Pat Newell, Billericay, Essex

[Kyleakin Lofts]

Pat Newell, Billericay, Essex.

 

Memories.

As DEFRA prevented us, the British, from participating in the

International races during 2006 we have nothing left, apart from

preparing for some possible future races, but to look back at past

glories. The first to spring to mind was the last International race we

were allowed to enter, Perpignan 2005, a race that produced some fresh

features for the UK.

 

Perpignan

Perpignan comes late in the season, very late, at a time when young

bird racing is well under way. It is the last race in the international

programme and this presents the particular problem of maintaining

competitors in condition for the arduous task before them. The measure

of that task is set by the location of the race point and the nature of the

route home. Perpignan is squeezed between the eastern edge of the

Pyrenees and the Mediterranean sea. When liberated these pigeons are

left with little choice but to fly north along a narrow coastal strip. After

about 30 miles or so some are presented with their first real option

because pushing west is a narrow valley running between the great

Pyrenean range and the Massive Central, a collection of ancient and

fortunately extinct volcanoes to the North. It is this valley that carries

the Canal du Midi on the first part of its journey from Narbonne, and the

Mediterranean, across to Carcassonne where it turns north west passing

through Toulouse before traversing the whole of France then finally

linking up with the Atlantic Ocean at the Bay of Biscay near to Bordeaux.

This valley provides one possible route for pigeons racing to England

and North Western France. The question is, would those hundred or so

pigeons have the experience and determination to pull away from the

many thousands taking the other option, of continuing through the

Rhone valley on line for Belgium and Holland. If the English pigeons take

that second option they will have to find their way round the eastern

side of the Massive Central before they can break away and fly across

north eastern France to the channel. Whichever route they take the

English pigeons will be obliged to fly many more miles than the result

will recognize. So when an English pigeon takes first National from 210

pigeons and finishes as high as 3,553rd International from 17,653

pigeons and 961st from 4,859 hens at 626 miles and 259 yards you

know it has done well. When that pigeon is on its first flight from

Perpignan and its owner is competing in his first race from Perpignan

you begin to realise it has done extremely well. Could it be beginners

luck you may wonder? Well yes of course luck could well have played a

part but this flyer is no beginner, no novice, this flyer, Pat Newell of

Billericay is an expert. at preparing particular pigeons for particular races

and for many years has been known as the uncrowned King of

Futurities, its just that he has now turned his attention to International

races.

 

London Docks

Pat was born and brought up in Stepney, the heart of the London's east

end famous, amongst other things, for its blend of races, cultures and

religions. This blending occurred gradually over many centuries making

it appear seamless. Many of those ending up in Stepney, and its

environs, arrived as a result of London's worldwide trade and the

shipping that facilitated the trade. So another natural part of Stepney's

fame lies with shipping, the docks and the river Thames which serves

them. It was this river that called to Pat as a young man and he spent

his lifetimes work either on it, bye it or associated with it. The Thames

forms its own small world that goes almost unknown and unnoticed by

an outsider, rather like pigeon racing I suppose. For many years the

Thames was the lifeblood of London and it was towards the end of this

time that Pat started his career. Just as the sea can capture men's

hearts so can this river and it captured Pat's.

He worked hard and learnt fast and was soon qualified as a lighterman,

skipper of various types of barge and all kinds of river craft, granted

freedom of the river and able to sail the Thames and its navigable

tributaries. These were the heady days of the National Dock Labour

Board when everybody was assumed to have a job for life in the belief

that the London docks would go on forever. This was not to be of course

as changes in the pattern of trade and shipping itself brought the work

of the pool of London to an early demise. Under the delusion that things

would go on forever jobs had been guaranteed and so a large workforce

was left with nothing to do. No one could be sacked so an attractive

severance package had to be offered but it took sometime to arrange

and take effect. During this period of several years Pat says he did little

more than go in each week to collect his pay. The workforce, which

consisted of lightermen, dockers, stevedores and tally clerks was

eventually reduced and those remaining were allocated to jobs that did

not necessarily fit in with their training and experience. Pat's new work

was as a land bound docker, but he soon turned his hand to the new

environment navigating fork lift trucks rather than boats. Pat saw his

time out as a docker and now, although retired, still maintains contact

with his ex colleagues and retains his love and fascination for the river.

