sapper756

I noticed in this last week’s BHW an advert for the position of Secretary/Treasurer for the SNFC; saying this would be a Full-Time Appointment. Surely in this present climate within our sport this has to be a PART TIME post. Back in 2006 when certain individuals including the then president of the club; did not get their own way at the SNFC A.G.M. They walked out and within a week or so formed the Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club to compete against the SNFC. During their first season they had 225 members (including members of the SNFC) sending 1531 birds to their inland race from Newbury. This year 2022 the SNRPC sent 399 birds to Eastbourne; and 390 birds to their Newark young bird race (no details of members). This shows the club are losing members nearly every year. When the SNFC present-day secretary took over the post in the year 2014; we still had the challenge of competing against the Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club; the club averaged between 431 to 645 members to the nationals. With entries from 1355 birds to the Gold Cup race sent by 431 members. With 645 members sending 4855 birds to Maidstone inland national. At the present time 2022 the most membership was from the inland race from Upper Heyford with 369 members sending (this includes fanciers who are in both Scottish Nationals) 3002 birds. From the Alencon Gold Cup race 142 members entered 713 birds and from their other channel event from Carentan; 97 members sent 396 birds. Therefore, the SNFC creates most revenue from the inland race points. However; I have it on good authority; subject to agreement; that the Central & East of Scotland Amalgamation is looking to re-start up in 2023; This consists of races from the 250 miles stage to the South coast of England; i.e.; Maidstone; Brighton; etc. They believe if the combination of the following federations; i.e., Aberdeen, Dundee, Angus, Fife, Central, North West, Midlothian, Traprain, Pentlandhills, East of Scotland, Scottish Borders ALL JOIN, they will be able to take the pigeons to the longest South Coast race for a £1-00 A BIRD. Plus, the fact again subject to agreement and some minor logistics, THEY can leave on the Friday night and be down in time to liberate the next morning if the weather is good. If this transpires; it will take all the birdage away from the SNFC inland nationals. Which would result in a massive loss of revenue to the club. Plus, the fact that if this appointment is made for a full-time secretary, then that person will be entitled to a full-time salary. Membership is dropping every year and you just have to look at the number of fanciers who are calling it a day. We have just seen our ‘Greatest Fancier’ Billy Bilsland winner of 14 nationals; give up the sport, plus there are others who are not so well known, but are members of the national, the pigeon sport is dying and we ALL KNOW THIS FACT; so, a Full-Time secretary will be a massive mistake in this present climate. Here is Another Example of this Fact I received an email with the sad news that the father and son partnership of Richard & Jamie Combe of Elphinstone are also giving up the sport. Jamie wrote ‘Hi Joe, hope you are well. You might have heard on the jungle drums but just to say that I'm intending to have an advert in the BHW on Thursday 24th November edition, advertising all the birds for sale. My dad and his wife are looking to move house and have put their house on the market now; so, the birds need to go asap. I wondered if you could give it a wee mention in your column that week, please? I don't have time to organise an auction so I’m just going to advertise them and sell them from the paper. I have a week off work from Friday 25th November until Monday 5th December and would hope to have the birds away during that week. I'll be happy to show any visitors the birds that are available, provided they make an appointment - strictly no unannounced visitors. I will have a sale list ready that can be e-mailed out so folk will know what is available. I can be reached on 07910 514078 or by e-mail jcelphi@hotmail.com Anyone who follows the SNFC results or reads my column will have read about Richard & Jamie Combe of Elphinstone; as their name has been at or near the top of SNFC results for many years. They have also raced some wonderful pigeon over the years, including; ‘Setonpark Caelan’ winner of The Joe Murphy Sporting Challenge; she did not only win this top award; but she was the only pigeon recorded in race time. Which was something unique as this had never happened before in