demolition man Posted July 1, 2012 Report Posted July 1, 2012 Myself and nephew would like to thank Ron & Paul of Nearly cock fame for a great day out and allowing us to handle your champions and of course the Nearly cock. theres always and nest box for him in Essex if you want to get rid
dms5686 Posted July 1, 2012 Report Posted July 1, 2012 dont know anything about the pigeon but has a ko nipius look about it
demolition man Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Posted July 2, 2012 dont know anything about the pigeon but has a ko nipius look about it thought you might be interested ONE OF THE BEST EVER IN WALES The story of The Nearly Cock by Gareth Watkins The Nearly Cock is a small-to-medium-sized dark chequer slightly pied cock which in his racing career was unfortunate enough to finish in the runner up position in THREE NATIONAL races for the Garndiffaith partnership of Ron Scammell and Paul Peploe, who up to the present time have won 8 x 1sts and 7 x 2nds in National racing here in Wales plus a 1st Combine against more than 10,000 pigeons. These National wins have been achieved on all routes with the Crieff National being won in 1999 and 2000 on the north road followed by National wins from Falaise, Vains, Picauville, St Malo, Bergerac and Cholet plus 1st Combine from Lillers/Maidstone against a field of 10,400 birds on the south and south-east routes. However, this is only a small part of the story surrounding this phenomenon of a racing/stud pigeon. For the full story read on… The Nearly Cock was bred in 2002 from a pair of totally unrelated pigeons. The sire was a dark chequer pied obtained in an exchange of pigeons with the partnership of Mr & Mrs Webber & Davies of Six Bells. This dark pied cock was bred from a National winning hen called Pat’s Pet which won 1st NNR Fed and 1st WGNFC New Pitsligo for the then Webber & Davies partnership. Pat’s Pet was a multiple winner for the Webbers and was bred from Wildemeersch pigeons obtained from the top West Midlands partnership of Walters & Broadhurst. She was also dam of the Webber’s winner of 1st National 1st Combine Oudenaarde against a field of 9,442 birds! John and Pat Webber and their partner introduced two kits of young birds from the Walters & Broadhurst partnership with the first kit coming down to Wales in 1998 followed by the second batch in 2000. Both the 1998 and 2000 kits contained what were later to become National winners so the Webbers were obviously well pleased with their purchases. The original Walters & Broadhurst pedigrees show winners at club, fed and open level in each generation so it was little surprise that they should produce the goods here in Wales in the hands of top class fanciers like John and Pat Webber who have, I believe, EIGHT National wins to their credit on north and south-east routes. The sire of the dark pied cock and therefore the grandsire of the Nearly Cock on the sire’s side was a pigeon bred by Frank Sheader and was of Willequet bloodlines originating from birds obtained from Roger De Keyser of Ronse, the same Belgian town that gave the fancy the great Delbar family of long distance racers and, more recently, the George Carteus pigeons that were one of the foundations of the Brockamp multi National and International winning family. The dark pied cock, sire of the Nearly Cock, was an outstanding young bird racer for the Webber partnership until he unfortunately arrived home from his last race with both legs smashed. However, he fortunately survived to breed what must be one of the most prepotent racer/breeders in Wales at the present time. Pat's Pet - g.dam of The Nearly Cock The dam of the Nearly Cock was a grizzle hen bred by the Burgham brothers partnership of Cwmtillery. She was sold to Scammell & Peploe when the brothers retired from the sport after many years of successful racing at club, fed and national level. Her sire was dark chequer cock 'Spot Head', winner of 24th sect WNRF Wakefield 1,330 birds and 29th Open WGNFC Thurso. Her dam was grizzle hen Wales 87R7206 Primrose Sarah, a fantastic breeder/racer. She was 34th open NNRF Morpeth as a Y/B then switched