RACING PIGEON NEWSLETTER ISSUE 260

Welcome deckers davy issue 260

In This Issue:
First in flight
Danny Allison
PAUL SMITH
Loft Pictures

First in flight
by Timothy J. Carroll - Hudson Reporter
City dwellers think of the pigeon as a filthy food-hawk. But there is a whole other side to the creature, according to Vinnie Torre and Lynne Earing from the Hudson County Homing Pigeon Club (HCHPC), on Newark Avenue.

There are feral pigeons, or "clinkers," Torre calls them, and then there are flyers, championship pigeons like the birds Earing trains and Torre breeds.

"People say they look the same, but they don't," Earing said. "It's just like a thoroughbred horse. [These pigeons] have pedigrees that go back years and years and years."

Introduced by Italian immigrants in the early 1900s, the sport of pigeon training and racing in Hoboken grew in popularity in the 1950s when there were hundreds of rooftop lofts.

The most famous rooftop loft in Hoboken was fictional. It belonged to Terry Malloy, Marlon Brando's character in the classic film "On The Waterfront."

Earing is from Bayonne and Torre is from Hoboken, and they met on a blind date in 1999. Since then, Earing has been slowly drawn into the pursuit by Torre, who learned the sport of pigeon racing from old Italian men on the rooftops of Hoboken. Torre owns a junk yard, body shop, and used car lot, and started racing pigeons in 1955.

He built Earing her own coop "Lynne's Loft" on his Monroe Street rooftop in 2003. She had her first Hall of Fame winning bird in 2007 a great honor in the sport.

They are now part of the Hudson County Homing Pigeon Club, which has a headquarters on Newark Street.

Revived

Earing and Torre were highlighted recently in a Hoboken Historical Museum chapbook.

Torre is president of the HCHPC, which was first formally organized in 1922 and became a popular place in the 1950s and 1960s. Interest in club and the sport dwindled in the 1980s and 1990s as older members of the club were no longer active.

It shut down for a few years, until Torre revived it in 2008. He also revived one of the more famous pigeon races around, the Hoboken Derby, or the One Bird Derby, which will be held in town in May.

Dying sport

Earing said she doesn't think there will be a next generation of pigeon racers.

"In Hoboken, I don't see it happening, she said. It's really a dying sport. It's a lot of work. There's no vacation from taking care of your pigeons."

The couple also belongs to the Lyndhurst Homing Pigeon Club, where Torre is the president.

He said he learned from guys like Frankie Luongo and "Funsy" on the rooftops in Hoboken, and is willing to pass on his accumulated knowledge as he did with Earing, but there isn't much interest.

Last legal lofts

And unless you've been grandfathered in like Torre has, no new pigeon lofts can be built on Hoboken rooftops. Torre said he has the last loft for racing pigeons in town; a few other lofts around house tiplets, or non-racing pigeons.

Fortunately for his sport, he has revived the Hoboken Derby and it has been growing every year for the past few years.

Racing pigeons have two divisions: old birds that were born before the calendar year, and young birds that are born within the calendar year.

The Hoboken Derby flies one young bird per coop 350 miles to Cadiz, Ohio and one older bird 500 miles to London, Ohio.

Finding home

Racing pigeons can be released 500 to 600 miles away from their home and still return within a day.

Much research has been done on how the birds navigate, and scientists believe they use some combination of the sun, the Earth's magnetic field, smells, and even subhuman sounds to find their way.

The training of homing pigeons is believed to have begun in the 5th Century B.C. in Syria and Persia. Romans used the birds to carry results of sporting events, which spawned the release of doves at the Olympics.

Pigeons relayed the financial information that made Nathan Rothschild an extremely successful businessman. They transported news updates across Europe for Reuters in the late 1800s. They carried important messages in World War I.

Famous pigeon-lovers include Elvis Presley, Mike Tyson, Robert Redford, and Queen Elizabeth of England.

Peregrine falcons, the pigeon's natural enemy, have recently been imported by towns to be used as a feral pigeon control method, but the falcon does not discriminate against homing pigeons. The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird on the planet, soaring as fast as 200 miles per hour when diving.

