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Copied from Facebook 6th January 2026 Stuart Wilcox Auctions @ Blackpool 2026. We have our normal high quality Auction program on Friday the 16th of January and Saturday the 17th of January 2026 at the Savoy Hotel Friday Night 16th January May Pigeons Viewing 4.15pm - Sale Starts 5.00pm Stuart Wilcox Viewing 5.30pm – Sale Starts 6.15pm UK Golden Duif Viewing 6.45pm – Sale Starts 7.45pm Saturday 17th January Champions Auction Viewing 1.15pm - Sale Starts 2.00pm Flanders Collection Viewing 15.15pm – Sale Starts 4.00pm Syndicate Lofts Viewing 6.45pm – Sale Starts 7.45pm I will present each auction list separately and in order – This one is the famous Golden Duif UK Auction on the Friday Night, a particular favorite with fanciers and one of the highlights of the weekend. A strong line up as normal, all selected by Rik Harmans Some rooms are still available at the Savoy for the Blackpool Show Weekend - Fri 16th and Sat 17th £55 a night Bed & Breakfast for Friday and Saturday £65 a night with evening meal! To book early before all the rooms are gone call 0161 923 0300 and mention Stuart Wilcox to secure the above offer price

Billy Looker of Mitcham. I first became aware of Billy Looker and his wonderful team of pigeons when he won the Three Borders Federation from Messac in the 2015 season, after which I invite him to my home to have some birds photographed for this article. He came to Claygate in February and on seeing his six pigeons and their race performances it was clear to me that his great performance started long before his Messac success. His 2015 Federation winner was his yearling blue cock, now named ‘The Fed Topper’, and he is a son of Bill’s champion stock cock, ‘Lenny the Lion’. The blue cock was raced on the roundabout system and recorded from Messac (258 miles) 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 3rd SMT Combine (1,164 birds). Billy has raced his old birds on the roundabout, with outstanding results for several years and tells me, he can accommodate 24 pairs, and finds the system very enjoyable. During the racing season the cocks are in with the nest boxes and the racing hens are on perches. The racers are let together on the marking day and on their return from the race they are left together for one hour, before going back on the system. Bill’s loft is 20ft long, with four section and the young bird section has a 5ft aviary so the inmates can enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. The structure is fitted through out with roof lights, for nature light and vents at the bottom and at roof level for good ventilation. Deep litter is not used in the racing loft, as Bill like to keep an eye on the birds dropping at all times. He has eight stock pairs which are housed in a 8ft breeding loft and he uses deep litter in this loft, which he says has never been a problem to the birds. The race birds are paired up in January and normally they single rear a youngster and then the hens and their youngsters are removed at around 16 days, and then they are on the roundabout system to start racing. They then start to get regular exercise around the loft and once they are going well at home, Billy starts to train them for about eight tosses up to 30 miles before the first Federation race. As previously stated the racers see their mates on the marking and they are never broken down with their feeding. Training tosses along the south coast are preferred and Billy tells me that he never trains during the racing season, unless their form drops and then he will give them a tosses or two to bring them back. He has started enjoying channel racing in recent seasons and likes to pick his races for certain pigeons. The old birds are fed on Mariman’s Varimax and Super Power 50/50 mixture, and he has found there is no wastage, and they fly well on this feeding. The main racers in the loft today are: The blue hen, ‘The Combine Hen’, winner of 2010: 2nd club, 3rd Three Borders Federation, 3rd SMT Combine (1,557 birds) Yelverton and her nest sister ‘28106’ winner of 1st club, 2nd Three Borders Federation Exeter, the blue chequer pied hen, ‘Mason’, winner of: 2014: 21st section, 40th open BICC Falaise (old hens), 6th section, 27th open BICC Guernsey (old hens), the handsome blue pied cock, ‘The Flash Cock’, the winner of: 1st club (234 birds), 1st Three Borders Federation (1,424 birds) Blandford (92 miles), the blue chequer WF hen, ‘The Alencon Hen’ winner of 1st club, 2nd Three Borders Federation, 3rd SMT Combine (749 birds) Alencon, 23rd section, 45th open BICC Falaise, 3rd club Fougeres, 3rd club Falaise and of cause the 2015 Messac Federation winner, ‘The Fed Topper’. A very impressive team of racers! Billy is a heating engineer and has been self-employed for eight year. He tells me his wife isn’t interested in the pigeons, but his two children, Crystal aged seven and Billy junior aged one, love them and like them to fly and feed them. They both have their favourites and Billy’s nephew, Mason, helps him with the cleaning out and feeding. Mason is five years old and he sometimes goes to the pigeon club with his uncle Bill for marking. Bill has always been interested in ‘Country Sports’ and fishing, which he has had a lot success at. He likes Ferreting and shooting, and has done a lot of Clay Pigeon shooting. Billy says his most thrilling thing in his time in pigeon racing was winning the Three Borders Federation from Messac in 2015. He has several premier positions at the top end of the Combine result, including 2nd open and says his main aim now is to win the Combine! The families in keeps are good at short and long distance racing, but he enjoys the long distance events best and his best performance to date was winning the Three Borders Federation from Messac (258 miles) in 2015. Billy says it is a big ‘thanks’ to Lenny Jenkins for his help and advice over the past few years and thanks also to his mum, who helps him out with the pigeons when he away working and can’t get to the loft. The main family kept at the Mitcham loft are: Staf Van Reets from Lenny Jenkins of Dagenham in Essex, plus some of Lenny’s own family of pigeons and the very successful Muller / Aarden pigeons from the Padfield Brothers in Wales. Billy Looker was born in London in 1984 and has lived in Mitcham all his life. His dad has always been a Fancy Pigeon fancier, starting many years before Bill was born, so pigeons have always been a big part of the Looker’s life. Billy has had Fantails and Tumblers all his life and had his first race birds in 1998, when he formed a racing partnership with Wayne Gardiner. Billy told me, sadly the partnership only lasted a few seasons, but he really caught the racing bug! He started racing again on his own in 2007, with a few gift late breds and in 2008 he had his first team of racing young birds. He purchased some youngsters from the Breeding Station, which were Soontjen and one of them won two firsts in the Mitcham club. Bill has still got that hen and she has bred some real quality youngsters over the years. He can remember racing in the very strong Mitcham FC back in 1998 and one of the best flyers then was Frank & Sue Carson and says they still are today. His biggest mistake in his novice days was overcrowding and over feeding, but since meeting Lenny ‘the lion’ Jenkins in 2009, he has looked back. Billy has learnt a lot about feeding and conditioning the birds in recent years. In his early days the young Billy was gifted pigeons from every one, which performed ok, but soon realised that if he wanted to really compete against the best he needed to invest in good pigeons that were winners. His first club was the Mitcham FC, which was then based at the Bull PH in Church Road and his first loft was nothing fancy, just a 12ft structure with two sections and open door trapping. He remembered at that time everyone was talking about the new thing, the ‘darkness’ system and he taped black bin liners over the young bird section windows, but it worked, because he won races. Text & Photos by Keith Mott (January 2026)

