their ti ts on dope, or pumped full of antibiotics. I just haven't met any successful flier that gives nothing but clean water,food and grit 365days a year.Some give clean water,clean feed and grit some or even a lot of the time, but not all the time. Any good flier I've heard say contrary I assume is lying or withholding the truth. It doesn't make them bad people either-doo folk tell lies, it's part of the fun In keeping with what delboy says in post #60- I know a lot of people who win heehaw that use everything out. No supplement,potion,tonic etc. etc. etc. is a substitute for good pigeons well managed.

Funny you should ask, as in the house I have a book "The Homing Pigeon Annual-1913", 103 years old and there isn't any less adverts in it for supplements than this year's stud book. I've read a few of the articles in it as well and many of them were using codliver oil(not clean feed), Epsomulsion Capsules-what's that?,sulphate of soda(not clean water) etc. one of them even discovered that youngsters on the wing in February didn't moult as quickly as those hatched in April-some right clever c * nts back then. I'll look through the book this evening and find more of the things they added to the water and put on the food 103years ago, as the ones mentioned are just from memory.

yer baws

Some top fliers/liars on this site Of course there is no substitute for good pigeons well managed,but did the top fanciers of yesteryear even just use clean water,clean food,grit and ventilation? Agree there are some overpriced products out there that may well be a waste of money, but I'm sure not all the products on the market are bad. Is there owt wrong with using supplements sensibly? I don't think so. Surely it's just trying to give/do the best for your pigeons?

I posted it on an old picture thread a while back. Also some photos of R & W Section winners and an old write up. Great photo of some of Scottish pigeon racing's icons . True legends of the game.

happy birthday John, hope it's a goodyin.

Is it werewolves yer breeding or somethin Peter?haha

JOHN ELLIS OF WELLBANK Part 3 by Lewis McCalley 'Wellbank Blueboy'. Bred and raced by John Ellis. 114th Open SNRPC Arras 2010, 76th Open SNRPC Reims 2011, 171st Open SNRPC Arras 2011, 19th Open SNRPC Reims 2012, 9th Open SNFC Alencon 2013. The only bird in Scotland to have featured in the top 20 open from both the SNRPC Gold Medal and the SNFC Gold Cup races. A son of 'Wellbank Princess' - 5 times a national prizewinner (incl. twice 1st Region in the SNRPC). 'Wellbank Blueboy' contains the blood of many of John's reference pigeons: Jack the Lad, The Hooper Hen, the Dark Hen, the Fox Cock etc. So as I don’t risk putting the cart before the horse as they say, I’ll look at some of John’s best birds from the 80s and 90s that also make up the breeding of his present day champions in addition to the ‘Hooper Hen’ and the ‘Fox Cock’ both of which I’ll go into later on. In the Ellis loft during the 1980s three super breeding hens arose with their influence still going strong in 2014. Due to their own successes from the SNFC’s classic race points they found the loft names; the ‘Sartilly Hen’, the ’Nantes Hen’ and the ’Blue Rennes Hen’. Starting with the ‘Sartilly Hen’ she was bred from the ‘Wellbank Pride’ line with both her sire and dam being grandchildren of great 1965 8th Open Rennes winner. The ‘Sartilly Hen’ was a steady bird with her best performance being 48th open SNFC from Sartilly, only bird into the federation on the day of liberation. More importantly her children turned out to be good producers with the most noted of her grandchildren being the 1992 SNFC Gold Award winning hen ‘Wellbank Reliable’. This hen is the youngest Gold Award winner in the history of the Scottish National Flying Club, having scored from France on five occasions before she was four years old-her highest open position being 8th from Sartilly. The Sartilly Hen Wellbank Reliable - SNFC Gold Award winner 1992 The grand dam on the other side of this record breaking hen was in fact the ‘Blue Rennes Hen’. It’s fairly obvious how this hen’s loft name came about considering she scored from Rennes in the 1985, 86 and 87 seasons. Although her daughter’s greatest contribution to the loft could be considered breeding of a Gold Award winner, she herself was 4th Open SNFC Sartilly in 1988 and was one of the birds that helped earn John Ellis one of the ‘jewels in the crown’ of an extraordinary tenure in pigeon racing. It was the 1988 season in which John won the Telfer award for the best average in all SNFC races becoming the furthest north loft in Scotland to have done so- flying close to 100 miles further than the first drop. The feat was almost repeated the following season, leading the averages with 3 or 4 hours to spare going into the last Sartilly he sent 5 birds all of which were previous SNFC prize winners. He clocked at around 10 o’clock that evening but as it transpired he ‘wasnae at the races’. It’s a strange old game is pigeon racing. The Blue Rennes Hen ‘The Nantes Hen’ was tough bit of stuff who over the 1985, 86 and 87 season recorded 43rd, 74th and 52nd open from Nantes at 643 miles. This toughness was passed onto many of her offspring as three direct children from this hen went on to score from Niort at 712miles. Niort as a SNFC race point brought about another of the highlights to this Wellbank loft. In the 1990 race flying the 712miles into a Notheast wind, John Ellis took 16th, 22nd and 44th Open. The Nantes Hen Consider this for a nest pair: The ‘Blue Rennes Hen’ breeds the 4th Open SNFC Sartilly, which in turn breeds the SNFC’s youngest ever Gold Award winning pigeon ‘Wellbank Reliable’. The nest mate of the ‘Blue Rennes Hen’ was purchased at a local sale by SNFC Gold Cup winning fancier Les Mckay from Carnoustie. This cock was producing a lot of good winners for Les and in 1993 John was gifted a red chequer squeaker from him, which grew into the pigeon he called ‘Wellbank Triumph’. This cock in the late 90s took the following positions with the SNFC; in 1995 he was 66th Open Sartilly(1) and 68th Open Sartilly(2), in the seasons 96, 97 and 98 he was 36th Open Rennes, 48th and 127th Open Sartilly. ‘Triumph’ eventually found himself paired to ‘Reliable’ with great success and the nest mate to the ‘Blue Rennes Hen’ continues to impact the loft of Les McKay who keeps winning right out to Saintes at 700 miles. Wellbank Triumph I have been taken aback upon examining the breeding of John’s present day reference pigeons, when seeing the sheer concentration of winning genes it really does bare testimony to John’s abilities as a stockman and serves as a good lesson to any aspiring long distance fanciers-as good a management tool as you are likely to come across is a pen. At the turn of the millennium, from the offspring of the birds previously mentioned, arose the next generation of birds that would keep the Ellis name to the fore. One such bird, who from the photograph’s you will observe is a complete stunner was the blue pied hen who after scoring from the young bird national went on to finish 8th in the Dundee Federation from Beersel in Belgium as a yearling. The following year from France as a two year she was 15th Open SNFC Reims, then as a three year old 82nd open from the same race point. A son of hers which turned out to be most important as a breeder was the great ‘Jack the Lad’. 8th Federation Beersel (yearling), 15th and 82nd Open SNFC Reims. Dam of 'Jack the Lad'. Not that my opinion is worth anything, but my personal favourite of all John’s present day reference pigeons is the ‘Dark Hen’. Steeped in the lines of ‘Reliable’, ’Faithful’, ‘Endurance’, the ‘Nantes Hen’ the 4th open Sartilly, the 1999 30th Open Nantes etc. she was tailor made for the stock loft. In 2004 from the SNFC La Ferte Bernard Gold Cup race she was timed in conditions that matched her colour after sixteen and a half hours on the wing to finish 25th Open. John saw something in this hen and the decision was made to put her by for stock, a decision she has more than repaid him for. Wellbank Faithful - SNFC Gold Award winner 1977 In 1999 a good fancier local to John who went by the name of Bill Gibson ended his time in the sport. He had a smashing blue cock that had finished 174th Open from Rennes as a yearling the season prior, and on Bill finishing up racing John Ellis was made a present of the bird. His performances whilst on Wellbank widowhood in the coming seasons saw him add 217th Open Newbury, 77th Open Lille, 137th Open Messac, 72nd Open Liege and 122nd open Reims to his 174th Open Rennes. The bird was actually bred by Andy Thomson of Duntrune and his son turned out to be equally as good. In fact there was a spell in the club racing when these two cocks, housed in a small widowhood compartment, were pretty much 1st and 2nd to the loft every week. The Bill Gibson Cock When asking any Scots pigeon fancier to name the top racing men in the SNFC it wouldn’t take long for the name of John Ellis to leave their lips, so it was natural he would have similar success when joining the SNRPC. Competing in this club John has won three Gold Awards to date, the first two were in 2007 with ‘Wellbank Lad’ and ‘Wellbank Lass’. One interesting thing to observe about these pigeons is they both featured on the SNFC Clermont (541miles) result in 2002 as yearlings, winning 50th and 58th Open respectively. ‘Wellbank Lad’ went on to great things with his wins including 20th Open Chalot (659 miles) and 13th Open St Nazaire (648miles). Between the SNFC Gold Cup and the SNRPC Gold medal races ‘Wellbank Lass’ was 4 times in the first 87 and 3 times in the first 45, with her best position being 1st Region 4th Open Alencon in 2006. Wellbank Lass - SNRPC Gold Award winner 2007 In the third SNRPC Gold Award we again see the Andy Thomson influence. This lovely chequer pied hen named ‘Andy’s Hen’ was purchased by John at a local sale and amongst her five positions in the first 66 open was 23rd Chalot, 16th Open St Nazaire and 9th Open Lessay (14 days later). John has been particularly impressed with these introductions from Andy Thomson and another to have made an impact was a grizzle hen who was bred down from the late Bob McCue’s 18th Open SNFC La Ferte Bernard and also contained the bloodlines of Jim Cullen from Uddingston. This hen was five times a winner over the channel; she was 57th Open in the commemorative Ypres race in 2008 and went on to be 5th open Andrezel the following year. In the three season to follow she took 36th, 77th and 66th in the Reims Gold Medal event. Andy's Hen - SNRPC Gold Award winner 2009 In 2003 Jim Hooper, who at that time was secretary of the BBC, asked John if he could have some birds down from his old Endurance lines. John obliged and in return Jim sent him a pair steeped in 600 and 700 mile bloodlines from the BBC stud, which is made up from the lines of only the best multiple performance pigeons from the Spanish race points. The hen of the pair in particular turned out to be a goldmine at stock and when paired to ‘Jack the Lad’ bred nothing but winners. As a yearling ‘Jack the Lad’ was 9th Open Falaise having been timed at close to 22:30 on the day of liberation. The following year this cock supplied John with one of his biggest disappointments to date in pigeon racing. From the Reims Gold Medal race he was 43rd Open, a great performance but considering he was found in the loft when John went to shut up for the evening plagued his thoughts for some time. How long had he actually been there? There were only a couple of occasions when John’s eyes left the loft that night one of them being when he fed the youngsters and the other being on the arrival of some friends to watch the race. In hindsight one of them heard the squeak of a youngster being fed on his arrival and when the bird was found later that night he was on his nest with the satisfied young bird. Just where he would have finished up on the result, we will never really know. Hooper Hen pedigree One thing we can be sure of is that his children when paired to the Hooper hen were certainly not disappointments and they are well and truly entwined into the current backbone of the loft. It’s hard to pick out a ‘best’ from their children but the two racers that immediately spring to mind are ‘Wellbank Prince’ and ‘Champion Blue’. As a yearling ‘Wellbank Prince’ won 20th Open Portsmouth with the SNRPC. 2008 was to be a great year for this pigeon as not only did he achieve 1st Open SNRPC Wanstead Flats he was 25th Open in the Reims Gold Medal three weeks later. On one of my visits to John’s I had the pleasure of meeting his good friend Grant Caird, who happened to be 2nd Open to Prince that day from Wanstead Flats. Grant, who races in Monitfieth, was actually on the phone to John informing him he’d just timed when Prince dropped; the bird wasn’t the only thing that dropped as the phone made a quick exit from John’s hand. When the three of us were sitting in the living room a photo on the bookshelf caught my eye that featured John holding with pride a 24lb salmon he had caught. When I asked John about his interest in fishing Grant Caird informed me that John is “lucky at that taeâ€. ‘Wellbank Prince’ was a bird who scored in six national races and his other prizes were 66th Open Wanstead Flats, 56th Open Reims and 13th Open Arras. A real super doo, as was his full brother ‘Champion Blue’ who won from the very start taking a couple of first prizes as a youngster and winning 100th Open in the YB National. As a yearling he was 38th Open Arras, 78th Open Reims as a two year old but it was when as a three year old he really came into his own winning 18th Open SNRPC Reims (572miles) and 3rd Open from the Tours race (650miles) 14 days later. As will be fairly clear to you by now John Ellis certainly isn’t afraid to send a good pigeon to France twice in the same season and this technique has provided him with many successes over the decades. This pair ‘Jack the Lad’ and ‘Hooper Hen’ have not only provided John with some of his best racers of the last 10 years but can be attributed to producing some of his best breeding pigeons, which include Prince himself who when paired a daughter of John Duthie’s great Gold Award cock bred ‘Wellbank Surprise’ who was 1st Region 4th Open SNRPC Arras. Wellbank Prince John Duthie is without doubt one of the top fanciers in the UK at the present time and the pair have exchanged birds over the past few seasons to their mutual advantage. When considering the impact the Ellis bloodlines have made on Scottish pigeon racing in this decade alone, John Duthie must be mentioned as over the past four seasons the Ellis bloodlines have featured in both his SNFC King’s Cup winners as well as Frank Baillie’s 2012 SNRPC Gold Medal winning cock. In 2006 whilst looking through the BHW John came across an advert in which a fancier was selling cock birds bred in the lofts of Eric Fox and Son. Having been a long admirer of the terrific partnership from Bakewell, he phoned the man up and was able to purchase three of his Fox birds. One was lost in the attempt to break them to the loft and the other two have proved to be a quite fantastic introduction, in particular the 2003 rung chequer cock ‘08949’. This cock when paired to the earlier mentioned ‘Dark Hen’ make up what John recognises as his No.2 pair. Again it’s winners galore from this pair the most notable of them being the marvellous blue pied hen ‘Wellbank Princess’, who as a yearling was 1st Region, 5th Open SNRPC Portsmouth, as a two year old was 71st open Wanstead Flats and 1st Region 3rd Open Arras then as a three year old was 42nd Open Reims and 26th Open Lillers. Wellbank Princess When paired to a son of the ‘Jack the Lad’/‘Hooper Hen’ mating she has produced nest mates John refers to as the £1000 pair on account of the prize money this brother and sister have won. The hen of the pair ‘Little Princess’ was 1st Region 2nd Open SNRPC Wanstead Flats and the cock ‘Wellbank Blueboy’ is arguably the best racing bird in the Ellis loft at this moment in time. Aside from recent introductions from the already mentioned Andy Thomson and John Duthie, pigeons to have found their genes into some of the Ellis Winners have come from John’s great friends Jimmy and Derek Anderson-who have been a great help to John in recent years, the late Jimmy Hamilton of Kennoway who rose to prominence with ‘Nan’s Pride’ and Wilf Flockart from Tranent. Fox Cock pedigree The Dark Hen The 2013 season proved to be another good one for John who is now approaching 85 years of age. On top of having a great season in the Leuchars Club and the Kingdom Association, John as usual featured highly from the channel races with the SNRPC and back again with the SNFC. As a matter of interest John joined the Leuchars Club and the Kingdom Association in 2005 and this is something he has felt has benefited him and his young pigeons, in as much as being approximately 25 miles further on than the majority of the members, his birds aren’t getting dropped off on the door step and are having to work home for the last part of the journey either on their own or in small batches, which of course they will have to do at some point if they are to feature on a national result in John’s part of the country. The last weekend of June 2013 was a good one up in Wellbank. From the SNRPC Reims Gold Medal race that weekend John took 22nd and 66th Open, whilst in the SNFC Alencon Gold Cup race he finished 9th and 20th Open. The blue cock named ‘Wellbank Blueboy’ whose breeding I mentioned earlier is something a bit special. He is now the only pigeon in Scotland to have featured in the top 20 Open from both the SNRPC Gold Medal and the SNFC Alencon races. His wins are: 114th Open SNRPC Arras 2010, 76th Open SNRPC Reims 2011, 171st Open SNRPC Arras 2011, 19th Open SNRPC Reims 2012 & 9th Open SNFC Alencon 2013. The 2nd pigeon to the Ellis loft from Alencon taking 20th Open is definitely one he thinks will go to be a good bird in the future. She was twice a first prize winner as a young bird, flew Arras as a yearling before scoring from the Gold Cup race this year as a two year old. She is actually off a full brother to Blueboy when paired to daughter of John Duthie’s Gold Award winning cock. Another of John’s notable highlights in 2013 came from the SNRPC Troyes race flown on the 6th and 7th of July. There were only 62 birds in the convoy for race which was 639 miles to Wellbank, and although it would be preferable flying in numbers John was particularly impressed with the pigeons who made this result as the distances they’d have had to have covered on their own would be phenomenal. John’s timer was a single entry, his 5 year old chequer cock now named ‘Wellbank Expected’. This hardy old doo took 6th Open having previously been 88th Open from both Wanstead Flats and Arras and 46th Open Reims. This cock is direct John‘s dark pied hen that was 9th open SNRPC Reims in 2008 when she was paired to a grandson of the SNRPC Gold Award winning cock Wellbank Lad. Wellbank Lad - SNRPC Gold Award winner 2007 These are just a few of the highlights from John’s last year in pigeon racing and I’m as sure as ever there will be similar achievements from these top pigeons in the coming 2014 race season. The lofts at the back of John’s Wellbank home have survived since 1961 with only minor modification, whereas once the old bird loft and the young bird loft were separate at present they are joined up with a feed store which doubles as sitting area, when the Scottish weather isn’t at its kindest. Having never been a scraper man the emphasis is on dryness and ventilation. When John was a bit younger he’d think nothing of keeping 40 pairs of racers or more, but now in his 80s he likes to make things bit of easier on himself and for the last few seasons he has started the season with approximately 25 pairs of old birds and will take around 30-40 youngsters for his own use. After explaining John’s ideas on how young birds should be raced earlier on in the report many of you may be wondering if he operates a form of darkness or light system, he tells me no such thing has ever been attempted and he rarely fails to win a few 1sts in the club and score from the YB national. It’s rare these days that he experiences the heavy losses we hear fanciers reporting up and down the country each season. He must be doing something right? I’ve explained John’s favoured nest conditions for both his cocks and hen birds but he won’t get too hot under the collar if things don’t quite work out and many of the old birds who have scored in up to as many as three national races in a season can do so regardless of nest condition. John has dabbled with the birds on a form of widowhood and enjoyed a lot of good racing and found the birds tended to exercise well around home on this method; however the majority of the success especially over the water has come with birds left to their own devices on an open loft all day. During the summer months the young birds and the old birds will be allowed out at the same time, the main advantage of this being the young birds keep the old birds ‘on the stoat’ and if anything happens to go wrong in the form of a hawk attack or the like, the old birds tend to have a calming influence on the young birds and prevent them scattering to the four winds. As the years have gone one John has chosen to rely less on the training the birds by road, but he tends to race them a bit more often. Where before his main national pigeons would have around three or four races as part of their preparation, nowadays they’ll receive six or seven but perhaps more if he feels it necessary. This change certainly hasn’t been to the detriment of the results. On the occasions John does train the birds it’s often from his daughter Joan’s who stays in Kirkliston which is around 40 miles to Wellbank, with the hawk problem he has found it best if the birds are released in smaller groups usually consisting of three or four birds. Son of the Bill Gibson Cock With regards to feeding and treatments John couldn’t be described as a faddist. Traditionally he made up his own mixes from predominantly beans, wheat and maize but with John Duthie’s feeding being so close to hand, in recent seasons he has chosen this option using mainly Swainstons, Countrywide and Versele Laga. In 2013 the birds were raced on Versele Laga pro breeding and racing and of course received their supplementary peanuts. It was interesting to note that John’s pigeons up until 2013 hadn’t received any treatments (outside the compulsory PMV jag) for around 15 years, this season he tried out the Harkers 3 in 1 before pairing and the results as per the norm proved to be more than satisfactory. One product he is a fan of is the Aviform Ultimate which is administered in the water regularly, although he has found out recently from a friend that he has been giving it to the birds at around half the recommended dosage for the last decade. As far as advice this veteran of Scottish long distance racing can offer to those interested in achieving similar feats he explained it is in no way cut and dry. For starters he feels it’s a must to begin with the correct bloodlines. I’ve already gone over the way John races youngsters, but he really does attach a lot of importance to getting the young pigeons out as far as he can in the year of their birth. When it comes to 600+mile racing he feels your best bet is to have let the pigeon see a fair bit of France, with two or three 450-500 + mile races before testing them at greater distances. Wellbank Expected. 88th Wanstead Flats, 46th Reims, 88th Arras and in 2013 6th Open Troyes (639 miles). He has been named 'Wellbank Expected' as he was sent to Troyes in 2013 as John's only entry. His mother was 9th Open Reims and his father is a grandson of 'Champion Blue' 4 times a prizewinner from France including 18th Open Reims (580 miles) and 3rd open Tours (650 miles) 14 days later. He is down through John's old Endurance line, Endurance having been 88th and 27th Open BBC Palamos (1044 miles) - winner of a gold medal, Harkers Rosebowl, BBC Trophy and the Gordon Hare cup. John hasn’t kept in the best of health over the last 3-4 years, but his outlook is just as positive as when I first met him a few years ago. He tries to remain as active as possible and has said to me on a couple of occasions it’s the pigeons that are keeping him living. I don’t doubt this but one thing the pigeons aren’t doing is keeping all his body parts intact. On cutting a point onto post whilst mending the aviary on the ‘pensioners’ shed recently John had an incident involving a circular saw. Without going into too much detail he won’t be playing too much of the old fiddle over the next few weeks. Get well soon Jock. Drawing to a close now I’d like to thank John for giving me the opportunity to learn of his pigeons and compile this write up. It’s been an honour and a privilege spending time with, in my eyes, one of the great pigeon fanciers and his lovely wife Patricia. I can only hope I have done these wonderful birds and this exceptional man justice, and that some people may find this loft report a fraction as interesting to read as I have found putting it together. Wishing you all the best in 2014 season

