Rooster J Cogburn Column

[Rooster J. Cogburn]

JOHN ELLIS

OF WELLBANK

Part 3

by Lewis McCalley

'Wellbank Blueboy'. Bred and raced by John Ellis.

114th Open SNRPC Arras 2010, 76th Open SNRPC Reims 2011, 171st Open SNRPC Arras 2011, 19th Open SNRPC Reims 2012, 9th Open SNFC Alencon 2013. The only bird in Scotland to have featured in the top 20 open from both the SNRPC Gold Medal and the SNFC Gold Cup races. A son of 'Wellbank Princess' - 5 times a national prizewinner (incl. twice 1st Region in the SNRPC). 'Wellbank Blueboy' contains the blood of many of John's reference pigeons: Jack the Lad, The Hooper Hen, the Dark Hen, the Fox Cock etc.

So as I don’t risk putting the cart before the horse as they say, I’ll look at some of John’s best birds from the 80s and 90s that also make up the breeding of his present day champions in addition to the ‘Hooper Hen’ and the ‘Fox Cock’ both of which I’ll go into later on.

 

In the Ellis loft during the 1980s three super breeding hens arose with their influence still going strong in 2014. Due to their own successes from the SNFC’s classic race points they found the loft names; the ‘Sartilly Hen’, the ’Nantes Hen’ and the ’Blue Rennes Hen’. Starting with the ‘Sartilly Hen’ she was bred from the ‘Wellbank Pride’ line with both her sire and dam being grandchildren of great 1965 8th Open Rennes winner. The ‘Sartilly Hen’ was a steady bird with her best performance being 48th open SNFC from Sartilly, only bird into the federation on the day of liberation. More importantly her children turned out to be good producers with the most noted of her grandchildren being the 1992 SNFC Gold Award winning hen ‘Wellbank Reliable’. This hen is the youngest Gold Award winner in the history of the Scottish National Flying Club, having scored from France on five occasions before she was four years old-her highest open position being 8th from Sartilly.

 

The Sartilly Hen

Wellbank Reliable - SNFC Gold Award winner 1992

The grand dam on the other side of this record breaking hen was in fact the ‘Blue Rennes Hen’. It’s fairly obvious how this hen’s loft name came about considering she scored from Rennes in the 1985, 86 and 87 seasons. Although her daughter’s greatest contribution to the loft could be considered breeding of a Gold Award winner, she herself was 4th Open SNFC Sartilly in 1988 and was one of the birds that helped earn John Ellis one of the ‘jewels in the crown’ of an extraordinary tenure in pigeon racing. It was the 1988 season in which John won the Telfer award for the best average in all SNFC races becoming the furthest north loft in Scotland to have done so- flying close to 100 miles further than the first drop. The feat was almost repeated the following season, leading the averages with 3 or 4 hours to spare going into the last Sartilly he sent 5 birds all of which were previous SNFC prize winners. He clocked at around 10 o’clock that evening but as it transpired he ‘wasnae at the races’. It’s a strange old game is pigeon racing.

 

The Blue Rennes Hen

‘The Nantes Hen’ was tough bit of stuff who over the 1985, 86 and 87 season recorded 43rd, 74th and 52nd open from Nantes at 643 miles. This toughness was passed onto many of her offspring as three direct children from this hen went on to score from Niort at 712miles. Niort as a SNFC race point brought about another of the highlights to this Wellbank loft. In the 1990 race flying the 712miles into a Notheast wind, John Ellis took 16th, 22nd and 44th Open.

 

The Nantes Hen

Consider this for a nest pair: The ‘Blue Rennes Hen’ breeds the 4th Open SNFC Sartilly, which in turn breeds the SNFC’s youngest ever Gold Award winning pigeon ‘Wellbank Reliable’. The nest mate of the ‘Blue Rennes Hen’ was purchased at a local sale by SNFC Gold Cup winning fancier Les Mckay from Carnoustie. This cock was producing a lot of good winners for Les and in 1993 John was gifted a red chequer squeaker from him, which grew into the pigeon he called ‘Wellbank Triumph’. This cock in the late 90s took the following positions with the SNFC; in 1995 he was 66th Open Sartilly(1) and 68th Open Sartilly(2), in the seasons 96, 97 and 98 he was 36th Open Rennes, 48th and 127th Open Sartilly. ‘Triumph’ eventually found himself paired to ‘Reliable’ with great success and the nest mate to the ‘Blue Rennes Hen’ continues to impact the loft of Les McKay who keeps winning right out to Saintes at 700 miles.