Chapbook series

Some details of this article were provided by "The Pigeon Guys," the 21st oral history chapbook produced by the Hoboken Historical Museum and the Friends of the Hoboken Public Library in a series called "Vanishing Hoboken." The chapbooks are available at the museum, 1301 Hudson St., or on the internet, www.hobokenmuseum.org. The books are funded in part by a N.J. Historical Commission grant, donations, and work by volunteers like resident Holly Metz, who has edited all 21 booklets.

For information on how to get involved with pigeon racing, call the HCHPC at (201) 659-9340.

Danny Allison of Kingston
By Keith Mott

The Three Borders Federation sent 1,409 birds to the last and longest young bird race of the 2009 season from Yelverton, and with the convoy being liberated at 09.00hrs in a very stiff East / North East wind, made the winners performance even more outstanding. Danny Allison of Kingston finished a good season by recording 2nd Federation, 2nd open SMT Combine (3189 birds) with his Trussler blue hen, ‘Young Connie’, and she was sent sitting ten day old eggs. Danny has enjoyed a brilliant young bird season and he told me, during the 2009 racing season this game hen was the only bird to be home first twice, that’s how good his babies were coming on race days. The South Downs Premier Flying Club had a young bird race from Exeter (118 birds) and the rule in the club is one prize per loft. Danny won the race doing a velocity of 1630.7 and ‘Young Connie’ came with the winner recoding 1630.6 and didn’t take a prize, but did lift ?180 pool money. Danny being a fancier who never rests on his laurels got his great little hen ready for the testing High Littleton Tours National race at the end of the season. There was 1,114 birds competing from Tours and ‘Young Connie’ flew the 281 miles back home to Kingston, too record 77th open. A brilliant young hen! Another of Danny’s best racing young birds in the 2009 season was the Trussler blue chequer cock, ‘The Show Man’, and he was also raced the Federation programme paired up.

Danny breeds himself about 60 babies to race every season and these are put on the darkness system at weaning and taken off in June, prior to the commencement of training. The young birds are trained really hard getting, weather permitting, a toss seven days a week up to the first race and after that a 40 mile chuck on a Tuesday and Thursday through the season. After their basket training they go straight to Guildford Cathedral (20 miles) for seven training tosses, then a week at Bentley (35 miles), them on to Alton (40 miles), then get as several tosses at Winchester (55 miles) and then they go back to Alton for four up chucks, and Danny says he will give them as many tosses there as he can manage before the first race. The whole team has to race the Federation programme and are fed on a good widowhood mixture. They are allowed to pair up if they want too and are sent to races sitting eggs or feeding small babies for motivation. The Allison loft has enjoyed a good season racing in the Three Borders Federation with their young birds, winning:16th, 17th, 20th, 21st, 25th Federation Wincanton (1958 birds), 4th, 5th, 18th Federation Yeovil (1928 birds), 21st, 22nd, 25th Federation West Bay (2183 birds), 22nd, 23rd Federation Kingsdown (1972 birds),10th, 14th, 15th, 23rd Federation Exeter (1389 birds), 2nd, 14th Federation Yelverton (1409 birds) and won the Federation Young Bird Average.

With us both being Kingston lads, Danny Allison and I must go back well over 30 years to the late 1970’s when we both raced in the Kingston & District HS, which was at that time one of the strongest clubs in the mighty Surrey Federation. Danny was born in to the pigeon racing sport with dad being a fancier and they flew in partnership for many years. They were very successful and when his dad came out of the sport, Danny took over the pigeons at a very young age. He has always raced on the natural system and has won many premier positions in the Federation and Combine through the years; the best being 1st open SMT Combine Bergerac (450 miles). In recent years he has been in partnership with Dennis Sheppard and Martin Penfold, both premier fancier in the Surrey area, but three years ago he decided to go it alone again and approached Trussler Brothers of West Molesey for some stock birds. Dick and Brian gave him 15 widowhood cocks with their mates and this generous gift by the brother is the base of Danny’s very successful team today. Danny told me that he is very grateful to Trussler Brothers, who have also given him other good stock pigeons and never charged him a penny! He calls them the ‘Godfathers’ of pigeon racing and says they are two brilliant blokes. Danny also told me they have been so generous with gift pigeons and advice, he owes much of his good success to them! I have know Dick and Brian since I started up in the sport, 40 years ago, and they were one of best lofts in the south of England then and they are still one of the best today. They must have lost count of the first Federations they have won through the years and have also won 1st open L&SECC and 1st open SMT Combine. Certainly two of the best fancier ever to race in the Surrey area!

