Solway Federation West Section Fancier of the Year

[sapper756]

Copied from Facebook 5th October 2025

WP Wortley with yet another cracking article 
1 / 4
Some weeks ago I learned that the Solway Federation West Section Fancier of the Year for 2025 is Jim Russell from the Nith Valley Club, Dumfries.  His achievement deserves special mention; it was known that due to advancing years and indifferent health the final race in the 2025 Federation race programme was to be Jim’s last ever race as he had decided to retire from the Fancy but for him to conclude his ‘pigeon adventure’ by being named West Section Fancier of the Year Federation was extra, extra special.    There is a further story, however, as Jim Russell was one of four brothers who over a long number of years, successfully competed into the same Club into separate lofts, the brothers being Willie, Jim, Albion and Gordon.    
The story began in the 1960’s when Albion and Gordon left school and developed an interest in the pigeon hobby.   Up went a loft at the family home and before long they were the proud owners of a squad of pigeons.   Very soon their elder brothers Jim and Willie took an interest and for several years took the lead in the loft with the two younger brothers simply assisting as their concentration at the time wasn’t totally on pigeons.   They joined the local Club as Russell Brothers and it wasn’t too long until they were amongst the winners.  On forming their loft they worked with local stock.   Consider, for example, that the partners shared a friendship with ‘Dinky’ Watson who was the proprietor of a busy Ice Cream business in Dumfries.   ‘Dinky’ was a keen fancier who went out of his way to acquire quality bloodlines and amongst the pigeons introduced were Kirkpatrick’s from Arthur Hill from St Just.   The ring slipped off the leg of one of the youngsters in the nest, bred from the A.R.Hill pigeons and this young Red hen was gifted by ‘Dinky’ to the brothers.   At stock it left a number of good pigeons including one that was gifted to a fellow club member and it scored from the channel with the National on several occasions. The Club that the brothers joined was Dumfries Social Circle, which was at one time, the third largest Club in Scotland with in excess of 100 members that were drawn from a wide catchment area.   Amongst the prominent members of the Club when they joined were J.Seaton and Son, Ally Aitken, Jimmy Cairns who competed as Cairns Brothers and Sloan, Tommy and Keith Lynn, ‘Pop’ Lundy and Jock Harding.   I could go on and on … the list is endless.   In the early days the brothers didn’t have a clock and it was Albion’s job to run with the rubber to neighbour ‘Piddy’ Hume to time in his clock.  Across the country, the natural progression in our hobby was that larger Clubs were fragmenting and so was the case in Dumfries.   The first Club to be formed in the town out-with the Social Circle was Dumfries Flying Club and then in the mid 1970’s the Nith Valley Club was formed, which attracted members from the westerly side of the river Nith.   With the brothers then competing individually and residing in that catchment area, they were founder members of the new Club, the inaugural meeting of which was held in 1975 with the Club being formally formed in 1976 with circa 30 members.  
In time, Willie Russell and his family moved to live in England.   Some five years later he returned to Dumfries and entered partnership with Gordon under the loft title ‘Russell Brothers’ and after several years formed his own loft under the loft title ‘W.Russell and Son’.   On forming his loft he initially worked with local stock and then went out of his way to acquire proven bloodlines.   In 1986 I attended the Club Prize Presentation when Willie was presented with a box full of trophies including the Combined Average, Old Bird Average, Channel Average etc.   In 1986 also, he also won the West Section of the Fed. from the Federation Open race from Sartilly.   The winning pigeon a yearling Blue cock, which was a grandson of  ‘Lynne’ that was 2nd Open S.N.F.C. Rennes for Jimmy Aitchison from Tranent.   It also contained the lines of Annan fanciers Donaldson & Graham and Bob Thomson.   In 1989 he was 2nd Section 6th Open S.N.F.C. Niort with a Blue Chequer W.F. cock that was bred by brother Jim and contained the Busschaert lines of J.Kendall from Bideford.   Further
2 / 4
Busschaerts were introduced from Louella these being closely related to Champions.   He acquired, for example, a son and daughter of ‘Barney’, a daughter of ‘Mean Machine’ and a grandson of ‘Parkside Superman’.   The daughter of ‘Barney’ and grandson of ‘Parkside Superman’ clicked immediately and left a host of winners.   He introduced examples of the Highview Busschaert family and also brought pigeons into the loft from Annan fanciers, Roy Seaton and Robbie Rome.   For a number of years, the loft was ‘alight’ and in 1993 I wrote a profile report for the RP on this super fancier.   On visiting Willie’s home to pen the article I was ever so impressed with his loft, which was the best designed loft that I had ever seen   Regrettably, Willie Russell died a number of years ago but there is absolutely no doubt, he was a really good fancier.  
Gordon is now also deceased but was also a good fancier and housed his pigeons some fifty yards from where he first set up home.     Gordon worked his team totally Natural, old and young birds.   The entire squad was separated in October and re-paired immediately after Blackpool Show.   Whilst they were split between October and the end of January they were kept captive in the loft.   Once they were down on eggs in early February, they are given an open hole.  On once speaking to him I commented that I was surprised that he allowed the team to exercise at will and questioned if he was not troubled by hawks.   He responded that his situation was no different than anyone else, living with the constant threat of attacks by cats and raptors.  The birds accessed the loft through a cat trap, which to an extent addresses the problem with our feline friends.   With regards raptors, he said that he chose to ‘run the gauntlet’ with the trust that the birds would become ‘street-wise’ and learn to live and cope with the ongoing raptor problem.   When his young pigeons were twenty one days old they are separated from their parents until they could fend for themselves and were then allowed to run with the old birds.   All racers reared a pair of youngsters and were thereafter dummied in a controlled manner.   Gordon was a hard taskmaster with the pigeons being regularly basket trained from 35 to 45 miles.   They were fed a traditional mixture that contained beans, in trays on the floor once a day, being allowed to eat as much as they desired.   Once they were fed the trays were emptied.   Birds were not set-up as such for individual races with Gordon selecting pigeons for races off the perch, taking cognisance of their physical appearance, nest condition and position in the moult.   He worked with several different families including examples of the Van Hee, Busschaert and Andre Roodhooft families.    He purchased really good bloodlines, indeed prior to his passing he obtained examples of the Jelle Jellema family from Dean Pallet with one of those topping the Fed. for brother Albion, during the season past.  
