A Link from Andrew Page-Robertson

Oct

16

The Show Racer

My good friend and neighbour Douglas McClary has written a fascinating book on the history of the Show Racer in British Pigeon Showing.

As well as being a world-renowned breeder and international judge at various competitions, he has been collecting and researching the history of these birds for most of his life.

And what an interesting history it is! Support from the Royal Family, European intrigue, hints of substitute birds winning races for distances they never flew!

Ah, Poirot, where were you when we needed you?

And what has this to do with the BoomeRanger animals, you may ask? Well, so far, not a lot, I agree. But everything has a kernel of a great plot line lurking there somewhere, just as in my second book, 'The Taranaki Oracle', it was the giant sulphur crested cockatoo Kaar who truly believed he and millions of his tribe were solely responsible for the complete fiery destruction of the Fellers' secret base, The Gap.
But we readers (and Boomer) know that things were a little bit different don't we?

So birds have power to change things. Maybe, as in the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'The Birds', they might do stuff that's a little bit scary. Terrifying, actually, though I did enjoy the film at the time and loved the Mad Magazine spoof which made fun of the huge posters that simply said 'The Birds' is Coming!' In their cartoon there were two birds sitting on a power line talking, and one says 'The Birds' is Coming!' to which the other one replied, 'Yes, and good grammar in advertising has went!'

So. Show Racer pigeons, eh? What kind of derring-do could they get up to in the Outback? In a world where one computer controls everything and the earth's magnetic field has reversed? How would you send secret messages over long distances? Could a McClary Blue save the day?

Watch this space...

In Australia Doug's latest book is available at $30 plus postage either direct from him or via Amazon.

douglasmcclary@bigpond.com

http://www.amazon.com/History-Racer-British-Pigeon-Showing/dp/1479246506/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350344317&sr=8-1&keywords=A+History+of+the+Show+Racer+in+British+Pigeon+Showing

My Books

I have always felt proud of this book, my first,  which was published in 1976 by Faber and Faber of London. It was written in the days before colour processing and before word processing.  The typing proved to be difficult and time-consuming.  The book has stood the test of time and remains as a record of some of the early showing days of the Show Racer in Britain.

My second book was written with the intention of catering for showing in general and to assist newcomers to the hobby in learning about it.  It was published in 1984 by Blandford Press, Dorset but did not receive the circulation it deserved.  It is still in demand and can be found on Amazon and other book suppliers.

I am extremely proud of my third book which was published in 1999 by Winckley Press of Preston. It was a big undertaking and written at a time when my career was at its height and when I was extremely busy and committed.

Early Years

SIXTY YEARS OF SHOW RACER PASSION

By

Doug McClary

If my experience is anything to go by, the older we get the more we tend to look back on the past. I am about to enter my sixtieth year with pigeons and notably with the show racer. The passion I felt then as a schoolboy in seeing pigeons flying and then returning to their ‘home’ has never left me.  Pigeons have provided me with a lifelong obsession and interest, a hobby and sport all in one. They have provided a pressure valve from the stresses of life and a reason to get up every morning to attend to them.

I could not hope to cover my experiences in a single article so thought that I would indulge myself with a mainly west country story because that is where it all started and where I enjoyed most of the pigeon passions leading from schoolboy to man.  Even as I sit here in Victoria, Australia I can so easily re-live some of those times which all started out in West Cornwall in 1953.

Trevor Polkinghorne, then of Trevithal and who is still racing with the Penzance club, was the person responsible.  It was he who owned a small number of pigeons and showed me how they could be liberated and how they would come back to their home.  I just had to have pigeons and these were obtained by various means from local barns and other places where ferals roosted.  The prized ones were the gay pieds as they looked to lovely out on the wing.

Then, one day, against my will, my parents insisted on me accompanying them to the Redruth Agricultural show.  I was not very happy until I entered the pigeon marquee and there spread before me were the most wonderful and beautiful pigeons I had ever seen. And the most beautiful of them all were the show racers – some of which I felt were similar to some I had in my shed – which was a half share of my father’s poultry house. I didn’t see much more of the Redruth show that day for I am sure that I spent all my time gazing at those beautiful pigeons.