JOHN ELLIS OF WELLBANK Part 2 by Lewis McCalley John in his loft coat! When asked about his biggest thrill in pigeon racing, John Ellis has a lot to consider. The one he came back to was of course the night he timed his great strawberry mealy hen ‘Wellbank Pride’ from Rennes (584 miles) back in 1965. After a one day holdover the birds were up at 0615 in a NW wind and a hard race ensued. John and his father had been informed of pigeons down in the borders around Lockerbie and Annan with the earliest being Billy Gardener with ‘Sky Queen’ at 19:38. As time went on they found themselves losing faith, the night was falling and the crows were heading to roost when out of the darkness appeared this great hen to be timed at 22:32 and take 1st East Section, 8th Open. The phone never stopped ringing until after 3am that night; many fanciers sent their congratulations and some of the Fife lads actually believe they saw the hen going over. Her sire was the product of the original Matt Telfer eggs containing the Strachan/Shearer bloodines whilst the dam was a gift bird from Jock Brown of Ed Harrow lineage. In her yearling season prior to her Rennes performance the hen was 2nd North of Scotland Championship club from Worcester, whilst the previous year as a youngster she was 31st Section in the Usher National race from Cheltenham (321 miles). At this point it is interesting to note the roadwork John Ellis gives his young pigeons. From the very beginning he has believed firmly in giving the youngsters a good grounding, sending them to as many races and as far as possible. This is something he has practised from the start and in fact most of his youngsters in the 2013 season competed in both the SNRPC Peterbourgh and SNFC Leicester races. John with Wellbank Pride the day after she was 8th Open SNFC Rennes in 1965 Later in the 1960s to supplement his now winning family of birds a few more introductions were made in the form of birds from Jock Reid of Stenhousemuir, Duncan Ogilvie of Stirling, A. R Hill of St Just, Dave Liddle of Forfar and Hutton of Leslie. John had gifted Jock Reid a bird from his good pair- ‘4985’ and the ‘bent Keeled Hen’. One day when taking the birds on a training toss with his mother and father the decision was made to go to Stenhousemuir to liberate the birds and to visit Jock and Hughie Reid. Jock Reid who was very impressed with the youngster he had received from Wellbank, told John he could take whatever he wanted. John explained that what he wanted was what Jock Reid had given Nash in the form of their 1966 SNFC Gold Cup winner ‘Daphne’s Delight’. After a bit of gentle coaxing Jock and Hughie agreed and John headed back up the road with a full brother to ‘Daphne’s Delight’ straight out of the nest. The sire of these pigeons was a bird Jock Reid had received as a gift from S.W.E Bishop and contained many of the top European lines as chosen for Jos Vandenbroucke by the master selector Piet De Weerd. The dam of ‘Daphne’s Delight’ and John’s blue cock was Lot 3 at the dispersal sale of J.W. Langstone and was closely related to ‘Cinderella’ the star of his Delbar based family. Later John was gifted another pigeon from the Reids - a granddaughter of their famous ‘Hastings Hen’. Wellbank Endurance The odd thing about both of the Reid pigeons was when paired to examples of John’s own family they didn’t really produce anything worth note. The true value of these birds was revealed in their offspring when they were paired to one another. The main exception being the good hen ‘Patricia’ who amongst her performances was 9th Open SNFC Beauvais, winning the Vaux Usher trophy for first bird north of the Tay a well as winning 85th Section from Avranches and flying Pau (915miles) with the NFC, finishing just 2ypm off the result. This hen was bred from the Reid Cock when paired to a Hutton hen, which also carried the bloodlines of J.W Langstone. ‘Patricia’ was named after John’s wife and the year of her 9th open Beauvais was the year the pair married. Patricia has shied away from a big mention in this report, but I’d like to express my thanks to her. I’ve enjoyed her company on my visits to Wellbank and she is a wonderful cook. She was a great help to John in the days when he was all over the country with the band and would willingly shut the loft or take the birds for a training toss. Being married to a man like John for all these years hasn’t been without it trials mind you, and she has informed me if he doesn’t die of natural causes it will be murder. Patricia Duncan Ogilvie who was well associated with Jock Reid was a great fancier who as well as winning 4th Open SNFC Nantes took 1st, 2nd and 3rd with ‘Mary’, ‘Irene’ and ‘Tib’ from the Scottish Central Combine Dol race in 1965. It was an Ogilvie pigeon that was the dam of John’s ‘Wellbank Faithful’ who had the same sire as ‘Wellbank Pride’. The Gold Award was introduced to the SNFC in 1975 as a way of recognising pigeons that have scored 5 times from France, winning a section prize on each occasion. It didn’t take John long to win one as it was in 1977 when Faithful picked up this prize. There have been a number of exceptional fanciers that have visited Wellbank over the years and arguably none more so than Arthur Hill. It was through Duncan and Sandy Ogilvie John Ellis first met Arthur, the pair brought him up to see John and his birds. Wanting to repay the gesture John gave Arthur a call when down visiting Harold Davey and Stan Cecil in Kent, asking if he could come to St. Just to see him. Arthur welcomed the visit but exclaimed he wouldn’t be much quicker coming from Kent than he would from Dundee. After getting the train to London, John set off for Cornwall and on his arrival at St. Just handled birds in the class of ‘Cornish Supreme’, ‘Double Award’, ‘Silver Lady’ and many descendants from the world famous Galabank colony of Johnny Kirkpatrick. One of the birds John Ellis received from A.R Hill was actually sire to one of the cocks he recorded from Rennes as a youngster with the BBC, a distance of 583 miles when only months old. Mealy cock - flew Rennes (580 miles) with the BBC in 1972 Dave Liddle was a top class long distance fancier and John recalls his birds excelling when the chips were down and the wind was blowing from the northeast. At one time he held the record within the SNFC for the greatest distance flown on the day of liberation - 650 miles with his 2nd Open Nantes hen. This record was subsequently taken by the legendary Ritchie and Whyte partnership, whose ‘Jubilee Express’ flew 723miles on the day of liberation. You’d have to doubt this record will ever be broken into Scotland. John Ellis had approached Dave Liddle at the end of the season hoping to buy a pair of birds. Nothing more was heard on the matter and naturally John thought he wasn’t going to get the pigeons, until out of the blue he received a phone call the following spring and was invited to Forfar to take his pick. When enquiring about the cost of the birds John was told it would cost him 30 shillings, thinking Dave meant ‘each’ he went into his pocket and brought out £3 to be told it was 30 shillings for the pair. This turned out to be some bargain as these made a big impact on the Wellbank loft. In years to come the pair would exchange birds and Dave always liked a couple of early bred youngsters from John. One bird John received from Dave would win 43rd Open Nantes and go on to fly the channel every year until she was 10, winning 96th Open Avranches at 9 years old. The Liddles not unlike the Ogilvies are well-known in Scottish pigeon racing and although the men mentioned are no longer with us their names live on through their grandchildren who feature regularly on the national results these days. Aside from the already mentioned ‘Patricia’, the Hutton of Leslie Dr Anderson based pigeons made a further impact. Particularly a cock John had on loan, which he paired to a granddaughter of ‘4985’ and ‘The Bent Keeled Hen’. This mating produced Wellbank Star who was 65th OpenEast of Scotland Continental Club Avranches and three times in the first 75 Open SNFC in cross channel competition including 5th open Nantes. Wellbank Star Such is John’s record it would not be feasible to list all the results and performances. For instance one could fill a page or two with the performances of only eight of his pigeons that have won forty prizes from across the channel between them. However there are many of John’s birds from the 1960s and 70s that are worth a mention. ‘Wellbank Favourite’ is one such bird, being closely related to old No.1 cock ‘4985’ she turned out to be a super racer, crossing the channel on six occasions winning 17th Open Beauvais(first bird north of the Tay) and 22nd Open Nantes as an 8 year old. Another would be the ‘£1000 hen’ who was down through the grandson of ‘Tayside Princess’ and the Dave Liddle lines. This top hen was 11th Fed Avranches, 12th and 174thOpen SNFC Rennes. Another of the birds from ‘4985’ x ‘The Bent Keeled Hen’ was 15th Open SNFC Nantes, the year after her brother was 11th Open. The brother of course being the ‘Paris Cock’ who when paired to ‘Wellbank Star’ turned out to be grandsire of a cock that crossed the channel six times including 15th Open and 20th Open Avranches. This means of listing birds is not really something I should have started as many birds with top 50 SNFC positions will have to be left out, but if it shows anything then I suppose it’s John’s ability to win equally well with both cocks and hens. Aside from the Scottish National Flying Club, John Ellis made an impact on the results of the British Barcelona Club. In 1968 from Palamos he was able to record a bird from the 1044 mile journey. This was a red cock bred by John’s good friend Stuart Young. John has asked me to mention Stuart as the pair have been great friends for many, many years. John actually showed me some cracking photos taken outside Stuart’s loft of them posing with some of Stuart’s own SNFC flying club awards and trophies. This Palamos achievement was written about at the time as one of John’s greatest moments in the sport, this was before the red pied cock ‘Wellbank Endurance’ came along. John's first Palamos pigeon ‘Welbank Endurance’ is one of Scotland’s iconic 1000 milers being 2nd Section, 88th Open BBC Palamos in 1972 and 1st Section, 27th Open BBC from the same race point the following year. For his 27th Open performance John had the honour of attending the BBC presentation in Bournemouth to collect a BBC Gold Medal, the Harkers Rose Bowl, The BBC Trophy and the Gordon Hare Cup for the furthest flying pigeon in race time. It should be noted that the 26 pigeons that beat Endurance in this Palamos event were all flying approximately 400 miles less. This honour has stuck with John as not only was he presented with these trophies but he got to spend time in the company of many of England’s all-time greats from the Spanish race points. One all-time great whose attention ‘Wellbank Endurance’ grabbed was Jim Biss. He purchased the cock for £1000-a lot of money in 1974!! A few years later the cock returned to Wellbank through F. W. S Hall to see out the rest of his days in the home he was obviously so attached to. Mealy Pied hen - 21st Open SNFC Nantes, 643 miles on the day of liberation When visiting a fancier in the calibre of John Ellis, it’s natural to assume there must be a ‘secret’ of some sort. Whereas John doesn’t profess to be doing anything out of the ordinary there is one thing in particular I can see that could be hailed as one of the key reasons for over fifty years of unbroken success. That in one word is - breeding. Although birds are brought into the loft fairly regularly very many of John’s present day winning pigeons are traceable back to these great birds he was flying in the early days. John could be described as fanatical with regards to record keeping and spends many hours in front of the fire on winter evenings studying his books, the lineage of each pigeons and considering possible matings for the forthcoming breeding year. He has what he refers to as his ‘good line’ and he likes to keep this as tight as possible, it’s not unusual for John to pair birds of very similar bloodlines. In fact one of the best pigeons in the loft at the minute ‘Wellbank Blueboy’ has spent 2013 paired to his full sister. For lines introduced into the loft at Wellbank to be bred into the ‘good line’ they must first show to John they are up to the tasks he asks of his own pigeons. Recently a couple of pairs of birds of Jan Aarden stock have been introduced from Louella, John got these as they were birds we all read about so often these days and he is interested to see how they fare against his own pigeons. Whereas these birds have shown a lot of early promise winning club and fed 1sts and scoring from 2013’s Scottish young bird national races, they will not be allowed near the ‘good line’ until they have shown their worth from across the channel. Red Chequer cock - flew Rennes (580 miles) with the BBC in 1973 With regards to keeping a line going for John it’s not just about choosing the correct pairings but it often involves making some difficult decisions. For instance one of John’s recent prolific breeding pairs ‘Jack the Lad’ and the ‘Hooper Hen’ had a habit of breeding cross channel winners in every nest. It would be hard for any fancier not to race a pigeon they believe was almost a dead cert (barring accident) to be a timer from France, but John has children from this pair he has never even put in a basket. The attention paid to the breeding side of things could be one of the reasons why John has achieved all he has in pigeon racing, but there a couple of other factors John cites. The first of these is the use of peanuts. During the race season the birds (old and young) receive a lot of these with the quantity given to each bird being increased with distance of the races. He has told me he doesn’t feel he could race pigeons the way he does without them. Another interest point to rise from one of my conversations with John is the fact he allows his pigeons to rear young all the way through the race season-usually a pair in their first nest and singles thereafter. This he feels is important in terms of motivation and helps ‘tie’ the bird to the loft more or ‘bond’ to their home environment. The other advantage with the birds being left to go through their natural cycle is their owner has more time to observe them and take note of the stages where they display a greater keenness. The loft today I’ve mentioned John’s attitude towards his ‘good line’ so now some more of the birds that have found their way into it in the last 30 years or so. He regards his ‘Hooper Hen’ and the ‘Fox Cock’ as the best birds he has introduced since the ‘Grandson of the Tee’ and the Bostyn X Vereecke hen from the late Bernard Miles back in the early 1980s. John’s contact with Bernard came about through his helping retrieve a stray bird that ended up in Belgium. When the bird was reported John spoke to Captain Tom Buchannan, enquiring about the best way to get the bird back. Tom pointed him the direction of Bernard and a friendship was struck up. Bernard who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the ‘continentals’ purchased birds from many of the best European fanciers. After a time Bernard sent John a pair of birds with one being a grandson of Emiel Denys’ ‘Tee’ who over a five year period was the best Barcelona pigeon in all of Belgium, winning the Golden Wing award in 1982. When crossed into John’s own birds this cock made an immediate impact breeding three Fed winners and a bird for Stuart Young which would breed his 6th Open SNFC Rennes. The Pol Bostyn x Vereecke hen also made a big impact leaving many winners including the chequer cock that was 7th and 106th Open SNFC Sartilly in the 1992 and 1993 seasons. The Tee connection - 7th Open SNFC Sartilly