my Sporting Challenge. Richard and Jamie also raced their famous ‘Midnight Son’. A dark chequer cock, who was one of the best, if not the best, pigeon that Richard & Jamie had the privileged to breed and race. His sire was ‘0400’ a black-splashed red chequer Kirkpatrick stock cock. His brother was rung ‘0399’ and won 33rd open SNFC Rennes as a yearling and his sister, ‘3220’ won 22nd open SNFC Sartilly. The dam of ‘0400’ was 8566 a dark blue chequer hen who won 5th open Sartilly (1) and 99th open Sartilly (2) with the SNFC in 1995. So, as you can see, ‘Midnight Son’ was bred in the purple! ‘8566’ in turn was a ½ sister of their great hen ‘Sapphire’ a winner of 5th open SNFC Sartilly (1) & 31st open Sartilly (2) in 1993; & 29th open SNFC Beauvais in 1994. Both ‘0400’ and ‘8566’ left a exceptionality amount of good channel winners for the partnership. As a young bird in 1996, ‘Midnight Son’ had 7 races out to Worcester (252 miles) and won 1st club from Penrith. He only had 3 races as a yearling from Preston, Stafford and finally Frome with the SNFC homing early on the 2nd day. In 1998 he was raced from Longtown, Penrith and Leyland before being sent to Frome with the SNFC. Then on the 8th June, after a one-day holdover, he won 9th east section, 16th open from an entry of 4005 birds. He was then entered in the SNFC Gold Cup race from Rennes and on the 28th of June after a 2-day holdover; he won 72nd east section, 131st open from an entry of 3019 birds. Finally on the 8th of July this same year he won 3rd east section, 7th open SNFC Sartilly competing against 2042 birds. These results with the SNFC won him the coveted SHU Dewar Trophy for Scotland’s Bird of the Year. He also won ‘Bird of the Year’ in the Edinburgh and Lothians Social Circle. It was his performance from the Sartilly race which gave him his name. The convoy were liberated at 09-00am, and he was timed – (amid much excitement - at 00-31) by Richard; hence the ‘Midnight’ part of his name. Somehow son Jamie, arouse from his bed when it was realised the cock was on the trap. He reached the loft -dressed in pyjama top and shorts; and in his bare feet - at the same time as Richard. And so, this is the reason the ‘Son’ part came of his name. ‘Midnight Son’ went on to win 109th east section, 241st open Frome against an entry of (3827 birds); then won 65th east section, 155th open from Rennes against a convoy of (2862 birds); and he then won 4th east section, 37th open Sartilly from an entry of 1973 birds with the SNFC in 1999. He then met with a serious injury in 2000 which greatly curtailed racing for a while until the partnership were sure he had fully recovered but in 2002 he was sent to Reims with the SNFC and he won 45th east section, 62nd open from a convoy of 2650 birds; thus, securing his SNFC Gold Award for winning 5 times from France. Needless to say, he had nothing more to prove and was then retired to stock and was the sire and grandsire of many good channel winner’s; not only for Richard & Jamie but also for great fanciers like; Eddie Newcombe, Bobby Carruthers, Dale Newcombe (all sadly no longer with us) and many others. To win 3 times in the top 10 of the east section of the SNFC, was a great feat at that time and ‘Midnight Son’ and as far as I’m concerned ‘Midnight Son’ will always be a Champion in my eyes. Richard and Jamie achieved many prizes within the top 5 open positions in the SNFC results; for example; they were 2nd open Tours, 2nd open Chenoise, 3rd open Sartilly, 4th open Rennes, 5th open Rennes and 3 times x 5th open Sartilly. They also twice won ‘The Fancier of the Year’ award in 1998 with Jim Renwick and in 2004 with my Joe Murphy Sporting Challenge; and they were also runners up in 2006. They have also won the SNFC overall and section averages plus the Gold Award mentioned above; They also won SNFC Silver Awards won in 2008; 2009; 2015; 2016 & 2018. I have highlighted a good few of these achievements in previous articles. My thanks to Jamie for his email and I hope Richard |& Jamie’s sale goes well, look out for the advert in this week’s paper. SHU Trophy Winners 2022 The SHU Celtic Trophy; was presented by Taffy Bowen of Wales; for the performance(s) Old Birds up to 300 miles. The winners were G W & P McAloney with the following performances; Race Point Organisation Date of Race Position in Race Number Birds Distance Velocity Alnwick Lanarkshire 30/04/22 1st Fed 5391 Fed 96-1091 1494 1st Section 1509 Sect Alnwick Lanarkshire 18/06/22 1st Fed 2462 Fed 96-1091 1270 1st Section 747 Sect Thirsk Lanarkshire 07/05/22 24th Fed 5072 Fed 154-627 1372 10th