Enquiries were made and I was told about the Penzance Fanciers Association and found the secretary Mr Remphrey who lived at Newlyn.  I called on him with trepidation but was welcomed warmly and provided with every encouragement to attend shows and meetings.  He also told me about show racer fanciers in the area so my passion was being fuelled in high doses.

Enter Bert Nicholls who was the Penzance based RAC road patrolman on his motor cycle and sidecar.  I had visited his neat and immaculate loft and was so impressed with his beautiful birds.  On his patrols he came to visit me at Sheffield and to make note of my progress or otherwise.  At the Penzance shows I also met Morley Boase of Ludgvan and rode my bike over there to see his birds and his loft.  Living near me was Arthur Hosking who made me welcome and I got to know him well.  He gave me a pair of dark chequers which he described as ‘Thornton and Greenshields’ and after all these years I can still picture them and feel them in my hands. They were getting on in years but still beautiful birds.  Bert had sold me some decent Show Racers also and I started showing them both at Penzance but further afield using the rail network.  At Bodmin I picked up a card and at Truro I won the young cocks class with a Bert Nicholls pigeon with seventeen in the class.

My first ever show was at an evening table show at the Penzance clubroom in Rosevean Road – I am sure I have the name right.  I took three pigeons, one of my own, and one each for two friends.  My entry won the first prize and I walked on air that evening as I walked nearly three miles home carrying my precious burden.  One of the birds was owned by school friend Brian Burrell of St Ives and the next morning before school, I liberated the bird – which made it home to him.

What did I learn in particular about these times?  Every loft I visited was clean and obviously cleaned regularly and thoroughly.  It is a belief that has stayed with me ever since, the need to look after birds properly and that means keeping the loft and all utensils clean.  It also taught me that to have any win that mattered, it had to be won against the best and this is why I have always sought to show against the best fanciers and the best birds throughout my showing career.

At the Penzance annual open shows, I could only gaze in awe at the birds entered by A.R.Brown of St Day.  We all knew that if he came with entries, our chances of winning were greatly reduced.  His birds stood out like oil paintings, especially his powder blues and light mealies.  I was far too shy to talk to the great man but I made resolve to try to be his equal one day. 

A.R.(Reg) Brown of St Day, Cornwall - and early photo.

My schoolboy days came to an end at the age of sixteen when I left Penzance for good to pursue my police career in Devon, starting out at Newton Abbot.  My mother did her best to keep my little stud operating but eventually I was forced to dispose of it because owing to the cost of travel home, I could return only every few weeks.  Pigeon less at Newton Abbot I did not lose my interest in pigeons and the sight of racers overhead provided a thrill and I recall visiting the late Ken Gray at his dual-purpose lofts.  Police moves involved Tavistock, Dorset. Brixham and Plympton as I worked at my career.

Eventually I married Ann and after living in a grotty flat in Cullompton for a year or so, we were offered a police house with three bedrooms and a large flat garden.  I recall that I didn’t see the garden for about six weeks because it was covered in freezing snow but guess what?  Yes, the possibility of keeping pigeons came to the fore. I ordered ‘The Racing Pigeon’ and when it arrived I could hardly contain myself in my anxiety to acquaint myself with pigeons again.  In that edition there was an advertisement for Show Racers by Mr A.Rawson of Whitwell, Worksop as a ‘small select stud of Greenshiels Show Racers’.  The top pigeon was a mealy cock at five pounds, having won 2^nd at Larkhall, 3^rd Birmingham Mail, BYB at Motherwell, 3^rd at Denny and reserve at the People.  A Loxleys six bird basket was also offered at three pounds ten shillings and some youngsters at two pounds each.  I sent a letter off asking for the basket, the mealy and for a YB to go with it.  That amounted to a large sum in those days but my application was successful and the birds duly arrived at Cullompton station.  There was a problem.  I had no shed or loft.

An outhouse for coal was partially converted but a knight in shining armour came along in the form of Jack Smith of St Andrews Estate who offered to care for my birds until my shed arrived.  Jack was a great character and we became good friends.  In that edition of the Racing Pigeon of the 12^th January 1963 appeared a photo of ‘Rosa Belle’ the beautiful blue white flight owned by none other than A.R. Brown of St Day, winning best opposite sex at the Old Comrades, so I knew where my next move was to be!

