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A Marathon Pigeon ‘par excellence’
I think I had more than thirty letters or phone calls about British pigeons that had flown over 800 miles. There is an enormous interest in such pigeons and over the course of the next few months I will attempt to list most of them but first of all I will concentrate on what I think the outstanding one amongst them. This was a hen bred and raced by M/M R G Wales to Malton in North Yorkshire, his pigeon flew 864 miles from Palamos to Malton in 1991 arriving on the second day at 16.14pm doing a velocity of 965 ypm. As far as I can tell no other UK pigeon has flown a greater distance by the second day after being liberated the previous day. This pigeon was Blue hen ring number GB88E18381
The History of 18381
When a certain Albert Cook also of Malton died his widow asked his friend Mr G Wales to take over and race Albert’s birds in their entirety on the condition that he continued racing them with the British Barcelona Club in their longest race. Albert Cook only had a small loft measuring 10 ft by 6 ft but it contained very good long distance marathon pigeons.
Indeed Albert Cook , whilst he was racing, he on the Spanish diploma twice with the British Barcelona Club for having a bird fly from Spain three times. The first of these Spanish Diploma birds was 70Z43221. This bird was 3rd section 2nd section and 1st section The other Spanish diploma winner for Mr the line from such pigeons .
When a certain Albert Cook also of Malton died his widow asked his friend Mr G Wales to take over and race Albert’s birds in their entirety on the condition that he continued racing them with the British Barcelona Club in their longest race. Albert Cook only had a small loft measuring 10 ft by 6 ft but it contained very good long distance marathon pigeons.
Indeed Albert Cook , whilst he was racing, he on the Spanish diploma twice with the British Barcelona Club for having a bird fly from Spain three times. The first of these Spanish Diploma birds was 70Z43221. This bird was 3rd section 2nd section and 1st section The other Spanish diploma winner for Mr the line from such pigeons .
The Cook pigeons for the most part originated from the loft of Frank Cheetham of Pontefract also in Yorkshire. Frank Cheetham had a tremendous record with the National flying club winning the Braithwaite trophy on numerous occasions for being 1st bird into Yorkshire in the National Flying Club’s longest race. Indeed he won his section two or thee times whilst doing so. Frank Cheetham was particularly strong when the velocity was low and the race was hard.
Outstanding pigeons such as Blue Hen 18381 do not grow on trees and tend to arrive only once or twice in a lifetime in any loft. With careful breeding and training and with pigeons of the right blood, it is possible to breed pigeons able to attain unbelievable performances even to a small loft that is dedicated only to marathon racing.
The year 18381 flew Palamos and achieved her record she was jumped from the South Coast into Palamos with no other work in between. Good pigeons of the right blood will do this sort of thing but no amount of effort can make an ordinary pigeon without the necessary breeding into one that will achieve flights of this kind. Hens seem to be more successful than cocks at distances such as this.
Outstanding pigeons such as Blue Hen 18381 do not grow on trees and tend to arrive only once or twice in a lifetime in any loft. With careful breeding and training and with pigeons of the right blood, it is possible to breed pigeons able to attain unbelievable performances even to a small loft that is dedicated only to marathon racing.
The year 18381 flew Palamos and achieved her record she was jumped from the South Coast into Palamos with no other work in between. Good pigeons of the right blood will do this sort of thing but no amount of effort can make an ordinary pigeon without the necessary breeding into one that will achieve flights of this kind. Hens seem to be more successful than cocks at distances such as this.
M/M Wales with trophies won by the blue hen at the BBC Annual prize presentation. Geoff Wales worked in the clock trade for the Automatic Timing Company of Bacup for many years - He repaired and overhauled many of the old Toulet Clocks with their mechanical mechanism that was the staple timing device for pigeons in the UK for more than 60 or 70 years.
So this is the background to the Wales pigeon of 1991 whose actual recorded race position was 1st section 20th open BBC Palamos 1991.
John Clements
John Clements