JOHN ELLIS OF WELLBANK Part 1 by Lewis McCalley John Ellis As long as I’ve known there was such a thing as long distance pigeon racing, a name I’ve held at its very peak is that of John Ellis from Wellbank. I’ve heard him described by fanciers and friends in the sport as;†the pigeon fancier extraordinaireâ€, “a geniusâ€, “a legend in his own lifetime†etc. Whereas the subject of this loft report would certainly play down such terms, I feel for certain that they are justified. With his consistency in Scottish National racing over the past few decades there has never needed to be a particular reason in any given season to highlight the achievements of this ace fancier, but I’ve decided now is as good a time as any. After a lot of the unrest within the Scottish pigeon fraternity these last few years, it gave me a lot of pleasure to see John Ellis’ name back on the SNFC results pages a little over half a century since it first appeared. The 2013 SNFC Gold Cup race flown from Alencon saw John take 9th and 20th Open. Something that has stood out as a bit special to me is a picture of a strawberry mealy hen taken in the mid-60s. The bird, ‘Wellbank Pride’, won 1st east Section 8th Open SNFC Gold Cup Rennes 1965. Here we are some 48 years on and these Wellbank pigeons of John Ellis are still keeping his name at the top. Wellbank Pride John was born in 1929 in the Angus village of Tealing, which lies approximately 6 miles North of Dundee in the east of Scotland. Tealing could be described as a fairly scattered community and with this in mind John recalls having to walk 2 miles to get to and from school as a youngster. It was when still a lad John Ellis was first introduced to pigeons; he’d be 10 or 11 years old at the time. His father, Andrew, worked in the building trade alongside a Mr Scavetti of Broughty Ferry, who happened to be a pigeon fancier. For one reason or another he parted with a few pigeons which ended up in the hands Andrew Ellis. These birds were kept in a hen house with an attached aviary and it wasn’t long before they took the attention of John who remembers there were a number of nice blue bars amongst them. John was constantly pestering his father to let them out to fly, and they eventually did. This resulted in the whole lot disappearing never to be seen again, with the tears of a young John Ellis that day marking the end of his first brief encounter with the doos. The loft of John Ellis is the furthest North of any to have won the Robert Telfer Award for the best average in all SNFC races. It is home to the youngest ever SNFC Gold Award winner as well recording; old birds from the NFC Pau race (915miles), Palamos (1044miles) and young birds from Rennes (583miles) with the British Barcelona club. Like John’s achievements within pigeon racing, his introduction to it could not be described as ordinary. It all started when Andrew was working on a site one day in the late 1950s, they were demolishing an old building when John noticed a pair of feral pigeons, or ‘scuts’ as they are known in that part of the word, with a youngster in the nest. He was able to catch the hen of the pair, which John recalls was a white pigeon, and the squeaker which turned out to be a blue hen. These two birds found residence in the Ellis hen house and so it began. Before going any further it should be noted that as well as being a well-known pigeon fancier, John Ellis is a talented and widely appreciated musician who has spent much of his life leading a first class Scottish Dance Band. This has seen him play alongside some of traditional Scottish dance music’s finest sons, the likes of Sir Jimmy Shand and Bobby McLeod. John’s musical ability has taken him to venues all over the world. This interest started with John Ellis in his early teens. He began playing the fiddle at the age of fourteen, a year later he was in a band and he made his radio broadcast debut as an eighteen year old. A great talent that has given John great pleasure over the years and it doesn’t just stop with the fiddle. John is also an accomplished saxophonist, having learned to play in the early 1950s. It was whilst on national service down in London he took an interest in the saxophone, for two years he had lessons in Soho under the tuition of Harry Hayes, who also happened to teach the famous jazz musician and London nightclub owner club owner Ronnie Scott. In the years afterwards John would occasionally get the saxophone out with his own band. John demonstrating his other passion Besides touring with the band, John worked hard as a landscape gardener. After serving his apprenticeship in the grounds of Ballumbie House he ran a successful landscaping and jobbing garden business right up until three or four years ago. It’s often these days that he’ll bump into an old customer whilst out and about and be told how his arrangements and plants are missed since his retirement. John’s pollytunnels are still in use and although he’s not into anything on a big scale anymore, I can vouch that he can still grow a nice tomato when he feels like it. As green as John’s fingers are I’d have to say Henry Borthwick edges him on the leek and onion front, I’ve bore witness to these things on the Ellis kitchen table and believe me I’ve never seen the likes of it. Back to the doos now and after stumbling into pigeons by accident John’s interest gradually heightened. In 1958 the decision was made to buy a couple of pairs from the local pet shop, not with a view to racing them as such but these birds were to act as feeders for the gifts he was to receive. Although John’s father wasn’t a pigeon fancier his uncle Davie kept around 12 pairs of birds at his home in Duntrune and raced in the Dundee & District Club. It was through his uncle Davie that John Ellis found acquaintance with the top Dundee fancier, Matt Telfer. Matt duly gifted eggs to be hatched and reared in Wellbank, but just as importantly in those early days he took John to visit a number of the prominent racing men north of the River Tay. The pair enjoyed visits at the Forfar lofts of Frank Black and Dave Liddle, Ed Harrow of Broughty Ferry and Jock Brown of Carnoustie, whose pigeons like the men listed, made an impact and played their part in the foundations of John Ellis’ loft. It was to be a cock bird ‘4985’ bred in 1959 from one of the original Telfer eggs, when paired to a red hen received as a gift from Frank Black that John considered to be the father of the loft at that time. The Matt Telfer eggs were direct out of pigeons he had acquired for the great Robert Strachan containing the lines of Dave Shearer of Strathaven, South Lanarkshire. Robert Strachan was a superb fancier and through time, after racing in Invergowrie and in Lanarkshire as partner to the legendary Willie Wilson, he settled in Wellbank. Only racing two gardens down from the Ellis’ loft it was natural the pair would get in tow, it was a great friendship that John enjoyed right up until Robert’s death. Robert’s memory is certainly living on and in pigeon racing terms this is in no small part down to his exceptional performances. In the mid 1950s Robert Strachan flew one of the SNFC’s great Rennes birds, his blue white flight hen ‘Tayside Princess’ was 4th Open Rennes in 1955 and 3rd Open the following season, flying 580 miles on the day of liberation on both occasions. Robert flew many top birds in his time, and one that I’m led to believe gave him a great deal of pleasure was his red cock ‘Starlight Special’, named so on account of him being timed at nine minutes to midnight from Rennes. It’s interesting to note the great number of pigeons John Ellis has timed late at night over the years. Is this a trait carried within the bloodlines or is it down to management? As stated above Bob Strachan flew in partnership with Willie Wilson at one time and the pair remained friends after this arrangement was dissolved. John Ellis was a guest at one of the Lanarkshire Social Circle evenings and sat in the company of Willie and Robert. John learnt something that night that put him in good stead right up to the present day. When discussing how Willie Wilson sent his hens to the cross channel events, he advised John to get them sitting overdue for a few days days and then slip them a small youngster two or three days prior basketing, John has told me if you’ve a good hen and you can get her away to the race like this you’ll rarely miss. As for the cock birds, come basketing John favours a big youngster in the nest with the hen having not long laid. This is a way of preparing birds that has truly stood the test of time in the Ellis loft as both his 9th Open SNFC Alencon 2013 and 6th Open SNRPC Troyes 2013 cocks were sent to these races on this tried and trusted nest condition. John with his parents It’s the Strachan/Shearer line within the Wellbank loft that John has put his faith in time and time again. He is always confident of a time in at the distance when he has birds away off this lineage. Davie Shearer was a wonderful fancier from one of the great Scottish pigeon racing towns, Strathaven. This old market town in South Lanarkshire was at one time home to many of the country’s top long distance lofts. The 1930s saw Strathaven win the SNFC Gold Cup Rennes race on back to back occasions; Frame and Cochrane with their grizzle cock ‘Caledonia’ and the Casey Brothers with their dark chequer cock ‘Hurry On’. Another of the top Strathaven lofts was that of the Bryson Brothers, they were in fact near neighbours of the Shearers and found a lot of success with their pigeons. Their finest hour came when they were to take 1st and 2nd West Section with the SNFC from Nantes. Dave Shearer was a fanatical long distance man, I’ve old results here from as far back as 1930s which show him and his brothers well up amongst the SNFC leaders from Rennes and Nantes. One of their finest performances came from over 700miles when liberated in conjunction with English organisations at Rochefort on the French West Coast the Shearers were 2nd into Scotland narrowly beaten by the McQuarry Brothers from Dollar. The base bloodline of the Shearer loft is said to be Lulham Jurion as well as birds from H J King of ‘Twilight’ fame. ‘Twilight’ is hailed by many as the greatest NFC Pau winner there has ever been, winning the King’s Cup, The Gold Cup and £612 which at that time, 1959, was an English record breaking sum. The name ‘Twilight’ was coined two years previous to her Pau success in a race from Bordeaux (530 miles), it was a dull night and by 2130 there was little daylight, this special bird hit the loft at 2155 to take 4th open NFC and £407 for her owner. Again with this blood in the makeup of the Ellis foundation pigeons it comes as no surprise the fiddler from Wellbank can get them late at night north of the Tay when ‘nae other bugger has yin’. Now on to the Frank Black Red hen, she was of Logan descent and direct from a hen that had been 1st Tayside Federation from Dinard in a smash race. Whereas ‘4985’ turned out to be a prolific breeder in Wellbank at the beginning ,his nestmate also played a significant role being the first pigeon to score for John in cross channel competition, winning 62nd East of Scotland Continental club. In 1959, John’s maiden season, in addition to John’s own reared youngsters he was able to purchase the entire young bird team (20) from a Dundee fancier, D McLeod, who was leaving the sport at that time. These birds also happened to be of Robert Strachan origin and included a grandson of ‘Tayside Princess’ which left his mark at Wellbank. To further strengthen John was presented a hen by Jock Brown of Carnoustie that had been bred in the loft of top Cumbrian fancier, Ed Fell of Workington. This hen in the hands of Jock Brown bred a bird that topped the Tayside Federation from Dol (533miles) and was initially paired to the McLeod grandson of ‘Tayside Princess’ in her first season in Wellbank. Such was the impression this hen made on John, the decision was made to contact Ed Fell in the form of a letter with a view to purchasing a pair of youngsters. Ed Fell was well known for what was referred to as the ABC family- being based around the three pigeons; Ref A -red chequer cock ‘Bar None’, ReF B -red chequer hen ‘Second to None’ and Ref C -Dark Chequer Hen ‘Flying Wonder. These birds were made up from the old strains; Gaffers, Clayton Gits, Barkers and Delmottes with some Jurion blood and the Bricoux lines of Dr Anderson were introduced a bit later on. From Ed, John received a red cock and red hen. On their arrival John noticed a defect in the young hen which took the form of a ‘bent keel’. He duly contacted the Workington fancier to raise the issue, it was explained that the youngster was bred from the pigeon he called ‘Red Queen’ when she was 11 years old and John was reassured by Ed that the youngsters were from his best and if this hen failed to produce the type of bird John was after she would be replaced. As it transpired John had nothing to worry about and this ‘bent keel’ in no way hampered her breeding ability. When paired to ‘4985’ this hen, aptly named ‘The Bent Keeled Hen’, bred numerous winners and such was the prepotency of the pair, many of the present day performance pigeons can be traced back to them. With the foundations in place in the form of ‘4985’, ‘The Bent Keeled Hen’ and birds from the fanciers mentioned it wasn’t long before John Ellis’ name started appearing on the results from the French race points. Looking back on his early days racing, I think it would be right to say John was never really a novice as such. After joining Dundee Club in 1959 and visiting many of the top lofts north of the Tay he adopted the attitude that if their pigeons could do it then there was no reason why his couldn’t. The SNFC was joined in 1962 and although they were some ‘hot’ pigeons up his way from Rennes that season, when he was to time his Jock Brown red cock at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of the second day he felt as if he’d won the national. Back to ‘4985’ and the ‘The Bent Keeled Hen’. The first of their offspring to hit the heights of top SNFC honours was a hen bred in 1960; this hen was to be the only pigeon north of the Tay from Beauvais (533miles) taking 44th Open SNFC and 75th Vaux Usher for her efforts. Her most famous brother was the pigeon known as the ‘Paris Cock’. This hardy looking red cock was bred in 1961 and as a two year old was sent to the East of Scotland Continental Club’s Paris race. The race turned into a smash and by the final clock checking only thirty six pigeons had been timed. It was the evening of the second day’s flying and John had had enough. He told his father the race would still be open into the third day, but in his disappointed state he wasn’t going to bother. The third morning John was woken by his father who informed him there was a red cock home. John’s first words were “have ye timed him in†to which Andrew replied “no, ye told me ye werenae going to botherâ€. John leapt out of bed and slipped on the first clothes that came to hand before running out the door and down to the pigeon loft, where he was to find the ‘Paris Cock’ without a race rubber. As it turned out his father had timed the bird after all, but this is certainly one way to get a pigeon man out his bed in the morning. The cock took 30th Open in the race. The following year the ‘Paris Cock’ was groomed to go to Nantes and luck (both good and bad) were on his side from that race. It was a stiff one with the open winner being timed into Larkhall on the second morning. A cattleman one mile from John’s loft was up early to tend to the beasts and at 6 am came across the ‘Paris Cock’ torn to ribbons (presumably a hawk attack). If things had of turned out differently who knows what the outcome would have been? Many reckon it would have seen John Ellis winning a national in only his third season trying. The bird recovered from his injuries and in 1965 the year of ‘Wellbank Pride’ the ‘Paris Cock’ was the third pigeon to the Ellis loft from Rennes timed at 0806 on the second morning and narrowly missing the result. Rennes was his destination again the following season and although failing to make the result he returned in such good condition the decision was made to send him back to Nantes days later, the cock turned up to finish 11th Open and began a great run for the Wellbank team from this race point at 643 miles. In the four seasons afterwards the loft was to take 15th, 5th, 55th, 22nd and 43rd Open with SNFC. The Paris Cock

