The Late Cecil Bulled of Harlow by Keith Mott

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The late, great Cecil Bulled of Harlow.

Mark Bulled is the son of the late, great Cecil Bulled, who was one of our greatest North Road racers of all time. Mark told me, ‘the best feeling in pigeon racing is to clock in late at night from 550 miles and my real love in the sport is the long distance events. My best pigeon moments were just sitting with my dad waiting for the Combine pigeons! Mark has been in pigeon racing all his life, coming from a brilliant family of pigeon fanciers, with his father being Cecil Bulled and his grandfather being Sid Marsh of Croydon. He tells me his dad started up in pigeons on meeting his mother, Barbara. Pigeon were always a part of Mark’s life when he was a lad, cleaning out the loft and training the birds with his dad, but started to get really keen at the age of about 14. He was very close to Cecil and the pigeons gave them a lot of time together. Mark is now a long distance racing 'legend' in his own right, winning in recent seasons: 1st open NFC Tarbes, 1st open L&SECC Tarbes, 1st open BBC Fougeres, 1st open BBC Fougeres, 1st open London NR Combine Berwick (Yearlings), 1st open London NR Combine Lerwick, 2nd open NFC Messac, 2nd open BBC Bordeaux, 2nd open BBC Fougeres, 3rd open NFC Messac. Fantastic pigeon racing by any standard! When racing with his late father, Cecil, he recorded 1st open London NR Combine Thurso, 1st open London NR Combine Lerwick (four times), 1st open L&SECC Thurso, 1st open London SR Combine Bergerac.

I first met Cecil and Mark Bulled in the mid-1990’s, when I visit their home in Harlow with Doug Went to film them for the ‘Many Miles With Mott’ video series. What great day out that was, the partners were winning it all in front of them and Mark was busy working to set up his own team of pigeons at his new address. The next time I met them was in 2001, when with the foot and mouth epidemic and resulting ban on racing from France, the London & South East Classic Club switched from Pau to Thurso in the north of Scotland for the longest old bird race. The Thurso race was won by Cecil and Mark, whose past performances on the north road have been electric, being especially deadly at Thurso and Lerwick with the London North Road Combine. After he recorded 4th and 5th open L&SECC Perth in 2001, I predicted that he would win Thurso and he did! The Bulled loft sent ten pigeons to the Thurso Classic (493 miles) and clocked five on the day of liberation, recording 1st, 10th, 14th, 19th and 26th open. A brilliant performance!

Cecil Bulled was born in Croydon and first became involved with pigeons when he met his wife, Barbara, the daughter of the late Syd Marsh. When Syd took over the secretary’s job in the Selhurst Flying Club, the young Cecil became his assistant, calculating the velocities on race checking night. He obtained his first pigeons in 1962 and flew in partnership with his brother in law, Doug Marsh. The first stock was obtained from members of the Selhurst club, in the guise of Syd Marsh, Stan Hunt and Denny Kimber. In his youth, Cecil, was very keen on football and went to school with Peter Notridge, president of the Surrey Federation. Cecil was an accountant by trade, but later retired. He had been racing pigeons for 40 years and said Bill Bailey of Harlow was the best pigeon man he had known. They were very good friends, but the biggest enemies when it came to racing the pigeons. Cecil told me he could remember a Bordeaux race in the early years and they sent pigeons which were really only ‘hoppers’. It was a really bad race with few returns in race time, and the young Cecil and Doug were in the garden for three days, with no arrivals. Cecil vowed then that he would only compete in the long distance events when he had the utmost confidence in his entries.

Cecil and his partner, son Mark, had three lofts, a 10ft widowhood loft, an 11ft young bird shed and the main 18ft loft construction, which housed natural racers, stock birds and the widowhood hens. The partners’ 20 widowhood cocks and 12 pairs of stock birds were paired up the weekend after the B.H.W. Blackpool Show in January and the natural birds were put together at the back end of February. The birds were raced on the basic natural and widowhood systems, with no frills or fads, and flew south road with the Stanstead Invitation Club, with outstanding success. The main pigeons raced were the old Croydon family, Soontjens from F. Sheader of Scarborough and the W. Grodon Busschaerts. The old family liked hard racing, 14 hours on the wing from 500 miles, and the Soontjens and Busschaerts were outstanding for the general club work.