 

The beginnings

Pat was not brought up within a pigeon family although all around him

in Stepney there would have been pigeons. As none of his family were

interested in pigeons it is perhaps surprising that not only did Pat finally

succumb to their charms but so did the son of his fathers brother. Pats

first real introduction came from his workplace and a colleague. For a

while Pat worked with Peter Doughty, already established as a fancier of

repute, and after some general chat, lending a helping hand here and

there and occasional visits to Peter's loft Peter brought a few youngsters

round for Pat. Pat was now 26 years old, he had built a small loft, he

had a few pigeons and he was hooked. At first of course he made his

start with local club racing and it was not long before he was off the

mark winning 1st Federation in his first race with young pigeons that he

had bred himself, though he insists it was a fluke east wind that did it.

Time came for Pat to make a move and it was to Wood Green. Now

many might think this an ideal location for a London north road flyer but

there was one big drawback, Alf Baker, to whom Pat now gave about

100 yards overfly. Pat recalls Alf Baker as the real top man of the day

and although he probably did not attract an international reputation his

name is still second to none in the UK.

 

Futurity King

Although Pat did his share of winning in those days and against that

level of competition it was really the Millwall Futurity that made his

name. Pat has always been something of a controversial figure and has

never set out to court the favour of others rather, as he says himself, he

was almost addicted to "Op—m", winning Other Peoples Money. The

Millwall Futurity was for many years probably the biggest money race in

London if not the country and as you can imagine keenly fought over. In

the earlier days you could buy your own pigeon but as time went on it

attracted pigeons from all over the country and that rule changed. Pat

has either won the race outright or taken so many high positions that he

has a reasonable claim to having won more futurities than anybody else

in the country and it was no less than "The Magaphone" himself who

credited him with the title "King of Futurities".

 

The North

Pats main love though, apart from winning other peoples money and a

private hope that some of the not so nice people he has come across in

the sport will choke on their toast when reading his name at the top of

the results over breakfast, is long distance racing. All of his efforts for

some time now have been directed to this end both North and South.

Certainly I first came to know of his name many years back from his

results in the London North Road Combine including 2nd LNRC Berwick in

the days when there were 10,000 plus pigeons and 3rd LNRC

Stonehaven, again in days with high birdage. Since his move out to

Billericay, Essex he has managed an extraordinary tally of results in the

Essex Combine as well. While a list of his winnings could go on forever

probably his two most outstanding achievements on the north road are

winning the Essex Combine Thurso and subsequently the London North

Road Combine Thurso races, at just over 500 miles. Like many of us

through that time he entered the occasional race from the South but it is

only really from the year 2000 that he has taken to South road racing

seriously. His primary objective has been National racing and his

current, major, outstanding ambition is to time from Pau on the day. As

he says he has timed many pigeons from Lerwick on the day, roughly

the same distance and debatably a more difficult race point, but up to

now Pau has eluded him. That does not mean he has not achieved good

results from the South or from Pau for that matter, but none yet on the

day.

 

Fundamentals

In examining the career of "Fear Not", the Perpignan winner, we can see

the fundamentals of Pat's approach to pigeons and racing. When

contemplating racing from the South he looked carefully at those who

had had some success both in racing from the South and from long

distance racing in general. He then went to these people to acquire

stock, which he has both bred from and raced. Not every acquisition

brings success and he has found that even when selecting apparently

good pigeons from successful lofts they have not necessarily brought

success for him. So the first lesson is to be rigorous in the selection and

acquisition process but you also have to be rigorous with what you keep.

It is no good keeping pigeons just because they have good origins you

must get the performances from them or you don't have anything at all.

On the success side he has bought pigeons from several of the most

famous names in British racing for instance the name Bush first

attracted Pat, as it would anybody from a study of the North Road

Championship Club results, then there was Jim Biss a legend in his own

lifetime with an unparalleled record from both North and South and

probably the finest collection of long distance pigeons in the country.

