Up North Combine Loft Visit (part 7) by Keith Mott

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UP NORTH COMBINE LOFT VISITS (PART 7)

Geoff & Carolyn Brundle of Skinningrove.

Many years ago there was a programme on the TV called ‘The Fancy’ and it was about the mighty Up North Combine and featured the little fishing village of Skinningrove. This sleepy little village, set on the coast, halfway between Redcar and Whitby has a long and successful connection with pigeon racing with many UNC winners being recorded there. The little village is sited in a valley overlooking the North Sea and the valley sides are littered with pigeon lofts on both sides. It is a great place to visit. One of the most recent UNC winning lofts at Skinningrove is that of Geoff & Carolyn Brundle, who won 1st open Folkestone (20,200 birds). Fifteen years earlier, Geoff took over his stepfather's birds when he passed away and has had outstanding success, including 1st, 8th, 21st and 54th open in the mighty UNC. He likes sprint racing and says Skinningrove is a very hard valley in which to compete. On a Saturday, the birds drop in the valley and he says you know the race winner, as most of the members in the club have their lofts on the sides of the valley at Skinningrove. The Brundles won the combine with a Busschaert / Janssen dark chequer pied hen, which was a widowhood hen and then was transferred to the racing section to make up the pairs. This game little hen won the Folkestone Combine on ten day-old eggs and previously won a 2nd and 6th club as a yearling.

The partners race mainly widowhood, with 18 cocks on the system and a few pairs on the natural for the longer races. Geoff pairs up his racers and stock birds on 26th December and his cocks rear a youngster before going on the widowhood system. They are lightly trained while on their second round of eggs and are broken down during the racing season. The hens are shown on marking night and the cocks have their mates for about an hour on their return from the race. The 16ft widowhood section is very light and airy and has a grille floor for easy cleaning. The loft set up is L-shaped and all trapping is through open doors. The main family kept is Janssen with a few Busschaerts and the stock team is 18 birds strong. All the first round of eggs from the stock birds are floated under the racers. At that time the Brundles had raced their 40 young birds on the darkness for the last eight years and had won the Young Bird Average. The youngsters are put on the darkness system when they are weaned from their parents and taken off on the old bird Bourges weekend, being darkened down from 4pm to 9am. The young birds are allowed to pair up and are trained every day throughout the season, if the weather is right.

John Cole of Staithes.

John Cole lived on the east coast at Staithes, North Yorkshire and was a retired fisher man. He used to fish out of Staithes Village, but had to pack up work because of ill health. The 1996 season saw him achieve one of his greatest ambitions by winning 1st open Up North Combine Folkestone National (2), with 22,168 birds taking part. The champion that won this race for John was his yearling bronze cock, ‘Zagreb’, a Meuleman x Geerts bred by Wintrip and Clarke, with his sire being a Meuleman bred by Bill Porritt and ‘Zagreb's’ dam was a Geerts bred by John himself. The main family kept were William Geerts from Bill Porritt of' Staithes, who had won the Up North Combine a fantastic five times. John purchased a Geerts hen from Attrill and Gregory of the Isle of Wright, at their auction sale at Barnsley. She proved to be a good buy and blended in well with the original Geerts, being the dam and grand dam of countless winners. John had birds from Wintrip and Clarke of Burnopfield and De Vadders from Mike Billam of Mastin Moor, which were crossing in well with the Geerts. John told me the William Geerts pigeons, pure or crossed were outstanding up to 310 miles.

John raced cocks and hens on widowhood, which could be described as his own roundabout method and the hens went out first for 40 minutes exercise. While they were out, the loft was cleaned out and the cocks were driven through to the section with the box perches. The hens were trapped in the nest box section where they were fed and given the grit and pick stone pots. The cocks were let out for their 40 minutes exercise and the hens were driven through to the box perch section, then the cocks were trapped into the nest boxes where they stayed. John's very smart loft was L-shaped with 16ft for old birds (three sections) and 8ft for the young birds. The loft had lift-off fronts and John said they were the same type as Gommaire Verbruggen and Georges Sterckx had on their lofts, which were featured in the book, 'The Elite'. Ventilation was through louvres at floor level, but these were closed during the racing season as the loft was geared to heat, which John told me was very important for form. Each of the end sections had Norplex windows to let the birds in and out and they trapped through the open doors into the nest box section. John's wife, Barbara, gave him a lot of help with the birds; and she saw them in from training, fed and cleaned them out. I congratulated John on his fantastic Up North Combine win with ‘Zagreb’ and his loft and pigeons were a real credit to him.

John Stott & son of Redcar.

Another Up North Combine winning loft that I've visited in the mid-1990’s was that of John Stott who had been in the fancy for 60 years and raced Busschaerts with outstanding success. He raced on the natural system because he liked to see them nest and his family of Busschaerts raced well up to the longest races. The partners' smart loft was sited on an allotment and only housed 14 natural pairs, and bred about 24 young birds. The birds were paired up in February and the Stott’s raced only south road with the local Grangetown St Mary's Flying Club. The loft had won many top prizes Channel racing through the years including 1st open Up North Combine (11,500 birds) Beauvais. The old birds got a light feed at daybreak and a heavy one in the evening and all the old birds raced through to 500 miles. Old and young birds got regular training tosses throughout the season from Thirsk, a 30 mile fly from the loft, and John liked birds sitting 12 day old eggs for the 500-mile races.

A top pigeon at the Redcar Loft was the blue cock, ‘The Wanderer’, and this was the champion that won 1st club, 1st section, 1st Up North Combine (11,500 birds) Beauvais, 2nd open Queen's Cup (17,000 birds) Beauvais, 1st club, 11th Federation, 219th open UNC (13,000 birds) Beauvais, 3rd club, 21st Federation Lillers, 4th club, 18th Federation Folkestone, 4th club, 19th Federation Provins. A fantastic pigeon.

John & Janet Marsay of Staithes.

I also visited the wonderful Staithes set-up of John Marsay in the mid-1990’s who had twice won the mighty Up North Combine. The partners started up in the sport with young birds in 1987 and in 14 short years had put up some fantastic performances. They raced cocks and hens on the roundabout system and had won 1st open (twice), 2nd open, 5th open (twice) on the Saturday in the Up North Combine and twice 2nd open Up North Combine on the Wednesday racing. A fantastic loft performance!

The Marsays kept 60 pairs of racers which were paired up on 22nd January and they liked racing from 50 miles through to 600 miles. The hens seemed to do best on the roundabout system and the racers were fed on a good widowhood mixture, but were never broken down. The corn was never beefed up for the long-distance events and the old birds were trained from 15 miles four times a week. The main racing loft was ‘L’ shaped with open door trapping and the whole pigeon set-up was very smart and clean.

The partners won 1st open Up North Combine Maidstone Young Bird National (23,600 birds) with a nice blue chequer Busschaert hen and John told me every youngster bred from her parents had won for him. John's wife, Janet, was a great help around the loft, cleaning out and feeding, and she liked the long-distance events best. The Marsays bred 70 youngsters each year and kept a lot of fantails which John said were a must for trapping the race birds. The partners' other Up North Combine winner was a blue chequer cock, raced on roundabout, which won 1st open from Folkestone (24,600 birds). The 45 pairs of stock birds were paired up in January and were housed in a nice, roomy loft with a wire flight. John kept several strains including Busschaerts and Hermans and went regularly to Belgium to obtain stock birds. Full article to appear in the BHW soon. (December 2022)