 

Wellbank Triumph

 

I have been taken aback upon examining the breeding of John’s present day reference pigeons, when seeing the sheer concentration of winning genes it really does bare testimony to John’s abilities as a stockman and serves as a good lesson to any aspiring long distance fanciers-as good a management tool as you are likely to come across is a pen.

 

 

At the turn of the millennium, from the offspring of the birds previously mentioned, arose the next generation of birds that would keep the Ellis name to the fore. One such bird, who from the photograph’s you will observe is a complete stunner was the blue pied hen who after scoring from the young bird national went on to finish 8th in the Dundee Federation from Beersel in Belgium as a yearling. The following year from France as a two year she was 15th Open SNFC Reims, then as a three year old 82nd open from the same race point. A son of hers which turned out to be most important as a breeder was the great ‘Jack the Lad’.

 

8th Federation Beersel (yearling), 15th and 82nd Open SNFC Reims. Dam of 'Jack the Lad'.

Not that my opinion is worth anything, but my personal favourite of all John’s present day reference pigeons is the ‘Dark Hen’. Steeped in the lines of ‘Reliable’, ’Faithful’, ‘Endurance’, the ‘Nantes Hen’ the 4th open Sartilly, the 1999 30th Open Nantes etc. she was tailor made for the stock loft. In 2004 from the SNFC La Ferte Bernard Gold Cup race she was timed in conditions that matched her colour after sixteen and a half hours on the wing to finish 25th Open. John saw something in this hen and the decision was made to put her by for stock, a decision she has more than repaid him for.

 

Wellbank Faithful - SNFC Gold Award winner 1977

In 1999 a good fancier local to John who went by the name of Bill Gibson ended his time in the sport. He had a smashing blue cock that had finished 174th Open from Rennes as a yearling the season prior, and on Bill finishing up racing John Ellis was made a present of the bird. His performances whilst on Wellbank widowhood in the coming seasons saw him add 217th Open Newbury, 77th Open Lille, 137th Open Messac, 72nd Open Liege and 122nd open Reims to his 174th Open Rennes. The bird was actually bred by Andy Thomson of Duntrune and his son turned out to be equally as good. In fact there was a spell in the club racing when these two cocks, housed in a small widowhood compartment, were pretty much 1st and 2nd to the loft every week.

 

The Bill Gibson Cock

When asking any Scots pigeon fancier to name the top racing men in the SNFC it wouldn’t take long for the name of John Ellis to leave their lips, so it was natural he would have similar success when joining the SNRPC. Competing in this club John has won three Gold Awards to date, the first two were in 2007 with ‘Wellbank Lad’ and ‘Wellbank Lass’. One interesting thing to observe about these pigeons is they both featured on the SNFC Clermont (541miles) result in 2002 as yearlings, winning 50th and 58th Open respectively. ‘Wellbank Lad’ went on to great things with his wins including 20th Open Chalot (659 miles) and 13th Open St Nazaire (648miles). Between the SNFC Gold Cup and the SNRPC Gold medal races ‘Wellbank Lass’ was 4 times in the first 87 and 3 times in the first 45, with her best position being 1st Region 4th Open Alencon in 2006.

 

Wellbank Lass - SNRPC Gold Award winner 2007

In the third SNRPC Gold Award we again see the Andy Thomson influence. This lovely chequer pied hen named ‘Andy’s Hen’ was purchased by John at a local sale and amongst her five positions in the first 66 open was 23rd Chalot, 16th Open St Nazaire and 9th Open Lessay (14 days later). John has been particularly impressed with these introductions from Andy Thomson and another to have made an impact was a grizzle hen who was bred down from the late Bob McCue’s 18th Open SNFC La Ferte Bernard and also contained the bloodlines of Jim Cullen from Uddingston. This hen was five times a winner over the channel; she was 57th Open in the commemorative Ypres race in 2008 and went on to be 5th open Andrezel the following year. In the three season to follow she took 36th, 77th and 66th in the Reims Gold Medal event.