Cecil maintained his best performance to date was in 1995 when he was 2nd, 9th and 12th open London N.R. Combine Thurso (493 miles), with only 20 birds clocked in the combine on the day of liberation. Brilliant pigeon racing! He said he had been fortunate to own a number of good pigeons over the years including: ‘The Owl’ winner of 1st open London NR Combine Thurso (only bird on the day in the combine): ‘Little Dot’ winner of 1st open London & South Coast Combine Bergerac (478 miles): ‘17567’ winner of 1st open L.N.R.C. Lerwick (582 miles), 1st Section H. in the North Road Championship Club: ‘20729’ son of ‘17567’ and winner of 1st open L.N.R.C. Lerwick (582 miles): ‘14114’ son of ‘The Owl’ and winner of 2nd open L.N.R.C. Thurso (only three birds on the day). The London North Road Combine presents a hall of fame award to a pigeon that scores three times in the first 100 open positions and the Bulled loft had won three awards with, ‘The Ugly Hen’, 3rd, 32nd and 97th open: ‘Day Return’, 12th, 57th and 80th open and ‘Victoria’, 2nd, 14th and 38th open. Cecil’s wonderful family of pigeons had won the Federation many times through the years in sprint and middle distance races. A brilliant loft of pigeons! Cecil Bulled had been racing in the London & South East Classic Club for only a few seasons, but had won the North East section several times. Being a north road flyer for many years, he turned some pigeons south in 1998 and won the London & South Coast Combine from Bergerac in the 1999 season. In 2001, when the foot and mouth restrictions stopped racing from France, he turned his birds back to north road and when the L&SECC decided to race from Perth and Thurso he was delighted. In the race prior to winning the Thurso Classic, the Bulled loft clocked four birds in the very hard Perth Classic to record 4th, 5th, 11th and 62nd open. Cecil’s biggest thrill of his 40 years in pigeon racing was when he clocked ‘The Owl’ from Thurso in 1975, flying 15 hours 3 minutes to cover the 493 miles, and the only bird on the day in the London North Road Combine. He told me his wife, Barbara, was a great help looking after the pigeons when he was away, as was his partner, Mark, who also has a successful team of birds at his own address.

Cecil maintained that he was a poor young bird racer, with his main aim each season, being to get some well raced cocks to renew the widowhood team. He believed that to be successful with young birds, they have to go on the darkness system, cocks and hens separated to be put together on race marking day. Cecil fed his youngsters widowhood corn mixed with 20% depurative and liked them to race up to 300 miles. All the Bulled pigeons were trained hard, with young birds getting two 40 mile tosses every week during the racing season. For the long distance events, he liked natural birds sitting ten day old eggs and he told novices, don’t run before you can walk, serve your apprenticeship in husbandry well.

Two of the best fanciers in London race in his north road club, said Cecil, in the form of Vic Shaw, and his own son Mark, and he described them as dedicated fanatics who will never be beaten! Cecil liked showing his pigeons, but found it hard to find the time to do it. When he judged, he looked for condition first, good head and eye, with a balanced, rounded body. The Bulled’s practiced inbreeding and line breeding, particularly back to good winning pigeons, but were not too keen on latebred youngsters, although they let their widowhood cocks rear a baby after racing has finished. The lofts were scraped out daily and brushed with garden lime. Cecil said he had tried deep litter on the loft floors, as did a lot of good fanciers, but his seemed to stick to his feet and finished up on the carpets in the house. There you have it, the late great Cecil Bulled of Harlow. What a fantastic pigeon racing family! Full article to appear in the BHW soon. (November 2022)