Section 1408 Sect Worksop Lanarkshire 21/05/22 31st Fed 3447 Fed 213-1717 1329 15th Section 1005 Sect Worksop Lanarkshire 21/05/22 15th Fed 3447 Fed 213-1717 1329 Yearling 7th Section 1005 Sect 213-1717 1329 Budworth Lanarkshire 14/05/22 32nd Fed 4250 Fed 189-1036 1246 Yearling 18th Section 1160 Sect 189-1036 1246 Alnwick Lanarkshire 3/07/22 34th Fed 1193 Fed 96-1091 1270 9th Section 643 Sect Wooler Lanarkshire 16/04/22 77st Fed 3484 Fed 77-1057 1362 32nd Section 973 Sect The SHU Yearling Trophy Friendship Cup; for Outstanding Performance was won by S & S Tierney of Edinburgh. From the SNFC Alencon race point flown on the 1st July 2022, flying a distance of 534 miles 449 yards recording a velocity of 1087.64 winning 21st open competing against 713 birds. This pigeon has already won 7th section B 47th open Yeovil, from an entry of 1631 birds, and also won 36th open Carentan from an entry of 396 birds. We move on now to the Annie Ross Bowes Memorial Trophy; which is awarded to the fancier who has donated their free time in promoting the pigeon sport in Scotland. The winner of this award is Joe Allan of Midlothian, nominated by Jimmy Simpson of the same federation. His letter is as follows; Dear Andrew, I would like to nominated Joe Allan of Easthouses for the ARB Trophy. Joe is in his 83rd year and has been an inspiration all over the Lothians for helping pigeon men; i.e., moving their lofts also house moving; anything you ask Joe he would always help. He has been Midlothian federation clock ‘convenor’ also convenor for the SNFC for more years than I can remember. I am 70 years old and could not have done ½ of what Joe has done, he also ferries race birds on Friday night from 12 clubs and brings the baskets back on a Saturday. As I have said before he is in his 83rd year, suffers from C.O.P.D and has vowed to die ‘A DOO MAN’. He lost his wife Violet 3 years ago and ‘Doo’s’ is all he has left. Hoping that you can give my nomination consideration yours in sport Jimmy Simpson’. I would like to congratulate Joe on winning this award, and I can also reiterate to Jimmy’s letter. Many years ago, I was asked to help out a widow whose husband had passed; she was wanting all the pigeons and loft removed. Our son Kevin was interested in her small stock loft and he purchased it. However; how was he going to get it over to Thornton in Fife, where he would collect it. Joe Allan come to the rescue and brought the loft over in his van. I have known Joe Allan for many many years, as we were both friends of the late Chris and Roy Anderson of Ayton; who were great fliers in their day. On many occasions when we visited the Anderson’s Joe would often be there as he had trained his federation members birds from down in this area at least twice a week. Then he would drop in and see the Anderson’s. Great memories and Chris and Roy had a fantastic team of birds, and the pigeon club room was in the bottom half of their property; opposite the Black Bull Pub in the main street of Ayton. Billy Bilsland lives in the top part of the village now, and we all know how successful Billy has been. Joe’s Joke A Cup of Tea One day a mother was out, and dad was in charge of his daughter. She was only maybe 2 ½ years old. Someone had given her a little 'tea set' as a gift, and it was one of her favourite toys. Her Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news; when she brought him a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such ‘yummy tea’, her mum came home. Dad made mum wait in the living room to watch their daughter bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!' Mum waited, and sure enough, here she came down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy; and Mum watched him drink it up. Then she said, (as only a mother would know), "'Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?" Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or Email to joejmurphy1@gmail.com REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE or you can also view online editions on: www.elimarpigeons.com www.fancierchat.co.uk www.pigeon-chat.co.uk - www.Pigeonbasics.com - Pigeon Racing the Basics! - thecanadianpigeoninternational.com www.internationalracingpigeon.com or https://sites.google.com/site/internationalracingpigeon/ Who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland? © COMPILED BY JOE MURPHY Midnight Sun Seatonpark Caelon

Thomas has kindly gave his permission for me to share with Basics members CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Same to you

Who can enlighten us, as to what this contraption is being used for?