Albion is a very able fancier and has flown very consistently over a good number of years   In 2017, for example, he enjoyed and extra special season, which prompted me to pen a profile report on him for the R.P.   During the season he gained 11 x 1st, 9 x 2nd and 8 x 3rd in the Club and 7 x 1st, 6 x 2nd and 4 x 3rd West Section Federation.   He additionally scored nine times with the National.   The success story continued year after year and in 2025 he once again featured in the Club ad Federation results on a regular basis.    As the years moved forward, Albion raced to several different locations.   He, for example, initially raced into Dumfries and then for a time resided in the village of Holywood, north of Dumfries, where he raced under the loft title A. & M. Russell and Halliday.   He is now retired, however and lives in Dumfries.   Birds are coupled in early February and rear a pair of youngsters, the objective being to have the young pigeons away from the parents before racing commences.   When covering their second round of eggs the racers are separated from their mates and put on Roundabout.   They go through the Federation programme on Roundabout and are re-paired for the channel.   Young pigeons were formerly worked on the conventional system but in
3 / 4
2017 he system was changed with the youngsters now being managed on the Darkness method.   When Albion lived at Holywood he competed in partnership with Mervyn Halliday and they worked with best examples of the Jan Aarden family, which were obtained from Louella.    Consider that the Sire of Skachill and McCormack’s super hen,  ‘Abbey Lass’, that won the S.N.F.C. Alencon Classic in 2013,contained the Jan Aarden bloodlines, which the breeders obtained from Albion Russell.   The years moved forward with the make-up of Albion’s team changing through the introduction of other lines, including for example Andre Roodhooft’s , which he obtained from fellow Club member, Billy Smith.   Other lines were introduced including examples of the Van Lint family, which he received from friend, Angus Crosbie and as previously explained, during the season past he won the Federation with a Jelle Jellema, which emerged from stock that his brother Gordon obtained from Dean Pallet.      To further supplement the team, Albion has made further occasional acquisitions; when for example birds were being sold following One Loft Races, he would purchase occasional cocks or hens to even up numbers.  Albion has been very much involved in the Nith Valley Club since its inception and for a number of years, his wife, Mary was Club Secretary.
Jim Russell is without question a very, very capable fancier.   In former years he competed in partnership with ‘Pop’ Lundy as Lundy and Russell and my, could they race pigeons.   When I began writing for the fancy press, in 1978, certain names became familiar to me as they featured in the results week after week and prominent amongst these top winning fanciers was the partnership of Lundy and Russell.   The birds that he and ‘Pop’ Lundy worked with were in the main obtained from local fanciers with occasional quality pigeons being purchased.   Amongst the birds that they bought were introductions from Bill Rear from Carlisle, which raced ever so well.   In time he formed his own loft but differed from his brothers as he concentrated on inland racing, this being due to him not having the patience to sit for hours on end, awaiting birds return from the longer races.  As the years passed, however, he found it difficult to cope with the ever increasing number of young bird losses and chose to leave our hobby.   Nevertheless, as we all know, once you’ve had pigeons you can’t let go and he re-entered the sport and re-joined Nith Valley Club.   I recollect writing about him in 2013 and learned that he had two lofts, the first being a 20’ x 6’ loft that contained three compartments and was used to house old birds and the second a 10’ x 8’ structure that accommodated the young birds.   Pigeons accessed the lofts through Stall Traps.  At that time his team comprised a squad of yearlings and a modest team of youngsters but he nevertheless was winning out of turn.   Whilst in former years he had worked his birds on the Natural system, in time he managed them on the Roundabout method.  They were coupled in mid-February with each pair rearing a pair of youngsters.   He then split them from their mates when covering their second round of eggs and put on Roundabout.    In recent years also the youngsters were worked on Darkness.   Similar to when he raced in partnership with ‘Pop’ Lundy, he always had a good team of pigeons about him and when I wrote about him in 2013 the birds primarily housed were obtained from Louella, he had for example introduced Janssens through which had emerged several winners and subsequently acquired examples of the Vandenabeele family.   He also had several pigeons that were obtained from Dennis Kirkup from Longtown with whom he became friendly when Dennis reported one of his pigeons.   Other lines were introduced and in recent years he worked with examples of the Van den Bulck family, which he obtained from friend Mervyn Halliday who in turn purchased his stock from P and D Racing Stud and Ludo Claessens, which Jim obtained from Louella.   In 2025 Albion assisted him each week to basket his race entry but when he arrived at Jim’s home to assist him for the last race the birds were already basketed.   It is indeed a special story and in accord with his many friends I
4 / 4
compliment Jim not only on his recent success but on his many successes over the years and wish him well for the future.    
Billy Wortley