Copied from Facebook 5th January 2026 Maurice Mattheeuw’s fascination with pigeons started early, leading him to develop a deep knowledge of their care and training. He dedicated himself to refining bloodlines, breeding pigeons known for their remarkable speed and endurance. The Mattheeuws pigeons can do far more than just race 100 to 400 km. Maurice has also been crowned 1st champion in several other clubs. And that’s not even counting the countless 1st prizes he adds to his honors list every season. Over the past five seasons, his record looks like this: 28x 1st in 2007 24x 1st in 2008 40x 1st in 2009 40x 1st in 2010 35x 1st in 2011 #fblifestyle

CLICK ON LINK BELOW https://loftbuddy.winfort-lofts.co.uk/

Copied from Facebook 4th January 2026 IAN MCKAY Aberdeen Federation of Racing pigeons Young bird Breeder / Buyer sale 612 club 615 Gt Northern Road Aberdeen Sunday 19th April @ 13:00 penning The need to raise more funds to fulfil our intention of purchasing a new transporter for 2027 brings the B/B to the fore as in the past it has not been well supported and we would like to put forward to all members a request to support the sale by donating and/or buying a bird, if you feel for any reason you cannot donate a bird we would like you donate £20 to help with this project for a new transporter. Your £20 can be paid to your club sec or straight to the Fed Transport account: SC 87-34-01 Ac no 00020441 There will as usual be a raffle on the day so we require prizes. If you could donate towards the raffle could you let us know please. The following have started it off by donating. A Williamson 2 Bottles W Davidson. 1 Bottle Bacardi I McKay. 1ltr of Whyte & McKay’s whisky