 

Andy's Hen - SNRPC Gold Award winner 2009

In 2003 Jim Hooper, who at that time was secretary of the BBC, asked John if he could have some birds down from his old Endurance lines. John obliged and in return Jim sent him a pair steeped in 600 and 700 mile bloodlines from the BBC stud, which is made up from the lines of only the best multiple performance pigeons from the Spanish race points. The hen of the pair in particular turned out to be a goldmine at stock and when paired to ‘Jack the Lad’ bred nothing but winners. As a yearling ‘Jack the Lad’ was 9th Open Falaise having been timed at close to 22:30 on the day of liberation. The following year this cock supplied John with one of his biggest disappointments to date in pigeon racing. From the Reims Gold Medal race he was 43rd Open, a great performance but considering he was found in the loft when John went to shut up for the evening plagued his thoughts for some time. How long had he actually been there? There were only a couple of occasions when John’s eyes left the loft that night one of them being when he fed the youngsters and the other being on the arrival of some friends to watch the race. In hindsight one of them heard the squeak of a youngster being fed on his arrival and when the bird was found later that night he was on his nest with the satisfied young bird. Just where he would have finished up on the result, we will never really know.

 

Hooper Hen pedigree

One thing we can be sure of is that his children when paired to the Hooper hen were certainly not disappointments and they are well and truly entwined into the current backbone of the loft. It’s hard to pick out a ‘best’ from their children but the two racers that immediately spring to mind are ‘Wellbank Prince’ and ‘Champion Blue’. As a yearling ‘Wellbank Prince’ won 20th Open Portsmouth with the SNRPC. 2008 was to be a great year for this pigeon as not only did he achieve 1st Open SNRPC Wanstead Flats he was 25th Open in the Reims Gold Medal three weeks later. On one of my visits to John’s I had the pleasure of meeting his good friend Grant Caird, who happened to be 2nd Open to Prince that day from Wanstead Flats. Grant, who races in Monitfieth, was actually on the phone to John informing him he’d just timed when Prince dropped; the bird wasn’t the only thing that dropped as the phone made a quick exit from John’s hand. When the three of us were sitting in the living room a photo on the bookshelf caught my eye that featured John holding with pride a 24lb salmon he had caught. When I asked John about his interest in fishing Grant Caird informed me that John is “lucky at that taeâ€. ‘Wellbank Prince’ was a bird who scored in six national races and his other prizes were 66th Open Wanstead Flats, 56th Open Reims and 13th Open Arras. A real super doo, as was his full brother ‘Champion Blue’ who won from the very start taking a couple of first prizes as a youngster and winning 100th Open in the YB National. As a yearling he was 38th Open Arras, 78th Open Reims as a two year old but it was when as a three year old he really came into his own winning 18th Open SNRPC Reims (572miles) and 3rd Open from the Tours race (650miles) 14 days later. As will be fairly clear to you by now John Ellis certainly isn’t afraid to send a good pigeon to France twice in the same season and this technique has provided him with many successes over the decades. This pair ‘Jack the Lad’ and ‘Hooper Hen’ have not only provided John with some of his best racers of the last 10 years but can be attributed to producing some of his best breeding pigeons, which include Prince himself who when paired a daughter of John Duthie’s great Gold Award cock bred ‘Wellbank Surprise’ who was 1st Region 4th Open SNRPC Arras.

 

Wellbank Prince

John Duthie is without doubt one of the top fanciers in the UK at the present time and the pair have exchanged birds over the past few seasons to their mutual advantage. When considering the impact the Ellis bloodlines have made on Scottish pigeon racing in this decade alone, John Duthie must be mentioned as over the past four seasons the Ellis bloodlines have featured in both his SNFC King’s Cup winners as well as Frank Baillie’s 2012 SNRPC Gold Medal winning cock.

 

In 2006 whilst looking through the BHW John came across an advert in which a fancier was selling cock birds bred in the lofts of Eric Fox and Son. Having been a long admirer of the terrific partnership from Bakewell, he phoned the man up and was able to purchase three of his Fox birds. One was lost in the attempt to break them to the loft and the other two have proved to be a quite fantastic introduction, in particular the 2003 rung chequer cock ‘08949’. This cock when paired to the earlier mentioned ‘Dark Hen’ make up what John recognises as his No.2 pair. Again it’s winners galore from this pair the most notable of them being the marvellous blue pied hen ‘Wellbank Princess’, who as a yearling was 1st Region, 5th Open SNRPC Portsmouth, as a two year old was 71st open Wanstead Flats and 1st Region 3rd Open Arras then as a three year old was 42nd Open Reims and 26th Open Lillers.