Danny has a 30ft three section loft, consisting of 12ft for widowhood cocks, 12ft for the young birds, 6ft for stock pigeons and all clocking is on the ETS system. He tells me, the loft is about ten years old and his son bought it for him on his 50th birthday. The old birds racing team is made up with 20 widowhood cocks, which is a new system for Danny, with 2010 being his first year on it, and these are paired up in early January. The cocks are allowed to rear a youngster and then they go on the system when the female and baby are removed at about 16 days old. The widowhood racers are given training much the same as the young birds, by over a shorter span of time, and are not broken down at any time of the week, being fed on a good Widowhood mixture. Danny told me although he enjoys racing his old birds in the Federation; he has most of his success with the young birds and really enjoys racing his babies best.

The Allison loft houses 15 pairs of stock birds all Janssen based and all obtained from Trussler Brothers of West Molesey. The stock loft is paired up in mid November and Danny says he only breeds off the stock birds, with the widowhood team rearing eggs floated out of the stock section. The 15 pairs in the stock section are still the original widowhood pigeons gifted to Danny by Dick and Brian Trussler and are mated every year the same as they were paired in the Trussler loft. When Danny brings in a new stock bird he likes a nice type and good eye, but maintains he doesn’t know any thing about the eyesign theory. He likes to show his birds and has won countless open show over the years.

Congratulation to Danny on his great 2009 young bird season and winning the Three Borders Federation Young Bird Average. I was talking to my good mate, Keith Arnold of Leamington Spa, on the phone this morning and he told me he had just received his new RPRA rings and has decided to double ring his youngsters this year. I asked why is he doing that. His reply was, the new rings have two fins on them to take the ETS chips and if he double rung them, his birds would have four fins and it would make them like a F1 racing car, with good down force and aerodynamic, and it would make them go faster! Just a little reminder that the new London & South East Classic Club telephone number is 01494 786026 and our new secretary, Terri Hoskin, can be reached on that line. That’s it for this week! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.


PAUL SMITH HAPPY TO GET BIRD
By Kevin Francis - Daily Star

SCOUSE bruiser Paul Smith has a real eye for the birds – but his passion won’t see him making the wrong kind of headlines.

Because the birds that the British super-middleweight champ fancies are strictly of the feathered variety.

Smith, 27, is a pigeon breeder and racer and has already won a number of trophies.

He follows in the footsteps of boxing greats Mike Tyson and Marvin Hagler, both of whom bred racing pigeons.

The sport is a welcome distraction from the rigours of the ring.

“It’s good to have something to take my mind off boxing,” he said.

Smith is gearing up to make the first defence of his title against local rival Tony Dodson next Friday at the Liverpool Echo Arena – live on Sky Sports 1.

And he added: “Pigeon racing is normally associated with pensioners, but it is actually very exciting and a lot of young lads are involved round here.

“Footballer Duncan Ferguson was really into it when he lived in Liverpool while playing for Everton – and the guy he raced with has been a big help to me.

“I’ve won three races so far, a good achievement for someone who is just starting out, and I’ve got about 200 birds.

“They get taken to different parts of the country, often down to the South Coast, and then released and race back home to Liverpool.

“Boxing trainer Bobby Rimmer got me interested and now I’ve got a shed in my back garden where I keep my pigeons.

“The prize money isn’t that great, but ultimately I have got my sights set on the world’s biggest competition which takes place in South Africa. If you win that, you get a million dollars.

“I could enter that tournament if I wanted to, but you need to breed a really good pigeon to win it.

“When I’m a world champion and get paid hundreds of thousands I might invest some of the money in pigeons and try and come out on top!

“To be a world champion in both sports would be something pretty special – but first I’ve got to give Dodson the bird next Friday!”

The Echo Arena bill is headlined by the Smith-Dodson fight. Chief support is Kell Brook’s challenge for the WBO Intercontinental title – and eliminator for the WBO world welterweight title – against Poland’s Krzysztof Bienias.

Liverpool’s Tony Bellew challenges for the vacant Commonwealth light-heavyweight title against Ghana’s unbeaten Atoli Moore.

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