south as a yearling and topped the Fed from Rennes and was 2nd National. Switched back to the north road as a 2yr old she was 26th Open National from Thurso then retired to stock where she bred winners in almost every nest. Primrose Sarah’s full brother Primrose Expected, was also a fantastic pigeon and had a terrific racing record for the Burgham brothers. Amongst his many wins were 3rd club Shrewsbury 80 miles as a y/b, plus 17th Open NNR Fed Penicuick as a yearling, then as a two year old 4th Fed, 32nd Combine Penicuick, 5th Open NNR Fed, 32nd Open National, and top 50 Combine Thurso. He then went on to fly Thurso 4 times scoring every time including winning 1st HOV FED Open. He also won 1st New Pitsligo 72nd Open National at more than 400 miles - a real topper. Unfortunately he had one eye pecked out and the other closed whilst at Crieff in a long holdover yet he still managed to get home and was then immediately put to stock. Incidentally, the cock of the famous Lambert & Davies No 1 pair, progenitor of literally hundreds of winners, and who also topped the massive WNR FED twice, was bred from a brother to the Burgham brothers Champion National Man, whose wins were: 3rd Open National New Pitsligo, 8th Open National New Pitsligo, 10th Open National Crieff plus 1st Club Northallerton and 1st club Normanton. National Man is also the g.sire of 1st Nat Picauville for Preece Bros, 1st Nat Tours for Haydn Minett, 1st Nat Eastbourne for Williams Bros, 1st Nat Folkestone for Williams Bros, and g.g.sire of 1st National Lillers for Derek Flowers in 2011. National Man is the grandsire of the dam of the Nearly Cock. With breeding like that he couldn’t fail!!! Primrose Expected Another interesting fact is that the grizzle hen, dam of the Nearly Cock, is a half sister to a grizzle hen that the Burghams gifted to the multi-national winning partnership of Preece Bros & Sons. This self same grizzle hen is the source of the grizzles that have been so successful for the Preeces. Spot Head, mentioned above, is the maternal grandsire of the Nearly Cock and he in turn is bred from the aforementioned National Man, whose children include: Cheq Cock 'Billy' - 3 x 1st Club 7th Open WGNFC New Pitsligo 410miles Cheq Hen '31' - 36th Open WNR Fed Hexam 7,951 birds, 17th Sect WNRF Newton Grange 1,146 birds, 22nd Open WGNFC Thurso 1997 14 hours on wing, 16th Open WGNFC New Pitsligo 1998. Cheq Cock 'Showman' - 43rd Open WGNFC New Pitsligo 12 hours on wing; 2 weeks later 43rd Open WGNFC Thurso 14 1/2 hours on wing Cheq Cock '01' - 9th Open WGNFC Thurso Blue W/F Cock - 13th Sect WNRF Shrewsbury 1,012 birds; 2nd Sect 977 birds, 10th Open WNRF Kelso 4,473 birds. Getting back to the grizzle hen Primrose Sarah, who is the grand dam of the Nearly Cock on his dam’s side. She is a daughter of a grizzle pied cock called The Poser, and he in turn was a winner of 26th Open Thurso and was the fourth generation of pigeons to win from Thurso; he was also sire of three Thurso winners and grandsire of two other Thurso winners. The Poser was bred from a blue cock called Old Bryn, winner of 1st Penicuick, 1st Perth, 1st Thurso 7th Open NNR Fed, 2nd club Thurso 23rd Open NNR Fed. Old Bryn was bred and raced by Bryn Jenkins and his sire was a chequer cock, winner of 2nd Open NNR Fed Thurso. The dam of Old Bryn was a blue hen with 2 x 1sts from Perth to her credit. PoserThe dam of Poser was grizzle pied hen, a daughter of a chequer cock of Went Bros Steptoe bloodlines being a direct son of Scrubtoe - 45th London Combine Thurso for the Wents. Champion Steptoe was possibly the greatest pigeon ever to fly into London as he won races from 45 miles right through to close on 500 miles and was also the founder of the Steptoe dynasty of racers which dominated the racing scene in the London area for much of the 1960s and 70s and is still winning to this day for fanciers like Pat O’Sullivan of Enfield. This grizzle pied hen also contained all the very best of Bonnie Galton's grizzle family on her dam’s side. Bonnie Galton flew in the Llanhilleth club, which was one of the strongest in Wales at that time and yet the Galton team of racers won