BHW ‘Show of the Year’ Blackpool 2022. In spite of the Covid and Bird Flu problems looming over the 2022 show, there was only one thing guaranteed when the fanciers travelled to Blackpool for the 50th British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’ was that they would have a great time! Although it was a great success and good fun, the 2021 live event had to be cancelled and had to go ‘on line’ because of the Covid restrictions. Well done to the Blackpool Show committee on making the pandemic restriction workable for our favourite show this year and getting the birds back in the pens for the 50th anniversary event. With the show being staged in the North West of England in January, some years the weather is a bit cold and wet, but this year’s show weekend was treated to blue skies and wall to wall sunshine, which made this year’s event even more special. Thousands of fanciers made the drive up to Blackpool in mid-January for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’. Everyone anticipates and looks forward to this wonderful weekend in Blackpool, not only for their annual fill of ‘pigeon fun’, but mostly to meet up with good pigeon friends. This year’s event attacked a show entry of 2,000 birds and ‘Supreme Champion’ and “Best in Show’ was won by John and Alice Bell of Catrine in Scotland. John tells me, this is the third time they have won the double at Blackpool, winning ‘Best in Show’ three times and ‘Supreme Champion’ a record seven times. They have had five open shows this season, including the BHW Blackpool Show and have won ‘Best in Show’ three times, plus ‘Best Show Racer’. Well done to John and Alice, a brilliant performance! Their seventh Blackpool ‘Supreme Champion’ was their wonderful two year old mosaic hen; ‘Gracie’ and she previously won ‘Best in Show’ at the RPRA Southern Region Show in High Wycombe last November. John & Alice travelled the 400 miles from Ayrshire for the High Wycombe Show and won six classes, ‘Best in Show’, ‘Best Opposite Sex’, ‘Best Show Racer’ and ‘Best Points’. A wonderful performance by the partners and this year’s Southern Region ‘Best in Show’ is their fourth in recent years. The ‘Best in Show’ winner, now named ‘Gracie’, was their yearling mosaic hen competing in her first show ever and she is a daughter of ‘Mervanic’, the winner of ‘Best in Show’ RPRA Southern Region Show for Nicole Bell in 2016. Now the wonderful ‘Gracie’ has gone on and become the ‘Supreme Champion’ at the greatest show in the pigeon sport, the BHW Blackpool Show! John and Alice won ‘Best in Show’ at this year’s Blackpool event with their good four year old mosaic heh, ‘Alice’s Dream Girl’ and she is a full sister to ‘Gracie’. What a fantastic family of Show Racers! Class winners at the 2022 BHW Blackpool ‘Show of the Year’ were: 1 (90 birds) Thomas Souness: 2 (91 birds) Dave Fussey: 3 (87 birds) R. J. Parker: 4 (79 birds) A, Freer: 5 (54 birds) J.K. & J.D. Lynn: 6 (53 birds) Matthew Donoghue: 7 (72 birds) John Barnes: 8 (76 birds) John Barnes: 9 (41 birds) Edson & Wheatcroft: 10 (42 birds) John & Alice Bell: 11 (41 birds) John & Alice Bell: 12 (39 birds) Nigel Rescoria: 13 (35 birds) J. & D. Fisher: 14 (35 birds) Nigel Rescoria: 15 (39 birds) S. Ferguson: 16 (39 birds) Edson & Wheatcroft: 17 (42 birds) Alistair Tankard: 18 (58 birds) Darren Christie: 19 (44 birds) John & Alice Bell: 20 (70 birds) Winters Family: 21 (72 birds) Coutts Brothers: 22 (72 birds) Master Aidan Winters: 23 (66 birds) William & Brian Massey: 24 (8 birds) Michael Wareing: 25 (11 birds) McCord & Turpie: 26 (21 birds) G. & K. Parker: 27 (19 birds) Miss Keelie Wright: 28 (42 birds) Todhunter & Grisedal: 29 (38 birds) McCord & Turpie: 30 (44 birds) William & Brian Massey: 31 (46 birds) E. & N. Yule: 32 (29 birds) Emmie & Olivia Gilliver: 33 (30 birds) E. Balmer: 34 (24 birds) Adam Christie: 35 (22 birds) Miss Keelie Wright: 36 (53 birds) Master Aiden Winters: 37 (51 birds) Master George Tytler. Darren Christie of Dunaghy in Northern Ireland won ‘Reserve Best in Show’ with his wonderful silver chequer hen, ‘Ewing’s Lass’, following on from his great success in 2019 when the Christie loft won ‘Best in Show’. The 2019 event attacked a show