Up North Combine Loft Visit (part 4) by Keith Mott

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UP NORTH COMBINE LOFT VISITS (PART 4)

Soderlund & Bradley of South Shields.

Two fanciers I have admired for many years are Soderlund and Bradley of South Shields, Northumberland, and a few years ago I had the chance to visit their lofts in the North East of England. The pigeon partnership of John Soderlund and Sammy Bradley was formed 40 years ago, since which time they have enjoyed success after success. Their fantastic loft arrangement is sited on some allotments at nearby Parkside, where there is a small caravan on site, for a sit-down and a cup of tea.

The loft has produced countless racing champions through the years, the most noted being the famous champion 'Parkside Superman'. This great Busschaert blue pied cock was bred from stock obtained from John Palmer and Jim McKay and won countless premier positions racing, including 1st Federation twice and 2nd Federation twice. He won at six years old, after which he was retired to the stock loft and after a year at stock was purchased by Louella Pigeon World. John said he was a once-in-a-lifetime pigeon and one of the best Busschaert cocks that ever lived. He is often asked if he regrets selling champion 'Parkside Superman' and he says never, because the Massarella family made him world famous, a reputation this great pigeon himself deserves. 'Parkside Superman' has had countless Combine and National winners bred down from him. A truly wonderful pigeon!

John Soderlund has been in the sport nearly 50 years and says the partners' best performance was when they won 1st and 2nd International Beauvais with two Louella Pigeon World De Baere hens flown on natural. The loft had only gone on to the widowhood system in recent years and Sammy (Bradley) says the loft's performance is not really any better than when it was all on the natural system. Their natural pigeons have put up wonderful performances for many years, but the reason for going over to widowhood is the timesaving aspect to the system. They say it is so simple, with no training, and the cocks are always in the right form for inland races up to 300 miles. The 36 cocks are fed on a standard widowhood mixture, nothing special, and are broken down on Mondays and Sundays throughout the season. The partners normally show the hen on marking night, but have won races both ways, showing or not. The returning cocks get their mates all the afternoon on the day of the race, but there is no hard and fast rule about their widowhood system. The cocks only race inland up to 300 miles, with the odd one or two being sent to the long-distance races. The partners have a fantastic racing loft and the racing cocks are housed in three sections, 12 nest boxes in each. The widowhood cocks are paired up in mid- January and allowed to sit a round of eggs after racing. All the lofts are bright and clean with sand collected from a local beach on all the floors.

The partners race their 100 young birds on the darkness system. Sammy says they get daylight for eight hours a day, and this holds back the flight moult and puts the youngsters in better feather condition for their races. They are raced through to the Young Bird National (288 miles) to sort out the good cock birds, and training starts about six weeks before the first race with tosses every day. Young cocks and hens are housed separately, and are allowed to run together for a while before going to the marking station on Friday night. The 50 pairs of stock birds are kept in a fantastic loft, equipped with a massive wire flight, so they can get out in the sunshine for a bath. The stock birds are paired up in mid-December, and the partners like breeders to be from a long line of good winners.

Jimmy & Keith Derbyshire of Blyth.

While at a North East Two-Bird Specialist Club prize presentation, held at Peterlee Leisure Centre, I had the pleasure of meeting the father and son Northumberland partnership of Jimmy & Keith Derbyshire. That year they had won the biggest prize in Combine racing in the NEHU, the Queen's Cup from Clermont (431 miles). The Derbyshires won this premier trophy with their champion yearling blue Busschaert hen, ‘Derby's Girl’, and she was sent to Clermont on chipping eggs, with 17,114 birds competing.

Both Jimmy's father and grandfather were pigeon fanciers, flying the 'milers', and as a lad he helped out in their loft. Later on he became loft manager for a local fancier and started up his own loft at the age of 17. He could not start, racing straight away, as he couldn't join a club until he was 18 years old. Jim won his first race in 1955 with a bird obtained from Billy Sharples and has been a premier flyer since the early 1960s. His first stock was Busschaerts from Tom Larkins, George Corbett and Ray Callender and they were the same pigeons he is racing today. Jim's first club was the one he still races in, Newsham HS, and his son, Keith, joined the pigeon partnership in 1995. Jim told me that he kept only a small team of pigeons in the early days and his biggest mistake was over feeding them.

The partners' loft was a 30ft, ‘L’ shaped structure with a Perspex canopy and open-door trapping, and deep litter was used in the stock section. The whole team was paired up the second week in January. The partners raced 12 natural pairs on the Channel and 12 widowhood cocks for inland events. The widowhood racers reared a single youngster and were put onto the system on their second pair of eggs. The widowhood cocks had only two short training tosses prior to the first Federation race and the naturals were heavy through the season from Durham (30 miles). The widowhood racers flew out for an hour in the morning and evening and were never broken down during the racing season. They were shown their mates on marking night and the time they were given the hens on their return was governed by how hard the race was. The cocks were given garlic, hemp and peanuts and were never repaired for the longer races. Keith told me that he liked his natural racers sitting 10 day eggs for the longest race from Bourges and the Channel birds were not overworked, being picked out for certain races. ‘Derby's Girl’, the Queen's Cup winner, was only lightly raced, scoring from Lillers before winning Clermont. The widowhood cocks raced every week inland, down to the south coast.

The partners kept 12 pairs of Busschaert stock birds, which were paired up at the same time as the racers, in January, and were fed on Irish mixture. When bringing in a new stock bird, Keith said, he went for good Busschaert winning lines and wasn't bothered about type. Jim maintained that when bringing in new stock you must be looking to improve your performances, as it gets harder and harder to win every season. His club, Newsham HS, won a fantastic fourteen times 1st Federation in 25 races that season. Keith said that there were four other lofts on their allotment and the racing was so 'hot' there that if you win the club, you have a very good chance of winning the Federation. One of the Derbyshires' best pigeons was a blue Busschaert hen that won 2nd open Amalgamation Beauvais (twice) and then had to go to the stock loft because she broke her wing. She was a champion racer and breeder, being the dam of many winners and grand dam of ‘Derby's Girl’, the 2002 Queen's Cup winner.

Jimmy & Keith had a team of 50 young birds each year and these were raced through the programme to Ashford. They were fed on a light mixture for the first three races, then went on to Irish mixture and were trained well from Durham. The partners put half the team on the darkness system from weaning until the Beauvais weekend and they were raced to the perch, but if they want to pair up, they were allowed to. Keith maintained that if youngsters were paired up and even sitting eggs, they raced better. The Derbyshires liked racing every Saturday, but enjoyed Channel racing best and said that one of their best performances was from Bourges, when there were only six birds home on the day from the 599 mile race in the Amalgamation and they had three of them. They recorded 3rd, 4th and 5th open Amalgamation and the dam of ‘Derby's Girl’, the Queen's Cup winner, was one of those pigeons on the day. The partners had won the longest race, from Bourges, many times and finished a fantastic 2002 season by winning 1st club, 1st Federation from this race point. They told me that their biggest thrill in pigeon racing was when they won the Queen's Cup that season, because it's the best of the best! Full article to appear in the BHW soon. (November 2022)