Being a policeman I knew that moves about the county would be necessary so I purchased a garden shed seven feet by five feet as being the biggest I could manage to dismantle and re-erect wherever.  My carpentry skills were tested to the limit and found to be sorely inadequate as I sought to turn a shed into a loft.

I had written to Mr Brown and received back a welcoming letter and an offer of a pair of pigeons, a mealy cock and a blue white flight hen, both had raced, the hen to Exeter eighty miles and the cock to Taunton a hundred miles. I bought this pair and they provided my first show wins but stayed with me for a very long time.  They both returned to St Day when I tried to break them to my shed, the cock making the journey ‘home’ twice.

In that time, promotion came and involved a twelve month course in Hampshire involving leaving Ann at home with our new son and of course my loft of pigeons.  After that I moved across to Honiton, loft and all and this started my new showing career seriously. My father in law as a carpenter constructed an aviary which virtually doubled the size of my shed.

I started travelling to shows and had the pleasure of meeting up with Ralph Kingdom and Bert Duckham of Tiverton.  I was also meeting most of the other exhibitors of the time including John Robilliard, George Hood, Bill Pooley, George Abrahams, Francis Matthews and the North Devon fanciers Mervyn Patt, Ken Hearn, Bert Ridge, Bill Bennett and Keith Foley.  I later became friends with Francis Gamble of Penzance, a man I didn’t know well in my schoolday span.

My next move entailed a move to Plympton where we purchased our first house – a bungalow with a flat garden and a concrete block summer house. It was from this address that my showing took off and they were great days visiting Bill Pooley, George Hood, Les Dawson, Les Yeo, Jack Williams and others.  I bought a new purpose-built loft and by using the summer house finally had room to develop my team. What wonderful days these were, what great occasions were enjoyed, not only within Devon and Cornwall but further afield at the classics and wherever pigeon were shown. These were the days of absolute wonderment when my passion for the Show Racer almost took over my life – and Ann argues that it did! Later moves took us to St Austell, and Exeter before the big move in 2004 to Australia.  That seems a suitable place to end this article as an  autobiography was never intended.

Along the way in my pigeon career I have made all the mistakes we all make, disposing of birds which should have been kept, using creosote on the aviary- which ran down the wire and spoilt my show team’s chances and numerous other things.  But above all, I have kept faith with that most beautiful of pigeons, the Show Racer.  I have cherished and respected every bird ever owned, remembered every win and hopefully every loss. Recalling those early Penzance days and the top class fanciers I first met there, I have been dedicated to clean lofts, clean utensils and clean pigeons, thus always treating them with the respect they deserve.  What a great life pigeons have provided for me. What a great life they continue to give me.

My New Book!

The front cover designed by Andrew Page-Robertson

The Rear cover - designed by Andrew Page-Robertson

The designer, Andrew is my next door neighbour and a good friend.  He designed the covers without prompting from me and used birds he chose from the many I provided for him.  The birds used are of his own choosing and I doubt that I would have selected differently.

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* The book is available on internet on www.amazon.

* It is also being sold by Winckley Press, 197 Higher Walton Road, Walton-le-Dale, Preston, Lancashire PR5 4HS. The price will be 19pounds plus p&p

*  I will have copies at 3 Kunyung Road, Mount Eliza, Victoria 3930, Australia at $Aus.30.00 plus $4.00 post and packing within Australia, elsewhere at cost of the appropriate postal rate.

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The Book

I had thoughts of writing this little history some years ago and now, after countless hours spent reading and researching, I am able to present my findings. When I began my plan to write this history, it suddenly occurred to me that I have been involved in the hobby of showing racers for almost half of its history!  Whether that provides a qualification I do not know, but it is a matter of fortune that I have collected a huge amount of information, aided by my interest and my career in the police with its need to record matters as they occurred.  It has been a difficult task bearing in mind that over the hundred plus years of the development of the show racer, names and titles have changed considerably, as have the methods of exhibition and judging.  Shows and exhibitions have emerged and faded from the showing scene, but remaining consistent has been the desire to show our pigeons under the highest standards of competition. 