entry of 2,000 birds and ‘Best in Show’ over all at the Winter Gardens was won by a beautiful Show Racer silver blue cock owned by Darren. He has named his champion cock, ‘Barney’, and tells me he has had a lot of good wins previously, including ‘Best in Show’ at the INFC Show in Lisburn in 2017 and also won ‘Best in Show’ at an open show the week after the 2019 Blackpool event. He named his silver blue cock after his friend, John Barnes, who gifted him a silver blue hen which was his dam and his sire was blue cock bred through gift pigeons from Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Cambuslang in Scotland. The Scottish father and son racing partnership of William and Brian Massey of Rosewell won ‘Best Young Bird in Show’ with their beautiful slatey pied cock, ‘Fram’. Very pleasing for me, because I’m her number one fan, William and Brian’s wonderful pied hen, ‘Olivia’ won class 23. What a hen! As I previously stated the annual BHW Blackpool Show weekend had to be cancelled in 2021 because of the ongoing Covid problem and had to go ‘online’. There was a strong Scottish dominance of the ‘On Line’ Show with both of the top awards going north of the border! The ten classes attracted an entry of 474 birds which were competing for outstanding prize money, in spite of a free entry. ‘Best in Show’ was won by Coutts Brothers of Scotland, with the champion blue cheque cock, ‘King Louie’. These lads from Aberdeenshire are really ‘setting them alight’ winning at all the National shows in recent seasons. ‘Best Opposite Sex’ also went to Scotland, with William and Brian Massey winning with their good pied hen, ‘Olivia’. I had some good fun, judging 68 Show Racer old hens in Class 2. John and Alice Bell of Scotland won Reserve ‘Best in Show’, ‘Best Show Racer’ and Best Young Bird’ at the 2020 BHW Blackpool Show with their beautiful dark chequer hen, Cheeky Girl’. John and Alice have a brilliant record at the Blackpool Show, previously winning ‘Supreme Champion’ a record six times. Talking to John after the Blackpool Show, he told me he and Alice had had a wonderful 2020 show season. The first event they competed in was the NEHU South Shields Show in November and they won Best in Show (400 birds), with their five year old blue chequer cock, ‘Young Supreme’. This was the second time this champion cock had qualified for the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at the BHW Blackpool Show, previously winning ‘Supreme Champion’ at Blackpool and ‘Best in Show’ RPRA Southern Region Show in 2016. The following weekend the Bell partners exhibited at the Hurlford North Road Open Show (400 birds) and there were eight classes of racing pigeons and eight classes of Show Racer on the day. John and Alice won all eight Show Racer classes and ‘Best in Show’ with a young red hen, which also qualified for the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at Blackpool. The next show was the Clydesdale Open Show (500 birds) and they won three classes and ‘Best in Show’ with a two year old blue chequer cock, which again also qualified for the Blackpool ‘Supreme Champion’ class. The day after the Clydesdale show John and Alice travelled 225 miles each way to Snainton near Scarborough to win ‘Best in Show’ and Reserve ‘Best in Show’ at the BSRF Open Show. Two weeks later they showed at the Kingdom of Fife Open Show (450 birds), winning seven of the eight Show Racer classes and ‘Best in Show’ with their champion dark chequer hen, ‘Dottie’. This great hen had previously won ‘Best Opposite Sex’ as a young bird at the BHW Blackpool Show and ‘Best in Show’ as a yearling at the RPRA South Region Show. The following day they travelled 300 miles to Dordin for the Black Country Open Show (500 birds) and won five classes. John and Alice’s last show before Blackpool was the SHU Open Show at Symington and there was nearly 800 birds competing. They won three classes and ‘Best in Show’ with the pigeon that won ‘BIS’ previously at Snainton. John and Alice had five birds that qualified for the ‘Supreme Champion’ class at the 2020 BHW Blackpool Show. They had a brilliant Blackpool Show, winning four classes, Reserve ‘Best in Show’, ‘Best Show Racer’, ‘Best Young