Closer to home Pat has bought from and exchanged pigeons with the

late Cecil Bullard over several years. Pat would be the first to

acknowledge the enormous contribution Cecil made to pigeon racing in

the London area because he not only had a truly enviable record from

Lerwick and Thurso with his own family of long distance pigeons but he

was very hard to beat in the shorter races at club, federation and

combine level as well. "Fear Not" though came from quite different

origins. One of Pat's friends was going across the river to Gravesend to

Mr & Mrs G. Bates to get some pigeons. Pat was aware they had a

couple of good pigeons and asked his friend if he could obtain a pair

from them for him, which he duly did. They turned out to be an

exceptional pair because, apart from the success of "Fear Not", the

other one of the pair, GB2002F20856 a blue hen, took 31st Open,

8th Section E, in the 2004 National Flying Club race from Pau.

GB2002F20857, a delightfully small, verging on very small, blue chequer

hen was bred late in 2002 and did not actually see the inside of a basket

until she was two years old. So much for the theory that pigeons must

be raced as young birds or even trained as young birds. In 2005 she did

go to some preliminary races but as Pat does not keep records of these

we do not know which ones or how well she flew, although they were

probably some of the earlier BICC races. We do know that she was sent

to the 2005 NFC Tarbes race because she beat GB2002F20856 by 90

minutes in finishing 338th Open and 89th Section E. This was a good

performance for the day but did not itself make her a candidate for the

Perpignan International, that only came about when, quite close to the

race, Pat realized that she would be sitting on a small baby.

It was an experience at work on the river that first impressed Pat about

the determination of a hen sitting a small baby. He was sailing a boat

along the River Lee, and passing under a bridge, when he put up a flock

of pigeons. One would not budge however and when he looked closer

he found she was sitting a small baby. So there she was valiantly

protecting her baby against a massive encroachment on her private

space, ready to challenge any attack even from such a giant. Since then

Pat has always tried to send hens to long races on small babies, and it

has worked.

 

Systems

Pats system does not sit on simple lines because he uses a variety of

systems in with each other depending on what he is trying to achieve.

Hens are important to him on these long races and generally speaking

they are kept natural. Because he only keeps limited numbers of pigeons

he can and does give them quite individual treatment. They are fed

communally though with a hoper of beans and maize before them most

if not all of the time. He does use a commercial mixture but this is given

almost as a tit bit when calling them in from loft flights. The cocks and

hens exercise well but part of his special treatment with hens, on the

run up to a long race, is to shut a few out with the young birds when

they go for their afternoon fly which provides them with all the exercise

they need. He feels that as they have food before them all the time, and

consequently are well fed, when they go out they will range with the

young birds and get super fit. On occasions though he will leave the hen

in with the young birds for a week or so effectively turning the cock onto

widowhood and he has had great success racing the cocks at this stage,

including a London North Road Combine winner. Beyond this everything

is kept as simple as possible, they are kept clean but the process is not

turned into an arduous task, food is before them nearly all the time,

clean water at all times and good exercise with training tosses and races

on an individual basis as and when required. He likes to take them down

to the coast occasionally and single them up, curiously enough "Fear

Not" nighted out from just such a toss before the 2006 NFC Tarbes race,

she more than made up for that mistake though. The main criteria

seems to be rigorous stock selection combined with providing the time

and conditions for the racers to develop, but then they must perform. If

they do not perform they do not stay and if the stock do not produce

performers then they do not stay. Medication and treatments, well if

they are needed they are given, but generally speaking this can be kept

to a minimum by taking care of them in the first place.

 

Looking to the future

It was a tragedy that after such a great achievement Pat and "Fear Not"

did not get the opportunity to try again in 2006. We can but hope that

this winter will be kind to us and severe on Avian flu, allowing a full

racing season in 2007. Pat will be ready for that and now that he has

had a proper taste of International racing he will be looking for more

and perhaps he will achieve his main ambition by timing a day bird from

Pau and hopefully gain a high International position as well.

Nigel Lane 12/11/06