Copied from Facebook 4th January 2026

Copied from Facebook 4th January 2026

On behalf of Fifer and myself, I would like to thank all the members of Basics and wish each and everyone of you a Happy New Year, and a prosperous 2026

Copied from Facebook 30th December 2025 by: tuspalomas in Colombofilos karel meulemans Karel Meulemans' famous palomar of Arendonk is a legend in Colombophilia. A breed of pigeons that has been scattered all over the world like the Janssen themselves, with the difference that Karel has won the same many 1st prizes, starting in the 50s to continue winning even today (2007). Most fans think Karel's pigeons are mid-ground. This is not true, Karel started with the big bottoms in the 90s, loose 700-850 km. Won his first National in 1995 and became champion of Belgium KBDB in 2001 from those distances. He wanted more, the real long distances too. He set up his mind to be on top of the big funds and became a famous fund maker in the province of National Antwerp. Race and History Karel Meulemans now 74 years old, retired in 1990. He used to work on a farm, his own farm. After World War II it started with pigeons. Met a fellow Adriian Wouters who traveled together his pigeons. They had a famous breeding couple famous in the world: "Oude Van Den Bosch X Janssen, a few years later he had Frans Marien as a Colombophile partner. Marien & Meulemans came to be very successful in the middle. Raising and flying their pigeons, many Colombophiles got first prizes in the middle background with descendants of their pigeons. In 1980 Frans Marien died and all the pigeons were sold at a public auction, Karel bought most of the best travellers: Chalet, Prins , Het Schoon , Donker , Bonte Duif were crossed with the best of Hofkens pigeons. Karen immediately succeeded. Her daughter Linda began to be interested in pigeons and formed tandem with her from 1981-1990. In 1986, some famous pigeons like Karen were stolen from their pigeon farm. In 1990 in Tandem Meuleman and Damen began, Damen the husband of Linda Meulemans, Linda and Walter Damen live in a house near Karel. The big success in the big fund started in 1995. Meulemans and Damen won the 1st National of Dax, 2nd International and 8th AS long bottom pigeon. The base traveling pigeons in the 90s were Montargis 245/88 (son of Het Schoon Donker), the super female in the middle background 467/95 (1st Bourges and 7th National Argenton) sister of the main breeder 118/90, the 401/95 (daughter of Montargis), 347/91 ( mother of Dax's 1st National and sister 118/90), 345/91 ( blue female with 1st Melun among 1,780 pigeons, 8th National Argenton among 27,499 pigeons), the red 311/90 (father of the 1st National of Dax, cross between chalet, Prins and Georges Bolle. But the main breeder was 118/90 which has an interesting story when Meulemans and Damen got the KBDB large fund national championship in 1999,3 sons of 118/90 were their best travelers, these three brothers, Pantano 868/96 , 590/96 and 591/96 won numerous awards. On the day of the national championship in Ostend they asked Karel to bring some pigeons to teach the guests there attendees. Karel showed the 118/90, but at night this male was stolen, Karel had to go home without the father of his three best travelers in the year 1999, he was disappointed, but he knew that the male was no longer fertile, had not had children in the last two years. A few months later, the 118/90 returned to the palomar of Karel Meulemans, the thieves probably tried to get him out, but to the power, they had released it. The father of 118/90 is the 758/89 obtained from an egg from Van Gils brothers of the 1st National of Marseille with his 1st National of Pau 87 , the mother of 118 /90 was the 233/89 ; from the old line Meulemans and Het Schoon Donker. Method: Karel, Linda and Walter have 65 widows, including the yearlings. All widows are coupled on March 20, old widows can peck 5-6 days and yearlings 17-20 days, not pichones. After the Perpignan all widows can hatch eggs twice but never piglets. In 2001, Karel arrived to travel 6 females to the natural, participating up to mid-back in the first position, in the second position, they went up to 550 km twice. , in the third position with 2-3 days pichons were sent to Perpignan 965 km. Karel won 40-43-161 National 5 women he ruled. Karel advises beginners to at first focus on the loose speed and half bottom, it takes many years to succeed in long distances and some amateurs to focus on all modalities and not specifically on one do not reach success in any and lose interest and stop traveling pigeons.