Any conversations surrounding top fanciers in Scotland or ‘men to beat’ of the last 30 years will have found the name of John Bosworth effortlessly roll off the tongue. A man Eddie Newcombe once described as “the pigeon fancier extraordinaireâ€. John Bosworth, SNFC Gold Cup winner from Rennes (1997), SNFC young bird national winner from Redditch (1978) and SNFC old bird inland National winner from Eastbourne (2008), is undeniably one of the greats in Scottish pigeon racing’s recent history. Over the past 37 years the Elphinstone loft has won 349 Scottish National Flying club diplomas - 173 of these from races between 427 and 673 miles. He is twice the winner of the Scottish Homing Union Dewar Trophy (1985 and 1993), given to the fancier flying Scotland’s bird of the year. Add to this three gold award winning pigeons, which join the ranks of some of the greatest birds to fly into Scotland, all winning five top prizes each racing from France. Here are some of the positions won at national level since 1975. 3 times 1st open12 times in the top 5 open22 times in the top 10 open48 times in the top 20 open76 times in the top 30 openJohn’s performances in the Scottish National Flying Club over the course of the 2012 season have seen him win no fewer than five of the principal average trophies including the Dr W. Anderson Memorial for best average in our three longest races, the Clive Newcombe memorial trophy for the best average in all six old bird races and the jewel in the crown, The R. Telfer Award, for best average within the club in all seven events flown over the course of the year. This feat saw John secure his section ( and region (East) all race average trophies. John with his trophies won in 2012 The R. Telfer award is very special indeed. Robert Telfer was a great fancier in his in own right racing into the strong Lanarkshire Federation, where I’m told he was the Macaloney of his day. This memorial award was donated by the Telfer family and is arguably the greatest accolade a fancier in Scotland can achieve. On having a look at the trophy close up and reading through the list of past winners it drives home the level one would have to fly at in order to secure this honour. The very first winners of this trophy were the legendary Newcombe Brothers back in 1980 and it has been lifted by a further 20 different competitors since, many of whom are considered to be amongst Scottish pigeon racing’s all-time greats. The club’s archives show there to be eight multiple winners. John Bosworth, Elphinstone - 5 timesRichard Combe, Elphinstone - 3 timesNewcombe Brothers, Macmerry - 2 timesDale Newcombe, Macmerry - 2 timesDerik Norden, Langholm - 2 timesDennis Anderson, Annan - 2 timesScott Gibson, Falkirk - 2 timesCharlie Dickson, Bonnyrigg- 2 timesJohn lifted the award in 1983, 1985, 1995, and 1997 but let’s look at the 2012 record extending campaign where Mr Bosworth was the one of only two lofts in the club to appear on every SNFC result, of which there are seven in total: two inland old bird races which were flown from Cheltenham and Maidstone this season, three French races - The Alencon Gold Cup, Niort and Clermont, Ypres in Belgium and a further inland race for the youngsters, this season flown from Leicester. At this point it’s only fitting to acknowledge the runners up and only other loft to win their section average this season - Jock and Isabel Alston, Ravenstruther. Their record in national racing over the years is exceptional and they are a testament to the quality of fancier that can be found in the west of the country. The SNFC racing this last year started what seems like an age ago now. It was back on the 9th of June, or so we had hoped. Due to adverse weather conditions at and around the planned liberation point the pigeons were held over for several days before eventually being brought 50 miles further up the road to Cheltenham, where they were liberated on Wednesday the 13th of June at 0800. The race proved to be a bit on the tricky side with only a little over 10% of the convoy, close to 4000 strong, making it home on the day. However the Bosworth pigeons got off to a strong start with eight making the open result, four of which were in the first 100 and his first clocker, a 5 year old blue cock, covered the 279 miles in a little over 7 hours finishing 30th Open. This cock, known as ‘Van Leo’, is quite something as this is his fourth SNFC diploma having won the SNFC Silver award in 2011. Van Leo Poor weather also played its part in the second SNFC inland event of the year. A two day holdover meant the 3431 pigeons were liberated on Monday the 25th of June at 0645. Another testing race unfolded with the winning pigeon doing 1176 ypm. A star in the making kept John to the fore, a yearling blue cock timed in to finish 81st Open after covering the 357 miles in just over nine and a half hours. This pigeon will be given a special mention later on. Next up we had the blue riband event, the Gold Cup race flown from Alencon in Normandy, France on Friday 29th of June - 0630 liberation. After last year’s difficult Gold Cup event, in which only 54 brave birds made it home in race time and with the two previous races having fallen to extended holdovers, a good race was needed to lift morale. Alencon, which has been a good race point in the past, did not let us down. Despite the birds experiencing rain en route, 103 birds were clocked on the day of liberation and all open prizes collected by half past five the following morning into the central belt and by quarter past nine into the far north. Like so many times before, John Bosworth put up one of the great performances of the race. Flying 533 miles, two hens were clocked within two and half minutes of each other to take 11th and 14th Open. A third pigeon was clocked on the night taking 78th open. It could be noted that although John has had many outstanding cock birds, the majority of his successes from the channel races have come through hens. 11th Open Alencon 14th Open Alencon The following weekend proved to be very special indeed. It’s on this weekend where the SNFC host two races. The Ypres event, which has grown to become Scotland’s most popular channel race, and the longest race. This season the longest race was flown from Niort, a distance of 672 miles to John Bosworth’s home. John’s loft showed the same kind of form from Ypres as it had the previous week in our Gold Cup race. The 426 mile course once more laid the platform for J. F. Bosworth to put up one of the performances of the race. Three pigeons were clocked in the first 31 of the open, the first of which saw John finish runner up in a SNFC race for the second time and win his section for a sixth time. Incidentally it was the earlier mentioned ‘star in the making’ that was responsible. Niort at a distance of 670 miles to central Scotland was never going to be an easy task and in actual fact it turned out to be the most difficult race of the season with only 8 pigeons making it home in race time. I think all 8 lofts who managed to clock in race time from this event should be recognised. Well done to Billy Smith, Tom Keenan, J. M Dalgleish, Billy Van Nuil, John Bosworth, Richard Combe, Jock King and Jock and Isabel Alston. John timed the first pigeon on the third day, a chequer hen that finished 5th open. 5th Open Niort Hen It’s interesting looking back at this type of race. Although it could be deemed as a disaster there is a very small nucleus of fanciers who seem to be able to clock from them time and again. The final channel race of the 2012 SNFC campaign was flown from Clermont. Like the majority of races this season it did not prove to be straight forward. Whereas the pigeons weren’t held over the liberation was delayed, so much so that no pigeons made it into the country on the day. 80th and 159th Open would ensure John’s pigeons had done enough to bag a haul of trophies including the Joe Murphy Sporting Challenge fancier of the year award. A point of interest to arise from John’s Clermont performance is that his 80th open pigeon (also 68th Open Cheltenham) is actually a hen that he got in as stray when she was a youngster. The bird was bred by Cowie based fancier J.Berry. This is not the first time I have heard of this happening and I am sure it won’t be the last. The NW Hen, 80th Open Clermont and 68th Open Cheltenham Many of you will have read over the last few weeks this has been Joe Murphy’s last season organising his Sporting Challenge, which has done a great deal in highlighting many of the top pigeons and fanciers in Scotland since its birth. I for one will miss Joe’s coverage from this angle as it was one of the first things I’d skip to when opening the British Homing World on a Friday. As always seems the case it was then a long wait before national competition was under way again. After a couple of months racing the youngsters the closing event of the programme saw them get their turn in the annual race from Leicester. This season’s young bird national has been a great talking point, not only in this country but further afield. It was certainly the most dominant display I can recall seeing from this race, put up by Billy Bilsland the well-known sports personality and successful pigeoner to boot. This was an important race in the Bosworth season. He’d done the hard bit it would have appeared now it was left to his young hopefuls to put the rest into place. Of course they did not disappoint taking 130th, 133rd, 139th and 229th open. This sealed the deal so to speak and saw John clench the best average from ALL SNFC events for the year 2012. 130th Leicester YB national It’s easy to get carried away when referencing the performances of a fancier of this calibre. What is encouraging is John’s attitude towards them. “If I can do it, so can you†he says. Another thing that I like to remind myself when looking into fanciers racing at the highest level is that they weren’t always as good as they are now. They were once novices and in John’s case he told me of a time when he was struggling to clock from Longtown on the day never mind Alencon. John’s family moved to Musselburgh when he was an infant and it was in his teens he began to take an interest in pigeons. This was partly through seeing those of his grandfather who, although not a racer of pigeons, kept some along with some chickens and a few other little feathered wonders. John cites his grandfather as being very encouraging and has many fond memories of the times they spent together with the pigeons. It wasn’t a fancy loft in those days. In fact John’s first pigeons were kept in an orange box that was nailed to the side of a 6x4 shed in his grandfather’s garden. After a bit of persuasion his Pop was coaxed into allowing John half of this shed as a new home for the birds. The original pigeons were strays John had caught and once it was realised this was not a passing fad he was gifted pigeons from some local fanciers to start him off on the right foot. Reflecting back on his teens he recalls having no real concept of where to train pigeons and age related to distances birds could fly etc. In fact on his many trips with the scouts it was not uncommon for John take a couple of pairs along in a cardboard box. This saw the pigeons being released from such places as Ayton, Inverness and Raasay off the Isle of Skye. Once John got to grips with racing in his later teens a number of the old hands watched in disbelief as he would send yearling late bred birds to distances in excess of 500 miles and not only get them home but he topped the Midlothian Federation two years in succession from Beauvais (498miles) with such pigeons) finishing 9th open in the Usher Vaux both times. The progress John made in his first season could be described as a meteoric rise. He went from struggling to clock from Longtown, 60 miles, to winning his club’s furthest race from Lewis, a distance of 380 miles. The winning pigeon that day was a six year old stray he caught in a box before it was transferred to him by the Davie Murdoch and Son partnership from Leslie in Fife. A further couple of pigeons were gifted to John by the partnership and these proved to work very well. There are no records to back this up but John recalls the Murdoch pigeons originating from the legendary Douglas Water loft of the Burrell Brothers. It was another gift pigeon that saw John’s first clock bird from France. Even today John maintains that he has had far more success with gift birds from friends than those bought. Where have we heard this before? This gift bird proved to be quite something. She was a mealy hen presented by Matt Greig of Whitecraigs, who himself at the time had a bit of reputation for timing yearlings from France. The hen is said to be of Stassart origin and when handled by the famous Piercey Brother s of Spittal was given the title of the best racing pigeon they had ever seen. She certainly did not let John down and when sent to the 1968 Usher Vaux Beauvais race nesting in the back of lawnmower full of grass clippings she came up trumps being the bird that topped the Midlothian Fed and 9th Open overall. Amazingly her son was the pigeon which repeated this feat the following year. Evidently this hen proved her worth as a producer and was bred around, becoming the mother of the Bosworth loft, before the move to Elphinstone in 1974. John enjoyed success in Musselburgh, but it was when settling in Elphinstone after marrying his wife Arleen and finishing his apprenticeship as a quantity surveyor that things took off on the pigeon front. Elphinstone played a big part in John’s development as a fancier. It’s the old adage ‘Competition breeds success’. He was now racing into a village that was home to many of Scottish pigeon racing’s household names. Fanciers like John Ellis, Norrie Cochrane, Tam McLeod, The McEwans, Richard Combe, Mr and Mrs Smith and so on. If you had the first bird in Elphinstone it was sure be a good one. Another pivotal moment in the pigeon racing career of the subject was his introduction to the Donaldson Brothers of Dunbar, who are widely recognised as a couple of the best fanciers to race into the East of Scotland. The encouragement they gave many up and coming fanciers around this time was incredible and every year John was allowed any two youngsters he fancied from this great loft. This brings us onto the development of John’s successful family of pigeons. The foundations were laid in Musselburgh in the form of the Grieg Stassart mealy hen and the Murdoch birds. The Donaldson Brothers pigeons made an instant impact and in fact it was a first cross that gave John one of his biggest thrills to date with the pigeons, back in 1979. It was a drizzly day and the birds were racing into a head wind. John recalls his dark hen, named 'Fiona B' after his eldest daughter, coming from a south-westerly direction to take 1st Open in the Scottish National Flying Club young bird national from Redditch. The sire of the national winner was a Donaldson Bros cock. The brothers had tried all their life to win a national and seeing the joy it brought them when John reported back with this win gave him a lot of pleasure indeed. The dam was typical of John’s own racing family at the time and was a particularly good racer in SNFC winning 80th open Avranches in 1979, 38th Open Rennes 1981 and in 1983, the year of inland racing due to paramyxovirus, she was 92nd Open Exeter and 4th Open Dorchester. It’s from this you get what John referred to as his chequer hen family. When blended with pigeons from the lofts of John Ellis of Elphinstone, Sinclair Thomson of Port Seton, Mr and Mrs Kippax of Ko Nipius fame and John Cosgrove of Lesmahagow these birds kept the Bosworth name to the fore for many, many years. One of the things I found most interesting of all from the information John provided was reading through the SNFC diplomas won by his birds. It would be impossible for me to mention all the performances but I feel it will be of interest to some if a few of the top birds through these old lines are highlighted. SU81 E 909 - 173rd Open Exeter 1983, 198th Open Rennes 1984, 13th Open Rennes 1985. SU82 E 2938 known as ‘Steven B’ being named after John’s son - 188th Open Hastings 1984, 14th Open Sartilly (1) and 2nd Open Sartilly (2) 1985. SU88 E 03324 known as ‘J.B Special’ - winner of a SNFC Gold Award; 39th open Sartilly (2) 1989, 40th Open Sartilly (1) 1990, 78th Open Sartilly (1) 1991, 8th Open Sartilly (1) 1992 and 126th Open Rennes 1993. SU89 E 0661 known as ‘Charley’ which was a nickname John had for his youngest daughter at the time - winner of a SNFC Gold Award; 83rd East Section Sartilly (1) 1991, 9th Open Rennes 1992, 180th Open Rennes 1993, 36th open Beauvais 1994 and 24th Open Rennes 1995. SU91 E 0051 known as ‘Arleen’s Vintage’ - 5th open Niort 1995, 15th Open Niort 1996 and 3rd open Nantes 1997. SU92 E 0879 - winner of a SNFC Gold Award; 164th open Beauvais 1994, 52nd Open Rennes 1996, 17th Open Nantes 1997, 14th open Nantes 1999 and 12th Open Nantes 2000. SU93 E 1858 - SNFC Gold Cup winner known as ‘The Graduate’; 87th Open Sartilly 1995, 97th open Rennes 1996, 1st open Rennes 1997. The last week in June of 1997 proved to be quite remarkable for John, not just in pigeon terms. Both his son an eldest daughter graduated from university at the same time so the Gold Cup winner more or less named itself. Top fanciers don’t tend to stand still for too long, whether it be bringing in birds to try against their own or tweaking proven methods, and John Bosworth is no different. Some recent introductions to make an impact have again been through friendship. For instance this past season’s 5th open SNFC Niort as well as going back to John’s old stuff contains the bloodlines of the West Region winning J & J Hood, father and son, partnership. The two Johns, who race their birds in Milton on Campsie, have a wonderful team of pigeons and are to the fore in SNFC racing year after year. Some more recent acquisitions that are showing their worth come from the Polmont loft of Jim Smith. Jim, who previously raced in California, has been winning at club, federation and national level for as long as I have kept pigeons and houses some outstanding Busschaert and Vandenabeele stock amongst others. The influence of the Leo Van Rijn pigeons from Alastair Kerr of Irvine cannot be overlooked. These birds have more than left their mark, proving to be veritable flying machines. Yes these pigeons have blended in exceptionally well and won through the card, excelling in national competition. Some of the recent and present stars of the stable include. GB04 V 13264 - 18th Open Newbury, 103rd Newbury, 25th Newbury and 30th Newbury. This hen’s Grandchildren include SU07 P 1851 known as ‘Sixty Not Out’ - 1st Open Eastbourne and the pigeon John rates as probably his best bird at the moment ‘Van Leo’ who has won the following positions with the SNFC: 32nd Ypres, 36th Ypres, 20th Marlborough, 64th Ypres and 30th Open Cheltenham. SU 09 P 2765 - 1st Section B, 18th Open Marlborough 2011 and 77th Open Cheltenham 2012. SU 09 P 2765 - 1st Section B, 18th Open Marlborough 2011 and 77th Open Cheltenham 2012 The current talk of the town and the bird that has John excited going into next season is a yearling blue cock SU 11 P 739 named ‘Skyfall’. He showed his class right from the word go being the first bird to the loft from the young bird national taking 17th Open. This season he scored again inland when he was 81st Open Maidstone. A fortnight later he recorded 2nd Open SNFC Ypres. Time will tell but you’d have to say he has the makings of a great champion. On talking to John over the phone one night whilst compiling this report I caught him just as he’d returned from the cinema with his wife, Arlene. It was this trip that turned the previously named ‘Jubilee John’ into ‘Skyfall’. Skyfall A while back now I read a wonderful self-penned article entitled ‘Survivors’. Whereas the basic principles in John’s loft still apply, his management has changed considerably over the last decade. This is partly through necessity and partly through his constant desire to improve. The pigeons were once managed on the popular ‘open bowl’ style system and enjoyed their liberty near enough all year round. With persistent raptor attacks this way of keeping the birds became progressively more difficult and is nearly unsustainable with today's predatory problems in Scotland. John races in a very competitive club and although it’s still races in excess of 300 miles that motivate him he was finding it difficult looking up the result sheet and seeing the name of J & G Whitson, Karen Newcombe, Brian Cunningham, Sinclair Thomson, Jocky Brown, Chris Bonnington, Rab Ainslie, Tam McLeod etc. constantly at the top. With the introduction of the Leo Van Rijn birds and the other aforementioned reasons, the decision was made to race the pigeons on a form of double widowhood or roundabout if you prefer. The emphasis was taken away from private training tosses and moved towards home exercise and more racing. The original 38ft x 10ft loft built in the 70s still stands but on trying this different way of flying a few minor alterations were needed, a corridor now runs the full length of the loft. There are three nest box sections, a young bird section and one for the hens when they are spilt from their mates. I’ve visited a few lofts that have adopted a more ‘closed in’ design but John Bosworth’s loft isn’t one. The front of the loft is still 60% louvers and at the back a small meshed gap runs right along the top of the loft. All in all the air flow is fantastic. Floor grills are used throughout the entire loft acting as a labour saving device on top of preventing the birds from mixing with their own droppings. John’s pigeons are paired in early February on no set date; the aim is to have the birds separated and their youngsters weaned by the first week in April. When pairing the birds John will pick mates for the main birds, taking into account ‘horses for courses’ and the rest will be allowed to choose their own mates. Of course if a pair are not taking to each other he won’t force the issue and will find a better suited bird for them to mate with. Once the pigeons have been split a few short tosses are carried out then it’s into the first race. After this the system of loft flying can commence. Once the pigeons are flying for half an hour unforced John feels they are ready to go in the basket but after racing has started both cocks and hens are exercised morning and evening for 40 minutes each time. When first trying this system John conferred with a few fanciers operating a similar method and then it was decided to send the pigeons to races on a weekly basis unless the bird is out of condition or carrying an injury of some sort. The nest bowls are kept upside down in the closed half of the nest box and on basket day they are upturned and the cocks allowed to access them. After around 10 minutes of this the hens are introduced to the sections. They are given time to sort themselves out as often one or two will go up to the wrong nest box first time. The birds are allowed to run together for no set time, it all depends on the order John baskets them in on that particular race day, some could be ten minutes some twenty. On return from a race the birds are allowed to remain together for one hour, sometimes slightly more, and it may not necessarily be their own mate entertaining them on return, as long as there is something for them to come back to. This system is operated from the first race, usually the third week in April, until the first SNFC inland race which is held in early June. On return from this race the birds are then left to go to nest in view of the up and coming SNFC events. It’s during this time the birds will be trained again on the road. John has noticed for the first couple of weeks of the birds re-pairing they are still in the habit of exercising well around the loft so it’s not until the week before their destined event that they will see the inside of a training basket. This season the training took place from Denholm and Carter Bar, roughly 35-40miles and the birds are usually given the last training flight three days before basketing for the channel. John’s feeding methods are kept straight forward. No breaking down and no portion control. In fact the birds have food before them at all times. From the end of September until the beginning of February the pigeons are confined to the loft and fed on a good quality moulting mixture. As stated food is in front of the birds at all times but they are not given any more until they have eaten all the grains, not just their favourites. When breeding has commenced in February the birds are then switched to a breeding mix, which is fed in the same manner as the moulting mix. The birds will be on this breeding mixture right through the racing season and once into June an energy mix and peanuts are added. When asked about how much feeding methods have changed over the years John talked about coming away from predominantly protein based feeds for the pigeon and edging more in the direction of fats. Interestingly enough John has not fed his pigeons any tic beans for nearly twenty years or indeed any maple peas in the last eight. For the last ten years or so John has practised the method of darkening all his youngsters. The birds are darkened at 7pm and the blind is lifted at 8 am. The young pigeons have access to an open loft all day, as at this time of year the sparrow hawk is less active and its gives the youngsters a good start in life. They are fed in the exact same way as the old birds during this time. John has noticed no adverse effects on his pigeons' performances as yearlings since darkening and the results more than back this up. The birds are usually taken off darkness the weekend of the first inland national, resulting in them having been on the shortened daylight hours for approximately six or seven weeks. Although if a later youngster is acquired they to go in with the rest and come off at the exact same time, again no adverse effects have been noted. The youngsters after pre-race training, consisting of 2 or 3 tosses between 20 and 30 miles with the old bird for the last channel race, are expected to go to every race which for them includes the national from Leicester. After their first race, much the same as the old birds, they are given very little road work and exercised around home. When it comes to medication, during the race season John routinely treats for canker, coccidiosis and respiratory ailments. These are precautionary measures and the young pigeons are treated at the same times as the old birds. From the last young bird race until the breeding season is under way no medication is given, however the birds are inoculated in December with the compulsory PMV jab as well as vaccines for paratyphoid and pox. Again these are viewed as preventatives. I always find it interesting to hear the views of other fanciers and on my visit to John’s I was eager to hear his opinions, particularly on the Scottish National Flying Club. The topic of the Inland Nationals came up and John is of the opinion they are one of the best things to happen to club. Not only is this where the club can generate big entries, they act as a great stepping stone in conjunction with the Ypres race and serve to encourage new members and less established long distance outfits with an opportunity to sample and enjoy national racing. Ypres was another hot topic, well, Belgian race points in general. John spoke of how he would like to see this racing line used more and feels the evidence of fairer racing and good returns is there for all to see. Ypres in particular is a race he feels is an excellent part of the channel candidate’s education having found his yearlings who come out of Ypres usually hit the ground running the following season. This is the theme of a feature I plan to start work on soon. I don’t intend to get too political in this piece so back to racing matters. I asked John what advice he would give to novices or fanciers looking to improve. He went on to say the basics have not changed much - a dry well ventilated loft and well-structured management go a long way. Selection is another aspect he touched on, the term hard and often being used. You can test your pigeons at national level for as little as £3 today and long term it’s a sure fire way to improve. When talking of introducing pigeons John says that paper pedigrees and fashionable names do little for him. The key point here is to acquire birds from a consistent winning loft with a long line of tested pigeons. He touched on a number of local sales where fanciers can pick up good pigeons without shelling out big money. John gives the impression of a fancier who is very thorough in his approach, but in an era where we have more full time fanciers than ever before he stressed that he doesn’t feel the need to spend every spare moment with his birds. It’s the quality of time spent over the quantity that makes the difference. Recently retired, he will be able to pursue a number of his other interests and spend more time with his wife, children and young grandchild. It will be interesting to see how he fares on the golf course. George Hunter has taken on a coaching role and I’m sure it will be only be a matter of time before John takes up Andy Miller, Barry Kinnear and John Bird on their challenge. To conclude I’d like to thank John Hood for setting up the visit to Elphinstone and of course John Bosworth for allowing me to compile this report. I’ve found it very interesting and I hope I have succeeded in highlighting his achievements in the sport and given a brief outline of how his methods have developed. I enjoyed the time spent in John and Arleen’s home ‘talking doos’ and thank Arleen for the kind hospitality. She will need to tell Mr Hood and I where she bought that black pudding!

