Maricelbill Article

[THE FIFER]

• Name = maricelbill
• Article = he country is up to its crystal balls in mud after weeks of persistent and torrential rain. It seems many of you in Ireland missed the opening article as that particular issue never made it across the Irish Sea. No surprise in pigeon terms. In the immortal words of the late John Kervick "many are sent but few are chosen". John was without doubt the Grandfather of pigeon racing in Waterford. He taught us young pretenders all he know. Which, admittedly, was precious little.
• We were weaned on woodbines, tea that would keep you ga ga for a week and the fire still filed with last night's ashes waiting for the first visitor of the day to "pon the kettle" and fetch the coal bucket from the yard. I have no pearls of wisdoms to pass of from all those woodbines. Other than this, when you're 18 chasing women is much more informative and definitely more entertaining. And so I have no tales of Janssen Bros to ragle you with. I did not know Klak. I did not know Hofkens.
• But I knew Jim Beglin. The lesson is the same.
• Sunny South East is primarily about the racing in and around the South Central Superclub formed in 2015 between the Tower Invitation in Waterford , Na Deise and Abbeyside in Dungarvan and the Shamrock Club from New Ross. Its raison d'etre, to promote in a way never previously envisioned South Road racing into these here parts. It will be about the fanciers of today and yesterday. It will contain my own observations conversations hallucinations and even some news from around the loft.
• Speaking of difficulty journeys it has been a journey of over 25 years for myself to return to the sport. And as mentioned in the first article so much has changed in pigeons and in myself. I'm far better looking than I was 25 years ago.. I've lived a lifetime or two and now finding I have the time required to devote to pigeons I am delighted to be back. I am home. I can view it now with fresh eyes and new spectacles
• I have long been of the opinion the North Road route into Sothern Ireland is the hardest inland route in western Europe. The climate, the prevailing wind. But it too often is made harder than it needs to be and membership over the years has been decimated as a result. Having flown several south road in 2015 (and I have developed and instant taste for it) I am now utterly convinced of it. South road, all home with 20 mins of the first arrival with birds hitting 1800 ypm regularly 2300 on one occasion. The Irish Homing Union Nationals. The INFC Nationals against monstrous birdage unheard of in north road racing. There is even the BICC if that is to your taste. The inland racing scene is on a par to hotbeds of UK sprint areas in the Midlands and the North East. Sneeze and you miss it. The cream, Dublin, Wexford, Wicklow up into Northern Ireland all fly south. This is where you have to be if you want to be leading edge. Where the massive birdage is. Where competit
• ion is white hot and the glory comes in abundance to those who triumph.
• Contrast with the agony of hours in the garden, low velocities, the majority of races won at 1100 and 1200 ypm. 1500 is a blow home. Big Losses. Long faced losers. Empty perches.
• And this is inland.
• Losses on the channel are small in comparison to inland simply because they are gone before they see Scotland. When you have a national race from Thurso with 200 or so entries, the majority sent to be lost, the no hopers, the ones that came back after a month, the hospital brigade, races won on the 3rd day from 450 miles. No birds in race time. When this is classed as the Blue Ribband one has to decide to either do something about it, acknowledge there is a problem, change, adapt, modernise, or you are a blind man in a graveyard. You don't see the headstones.
• This is why the South Central Superclub was established. To give fanciers here a viable alternative. 2016 is going to be a massive year especially with the Tower Invitation. A year ago almost a defunct club with one member has mushroomed to eighteen members. Speaking to a good friend of mine in Carrick there are nerves aplenty now that with so many Waterford fanciers going south or with Leinster North Roadtheir birds will be pulled completely off line out to the west coast.
• Many by now will be aware of what is shaping into the event of 2016. The South Central Superclub Breeder Buyer. The sale will be held in the Roanmore Centre in Waterford on April 2nd. Viewing from noon the auction commencing at half past one. Auctioneer on the day is Gerry McCourt. A flavour of the big name entrants so far include Steve Goulding and Will Saggers from the Liverpool Amal. Billy Bisland and John Duthie from Scotland. Arthur Wealthaall & Son. Gary Downing both lofts at the very top in the midland sprnt scene. Ronnie Johnson Futuristic Lofts. R Moore & Son EDC champions, A Gadsdon & Son 1st London North Road Combine 2015. Micky Connolly & Son also of London's famous East End winner of Homoform birds of the year NRCC Lerwick winner 1st 2nd 3rd Amal all in 2015.. Gerry O Meara, Billy Cullimore, JJ Hurley, Harmony Lofts, P & D Racing & Breeding stud, Stuart Innet, Chris Hickman T & K Garmen, it is going to be the sale of 2016. More top names will follow
• in subsequent articles. The race is oipen to all IHU National members and will be flown in conjunction with the first inland yb national most liley Barleycove.. There has been a terrific interest from Dublin with many rejoining the national just to be part of this race. Spearheaded by Thomas Grogan, Robert Dowdall and Herbie Thorpe of Proudstown Lofts winner of the Kings Cup in 2015. Flyers will be sent out, you will be contacted, further information and more top names will be included in the next article.