the Thurso race on eleven consecutive occasions. The dam of Primrose Sarah was a chequer hen, always stock and she was bred from a blue cock, a full brother to 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th 10th Open WGNFC Thurso for Lee & Cooper and was of Lefebre Dhaenen x George Josef x Verheye bloodlines. Her dam was bred by Barry Chambers of Cardiff, in all probability containing Barry’s 1st &2nd Combine Thurso bloodlines which were Lefebre Dhaenen x Verheye. Primrose Sarah I have gone into great detail in the above so that the reader can more clearly appreciate the absolute mountain of winning pigeons that have contributed to the gene pool that eventually produced the Nearly Cock. His pedigree contains top class, top performance winning pigeons in every generation. It could quite easily be said that his breeding epitomises the saying “pedigree is performance†i.e. bringing together top class racing performers on both sides of the bird’s family tree irrespective of strain names – the continentals have been doing this for generations. Right, so much for the breeding of the Nearly Cock, I’ll now cover some of his top performances and those of his children and grand children, not only in the hands of Ron and Paul but also those winning pigeons that carry his genes and have been raced by the other fanciers who have been fortunate enough to get their hands on these incredibly prepotent bloodlines. The Nearly Cock raced through the programme as a young bird and crossed the channel in his first year of racing. As a yearling and in subsequent years he was raced on the roundabout system and was mistakenly placed into Ron and Paul’s east route team having raced on the south road in his first year. Nevertheless he was 2nd club 2nd Fed (3,966 birds) 2nd Combine (9,100 birds) 2nd WSE National Lillers 250 miles in his first channel race on the east route and followed this up with 1st club 2nd Fed (1,432 birds) 2nd Combine (2,568 birds) Bonn 450 miles. In 2004 his racing record shows that he won:-1st club Swindon.1st club Reading 3rd Fed (6,000+ birds )2nd club Ramsgate3rd club Lilliers5th club Epsom1st club 26th WSE National Bonn1st club 3rd Combine 2nd WSE National Kassel 550 miles, also winning for his efforts the T G Buffett Memorial Cup awarded by the WHPU to the R/U to the Queen’s Cup, the most meritorious trophy that can be won by any fancier in Wales. As a result of his being raced on the roundabout system the number of young birds bred from this champion each season was very limited. However, when he was retired to stock in 2005 as a three year old and still in his prime, in his first year he bred a pair of pigeons which were sent over to Jimmy Richards of Laindon in Essex, that have bred many winners – but more on this English connection later. Since his retirement he has been directly responsible for at least 24 winners for Ron and Paul and one daughter, ‘62’, went on to win the Gold Cup with the WSRNFC in 2011 for her outstanding cross channel performances in National racing. These are outlined below along with some of the performances of other children of the Nearly Cock. Scammell & Peploe's 62 hen - 2nd National Cholet One son ‘05’:- 1st club Newbury; 1st club 1st Fed Southsea; 1st club 2nd Fed Lyndhurst; 1st club 4th Fed Littlehampton; 2nd club 2nd Fed Eastbourne, competing against thousands of birds in each Fed race. A daughter '54':- 1st club 2nd section WSRNFC Vire; 1st club 22nd WSRNFC Messac; 3rd club Tours, 5th club 37th national Cholet. Yet another daughter '62', mentioned above, won in 2010: 3rd club Vire; 2nd club Saintes and in 2011:- 5th club 17th WSRNFC Carentan; 2nd club 2nd Fed 2nd Open WSRNFC Cholet [beaten for 1st National by loft mate – came together]; 2nd club 8th Fed, 8th Open WSRNFC Noirt; 1st club 5th Fed 5th Open WSRNFC Bergerac; 1st Gwent Greater Distance Club Alencon plus a prominent section position with the BICC. ‘62’s’ National prizes won her the Gold Cup with the WSRNFC in 2011. She was also awarded two RPRA Welsh Region Awards – Best Overall Performance by an old bird plus the Most Meritorious Performance Award. Grandchildren and great