A short tribute to one of the finest UK fanciers of the 21st Century Tommy Blair, Stirling Racing pigeons make up part of my earliest memories, but it wasn’t until the year 2000 that my interest grew - an interest that continues to grow as time elapses. In 2001 a video appeared in my house, this before the DVD made its way into the mainstream and the ordeal of rewinding a tape was still a common occurrence. The said video was on the winning pigeon fanciers of the Scottish North West Federation and was my first insight into the legend that is Tommy Blair. To a young, impressionable doo-daft laddie he was somewhat of a god. Old birds, young birds, short races, long races, fast races, slow races-he had few equals. Here we are some fourteen years later and my impression of this Stirling pigeon racer hasn’t changed much, if anything his performances over this time have commanded more of my admiration. Racing pigeons to a modest back garden set up, in the shadow of Stirling Castle, Tommy has achieved things with his birds many in this area would have deemed as impossible not so many years ago. His results and records within the Scottish North West Federation will most likely never be equalled and a number of his performances on the national stage virtually defy wind direction and loft location. Locally some fanciers joke that his pigeons can be easily identified at the marking station, as they are the ones that look as if they have makeup on. Tommy’s beginnings in the sport go back to his school days, being brought up in the Raploch area of Stirling alongside friends Duncan Cowan and Peter McGowan, they were forever catching strays and amusing themselves with any pigeons they could get their hands on. As chance would have it Duncan and Peter also grew into super pigeon men, with all of these fanciers starting off with lofts made from bread boxes. The bread box days ended for Tommy in the mid-70s when his father built a loft for him and his brother, entering the fancy officially as J. Blair and Sons. In the Stirling area, and for much of Tommy’s upbringing the pigeon racing scene was dominated by the Ogilvie family and Rab Hamilton. It was flying against these top fanciers on a weekly basis that acted as motivation for Tommy Blair, who once settled with a house, car and a family saw the need to improve or be left behind. It was decided in order to compete at the top, better birds were needed. This is a thing Tommy has strived for in all the time he has been winning, always being on the lookout for good pigeons to make an impact on the loft. A real turning point came in the late 90s when Tommy obtained pigeons from Kevin Hurst of Grimsby. Kevin Hurst achieved many of his early successes with the Busschaerts of Tom Larkin, but the birds that were winning at the time of Tommy’s acquisitions were Janssen/Van Loon based. Many of the reference pigeons at this time were from the lofts of Arie Van De Rhee and Tilburg’s wonder boy, Frank Aarts. The results of Franks Aarts turned Dutch pigeon racing upside down and it’s safe to say these birds had a similar effect when finding their way into Central Scotland. Along with a few other pigeons Tommy acquired from some of the good fanciers we have here in Scotland he was now on the road to success. A road that has seen him top the Federation as many as nine times in a season, sometimes taking the first three, four, five, six and even eight positions. In the past fifteen years Tommy has been the Scottish North West Federation Points Champion on fourteen occasions. There has been a lot of debate over the years as to what Stirling’s rightful section should be in the Scottish National Flying Club. Lying to the far west of the East Region, with winds usually prevailing from the west side and racing from easterly race points - it’s a location that certainly offers no geographical advantage. None the less, in 2013 Tommy became only the fourth fancier in the eighty year history of the North West federation to win 1st Open with the Scottish National Flying Club. Not only was he first Open but he also took second place, having two pigeons arrive together from Maidstone(387 miles)-fifty two yards per minute ahead of the third place bird and flying some eighty one miles further. This marked the second occasion he had been runner up, having also been 1st Section, 2nd Open from Falaise (530 miles) in 2004. His other section wins include 1st Section, 10th Open Reims (582 miles), 1st Section, 1st Hens, 5th Open Maidstone, 1st Section 18th Open Clermont (538 miles) etc. Within any top team there are always special individuals and pigeon racing is no different. The pigeon that won 1st Section 18th Open Clermont, Bessie as she is known, has since won one of the most sought after prizes in Scottish pigeon racing-the SNFC Gold Award, given to pigeons which wining a section prize on five occasions from the cross channel race points. Bessie was the only pigeon in Scotland to win this coveted award in 2014 and is the fourth pigeon in the history of the North West Federation to do so. This pigeon is an out and out racing machine, for not only does she win from over 500 miles but right through the card. The North West Federation bird of the year in 2008, she has won in all types of competition. Aside from being 1st Section,18th Open in the SNFC , she has a 23rd and 37th Open to her credit as well as a 9th Open in the Central Scotland 3-bird club. Class in a glass!! Two of the prestigious clubs in Central Scotland are the 3-Bird Club and the Scottish Central Combine, by now it will come as no surprise to you when you read Tommy Blair has won both of these as well. His record with the Scottish Central Combine includes 1st Open Falaise (530 miles), 1st Open Clermont (538 miles) and 1st Open Peterborough Yearling Derby(288miles) . With the Central Scotland 3-Bird Club he won 1st Open from Ashford (397 miles). I’ve tried to outline some of the highlights in Tommy Blair’s pigeon racing career, but his results have been well documented in the past so I don’t want to run the risk of repetition. For all the highlights within his pigeon career in 2010 he had a real low in his personal life. On losing his wife Tommy was close to calling it a day on the pigeons having parted with all his stock birds and youngsters from that season. Tommy’s wife who battled with terminal cancer made it clear that she wished for him to continue doing what he did best, so after weighing up the options the decision was made to carry on. J. Duthie ,Tam Blair, Hardy Kruger, W Macalony. On deciding to continue some new stock was introduced, this time coming from Premier Stud in North Yorkshire. The birds Tommy settled on initially were the Heremans-Ceusters. On receiving these pigeons he was so impressed that he decided to bring in more. These pigeons took the most dominant loft in the North West Federation up a gear. There have been times since Tommy has had these birds that the Fed members have found him unbeatable. The impact these birds have made on pigeon racing all over the UK and indeed, recently the world , is staggering. Tommy has found these pigeons to be amongst the easiest he has ever owned to condition, and the intelligence they have shown have made them equally as easy to motivate. He has actually told me that the simpler he has made the management, the better these birds have flown-a real testament to their quality. Further recent introductions from Premier Stud include their Koopman and Van Dyck lines, which have also made their mark. Some Hardy Kruger lines have found their way into Tommy’s stock team as well as one or two other birds from top German lofts. The saddest thing is that Tommy won’t be able to find out their racing worth for himself. I’d heard that Tommy had been poorly over the Christmas period, but have to say I was shocked to find out his health had deteriorated to the point he was unable to continue with his pigeons. Due to worsening COPD and a vascular condition, on the advice of his Doctors he has to part with the pigeons with immediate effect. I know it’s a difficult time for Tommy and it’s a huge loss to pigeon racing in this area and further afield. As a concluding thought I’d like to wish Tommy Blair better health in the coming months and all the best in the future. He’s a pigeon fancier I could only ever look up to and his performances will be talked about as long as there is still a pigeon sport. Lewis McCalley