Bird’ and lifted eleven trophies. I asked John how he started up in pigeons and he told me, ‘I started with racing pigeons in 1974, at the age of nine and my first birds came from local fanciers, Eric Wilson of Mauchline who gave me two cocks and Sonny Mathieson who gave me two hens to mate to them. A year or so before that a friend of mine got some pigeons and I got hooked on them when I visited his garden. My parents agreed to allow me to keep some birds and with no experience I raced the whole young bird programme in 1975. I won my first race the following season and scored at the mighty Scottish National race from Rennes (552 miles), and I must say it was a great feeling! To breed and race birds that can race from France to Catrine, Ayrshire in the west of Scotland is a great buzz, as it is a very hard place to race pigeons too’. John flew his birds until the 2000 season when sadly his friend and mentor, Louis Campbell, passed away. He was always keen on showing his racing pigeons and took then to events all over Scotland, where he was very successful in local and open shows. The Bell loft had four racing pigeons that had won open shows in the same year with over 500 birds competing, at that time, and qualified for the Supreme Champion of Great Britain class at Blackpool and won Reserve that year. Whenever he went to the big National shows he would spend long periods of time looking at the Show Racer and thought how great they looked. Alice used to go with John to the big shows and she also took a liking the wonderful looking show birds, so they both decided to get a few and give proper showing a go. The first Show Racers were brought in, in 2002 and quality specimens proved very difficult to obtain. He was lucky to know, Raymond Murphy of Cambuslang in Glasgow, who was a very good showman who was going out of the sport, and was having a clearance sale. John visited Raymond’s loft and purchased a five year old silver hen and her son, which was a three year old silver blue cock, both being top quality. Other birds were obtained including a young blue chequer cock from Darren Gibbons of Grimsby. In the 2002 season the ‘Old Silver Hen’ won three big open shows and her son, the silver blue cock, won two classes at open events. John and Alice went to the RP ‘Old Comrades’ where the young chequer cock won his class and went on to win the Best Young Bird at the Scottish East Region Society Show, then went forward to Blackpool to represent the Society in the BSRF class. The 2003 season saw more good success with several open show wins with racing and show birds. John told me that Alice was very instrumental in the success as she spent a lot of time with the birds and made them very tame. They responded really well to her and sit on her head and feed from her hand. John maintains making her a full pigeon partner was one of the best things he ever did, as she manages the loft when he is working, cleaning out and feeding the birds. Well that’s my annual report for the 2022 BHW Blackpool Show! Congratulations to John and Alice Bell on yet another great Blackpool success! A special congratulations to the young fanciers: Adam Christie, Keelie Wright, Aiden Winters and George Tytler, who all won class’s. It is really great to see young people win at the very top level! It all happens again in Blackpool next month. (December 2022)

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May I take this opportunity to thank all Basics members for their ongoing support, since I have taken over the running of Pigeon Basics in April this year, I have been impressed with those members who have been loyal to Basics. It's not easy running an online pigeon website, when now a days, there are so many Social Network sites, which run free without any costs. But as long as Basics continues to run and pay for it's self, via Google ads and very much appreciated donations from members. I am happy to continue through 2023 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS 2023 Sapper 756

Winner is Robert Sammels Well done

Liberated from Morpeth 9.45 South West Wind

Good luck with your show today

Good luck folks, hopefully a good race with good returns

By Chris Sutton