Sighthill 2025 presentation day 🍻

The late John Furness of Woking. In my time as a racing pigeon writer I have visited many lofts which are based on eyesign, but I think the late Johnny Furness' loft must take the cake. I have never seen so many good eyed pigeons in one loft and this had been achieved by many years study of the subject. He paired up on eyesign and said it's a method of getting the best out of your birds in the shortest time. The Furness pigeons won the Federation countless times, but in 1977 from a young bird Weymouth event, he created a record by winning the first thirteen positions in the very strong Surrey Federation, with 2,437 birds competing. The week before the race John was working away and the birds had to be kept in the loft, so on his return he gave them a 40 mile toss every day from Monday to Friday the marking day. He sent 26 birds and his heart must have been in his mouth as 16 dropped on the loft together and he managed to clock 13 to set a fantastic record at that time. My good mate, Mick Worsfold, took me to John's Knaphill home for the loft visit and as always, it rained. The Furness loft housed three main families, Hansenne, Kirkpatrick and Burghers, with the Hansenne pigeons being best for long distances and hard days. The first pigeon John handed me to inspect was his great Burghers blue chequer pied hen 'Melody', winner of: 1976: 1st club Weymouth, 2nd club Exeter, 3rd club Plymouth, 1st club, 8th Federation, 11th Combine Wadebridge; 1977: 2nd club Weymouth, 1st club Exeter, 1st club, 3rd Federation, 41st Combine Laval, 5th club Angers, 1st club Weymouth; 1978: 2nd club Vire, 3rd club Laval, 2nd club Exeter, 1st club Exeter, 1st club Weymouth, 5th club Bergerac and she bred winners. 'Melody' was a wonderful hen, handling medium appled bodied and was a grand-daughter of John's champion Burghers stock hen 'Bernadette'. The stock hen was bred by Bernard Burghers and was the dam of fourteen 1st prize winners, including 1st and 2nd Combine and five Federation winners. Next to hand was a handsome yearling dark chequer cock named 'Eric' and he had recorded in his short racing career, 1st club Niort (350 miles), three times 2nd club and four times 3rd club. John's neat racing loft was 25ft long, with drop hole trapping; the 15 pairs of stock birds were housed in two smaller lofts. The whole loft was paired up about 14th February and about 40 youngsters were bred each year. The birds were raced on the natural system, with a lot of attention paid to correct feeding and training. John said he liked hens for the longer races, sitting about 12 to14 days and thought it's important to look for fitness in your birds before entering them in the long events. He doesn't worry unduly about the moult, as he says it's a natural condition. He was born in Capetown, South Africa and his father kept pigeons but didn't race. John started up at the age of seven and joined a boy's pigeon club, flying races up to five miles. In his first proper young bird season at the age of 12 he won the young bird Average by 640 yards with only eight youngsters. This was with birds obtained from Frank Lewrey, the pre-war Woking ace. John said he served his apprenticeship under Frank Lewrey, clearing out and doing odd jobs for him. His first loft was a converted 6ft x 4ft chicken shed and he raced in the Woking Racing Pigeon Club, which was the club he raced in for over 40 years. He said Frank and the late Fred Seaman of Woking gave him a lot of help in the early days. Another outstanding racer housed in the loft was the ten year old Hansenne dark chequer hen 'Solitaire' and she was the last daughter of 'Elizabeth', Ned Rees Welsh Grand National win-ner. 'Solitaire' was medium appled bodied in the hand and had won twice 1st Federation, five times 1st club, flown Pau twice and was the dam of many winners at stock. 'Katy', a blue pied hen, was another outstanding racing Hansenne, having won seven first prizes and flown Pau twice. John maintained that good light and the correct flow of fresh air are the key factors in good loft design and said novices should not attempt to learn by their mistakes. He said he would like to revert back to rail transport, with panniers and wood chips, as he thinks peat isn't very good for the birds. The late Eric Cannon of Wormley was John's nomination for the best fan-cier in the Surrey area and says his performances in National Flying Club races over the years have been outstanding. John was the secretary of the Woking RPC and the chairman of the Surrey Federation. The birds were fed on a good mixture of beans, maize, wheat and turkey starter pellets, re-ceiving 1oz per bird. Iron tonic was given once a week and they were trapped with a little small seed. The old birds got 40 mile tosses two or three times before racing and raced up to 600 miles, with the yearlings going through to 450 miles. Youngsters were made to fly most of the young bird programme and John maintained that fly aways with youngsters were caused by overcrowding. He said consideration for the birds and attention to details are key factors on the road to success. We all make mistakes, said John, but lots of fanciers are only fanciers on Saturdays. When selecting producers, he liked medium size birds, with contrasting eye colours and said pairing two eyes which are the same will result in the youngsters having diluted eyes. I'm not an eyesign man myself, but the most unusual eye I have ever seen belonged to John's good Hansenne blue pied stock cock 'Brahah' and he told me it was a violet eyesign. 'Brahah' was the sire and grandsire of many winners up to 550 miles. John had tried latebreds in all ways, but could not do a thing with them, although he reckoned they made good stock birds. John said he didn't like deep litter and would never use it. Plenty of feeding and green stuff are the order of the day for a good moult. John Furness had a bumper season in 1979, recording many firsts including 1st club, 4th Surrey Federation, 4th SMT Combine Le Mans and 1st club, 1st Surrey Federation, 2nd SMT Combine Angers. John's Angers winner was his Hansenne blue hen 'Katrina' and she was a daughter of the good blue pied stock cock 'Brahah'. She was sent to Angers sitting 12 day old eggs and had previously won 1st club Exeter in 1979. The white Burgher hen 'Beatrix' was the 4th SMT Combine Le Mans pigeon and she was a daughter of the champion Burghers stock hen 'Bernadette'. 'Beatrix' previously won 1st club Exeter and 1st club Blandford as a youngster. For many years the SMT Combine's longest old bird race was flown from Bergerac (450 miles), but in 1987 it was flown from Marmande about 30 miles further than Bergerac. Mem-bers sent 2,852 birds for this Blue Riband race and although leading pigeons recorded over 1200ypm, day birds were very few and far between. John Furness won the Combine with his handsome two year old Burger pied cock 'Serenade'. This bird won several good positions including 2nd club Nantes in 1987. 'Serenade' was raced on widowhood and was bred from the cream of the Furness Burgers including 'Melody' and 'Bernadette'. There you have it, the late great John Furness, one of best fanciers ever in the Surrey area. Text & Photos by Keith Mott (December 2025)