The 2012 season could have easily provided good reason to report on the loft of J & I Alston, seeing as it was one of only two in the country to successfully clock in ALL Scottish National Flying Club races -going on to win their respective Section and Region Averages. Yes, 2012 was a good year for the Alston loft lifting a number of the principle trophies in Section E and the West Region of the SNFC and making a bit of history in the process. Jock’s performance from the club’s longest race, Niort, saw a SNFC first with him actually having the only pigeon in race time into the West Region, a game pigeon indeed. Jock Alston receiving the West Region Average trophy from SNFC President Phil Lynch This being said I’m glad I waited until 2013 as once again the Ravenstruther loft was to the fore and wrote itself yet another chapter in the history books of the SNFC. J & I Alston now join the few, a number of Scottish pigeon racing’s all-time greats, to have won the West Region four times in cross channel competition. They are now in the company of-the Burrells and the Mitchells of Douglas Water, Jock Allan of Symington, Jim Hannah of Blantyre, George & Gareth Rankin of Blantyre(now Larkhall), Davy Donaldson of Glassford and Mr & Mrs Elliot of Newbigging. In the process of doing so Jock has enjoyed racing many of the UK’s outstanding pigeons. J & I Alston, Raventruther 1st West Region 12th Open Niort 1989 (662miles) 1st West Region 17th Open La Ferte Bernard 2004 (551miles) 1st West Region 8th Open Niort 2012 (662miles) 1st West Region 2nd Open Clermont 2013 (508miles) Add to this numerous 2nd and 3rd positions in the region and SNFC open positions in the top 1-2%, it’s easy to see why Jock has gained the reputation as one of the West regions most consistent long distance racers. Jock was brought up in an environment where pigeon racing was difficult to avoid; the place being Douglas Water, a village in Lanarkshire to the west of Tinto hill and at a time when pigeon racing in the UK and the Scottish National Flying club were on the ascent. A small mining village in geographical size but a giant of a place in terms of long distance racing pigeons, Jock was raised here amongst many fanciers we now view as legends in the game. In fact his first pigeons shared the skies with those of the Burrell Brothers, a record breaking partnership whose finest moments in racing arguably came in 1939 from the great Rennes Gold Cup race. From four pigeons sent Johnny (Jake) Burrell took the following open positions 3rd,15th, 24th and 89th winning a sum that when calculated into today’s value equates to £23,324 plus the pennies. Jock recalls being around 11 or 12 years old and still at school when he and four other lads in his class first took an interest in pigeons. One of these happened to be Keith Burrell, Jake’s son. Keith’s time in pigeons wasn’t as permanent as his fathers, as this proved to be his first and last season, when he decided to part with the birds Jock was given a pair bred by his father. Although not relevant in today’s team of pigeons this is one of the memories Jock has from his growing up amongst these fanciers. This brings us on to another of the great Douglas Water fanciers whose company Jock kept, Tommy Boswell. Tommy was a cousin of the Burrell Brothers and he too had a great record from Rennes in the SNFC but it was the story of Jock’s first race win that interested me. It was the last young bird race from Kirkham in the boy’s maiden season that saw him win the club and finish 2nd Lanarkshire Federation to a pigeon in Morningside. This after Jock had run a mile and half along the railway line to time into the clock of Tommy Boswell. Strange to think now, as when I was at Jock’s house earlier this month he showed me how he had adapted his stall traps for the ETS. Another of the great racing families in the village at this time and the most influential in Jock and Isabel’s loft were the Mitchells. I have a Rennes result from 1955, yellow with age, which shows Mitchell & Son 4th open with a red hen. Many successes were to follow Jimmy Mitchell when racing in partnership with his brother, the greatest of which has to be the loft’s performance from Rennes in 1973- 1st West Section, 2nd open with a chequer hen named ‘Nancy’s Pride’, this when the Gold Cup winner was timed into Coldingham and the wind that day was blowing strong from the west. It was when Jock started work in Douglas Water Colliery he really got in tow with Jimmy Mitchell, the pair enjoyed many Saturday nights in the Douglas Water Miner’s club(I’ve been told not all of them were memorable) and they shared a great friendship right up until Jimmy’s untimely death in 1979. It was birds from Jimmy that got Jock and Isabel on the right track when it came to clocking from France and these lines can still be traced in the loft today. On Jimmy’s passing the sport lost one of its great fanciers and Jock one of his greatest friends. Jock took on the responsibility of organising the dispersal sale of the Mitchell pigeons and the interest in the auction was testament to the quality of pigeons on offer, many of which went on to great success in the hands of their new owners. The fancier who could perhaps be attributed with starting the village’s lasting interest in SNFC racing went by the name of Davie Davidson or ‘Loggie’ as he was better known. When still a young man and after a relatively short spell in the sport ,this fancier was scoring from the French race points back in the mid-1920s and came close to winning a national outright on several occasions over the course of his time in pigeons; including 3rd Open Rennes 1925,3rd Open Nantes 1938 and 2nd Open Beauvais 1963. This loft from Douglas Water and in the latter days, Rigside left behind a number of pigeons to make their mark on the teams of many the West’s most successful racers. Douglas Water as well as being home to the aforementioned multiple West Region winning fanciers, also produced one of the greatest lofts to have never won it, this being the Leishman family. These canny doo men were never out the national results, year after year, scoring top section and open positions as well as being past winners of the legendary Lanarkshire Social Circle Gold Cup. One of their biggest winners was a red chequer hen 4323 ‘Holm Lass’, bred in 1949. In three successive Rennes races she won the following open positions 37th, 50th and 25th and pools which in today’s money is around £18,860. Jock had always kept regular contact with Peter Leishman , until during the compilation of this report Peter’s friends and family were saddened to hear the news of his passing at 92 years of age. Peter was known to his peers as not only a super pigeon fancier but a gentleman of the sport. I’ve only mentioned the most ‘famous’ fanciers in the village, however one thing Jock touched on was how at that time all the fanciers in Douglas Water were extremely dedicated to the pigeons. There was nothing fancy; beans were fed in jelly jars half-filled with cement and empty beer bottles were hung above drinkers on a piece of string to stop the birds using them as a bath, but the lofts were kept spotlessly clean and the work even the lesser known fanciers put into their birds at this time was tremendous. He also talked about the high level of sportsmanship and cooperation amongst the men, in the closed season when the sexes were parted the whole village would let their cocks out on say for instance a Monday, then Tuesday would be the day for the hens and so on. As a youngster Jock received great encouragement from a fancier named Bobby Laurie. Many hours were spent in Bobby’s summer seat enjoying his company and listening to him talk about pigeons. It was when talking of Bobby; Jock told me he wishes he had a photo of the man, as in hindsight, this wee man smoking his pipe in the summer seat was quite comical. Bobby’s small loft, which housed around 8 pairs of pigeons, was always in great order partly due to the fact that no sooner had he finished painting it than he’d start again. I could listen to Jock talk all day about catching strays in Peebles High Street when visiting his granddad and telling stories of the Douglas Water fanciers, but now a bit more on the pigeons and successes of Jock and Isabel Alston. Jock’s pigeon days in and around Douglas Water ended when he was 16, although Jock never lost interest in the birds he started working in the local mine when he left school which of course was hard work and a big commitment. It was in this period without the pigeons that Jock met his wife Isabel. Isabel was no stranger to pigeons as local to her home in Kirkfieldbank there were a few keen doomen. As a newlywed couple they stayed with Isabel’s parents initially before setting up home in Lanark. No pigeons were raced to this location as the house there had nowhere suitable to keep them, however in 1965 a property took the partner’s fancy back in Isabel’s home town of Kirkfieldbank. It was on moving here and having the luxury of a spacious back garden a loft was duly erected and the couple were back in the sport. Kirkfieldbank Club was joined in 1966 with the partnership choosing to join the SNFC in 1968. Success at the distance came not too long afterwards as it was in 1970 when the loft scored its first prize from Rennes. Jock remembers sitting in the rain on the second morning all that depressed way us pigeon men get then all of a sudden the bird hit the loft to take 150th West Section. This would be the first of many as you’re hard pushed to find a season since where the Alston name hasn’t featured in the national results. Jock and Isabel had many happy times in Kirkfieldbank; it was here they raised their own family, a son and a daughter, before moving to Ravenstruther in 1996. Racing the pigeons into Kirkfieldbank the couple won literally dozens of SNFC diplomas from the great race points - Rennes, Nantes, Sartilly and Avranches. In 1977 in one of the best attended races in the history of the club the loft took 15th Open Rennes against 7476 birds. At this location and after a relatively short time back in the sport J & I Alston were gaining a reputation as one of the most consistent lofts in the west. This consistency was rewarded in 1989 when from Niort a distance of 662miles the teams ‘Fairview Lady’ took top honours winning 1st West Section 12th Open, a superb performance. The following season this same blue hen was to take 8th West Section 49th Open from the same race point. When in conversation with Jock it’s obvious how passionate he is about the longest race within the SNFC programme and his great record from 600+miles over the years really reflects this. The original foundation of these early successes came from gift birds and eggs from the earlier mentioned Mitchells Bros. Jock has asked me to pay a fitting acknowledgement to Jimmy Mitchell who, as well as being one of his closest companions in and out of pigeons, really put him on the right lines when it came to working the birds with the cross channel distance events in mind. Jock and Isabel like a lot of fanciers briefly entertained theories such as eyesign, wing etc. but when asked about it now Jock told me what Jimmy Mitchell told him “if you look for faults, you’ll find themâ€. With this in mind the quality of the Alston pigeons and the results are based on work and performance via the race basket. The Mitchell Brothers pigeons were obtained from another Kirkfieldbank fancier who went by the name of Willie Muir, a butcher by profession whose loft housed superb examples of the Dr Anderson Bricoux Sions, these birds were terribly successful at the time and the number of winning pigeons in Scotland down through these lines through the years would be nigh on impossible to determine. On to a man called Fred Jubb now and Jock actually got into contact with him when staying with Isabel in her parent’s house in Kirkfieldbank. With Fred staying in the adjacent block of houses and having a pigeon loft in the garden it was only natural the young man from Douglas Water would take up his acquaintance. Fred worked with Willie Muir mentioned in the previous paragraph, but it’s not through this that he’s relevant in the development of the Alston pigeons. Once Jock and Isabel were settled into their own home back in Kirkfieldbank, Jock and Fred would frequently train the birds together. Chatting on the way to one of their training destinations Jock asked Fred where examples of the older families of birds like those of the Mitchells and Willie Muir could be obtained. It was then Fred pointed him in the direction of Frank Souness from Dunbar. Taking Fred’s advice on board one day Jock travelled to the home of Frank with the hope of introducing himself. The pair took an instant like to each other and from here Jock was able to obtain the type of pigeon he was after and share Frank’s friendship up until his last days. Jock and Isabel adored Frank, who was known as a bit of a comedian and had the pair in stitches at times. Frank Souness was a man who in his own words “spent most of his life looking up a horses arseâ€. Frank was a plough man you see and spent the majority of his working life on farms. He was viewed by those who knew him as a one off. I’ve seen his sense of humour and outlook on life described as an inspiration to all who knew him. Jock and Isabel would look forward to his weekly phone call, usually around half seven on a Sunday night and he wouldn’t usually stay on past eight so as not to miss the start of his favourite programme - Heartbeat. On one of my visits to Jock’s he showed me an old picture of Frank riding his bicycle through the streets of Dunbar well into his 90s. Jock speaks very fondly of Frank, one of the great characters, a man he is thankful to have met and will always remember. A more genuine and generous man you’ll never meet. Frank Souness Frank’s talents as a pigeon fancier can’t be over looked either; racing to a small two section loft, through the gaps in which you could see the cows in the field behind, he put up some outstanding performances including 1st East of Scotland Combine Guernsey and 2nd open SNFC Niort. His birds consistently came to the fore on hard days and with the Alston pigeons still containing this blood it explains a lot. To add to the Mitchell and Souness pigeons obtained by Jock & Isabel another noteworthy introduction story starts back in the mid-1930s. A pigeon called ‘Young Townfoot’, the last remaining son at the time of Davie Angus of Symington’s SNFC Rennes 1962 gold Cup winning cock ‘Townfoot Goodboy III’. It was on November the 14th 1936 in the loft of Dr Anderson of Armadale that a young Davie Angus selected what was to become his foundation pair. The first choice was a blue hen that went onto to be known as ‘The old Angus hen’. Both this hen’s sire and dam were bred in Jolimont, Hainaut, Belgium in the lofts of Dr Arthur Bricoux. The second pigeon selected that day was a mealy cock that descended from pigeons Dr Anderson obtained from Bricoux’s French counterpart Monsieur Paul Sion. At the time of Davie’s visit to the good Doctor’s another well-known fancier of that time was present in Fred Marriot. On inspecting the pair Davie had chosen Marriot informed him he believed he had picked the best two youngsters Dr Anderson had on offer that day. This shared opinion proved to be quite profound indeed as these pigeons left a dynasty of winners in the Symington loft including ‘Townfoot Goodboy II’ 1st West Section 4th Open Rennes, ‘Townfoot Rose’ 1st West Section 2nd open Nantes then the outright national winner ‘Townfoot Goodboy III’. At this time Louis Massarella was interested in buying a number of the top long distance pigeons in the UK so he duly approached Mr Angus to go about buying his Rennes winner. The price offered was £500; Davie Angus was a shrewd character and was aware that a previous SNFC winner had gone down to Leicester for the same price. The hint was dropped that if Louis were to make a Scottish record bid the pigeon would be his. ‘Townfoot Goodboy III’ was sold for £600. Years later Jock Alston asked Davie Angus how the bird was transported down to Louella, expecting maybe a chauffeur driven vehicle had come for the pigeon you can understand his surprise when Davie told him all he was asked to do was put the bird on the train in a box marked for Louis Massarella. Jock was conscious of the quality of the Angus stock and being an admirer of his performances, as the seasons drifted by this pigeon ‘Townfoot Goodboy III’ was playing on his mind. The decision was made to go down and visit the Masarella family in person to see if any of this blood was still housed in their lofts. On arriving at the lofts it was Michael Massarella he met with, after listening to Jock’s request Michael went away to the stock loft and brought back a nine year old mealy cock ‘Young Townfoot’. It was explained to Jock that this was the last son of the Rennes winner they had in their possession and Michael was unsure if his father would part with him. He went away for a brief spell to consult with Mr Masarella senior and on his return Jock was told he could have the pigeon for £50. Looking back this was certainly money well spent as ‘Young Townfoot’ turned out to be an exceptional breeder for the Alston partnership and another of the team’s foundation stones. Jock formed a good relationship with Davie Angus and actually took ‘Young Townfoot’ for him to have a look at it once it was up in the Kirkfieldbank loft. To go with the mealy cock Jock purchased a young chequer and a young red chequer hen to try with him. Upon reflection and such is the value Jock Alston placed on these Angus pigeons, his main regret is he didn’t get more birds from Davy when he had