 

Wellbank Princess

When paired to a son of the ‘Jack the Lad’/‘Hooper Hen’ mating she has produced nest mates John refers to as the £1000 pair on account of the prize money this brother and sister have won. The hen of the pair ‘Little Princess’ was 1st Region 2nd Open SNRPC Wanstead Flats and the cock ‘Wellbank Blueboy’ is arguably the best racing bird in the Ellis loft at this moment in time.

 

Aside from recent introductions from the already mentioned Andy Thomson and John Duthie, pigeons to have found their genes into some of the Ellis Winners have come from John’s great friends Jimmy and Derek Anderson-who have been a great help to John in recent years, the late Jimmy Hamilton of Kennoway who rose to prominence with ‘Nan’s Pride’ and Wilf Flockart from Tranent.

 

Fox Cock pedigree

The Dark Hen

The 2013 season proved to be another good one for John who is now approaching 85 years of age. On top of having a great season in the Leuchars Club and the Kingdom Association, John as usual featured highly from the channel races with the SNRPC and back again with the SNFC. As a matter of interest John joined the Leuchars Club and the Kingdom Association in 2005 and this is something he has felt has benefited him and his young pigeons, in as much as being approximately 25 miles further on than the majority of the members, his birds aren’t getting dropped off on the door step and are having to work home for the last part of the journey either on their own or in small batches, which of course they will have to do at some point if they are to feature on a national result in John’s part of the country.

 

The last weekend of June 2013 was a good one up in Wellbank. From the SNRPC Reims Gold Medal race that weekend John took 22nd and 66th Open, whilst in the SNFC Alencon Gold Cup race he finished 9th and 20th Open. The blue cock named ‘Wellbank Blueboy’ whose breeding I mentioned earlier is something a bit special. He is now the only pigeon in Scotland to have featured in the top 20 Open from both the SNRPC Gold Medal and the SNFC Alencon races. His wins are: 114th Open SNRPC Arras 2010, 76th Open SNRPC Reims 2011, 171st Open SNRPC Arras 2011, 19th Open SNRPC Reims 2012 & 9th Open SNFC Alencon 2013. The 2nd pigeon to the Ellis loft from Alencon taking 20th Open is definitely one he thinks will go to be a good bird in the future. She was twice a first prize winner as a young bird, flew Arras as a yearling before scoring from the Gold Cup race this year as a two year old. She is actually off a full brother to Blueboy when paired to daughter of John Duthie’s Gold Award winning cock.

 

Another of John’s notable highlights in 2013 came from the SNRPC Troyes race flown on the 6th and 7th of July. There were only 62 birds in the convoy for race which was 639 miles to Wellbank, and although it would be preferable flying in numbers John was particularly impressed with the pigeons who made this result as the distances they’d have had to have covered on their own would be phenomenal. John’s timer was a single entry, his 5 year old chequer cock now named ‘Wellbank Expected’. This hardy old doo took 6th Open having previously been 88th Open from both Wanstead Flats and Arras and 46th Open Reims. This cock is direct John‘s dark pied hen that was 9th open SNRPC Reims in 2008 when she was paired to a grandson of the SNRPC Gold Award winning cock Wellbank Lad.

 

Wellbank Lad - SNRPC Gold Award winner 2007

These are just a few of the highlights from John’s last year in pigeon racing and I’m as sure as ever there will be similar achievements from these top pigeons in the coming 2014 race season.

 

The lofts at the back of John’s Wellbank home have survived since 1961 with only minor modification, whereas once the old bird loft and the young bird loft were separate at present they are joined up with a feed store which doubles as sitting area, when the Scottish weather isn’t at its kindest. Having never been a scraper man the emphasis is on dryness and ventilation. When John was a bit younger he’d think nothing of keeping 40 pairs of racers or more, but now in his 80s he likes to make things bit of easier on himself and for the last few seasons he has started the season with approximately 25 pairs of old birds and will take around 30-40 youngsters for his own use. After explaining John’s ideas on how young birds should be raced earlier on in the report many of you may be wondering if he operates a form of darkness or light system, he tells me no such thing has ever been attempted and he rarely fails to win a few 1sts in the club and score from the YB national. It’s rare these days that he experiences the heavy losses we hear fanciers reporting up and down the country each season. He must be doing something right?