• Peter Power has been a mate of mine in and out of pigeons for over 40yeears. It has been an enduring friendship. We grew up together in pigeons back in the 70s with the Cooks, Nicky Stevens, Brian Widger, Jimmy and Joe Flynn, Robert Peare, Pat O Brien, Pat Hearne, Ray Hayes, the older fanciers the late Sam Butler RIP, Billy Carton RIP, Andy Carton RIP, John Kervick RIP Paddy Delandre RIP all within a few yards of each other. The YB flocks regularly mixing together on a summers evening swirling this way and that drawing combing spirals against a sky as big and blue as a blanket; then vanishing for minutes on end. The heart a drumbeat in your chest as they returned in ones and two's refusing to land, the smell of freshly cut hay from the meadow beside our house the tinny sound of Gilbert O Sullivan playing "Get Down" on the little transistor radio sat upon the kitchen window. My mother handing out milk bottles filled with ice cold water through the open window to our fr
• iends from the street waiting in the garden, impatiently. for myself and my brother, Derek, to lock up the lofts so we could play football out in the meadow. A young Jim Beglin amongst them. Jim, Ian Paisley's last signing, went on to an outstanding career with Liverpool, Leeds and the Republic of Ireland. Even then he had the skill. The temperament. He knew something the rest of us didn't know . It was part of him. In his DNA. That something you could not see but you know it was there. He had boots. Real football boots that went clacking along our kitchen tiles. Black ones with three white stripes down the sides and he had a proper key for changing the studs. The key to his future.
• I did not know Klak. I did not know Hofkens. But I knew Jim Beglin. The lesson is the same.
• Find the pigeon with real football boots.
• Peter is a top pigeon fancier of that there can be no argument. A real bird man. We have had many a friendly and often heated argument however on the subject of losses on the North Road with no workable solutions. Happily Peter has grasped the thorny rose of the South Road and has been converted. It has been a real boon to moral in Waterford to see so many fanciers "in the clock" with their young birds in 2015. Being in the hunt each week really gets everyone keyed up and there is now a real buzz about. Speaking to a good friend of mine from Carrick I know there is genuine concern there that with so little Waterford birds now on the transporter, with Dungarvan almost entirely south road, their birds will be dragged completely off line over to the west coast. Situation is fluid.
• Myself and Peter did have ideas and solution on the conundrum. But none that would meet with any overall agreement. We both agree however that the program in Munster has far too many races from the top of the country. Designed to negate the advantage of the easterly clubs it has become a war of attrition with the plaudits too often going to the last man standing.
• The result of such an outlook is fanciers end up breeding from survivors and breeders of survivors. Not from true racers. The racers have been lost. Their parents branded worthless. Many now also agree the Munster Federation is too wide. At over 100 miles it is far too wide for weekly racing. With ever decreasing numbers birds are being dragged east and west from the start. The leading pigeons will strike for home but the reminder get in bother, especially YB. Numbskulls believe it is only the dopey ones that get dragged and the good ones will be ok. Sadly this is not true. They are like a man hopping his head against a wall in certainty the wall will surrender.
• Good pigeons are like hens teeth and an awful lot of weekly club races, especially smaller clubs, are won with average birds. We all know this to be true though we seldom acknowledge it. We too often rush to label a pigeon a "good one".
• We have considered whether, as many have claimed, it is the new style transporters with the metal crates and shutters? Peter is adamant it is not the case and I agree. The same style transporters have no issues south road. Birds of Prey? Not week after week. There is no doubt the Leinster Federation with a shorter race program, the clubs closer together, enjoy far better returns and more competitive racing. They then normally run riot against the Munster pigeons when the nationals come about.
• That said, Peter Power flew probably best pigeon on the north road in 2015. The same cock winning 2nd fed over 200 miles on a hard flying day. Sent a few days later recording 2nd Munster Federation 2nd National Perth 340 miles again on a hard flying day. Both 1st and 2nd open Perth were well ahead of the posse with Peter freely acknowledging Mike McCormack's bird into Limerick was the deserved winner. The McCormack's have been top fliers along the Shannon since Frankie went to Hollywood. Being on the west coast on a day with a strong westerly wind it was indeed a top performance.
• Peter's pigeon is 3/4 Preece Bros being a Gson of their top hen 'Any Good' and was sent on chipping eggs. Peter, like us all, took a lengthy sabbatical from the sport but is definitely looking to become chairman of the boards once again.