the chance. The birds from the above sources provided Jock and Isabel with a strong framework, but like many of the top fanciers one or two birds are brought in regularly to try out. The one thing I notice all the birds brought into the Alston Loft, either at Kirkfiledbank or Ravenstruther, have in common is an immaculate long distance ancestry. Birds from Mitchell & Paterson from Kirkfieldbank, Billy Davidson & son of Coalburn, J Stirling & sons of Burnbank, John Bosworth of Elphinstone, Jim Hannah of Blantyre, Jock Allan of Symington, Alan Parker of Clitheroe,Kerr Stainthorpe of Lesmahagow and John Clark of Airdrie have all left their mark on the team. More recently Jock has been impressed with introductions made from the UNC ace partnership R & A Evans, Dixon and Gibbon of High Southwick and the NFC winning Chris Gordon of Old Snydale. Additionally Jock regularly exchanges pigeons with Davie Elliot of Newbigging, a fancier he rates amongst the very best in the country. As I touched on earlier in the report it was in 1996 the Alstons moved to Ravenstruther (pronounced Renstrie). Whereas I’ve only ever seen photos of the loft at Kirkfieldbank it really looked the part being of brick construction and beautifully kept. In saying this, the wooden lofts and the garden at the present address are a credit to Jock. There are five lofts in the garden with the main racing loft being 20 x 8 and housing most of the old bird race team, an additional 10 x 6 loft is used for old birds and as a matter of interest this is home to one of the outstanding performers of the 2013 season but I’ll get to him shortly. The young bird loft is 12 x 7 and split into two sections as Jock likes to race around thirty six youngsters on the darkness system. Jock has been using darkness with the young birds for a few years now on the conventional method allowing the pigeons around 8-9 hours daylight and taking them off the system around the middle to end of June depending on the length of time the youngest birds in the section have been on it. The same questions tend to pop up when talking about these fairly new systems of controlling the moult in youngsters and I asked Jock if it affected them as yearlings or later in life. Going on the fact the ONLY yearling on the day into Scotland, Jock’s 10th Open SNFC winner , from this year’s tricky Clermont race was on darkness last season as young bird we can take the answer to be no. Jock has had other birds that were on darkness as youngsters in the past that have scored from as many as three SNFC events in their yearling season. The bulk of the stock birds are housed in a 12 x 6 loft with a spacious aviary attached although Jock has another shed he can use for one or two stock birds as well. All the lofts are of Jock’s own construction and it’s difficult to pick fault with them. 10th Open SNFC Clermont 2013, only yearling on the day of liberation from 508 miles The partners didn’t have to wait long after moving to Ravenstruther to continue where they left off as the year of the move they managed to score 2nd West Region 31st Open Sartilly, then the next year 3rd West Region,18th Open Nantes. I’ve purposely tried to steer clear of rhyming off results, for no other reason than I don’t find them a particularly easy read but the next few warrant a mention. The lofts of J & I Alston One the couple’s biggest thrills came in the summer of 2004, the year the SNFC Gold Cup race was flown from La Ferte Bernard in the Pays de la Loire region in north-western France. J & I Alston timed a cracker just shy of 15 hours on the wing on the day of liberation to top the West Region for their second time and win 17th Open for their efforts. Jock was actually on the phone to Frank Souness at the time of the chequer hen’s arrival and remembers having to put the phone down in a hurry to time the bird, now named ‘Kerr’s Pride’. The hen was bred by Jock’s good friend Kerr Stainthorpe and is a prime example of one good deed repaying another as ‘Kerrs Pride’ was a gift pigeon to Jock down through pigeons he gifted to Kerr. This West Region winning hen as well as containing the lines of a number of J & I Alston’s reference pigeons including; ‘Our Goodboy’, the 18th Open Nantes hen and the No.1 pair also contains the lineage of Billy Davidson and son’s good blue hen (1st, 2nd and 3rd West Region between Nantes and Niort), which was another top pigeons another top pigeons bred in the Alston loft. Like all of the birds housed in Renstrie Lofts, this Region winning hen most certainly contained the bloodlines required for the job in hand. To have one pigeon in the top 100 of the result from a SNFC Gold Cup race is what many in this country feel pigeon racing is all about, but in 2009 the greedy Alstons weren’t happy with one or even two for from the Alencon Gold Cup race, that season they took the following open positions 14th, 72nd, 82nd, 92nd and 95th with this race being the highlight in one of the partnerships most successful seasons achieving what is the most difficult thing in Scottish pigeon racing, scoring from all races in the SNFC calendar. This is a feat the Alston’s have managed on a few occasions and it was to be the case again in the 2012 season. Not only did the Alston loft win the West Region and Section E Average trophies it also managed to rack up its third West Region win and become the first loft to win the George Rankin memorial trophy. This trophy was donated by George’s wife, Marcia and son, Gareth to commemorate the life of George who passed away in October 2011. George was a stalwart of long distance racing in Scotland and it’s a fitting tribute to have this trophy up for grabs in his favourite, the SNFC longest race. Aside from winning this beautiful trophy another ‘SNFC first’ took place in the process. In what was a very difficult Niort race J & I Alston were to be the only loft in the West of the country to record a bird in race time. The winning bird was called ‘Renstrie Rasper’ and such was the effort he put into returning home that day it’s reckoned he was around half his normal size on return. The sire of Rasper was himself a steady performer with three top prizes in National open results over 500 miles. Like the 1st West Region La Ferte Bernard, this Niort winner also contains the line of the loft’s ‘Our Goodboy’. The dam of Rasper was the result of an exchange with Airdrie fancier John Clark and in the hands of Jock and Isabel was 58th Open in the SNFC from Reims in 2003. Pairing SNFC Gold Cup prize winners together certainly paid dividends in this case. 2012 was certainly a year to remember but 2013 proved to be no less. This season the loft’s next generation of star performers have seen the Alston name join those of the greats to have won the West region on four occasions from the French race points. The Gold Cup race from Alencon saw Resntrie Lofts clock two birds within 20 minutes from 526miles to win 26th and 30th Open. The first of these is the outstanding candidate to win this season’s bird of the year award in Scotland as not only did he put up this great performance, less than three weeks later he was to win 1st West Region 2nd Open SNFC Clermont when only 12 birds made it into Scotland on the day of liberation. Some three weeks before the Gold Cup race he was also 81st Section from the Newbury inland national race- a truly fantastic bird, worthy of the title ‘Champion’. What makes it all the more remarkable is that this cock’s mate was lost before Alencon and he put up these great cross channel performances, on the face of it, racing to his box. The sire of this super bird was himself a super racer winning 44th Open SNFC Falaise and 29th Open Andrezel. He is direct from the lofts noted Alan Parker pair. The Dam is steeped in the old Alston lines containing the blood of ‘Red Star’ and the top stock cock at the present time, a double grandson of ‘Kerr’s Pride’ and ‘Red Star’ the result of pairing two nest mates together, when he was paired to the Jock Allan hen. 1st West Region, 2nd Open SNFC Clermont, 26th Open SNFC Alencon and 81st Sec E Newbury 2013 The red chequer hen that was to be 30th open Alencon was also to make it onto the Clermont result finishing 138th Open. There is no denying it takes a pigeon of real class to score from two cross channel events into Scotland in the one season and here we have another example of the old adage ‘blood will tell’. This red hen is a direct daughter of the top stock cock mentioned above when he was paired to a full sister of the partners 14th open Alencon 2009. 30th Open SNFC Alencon and 138th open SNFC Clermont 2013 Jock has had an especially successful time of it on the pigeon racing front with some exceptional performances over the 2012 and 2013 seasons, but unfortunately he has had them without the company of his wife and soul mate. It has been over two years now since Isabel Alston passed away, with the loss of a partner being something a person can never really ‘get over’ Jock misses Isabel in all aspects of daily life. They were a great partnership not only in pigeon racing but in every meaning of the word. Although the highs of the sport will never really feel the same without Isabel there to share them, I’m sure Jock will take some comfort in the knowledge that his wife’s memory will live on and that the way he has continued with the birds through this difficult time is what she would have wanted. Jock would describe his methods as straight forward and having no hard and fast rules with regards to managing the pigeons. The birds are usually separated over the winter months and are seldom out, however they do have access to large aviaries in front of the loft where they spend a lot of their time. Handy when it comes to bathing the birds. Red Star - 3rd Section Lille, 14th Section hastings, 15th Section Portland, 17th Section Newbury and 52nd Section 203rd open Reims, winners of 5 x 1st club 49-200 miles including 1st fed Ridsdale, 2nd fed Lockerbie, 3rd fed Portland. Sire and gsire and ggsire to many winners. Breeding starts in early February with the stock pigeons usually the first to be paired. Once Jock feels these birds are taking to one another and won’t cause him too much hassle the first of the two racing lofts are paired, normally around 12 pairs. It’s the same procedure again after around 10 days to a fortnight when all is well in this loft the birds in the main racing loft are then coupled. This tactic of staggering the pairings and not pairing all birds at the same time is mainly for convenience and prevents the need for Jock to be in three or four places at once. All birds are allowed to rear a nest and some of the eggs from the main birds are floated under the others. Renstrie Redboy - 14th Section 100th open La Ferte Bernard, 15th section 73rd open SNRPC Alencon, 15th Section SNRPC Wanstead Flats, 18th Section 190th Open SNFC Newbury, a fantastic breeding cock. In recent years Jock has separated the sexes for racing during the first part of the season. This is not really a conventional widowhood or roundabout method but an effective way of flying Jock has found to suit him. With the matings being staggered not all birds are separated at once but by the time the second or third race comes round all birds will be parted from their mates. Like a lot of fanciers nowadays, due to increases in both the predation of our pigeons and the fuel costs, he has taken the emphasis away from private training tosses and tends to give the birds more racing and home exercise. Jock is a great supporter of the Clydesdale midweek club and has found it very useful the last couple of seasons in preparing his birds for the cross channel races. The programme for the main cross channel candidates is never too rigidly set. From looking back at a number of the results, they have had great success with pigeons that have been to the Newbury Inland national beforehand as well as birds that have been sent to one of the Feds 250 mile events in their final preparatory race. Jock doesn’t have many fads regarding pigeon’s nest conditions or much else for that matter, but one thing he does not tend to do is send the pigeons across the water on youngsters of any age. It’s not that he has never tried this; it’s just not worked as well for him as when the birds have gone on eggs. Usually they will go on 10-12 day eggs due to the time Jock chooses to re-pair after their 5-7 weeks of celibacy. A problem that arises for many who choose to race their pigeons on a celibate type system is that of the hens pairing with some inevitably laying eggs. As a point of interest Jock has found this year he seems to have avoided this, a fact he puts down to the hens seeing their mates more often due to one or both of the pair having the midweek and the weekend race. The Alston birds have food in front of them at all times and when paired this is in galley pots in the nest boxes. Whereas Jock has his preferred mixtures if he were to go to the stockist to find they didn’t have it he’d be happy to buy an alternative, feeling that there is very little to choose between the leading brands today in terms of quality. In the winter Jock will add up to 50% barley to the feed, whilst the birds are rearing young he includes tic beans in the mixture and in the build-up to the main races of the season he will add a good mixture that contains a few types of maize. Seeing as the birds have their mixture available at all times Jock can pay close attention to what the birds are eating and what they are not, two or three seasons back in the weeks leading up to the first channel race he saw the birds were polishing off the maize over anything else and it was from here on he started to add a mixture at this time with a high maize content. The Chenoise Cock The birds are given some conditioning mix, a little Hormoform or the occasional peanut but this is mainly to keep them calm and to get them into their nest box so they are easily caught. Jock doesn’t feel the use of peanuts has contributed too much to his successes as the quantity used over the course of the season is negligible. There isn’t really too much to add on the medication front, Jock isn’t one for administering any routine treatments but he will act if he feels something’s not quite right. As far as supplements go cider vinegar, garlic oil, probiotics etc. the pigeons at Renstrie lofts have had most of them over the years, the observations of the owner however was that there was no real difference of any note. One thing that became clear to me quite quickly after visiting the lofts in Ravenstruther is that their consistency at 500-600+miles and the many great wins achieved by J & I Alston aren’t through elaborate feeding systems, treatment cycles or extensive supplementation, but stem from good pigeons kept in a healthy environment and managed with a caring and common sense approach. Seeing as I’m compiling this loft report towards the back end of the young bird race programme I’ve spoken to Jock a few times on young bird racing and how much work he gives his own youngsters. The main thing I’ve taken from the conversations was that he feels it’s necessary for the youngsters to go right out and whereas he will stop one or two of the particularly well bred birds after a few races he likes to send a fair few to the young bird national. It is interesting looking through the top performance pigeons in the loft at present and from the past and seeing just how many of them have gone right to the end as youngsters. This thorough education seems to set them up well for later life. I’m always interested to know other fancier’s view on the Scottish National Flying Club itself and to see how/if they feel it can be improved. Such is Jock’s enthusiasm for cross channel racing he has never been totally in favour of the inland races in the National programmes since the first ones inception in 1997. Although he sends to them annually they are not really what he feels the club should be about. I’m sure he voices the feelings of a large cross section of the membership when he says the current situation with the clubs race marking facilities is not ideal and there is less emphasis on professionalism and security compared to days gone by. This is a point that I’m certain the current committee are well aware of and will no doubt address for the next season’s racing. Another of the questions I asked was what advice would this experienced long distance performer give to people looking to achieve similar feats from the cross channel races. Using his own story as an example he felt it would be worthwhile for any aspiring long distance fanciers to acquaint themselves with men and woman who are doing it regularly from these big races, not necessarily with a view to acquiring pigeons but to get an idea of what they are doing and how they keep/ prepare their birds for these tasks. Aside from the racing and keeping of pigeons Jock also tries his hand at a bit of photography, he’ll be the first admit he’s not quite as accomplished at it as the likes of Jim Hannah but he takes a good picture and it’s been interesting looking through the photos of the partnership’s past winners as well as seeing some of the ones he has taken recently. To conclude I’d like to thank Jock for sharing his time and knowledge with me, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a bit about this fantastic partnership and seeing up close the fantastic team of birds Jock and his late wife, Isabel have developed through the years. I hope a few have found it interesting reading about some of the performances, pigeons and the background of one of Scotland’s great long distance lofts. It would come as no surprise to me to see Jock win a fifth West Region trophy in the near future. Thanks again Jock. Lewis McCalley