 

I’ve explained John’s favoured nest conditions for both his cocks and hen birds but he won’t get too hot under the collar if things don’t quite work out and many of the old birds who have scored in up to as many as three national races in a season can do so regardless of nest condition. John has dabbled with the birds on a form of widowhood and enjoyed a lot of good racing and found the birds tended to exercise well around home on this method; however the majority of the success especially over the water has come with birds left to their own devices on an open loft all day. During the summer months the young birds and the old birds will be allowed out at the same time, the main advantage of this being the young birds keep the old birds ‘on the stoat’ and if anything happens to go wrong in the form of a hawk attack or the like, the old birds tend to have a calming influence on the young birds and prevent them scattering to the four winds.

 

As the years have gone one John has chosen to rely less on the training the birds by road, but he tends to race them a bit more often. Where before his main national pigeons would have around three or four races as part of their preparation, nowadays they’ll receive six or seven but perhaps more if he feels it necessary. This change certainly hasn’t been to the detriment of the results. On the occasions John does train the birds it’s often from his daughter Joan’s who stays in Kirkliston which is around 40 miles to Wellbank, with the hawk problem he has found it best if the birds are released in smaller groups usually consisting of three or four birds.

 

Son of the Bill Gibson Cock

With regards to feeding and treatments John couldn’t be described as a faddist. Traditionally he made up his own mixes from predominantly beans, wheat and maize but with John Duthie’s feeding being so close to hand, in recent seasons he has chosen this option using mainly Swainstons, Countrywide and Versele Laga. In 2013 the birds were raced on Versele Laga pro breeding and racing and of course received their supplementary peanuts. It was interesting to note that John’s pigeons up until 2013 hadn’t received any treatments (outside the compulsory PMV jag) for around 15 years, this season he tried out the Harkers 3 in 1 before pairing and the results as per the norm proved to be more than satisfactory. One product he is a fan of is the Aviform Ultimate which is administered in the water regularly, although he has found out recently from a friend that he has been giving it to the birds at around half the recommended dosage for the last decade.

 

As far as advice this veteran of Scottish long distance racing can offer to those interested in achieving similar feats he explained it is in no way cut and dry. For starters he feels it’s a must to begin with the correct bloodlines. I’ve already gone over the way John races youngsters, but he really does attach a lot of importance to getting the young pigeons out as far as he can in the year of their birth. When it comes to 600+mile racing he feels your best bet is to have let the pigeon see a fair bit of France, with two or three 450-500 + mile races before testing them at greater distances.

 

Wellbank Expected.

88th Wanstead Flats, 46th Reims, 88th Arras and in 2013 6th Open Troyes (639 miles). He has been named 'Wellbank Expected' as he was sent to Troyes in 2013 as John's only entry. His mother was 9th Open Reims and his father is a grandson of 'Champion Blue' 4 times a prizewinner from France including 18th Open Reims (580 miles) and 3rd open Tours (650 miles) 14 days later. He is down through John's old Endurance line, Endurance having been 88th and 27th Open BBC Palamos (1044 miles) - winner of a gold medal, Harkers Rosebowl, BBC Trophy and the Gordon Hare cup.

John hasn’t kept in the best of health over the last 3-4 years, but his outlook is just as positive as when I first met him a few years ago. He tries to remain as active as possible and has said to me on a couple of occasions it’s the pigeons that are keeping him living. I don’t doubt this but one thing the pigeons aren’t doing is keeping all his body parts intact. On cutting a point onto post whilst mending the aviary on the ‘pensioners’ shed recently John had an incident involving a circular saw. Without going into too much detail he won’t be playing too much of the old fiddle over the next few weeks. Get well soon Jock.

 

Drawing to a close now I’d like to thank John for giving me the opportunity to learn of his pigeons and compile this write up. It’s been an honour and a privilege spending time with, in my eyes, one of the great pigeon fanciers and his lovely wife Patricia. I can only hope I have done these wonderful birds and this exceptional man justice, and that some people may find this loft report a fraction as interesting to read as I have found putting it together.

 

Wishing you all the best in 2014 season