grandchildren of the Nearly Cock have many top club, Fed and National positions as well, both on the south and south-east routes. Ron Scammell & Paul Peploe being presented with the Gold Cup won by a daughter of the Nearly Cock in 2011 channel racing with the Welsh SRNFC I give you here some of the successes achieved by other fanciers whilst racing direct children or grandchildren of the Nearly Cock. Lovell Bros of Crumlin won 3 x 1sts with grandchildren in the 2011 y/b season alone. The partnership of Mr & Mrs Bromley have won the following with grand children of the Nearly Cock: 5th Fed Newbury 7,001 birds; 11th Fed Epsom 6,778 birds; 9th Fed Folkestone plus 16th Open National, these with the same three year old cock. Another three year old grandchild won for the Bromleys 4th National Lillers; 17th National Folkestone plus 20th Fed Newbury 6,315 birds. The list of winners goes on with 7th National Eastbourne; 10th National Lillers and 86th National Maidstone with yet another grandchild. Another multi prize winning grandchild is ‘Number 30’ whose wins at National level are 71st Open Folkestone; 24th Open Lillers and 52nd Open Eastbourne plus 10th Open National Huy. Two 2011 bred grandchildren have won 1st from 1,394 birds; 3rd Open 4,676 birds; 2nd Open 780 birds and 6th Open Fed plus 6th Open National Maidstone. Another, ‘39’, won 6th Open fed 4,761 birds from Newbury. The Bromleys have won a total of 12 x 1sts plus many minor positions in the short time that they have been racing the descendants of the Nearly Cock and it seems that the bloodlines produce pigeons that go on to become multiple performers at the highest level. Next I’ll move on to yet another Welsh fancier who has enjoyed great success in the past few seasons racing the descendants of this great pigeon - none other than the phenomenally successful Pontypool fancier Derek Flowers. Derek, aided and abetted by brother Clive, has taken the Welsh fancy by storm since returning to the sport just 5 short years ago. In that time he has amassed no less than 8x 1st National in races from 170 miles to 520 miles. The following are the performances at NATIONAL level achieved by Derek with birds bred down from the Nearly Cock: Chequer hen [grand daughter] 1st Lillers, 11th Fed 11th Open National 1,002 birds. Not raced as a yearling due to a bad experience with one of the local raptors but put back on the road in 2009 to win 14th Open National Bonn. In 2010 she was entered in the Saverne National at 504 miles to be one of only two birds clocked on the day into Wales to win 1st Open National by over two hours. Dark chequer w/f cock [grand son]: 1st club 1st sect 2nd Open Fed Newbury 4,761 birds; 1st club 1st sect 5th Open Fed; 1st sect 5th Open National Maidstone 1,124 birds; 15th sect, 79th Open National Lillers [252 miles] followed two weeks later by 2nd sect 3rd Open National Lillers, all these positions as a young bird in 2011. A great grandson, another dark chequer w/f, won 1st sect 1st Open National Lillers in the same 2011 Lillers young bird National. Yet another great grandson has won 7th sect 19th Open National Reims whilst a great grand daughter has won 1st section 13th Open National Vire. That makes two outright National winners for the Flowers loft both closely related to this great pigeon. Scammell & Peploe's loft These pigeons win wherever they go and none more so than at the loft of that great Essex fancier and multiple combine winner Jimmy Richards of Concorde Lofts, Laindon, Essex. Jimmy acquired two direct from the Nearly Cock as young birds in 2005. These two children are responsible for at least 10 individual 1st prize winners, some of which are multiple 1st prize winners. Amongst these are at least 5 x 1st Fed winners and two Essex & Kent Combine winners. Included amongst the children of this pair are: Dark chequer cock Lucky Jim, winner of 1st & 2nd Essex & Kent Combine Berwick. Ace of Diamonds, winner of 1st Essex & Kent Combine Scotch Corner plus 2 x 1sts & 2x 2nds at club level. Ace of Clubs has won 2nd Open Essex & Kent Combine Scotch Corner and is responsible for birds to win 5 x 1sts for Jimmy and others. Sick Note, another descendant, has won 1st Essex Central Fed and has bred a number of winners, both for Jimmy and also for his friends in Derbyshire, Smith& Herrett. These birds are winning right up to the present day as in 2011 Jimmy bred a bird from the originals to win 1st club 501 birds, 1st Essex Central Fed 1,863 birds plus 1st club 6th Essex & Kent Combine Stonehaven 387 miles. Listed here are some of the other winners bred from the original pair of children from the Nearly Cock: 96th Combine 2,588 birds. 