The Story of a Long Distance Champion Rosary Beads-Bred& Raced by David Jamieson, East Calder In the spring of 2011, in the East Calder lofts of DavieJamieson, hatched a pigeon the likes of which are few. Banded with the yellowring marked SU11 CA 858, her hopeful owner was at that time oblivious to whatexactly her future would hold. Here we are some four years down the line where this hen, Rosary Beads, could be likened to theMessi of FC Barcelona or the Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. Great teams alwayshave a star, and Davie Jamieson’s superb loft of racing pigeons is nodifferent. Great and superb are two of the many similar words that could beused to describe Davie’s current team, this last few seasons have rarely seenthem keep his picture out the paper or his name from peppering the results.Multiple SNFC section victories have been achieved and numerous top 5 and 10Open prizes have been won, these from far away race points such as Newbury,Reims, Ancenis and Clermont. September 2015 saw him with fifteen pigeons on theOpen result from the SNFC Buckingham Young Bird Open, a feat practicallyunheard of in the area in which he flies. The quality of stock and racershoused in these lofts is the stuff most fanciers will only ever dream of andthis is a story about the jewel in the crown of astonishing achievements. Rosary Beads wasbred and hatched to a light chequer cock and a red hen, both of which could beconsidered blue blooded in terms of racing pigeon ancestry. The cock of thepair was the result of an arranged mating between two of Scotland’s finestmultiple long distance performance pigeons of the era, his sire being aScottish National Flying Club Gold Award winner for the late Dale Newcombe. Acock that was given the name KardaleStyle-scoring five times at over 500 miles with the SNFC notching up 113th,15thand55th Open in our Gold Cup race as well as 26th and 84thOpen Sartilly. This fine cock was bred by Dale and like many of his prominentwinners in the 90s and 00s his breeding was greatly influenced by thebloodlines of the John Ellis of Elphinstone pigeons. John Ellis is mostassociated with the Lothian Pair, ablue cock and red hen that left behind a dynasty of winners. With terms like‘Golden Pair’ and ‘Wonder Couple’ being so widely used in the selling ofpigeons these days, it’s easy to see why they are often dispelled as myth. Thatbeing said Lothian King and Queenmore than fit the bill. Their genes can be traced back to those John’s late father,JTEllis of Haddington had in his loft- a blend of winning lines from; the McCabeBros of East Calder, Willie Fairgreave of East Saltoun, the Piercey Bros of Spittaland Geordie Robertson of Cupar. The best known daughter of the pair Lothian Lass was somewhat of a flyingmachine winning a Gold Award with the following SNFC Open positions; 21st,8th,24th,11th,77th,248thand 128th. A son was gifted to Dale Newcombe and went on to breednone other than Kardale Clive’s memory the1993 SNFC Gold Cup Winner when paired to a Gunn and Cheerie hen. Any cock andhen that bred a racer in the calibre of LothianLass would be considered a ‘Golden Pair’ in the eyes of many fanciers. Whenone considers that eight of her siblings won in SNFC Open competition 8th,9th,21st,22nd,29th,31st,35th,41st,42nd,63rd,66th,68th,123rd,129th,132nd,153rd,176th,192nd,243rd, between them racing 500-600miles, this couldbe considered a Platinum pairing. This line of birds not only won for JohnEllis and Dale Newcombe,but impacted the lofts of many top fanciers including;John Bosworth, Tom McEwan,Mr and Mrs Smith, Richard & Jamie Combe, JockAllan, Mr and Mrs Elliot, Joe Mullen,Joe Murphy and so on. There is a reason I’ve gone into depth regarding theachievements of the John Ellis pigeons, when John decided to part with hispigeons Davie Jamieson was fortunate enough to acquire the entire team. Daviereckons around 70% of his present day team have the Ellis of Elphinstone bloodrunning through their veins. He has expressed tremendous gratitude to John-theman he describes as the best fancier he has ever met and is indebted to him,not only for these tremendous birds, but for the advice and friendship he hasgiven him over the years-completely altering his opinions on all aspectsrelating to the management and preparation of pigeons for long distancenational racing. The list of top lofts winning with these bloodlines has onlygotten longer since they have been in Davie’s hand as they’ve played a part inoutright National winners for the top Solway flyers; Crombie and Mechan, BillySmith and John Little. Back now to this chequer cock,the sire of Rosary Beads, anda little about his dam. This was a hen of great class, I’ve heard many whohandled the bird remark on how she was one of the finest birds they’ve everseen. Known as the Cholet Hen,Davie obtainedher at the clearance sale of J & J Keir of Thornton in Fife. As a 600 mileracer she was every bit the champion winning from this distance on fouroccasions over three different race points. She won 11th and 60thOpen Chenoise, plus 5th Open Tours with the SNFC, before going ontowin 3rd Open SNRPC Cholet and earning her retirement. Her breeding is the very best Fife had tooffer being down through the Keir’s 4th Open Rennes Hen My Little Lady as well many of thereference pigeons of John Traill of Thornton, who went through a spell in theSNFC’s longest race the likes of which has scarcely been seen before or since.Over the course of four seasons in the mid-1990s he was able to amass 1st,8thand 30th Open Niort at 690miles as well as 1st,2ndand 30th Open Nantes at 620miles. A true legend of long distanceracing into Scotland. After reading the performances and heritage of the Cholet Hen it should come as no surpriseto hear she has been a phenomenal breeder in East Calder, in fact she is thepigeon Davie Jamieson hails as the best he has ever obtained. Much like RosaryBeads’ sire her dam is also of immaculate long distance ancestry, a 2007latebred red hen, her sister is recognised as one of Davie’s best breeders.This outstanding nest pair are bred from birds Davie purchased from his namesake (no relation), the late Matt Jamieson of Annan. The sire of the pair inparticular is a bit special and was the pigeon Matt Considered to be the bestin his loft at the time. Being three times in the first 22 Open SNFC including4th Open from the Alencon Gold Cup, it’s simple enough to see why.The Jamieson brothers of Annan are as synonymous a name to pigeon racing in thesouth of Scotland as Johnny Kirkpatrick and BlueBlitz. Yes, the names of John and Matt Jamieson are considered household,with four National wins between them and a string of 2nds and 3rds etc. therehave been few better over the Scottish National Flying Club’s long history. Apoint I found quite interesting and a little coincidental in this instance waswhen Matt Jamieson won the Nantes National in 1969 with Border Star, the runner up was none other than Haddington’s JTEllis. With pigeons so deeply rooted intop long distance bloodlines it is little wonder a pigeon like Rosary Beads has appeared in DavieJamieson’s loft. On to the champion herself and her young bird season, Rosary Beads is described by her owneras being a fairly attractive young hen, one of a few eye catchers amongst his2011 youngsters, but little more than that. Not part of his darkness team, apleasant pearl eye turned in her head and she saw out the federation programmewith no remarkable proficiency. At this point it’s worth noting that she, aswith all Davie youngsters, was given no training prior to entering the firstrace of 50 miles. To expand on that point, none of Davie’s pigeons young or oldare ever taken a training toss at any time. They are expected to exercise wellround home and fed in such a way that encourages this. Friends of Davie’s havewatched his birds roaming miles from home and with the lack of training by roadand a light, carefully thought out diet this becomes habit. The only time theyare in a basket is to race. Although showing no real signs of racing talent as ayoungster, Davie liked the look and breeding of Rosary Beads enough to take youngsters from her as a yearling. Thisis not something he usually practises, preferring for the most part to breedoff his stock birds and prizewinning racers. As a yearling racer she wentthrough the same procedure as the majority of Davie’s birds at this age, it’susually a case of a handful of inland races down to the English coast then theyare left to mature out for the following season. There have been instances inwhich Davie has sent yearlings over the channel if they have what he’s lookingfor come the time. One such example is a red full sister of Rosary Beads which as a late bred took26th Open SNFC Ypres, a distance of just under 437 miles, in whatwas only the pigeons fourth time in a basket in her lifetime. In 2013 Rosary Beads turnedtwo years old, by now she had the look of a bird that could do something ofnote. The fact she had never really shone up to this point is not somethingthat deterred Davie too much. After all it is reasonably common for good longdistance racers never to see a clock until sent a long distance. At thebeginning of the year the usual procedure was carried out; the birds werepaired in February then parted in April to be raced on a form of roundabout.This is the same for all the old bird racers in Davie’s loft before he re-pairsthem for a chosen race point. The race point chosen for Rosary Beads this particular season was the Scottish NationalFlying Club’s longest race. Always a testing event, at times disastrous and in2013 to be flown from a race point unknown to the club-Ancenis, convoying withthe Midland’s National Flying Club. The race took place on the 6thof July with the birds being liberated at 0550. In years gone by 743miles intoScotland has been achieved on the day of liberation, so with the early liberationtime day birds weren’t ruled out, even if it was just in hope rather thanexpectation. News filtered through the MNFC, with the bulk of their birdsflying around 200- 300 miles less than the Scottish contingent, were having asticky one-thus doubts began to form as to whether any pigeons would make itinto Scotland by nightfall. There was one timed on the night and in hindsightif only one person was to get a bird on the day it was going to be Scott IrvingJr. for in 2013 his birds flew nothing short of magnificently. Scott clockedhis superb chequer hen at 2121 eventually taking 1st Open, althoughI’m sure it wouldn’t have been an easy night-with timing in so close to raceclosing into Brydekirk there would always be the fear that someone furthernorth could clock early the next day for the win. Someone did indeed time in 63miles further north the following day, none other at Davie Jamieson-who clockedhis first pigeon at 0446, but had to make do with 2nd Open just sixyards per minute shy of the National winning pace Scott had set the previousnight. Davie’s first bird was a 3 year old cock now known as White Mick, I’ve had the pleasure ofhandling this pigeon and would class him as absolutely magnificent. The racewas still on, but the fancy had a time to wait until the next pigeons arrived.The third pigeon timed in the country taking 3rd Open for herefforts was the subject of this report RosaryBeads, at the time of 0801 she was a very good pigeon. To be 2ndand 3rd Open SNFC racing just shy of 600miles would do most people,but not Davie Jamieson for he was to time another of his entries as the cherryon top in the form of 10th Open, giving him 1st,2ndand 3rd Section D to boot. I have tried to find another example of afancier with three pigeons in the first 10 Open from the SNFC’s longest raceand I think I’ll be trying for a good while more. After Davie’s success from Ancenis in 2013, the good chequercock White Mick was, I can imagine,ever so slightly better looking to his eyes than Rosary Beads. This was to change at 2100 on the 7th ofJuly 2014. Again the SNFC were at Ancenis with the MNFC, again it was an earlyliberation (0610), again Davie Jamieson and RosaryBeads were to the fore. Sent sitting 12 day eggs on basketting day as in2013, this time she was to fly the 598 miles on the day of liberation-being thefurthest flying pigeon in the race to do so. Beaten only to 1stSection by a super pigeon of Tam Fyfe’s she was to be 2nd Section D,4th Open. I have tried to find an example of a pigeon to havefinished twice in the first 4 Open from the SNFC’s longest race and again Ithink I’ll be trying for a good while more. That Saturday in July emerged apigeon in the class of; John Bosworth’s Arleen’s Vintage (twice first 5 Open, threetimes first 15 Open Longest Race), Jim Sanderson’s Loan Frill Lady (twice first 7 Open Longest Race) and Jock Traill’s Nancy (twice first 8 Open Longest Race), fulfilling the ambition ofa fancier who got his first pigeons as a boy in 1970 and his first SNFC diplomafor 57th Open Sartilly in 1984. A real dream come true. So what was next for RosaryBeads ?I remember reading the race report in 2014 in which Dr Lynch raisedthe dilemma faced by Davie- keep her going or retire her to stock? Fortunatelythe decision made in 2015 transpired to be the right one. With her preparationunaltered from the two years previous going to plan it was off to Ancenis againin early July for this long distance champion. It was this third crossing thatbrought her owner the most joy, despite the fact she never made it home on thenight, arriving at 0518 made her the first pigeon timed in Scotland thatmorning and brought her the section win that had eluded her up until now. Herarrival only marked the beginning of a great morning in East Calder, foranother hen was clocked at 0645 and a third at 0813. This saw Davie Jamiesonfinishing 11th, 15th and 20th Open and taking1st,2nd and 3rd from this race point for thesecond time in three seasons. I mentioned the legendary Jock Traill’s four yearrun in the SNFC’s longest race earlier in this report and when one considersDavie Jamieson’s 2nd,3rd,4th,10th,11th,15th,20th,and 41st from the equivalent race point over a three year period he has a greatdeal to be proud of. Rosary Beads performancesover this time have earned her a SNFC Silver Award of which will be hard tobetter. To summarise, this tremendous pigeon has won 2nd Section D, 3rd Open SNFC Ancenis(598 miles) 2nd Section D,4th Open SNFC Ancenis(598miles) 1st Section D, 11th Open SNFC Ancenis(598miles) A retirement well-earned and with youngsters and siblings ofRosary Beads already showing greatpromise, I’m sure we will hear more of this great hen as breeder. As a closing thought I’d firstly like to thank DavieJamieson for giving me the opportunity to compile this short report. SecondlyI’d like to congratulate him on breeding and racing this long distancechampion. Thirdly I only hope I have given her the credit she warrants and finallyI extend a thanks to Paul Bamford on behalf of Davie, his pigeons andfriendship are greatly valued. Lewis McCalley

anyway, there's more important things to worry aboot than that sh I te. Ye coming up to vote for Reims?

<div> <br><br></div><div>Given that there has been no timing discrepancies or failed verifications in the recent history of the club, at least not that I or anyone I've ever spoken to on the matter knows of, I think you're right. </div>

If it is in the interest of security and if people think members are cheating-surely compulsory phoning in of every ones first bird will only make it easier for them to do so?

I personally don't like the ongoing result thing some of the other organisations do. Think it could be ok if yer no at the race and looking in. The whole lib line thing can ruin your race, too many folk worrying about other folks times instead of their own. For me it kills a bit of the excitement if ye know there's doos in and you havenae any, part of the excitement when ye get one as well is waiting a day or two til the result comes on the website or through the door to see where you've finsihed.With the ongoing result thing ye more or less know before ye go up wi the clock. It's a no from me, and if it does go through I suppose I'll just have to report anything I get and no look online or talk to any body

Reims has been good to Robert Rome and Ralston Graham. Who knows it may be your turn this year Stevie?