LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL: Councillor’s pigeon plea

Keith Iddon says he fears for the future of the pursuit if more young people are not soon attracted to it.

Membership of the nationwide Royal Pigeon Racing Association has been in decline from a peak of 60,000 members in the late 1980s – and Lancashire is seeing a similar slide in numbers.

County ClIr Iddon was speaking in a personal capacity as he helped to launch the twentieth Golden Ring Spectacular – an annual race from the south coast back to the North West.    He has been racing pigeons since he was just seven years old.

“In the village where I grew up, there were a couple of dozen fanciers – it was a very common hobby in Lancashire back in the day.

“But now there are fewer young people taking it up, which is a shame, because it’s a great sport.   And, unless that changes, the numbers will really start to shrink,” County Cllr Iddon predicts.

He is calling on the county’s schools to foster an interest in pigeon fancying amongst their pupils.   An initiative in East Lancashire has had some success in recent years, but the idea has not taken off in other parts of the county.

According to racing veteran Ian Dagnall, from Tarleton, there would be no shortage of help on offer from the pigeon fancying community if schools wanted to set up their own loft.

“The local amalgamations [groups of clubs which race each other] would, I’m sure, lend the timing facilities and even provide them with some young birds to start them off.

“But it can be an expensive hobby and it’s often thought of as a retired man’s sport, because they have the time to invest,” Ian explains.

That time is needed for training, which gradually builds up the distance that a bird is taken from its base before being released and left to rely on what is thought to be an innate homing instinct – involving magnetic and solar forces – to find its way back.

“About 70 percent is down to the trainer knowing when to increase the range and 30 percent down to the ability of the bird,” reckons Marcin Gorker, whom Ian has helped to prepare 11 birds for the Golden Ring race.

“The health of the pigeon is also vital. They are like people – if you try to do a marathon and you’re not healthy, you’ll be finished after two miles.

“As a trainer, you also get to know each bird and can identify them even though they look the same as each other,” adds Marcin, who says that pigeon racing in his native Poland is more popular among younger generations like his than it is in Lancashire.

After 65 years in pigeon racing, David Pimlott is as captivated by the sport as ever.

“You get a real buzz every time you send the birds away to a race,” he says.

“When you’re sat there at your loft waiting for them to arrive back and then suddenly you see them come in, you can’t get out of your chair quick enough.”

David, from Banks, is one of hundreds of fanciers who flocked from across Lancashire and the North West to Midge Hall near Leyland to register their birds for this year’s Golden Ring Spectacular.

The event saw almost 700 birds dropped off in South Ribble before being transported over 200 miles to Portsmouth to be ‘liberated’ – and fly off to find their own way home.

Because ‘home’ is closer to the start line for some entrants than others, the winner is determined by identifying the bird which achieved the fastest speed over the distance travelled.   If the wind is in their favour, some pigeons can reach speeds of 70mph – and would easily be back in Lancashire before the vehicles which took them to the south coast.

Pigeons are now changing hands for increasingly inflated prices depending on their pedigree – ranging from £50 through into the thousands.   The world’s most expensive pigeon sold for £1.4m earlier this year.

Each bird – barely six months’ old in most cases – holds the keys to cash and kudos for its owner should it be the fastest home.   The total prize pool for the Golden Ring race is around £22,000.

But organiser Alan Bamford says the most important aspect to the event as it enters its third decade is to provide a showcase for the sport.

“The great thing about pigeon racing is that it’s open to anybody – and everybody competes on an equal footing,” Alan explains.

That is not to say the pursuit is without its disappointments – birds can be lost to animal or human prey – or quite simply lost – during both training and races.

But for those who love this 125-year-old sport, attracting more people to its highs and lows would be the biggest coup of all.

AND THE WINNER IS…

Mist and a lack of wind combined to create difficult conditions for this year’s Golden Ring Spectacular.

The victorious bird returned to a loft in Leyland – just a few miles from where all the pigeons were registered for the race – having achieved a speed of 1,400 yards per minute (or 47mph).

Its owner, Paul Johnson, has only recently returned to the pigeon world after a gap of 40 years – because his job meant he did not have the time needed to dedicate to the sport.

The now retied 68-year-old says he is “buzzing” after his win, for which he scooped over £1,400.

“The trophy actually means more than the money,” says Paul, who also paid tribute to the generosity of fellow members of his club in Leyland for donating birds to help him get back into the sport.

A MAN’S GAME?

Female faces were few and far between as fanciers lined up to register their birds for this year’s Golden Ring race.

And while there were tales aplenty of a love of the sport being passed from father to son, one veteran of the game says women are not only welcome – but are sometimes the secret to racing success.

“There are a fair few man and wife partnerships and some blokes will say that if it wasn’t for their other half, their birds would not be as good as they are,” says Ian Dagnall.

“Having two people to share the burden of training is always better than having to do everything yourself.”