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❗️ GPS Pigeon ❗️ I'll update this post with the live GPS tracking location of our "tracker doo" as and when I get a ping from its location on route home today from Tarbert 157mile, The idea is to give us some idea of the route she's taken to get home hopefully along with the main batch of birds, we get location notifications every 35 minutes roughly so I'll do my best to keep it up to date as the race unfolds,

Copied from Facebook 24th December Christmas Race - Tarbert 157 mile ❗️9:30am Liberation ❗️ Morning Guys, we have two ventures available ready to be assigned to anyone who wants them, both basketed tonight for tomorrow christmas race from Tarbert 157mile and can be viewed in the live basketing video, we're aiming for a 9:30am liberation so please just message me for any info before then to take part, Liberation to take place in tarbert at a distance of 157 mile at our usual spot along the harbour on Peir Road - PA29 6UG Weather is turning out exactly as predicted and is shaping upto be a brilliant day for it 😁 Any last minute pools please get them over asap to be included in the website update 😁 If anyone would like to guess todays velocity please just add a comment down below with you're guess in "YPM" for the chance to win two fully paid for entrys into our 2026 Summer Series, winning guesses must be within 2ypm of the winning bird to win 😁 Returns Rate, Trainer One - 60.5% Trainer Two - 81% Trainer Three - 96.8% Trainer Four - 96.5% Trainer Five - 100% Trainer Six - 100% Trainer Seven - 94.2% Trainer Eight - 98.4% Trainer Nine - 97% Activation Race - 100%

My dad'my my brotherl My self my champion hen my 2 My brother on the right

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George Baxter of Methil.is selling his 16x8ft loft with corridor £2000 OVNO PHONE 07592938512