Joe Murphy Article 17th February 2023

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While on about my Welsh memories; fellow scribe Gareth Watkins gave me a call and email.
Gareth has reported on the Welsh pigeon fanciers since 1973 which speaks volumes for the man,
(I started in 3 years after him in 1976) and Gareth like me has covered scores of top fanciers over
these years. I mentioned the wonderful partnership of Arnold Davies, his son Keith and Doug
Cockcroft, they won 6 x 2 nd open Welsh Grand National races and also were the top points
winners in the massive Welsh North Road Fed when the federation had 1,500 members
competing. They also won the Coch Y Bonddu Trophy in the WGNFC for best average all
WGNFC races in one season plus the very hard to win Dan Watkins Trophy in the Welsh
Combine for best average all Scottish Combine races with old birds. [Arnold and Keith were
later to go on to make amends for their series of ‘near misses’ by winning 2 National races on the
South East route into Wales]. Davies Son & Cockcroft's, Lerwick cock the winner of 2 nd
WGNFC Lerwick on the day in 1986, was bred down from Geoff Kirkland's Frans Huysken &
Jeff Van Riels. Their pencil blue cock ‘Double Top’ had 2 x 1 st federation wins and 2 nd open
National Thurso. He was bred direct from a hen that Gareth gave them which was closely related
to ‘Sophie's Girl's’ mother. ‘Double Top's’ sire was known as ‘The Crieff’ cock and was a
winner of 10 th National Crieff and 5 th National Thurso. The other Davies Son & Cockcroft 2 nd
open National winners where basically Van Hee’s bred down from a pair of young birds bought
direct form Van Hee at one of his UK sales, later referred to as the No1 Pair. ‘Windbeater’ on the
montage was bred from George Litherland-Van den Bosche and Cor Koning bloodlines. Their 6 th
x 2 nd open national winner was from Dover in 1997 and was bred down from their J O Davies -
Champion young bird of Wales Trophy winner ‘Jody’. The ‘Nom Hen’ on the montage was bred
from a son of the No1 ‘Van Hee’ pair when mated to a Lee & Cooper Lefebre Dhaenens hen.
The ‘Tic Hen’ another winner of 2 nd National was basically Litherland Van den Bosche x
Janssen. After a 2-year break from the sport following his wife Maureen’s death, Doug
Cockcroft, who Gareth had known since his teenage years still continued to associate with each
other, so much so that when Gareth was committed to working on the day of a race due to a three
day hold over, Doug stepped in to clock the returning race birds in Gareth’s absence. This then
developed into Doug giving him a hand during the week as Gareth worked at the Heath Hospital
in Cardiff as chief research scientific officer. This meant Gareth left for work early in the
morning having to catch two buses to reach work and was not home until 18-30 each evening.
Gareth had been in the sport over 40 years and Doug over 50 years and as he was a retired
railway worker, he had spare time on his hands as well as a wealth of experience. It was decided
to form the partnership at the start of the 2001 season and in a 4-year period they won 70 x 1 st
prizes including 6 x 1 st Rhondda Valley Federation plus 1 st open National with ‘Sophie’s Girl’
who also won 1 st open Combine Brussels with 8,667 birds competing. ‘Sophie's Girl’ was named
after Gareth’s first grandchild who was born a week or so after they won the National in 2004.
She had won a 1 st prize and £700 in a Gold Ring Scheme as a young bird the year before her
National win. Both her half-sister and half-brother (shown in the montage) topped the federation.
Her mother, also in the montage (bottom left), bred federation winners with two different cocks.
The bloodlines were basically Janssen via Phillips, Son & Williams, Van Loon from Bob Bolitho
in Cornwall, Albert Babington Van den Bosch and Frank Tasker Haelterman bloodlines. Going
onto the montage that Gareth forwarded; ‘Daniel’ and ‘Judy’ were both grandchildren of
‘Sophie's Girl’s’ dam, so all were basically the same family of pigeons that Gareth had before
Doug joined him. The partners also had great success in the sprint races with Staf Van Reet’s
from Jimmy and Sue Dickens of Leigh in Lancashire. Unfortunately, both Arnold and Doug have
now passed on to the big loft in the sky.

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Going back to Robert O Jones, his dark chequer cock ‘Trotty’, was bred by Robert’s good friend
Gwyn Richards, from birds obtained from Henry Trott of Gelli in the Rhondda and he flew
Lerwick and also won a very hard Elgin race. Robert O Jones of Resolven in the Neath Valley
was a top-class distance fancier with many wins from the Scottish race points especially Elgin,
Thurso and Lerwick. In the 1982 Thurso National: Robert's hen came in the dark at 10.20 pm on
the day but wouldn't enter the loft having landed on the house roof. Robert and his father pointed
their car headlights at the loft and she was eventually clocked at 10.40 pm but unfortunately was
during the hours of darkness after the close of the first day of the race. She then counted as a
2nd day pigeon and her time was attributed as 04-30 am the second day of the race. However,
Alan Reed of Blackwood clocked at 11-40 pm on the day and Carter Brothers & Morgan of
Tylorstown in the Rhondda clocked at 04-35 am second morning and because Robert had to
allow both pigeons overfly his hen finished at 3 rd open national. As I said in my previous article
we were only down for the weekend and visited so many fanciers that our heads were ‘pickled’
or ‘mince’ as they say up here in Scotland, by the time we returned home. Great memories and
what’s more important were meeting these great household names within our sport. I have
attached some photographs that Gareth forwarded and I cannot thank him enough for his help in
the above information. The bond we pigeon scribes and fanciers have with each other life with us
for ever, which Gareth has proven with his help all these years later. THANK YOU, MATE!!!

Error

I noticed in last week’s paper the headline of SNFC regarding its presentation; however, this
should have read Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club; as this was their presentation. This club
was formed after a breakaway from the original SNFC. I’m not going into the reasons behind
this, but it is enough to say that the majority of fanciers NOWADAYS in Scotland are in both
CLUBS. Whereas, some fanciers will never join both and there is still a bitterness that will last
for a long time.

Joe’s Joke

Subject: Female Urologists
There are over 11,000 male urologists in the United States but now a few women have entered
the field.  A man goes to a female urologist who has excellent me dical credentials, but is also
drop dead gorgeous, for an exam. The female doctor says, ‘I am going to check your prostate
today, but this new procedure is a little different from what you are probably used to. I want you
to lie on your right side, bend your knees, then while I check your prostate, take a deep breath
and say ‘99.’ The guy obeys and says, ‘99!!!’. The doctor says, ‘Great. Now turn over on your
left side and, again, while I repeat the check, take a deep breath and say ‘99’. Again, the guy
says; ‘99.’ The doctor said, "Very good. Now then, I want you to lie on your back with your
knees raised slightly. I am going to check your prostate with this hand, and with the other hand I
am going to hold onto your penis. Now take a deep breath and say ‘99.’ The guy says,
‘One...........two...............three.............’

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joejmurphy1@gmail.com REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE or you can also view online

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