As to timing, I have used a date of approximately 1980 and included mainly material from before that year.  To have attempted to continue to the present time would have caused offence to some who were not mentioned or described adequately and also as a resident of Australia, I am no longer very up to date with current events.  Perhaps there is someone who will continue the story in due course.

The show racer is a beautiful pigeon.  It is a good looking form of the racing pigeon and it must always be thought of as this – a lovely looking racing pigeon.  It is easy to house, to breed and keep clean.  It can fly successfully and holds just about all the attractive features of the pure racer.  The racing pigeon itself is a wonderful creature, possessing intelligence, character and bravery and when these features are added to by good handling, body and balance, and attractive colours, the perfect pigeon is the result.

‘Since early boyhood I have raised pigeons and have found in them a hobby which has brought relaxation coupled with stimulation, to such a degree as to colour and enhance every phase of my life’  These could so easily be my words but they are those of Wendell M. Levi in his book ‘The Pigeon’ first published in 1941.  My sentiments are similar for ever since I was first introduced to pigeons as a boy, and then from when I saw show racers exhibited at an agricultural show in Cornwall I have felt devoted to this beautiful pigeon from that moment on.

The show racers in particular, but also other breeds of pigeons, have provided me with a consuming interest and a joyous hobby.  Despite all my administrative functions and writing, I have found relaxation through my pigeons to compensate for the stresses of my career and the work of raising my family.

In my first book, ‘The Show Racer – How to Show Racing Pigeons’ published in 1976, I opened with the following words, ‘The show racer is a pigeon of beauty, dignity and grace. Presented in peak condition it is a joy to see and it is little wonder that its popularity is ever growing.’ I still believe this, some six decades after seeing my first show racer and almost that number of years since winning my first ever prize card.

The show racer in Great Britain is almost unique to the countries of the United Kingdom. It has developed in a manner which is fairly typical of a country with such a long history, enjoying democracy and a constitution which is flexible and unwritten. Names have come and gone during the history of the showing of the racing pigeon but many have remained for long periods and made their presence felt in the development and enhancement of the sport.  Names within their respective countries which have done much for the sport might be as follows, without reference to any present day fanciers

England- Billington, Metcalfe, Record Bros., Worton, Hyde, Arrowsmith, Snow, Rigg, Dalzell

Wales –  Penhale, Evans, Simmonds, Griffiths, Parker, King

Scotland – Nisbet, Nicholl, Walker, Stark, Greenshields, Thornton, Bowes

We might all have our own ideas on who might be included in such a listing but these are mine based upon numerous hours of reading and also based on my own memories and of how such men were spoken of.

My intention of writing this little history – and remember it is A history and not THE history of the sport of showing racing pigeons; was to record its importance to the showing of pigeons and personally to leave something behind which others may find useful and interesting. The development has not been an easy one yet in the early years of the 21^st century the showing side seems to exist in harmony with the parent racing pigeon sport.  We have operated under the rules of the racing pigeon unions and have been subjected to control and regulation determined by them.  Some showing is conducted under the rules of the fancy pigeon associations, but generally the popularity of the show racer is the result of existing within the racing pigeon sport.

Perhaps as one grows older, the interest in historical fact grows stronger but I have been fascinated at the gradual development of the Show Racer throughout its history. We are talking about a period of just over a hundred years, a period not too far short of the history of pigeon racing in Britain.  I am so grateful that I have been able to keep and retain so much useful material which has aided my research.  I have maintained scrapbooks for over fifty years and these alone contain a mine of information.  Also, owing to writing for magazines over the years and expressing interest in historical facts, many readers have been kind enough to send me information in the form of letters, magazine cuttings, books and other material.

There will be but few breeds of pigeon with such a long history and even fewer with a written history of development.  This is my intention, to leave a history of the Show Racer which can be of interest and value to those who are fortunate enough to keep this wonderful and beautiful breed of pigeon in the future.

Douglas McClary,

Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia

September 2012