• In a previous existence he raced a terrific KO Nipius Chwf Cock aptly named the Perth Cock after recording 1st Munster Fed 2nd open National from Perth. I knew this pigeon well and he was a cracker. A pigeon born with real football boots. Joe Flynn, another former fire lighter and coal fetcher at the John Kervick school of pigeons was given the Perth Cock when Peter left the sport and this pigeon was directly responsible for Joe winning the National from Thurso with a G-Son of the Perth Cock. To show how good those birds were Frank Corcoran in Carlow 20 years later clocking a great yearling to be 2nd National Thurso on the day. A pigeon that carries a lot of the old Ko Nipius blood.
• There were so many Ko Nipius pigeons in the country at that time you couldn't go to a nightclub without coming home with a CHWF hen. There were more pieds than you could shake a stick at. John Kervick who didn't realise Ko Nipius was the name of the Dutch fancier, thought instead Ko Nipius was the name of a pigeon, couldn't understand how it was siring so many birds and figured the whole thing for a hoax. Ko Nipius must have a langer as long as a ball of twine.
• Those Ko Nipius were the best pigeons to fly the North Road into southern Ireland. Today they would not have the pace. One line of them were exceptional coming from, if memory servers, Tony Merrick, via Paddy Mahony down in Wexford. The Ken Kippax Ko Nipius, that won under and over them in the UK, were sh**.
• Someone who has been a terrific mate to me since I returned to the sport is Pat Maher from the principality of Dungarvan. Rather like a child teaching the adult how to use an iPhone Pat has been invaluable in advising me who is who and what's what. A young man in his his 30s Pat lives and breathes pigeons and this sport needs many like him if it is to flourish. Hard working and very well respected within the sport, forward thinking,, progressive, up to date knowledge of bloodlines, pigeons have always been part of the Maher family. I know one of Paddy's theories is the transporter itself but mainly a combination of different things and maybe the birds themselves. Throwbacks to a different era and when modern families do come it is often many years too late. They have long since been replaced in the UK.
• Pat's father and eternal tormenter Jimmy raced back in 70's & 80' alongside the larger than life Gerald Crotty. The Crotty household was a glue pot and once inside it was impossible to leave. Gerald's wife Bridey fed more men than the Salvation Army at Christmas with pigeon fanciers coming from the four corners to visit with Gerald and purchase pigeons that at the time were hard to find. The Crotty legacy continues in the same house now with Gerald's sons Kevin and John.
• Pat's uncle, Jimmy Fraher was also a stalwart of the North Road. And so with the small hairs in his nose twitching like antenna it was no real shock when the old loft tilting and dreary in the garden would once again be coloured with a fresh coat of white paint and with birds of every hue and variety.
• The bloom dust soon lighted like dandruff on the shoulders of Jimmy Maher and he found himself pottering around and generally getting under Pat's feet. They raced in partnership briefly but the past and the present can be like oil and water and the loft was extended and divided with each racing their own team of birds.
• Finding stock to match his ambitions Pat's early birds came from the sales from one loft races he had been following and noticed several names repeatedly in the top prizes.
• 10 birds from the emerald classic were purchased of the Syndicate Lofts, top bloodlines from Germany, & birds from Allemeersch van pary ,Joop Kock and Van Der Rhee bloodlines and found their way to Abbeyside. Pat flies with the South Leinster Fed and the INFC since 2013. Flying to a restricted loft size Pat concentrates on the channel tending to use the club for preparation.
• His first attempt at the IHU National from Penzance resulted in a 1st open position with a Joop koch fastest velocity from all organisations over 3500 birds. Another Joop Koch was 12th national from ST. Malo for Jimmy. In 2013 season started well with 1st Club 5th fed 6th National with a another Joop this time from Barleycove.
• This was also Pat's first year competing with the INFC sending 2 young cocks to the Penzance yougbird National . A blue w/f cock to take 1st South Section 36th Open 2,652 bird bred from new introductions from a top German loft he had noticed performing well on the one loft scene,.
• In 2014 from Penzance National two hens from three entrants hit the roof together tasking 1st & 2nd Open IHU National. Once again the fastest of the entire convoy over 5500 birds
• First through the trap was blue hen 34 from Joop Koch cock x one the new Allemeersch Van Pary hen .
• 2nd open chq 33 was bred from a Peter Fox cock (Galveston x Minerva ) to another Allemeersch Van Pary hens .
• The Chq hen 33 in 2015 bred 3rd in in the final From Carentan in the Alan Maile OLR run in conjunction with the MNFC. youngbird National in the MNFC the birds was 5th club 12th fed and 349th National. Its nest mate scoring a credible 20th in the North Coast Classic final fron Rosscarberry.
• Pat pairs the stock at the end of January having been treated on any advice from Pigeon Diagnostics
• The small team of racers are not bred from but are paired up and left sitting on eggs .
• Proof if needed that a small loft well managed will achieve success.

MARICEIBILL

[paddymac]

Great article Archie, theres a lot of interest in the South of Ireland now with the BICC and it'll be interesting to see a few results in the years ahead. Flying into the North is a harder task for anyone especially the ultimate Barcelona challenge but pigeon racing has advanced over the years so there is always the possibility that one brave athlete of the feathered variety will achieve this great honour.