33rd Combine 2,365 birds. 35th Combine 1,863 birds. 2nd Amalgamation 2,365 birds. 74th Combine 1,881 birds. 72nd Combine 1,863 birds. 18th Combine 1,174 birds. 77th Combine 1,194 birds. 11th Amalgamation 1,578 birds. 55th Combine 1,174 birds. 82nd Combine 1,583 birds. Yet another partnership that has enjoyed immediate success when racing descendants of the Nearly Cock is that of Graham Thomas and son Adam. They introduced children of the Nearly Cock only in the past couple of years and at the first time of asking in 2011 raced five grand children, four of which won Federation prizes including: 1st Fed Newbury 1 1,585 birds (89 miles) 14th & 27th Fed Newbury 2 1,286 birds (89 miles) 13th Fed Lillers, 66th Welsh South East National, 41st Welsh Combine 957 birds (264 miles) Pretty impressive reading when you consider that the pigeons carrying the Nearly Cock’s genes are winning at the highest level in different areas for different fanciers under different management conditions. Only one factor is constant and that is the fact that all these winning pigeons carry the genes of one of the greatest pigeons to come out of Wales. When you look back and read the above it seems incredible that so many top class performers have been produced in such a short time all containing the bloodlines of this truly Champion pigeon. Long may he and his descendants continue to feature at the top of the results.
Guest strapper Posted July 2, 2012 Report Posted July 2, 2012 i know the partnership has been at the top of welsh racing for many years, i personally know the family of pigeons that came from the partnership of lambert and davies as the lambert in that partnership is a very good m8 of mine and lives 5min walk from me.there is many top fanciers mentioned in the info that have been well known for years.
demolition man Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Posted July 2, 2012 i know the partnership has been at the top of welsh racing for many years, i personally know the family of pigeons that came from the partnership of lambert and davies as the lambert in that partnership is a very good m8 of mine and lives 5min walk from me.there is many top fanciers mentioned in the info that have been well known for years. there are defo some top lofts in wales i was drinking tea with a few of the lad on sunday, i felt like a fish out water sitting amonst men that have won no less than 20 national wins between them and me with me one combine win
Wiley Posted July 2, 2012 Report Posted July 2, 2012 It's not surprising that his bloodlines originate from Ronse, a lot of the top pigeons from the area are usually dark chequers or dark Chequer pieds. I'm hoping to visit the town of Ronse in the off season for a day of sight seeing at a few lofts.
Guest maricelbill Posted July 18, 2012 Report Posted July 18, 2012 there are defo some top lofts in wales i was drinking tea with a few of the lad on sunday, i felt like a fish out water sitting amonst men that have won no less than 20 national wins between them and me with me one combine win
Guest maricelbill Posted July 18, 2012 Report Posted July 18, 2012 Drinking tea. Mind if I borrow that I promise to make good use of it? The other question was where did you win the comb from? What with? No rush, I'm going out for afternoon tea. B'
demolition man Posted July 18, 2012 Author Report Posted July 18, 2012 Drinking tea. Mind if I borrow that I promise to make good use of it? The other question was where did you win the comb from? What with? No rush, I'm going out for afternoon tea. B' Berwick
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