The NRCC’s final two calendared races took place on Saturday, September 14th from Dunbar. The young birds were the first to be liberated at 8:15 followed by the old hens at 8:55. The wind was a strong South Westerly one for much of the Northern part of the country although it eased in strength down towards the more Southerly areas of the country. Despite clearing well at the race point it proved to be a difficult race for many a member with some pigeons taking longer than expected to find a line home. This cannot really be said for the winners Pat and Dave Evans who set their stool out for this particular race and on the day of reckoning, showed the other NRCC members a clean pair of heels with a phenomenal race with both their young birds and old hens. The first young bird to drop in for them was on a velocity of 1310, closely followed by the second who dropped in just 12 seconds later with a velocity of 1309, followed in close succession by the next three pigeons taking the first three positions and five out of the top ten in the young bird race! This was also pretty much echoed in the old hen’s race with the first three home dropping in on the same minute within seconds of each other again taking the top three positions with velocities of 1189, 1189 and 1188! It is difficult to comprehend and digest the magnitude of this double whammy achievement and if you ever meet Pat and Dave, you will be immediately humbled by their quietness. Ironically this isn’t the first time they have won both the old hens and young bird races in the NRCC, they also did the double in 2019 and 2021. They also won the old hens in 2022 and the NRCC Thurso in 2023 and the NRCC Arbroath back in 2014. Not only are they great flyers they are also two of the nicest, most unpretentious pigeon people you could wish to meet, who are great ambassadors for the sport and who have no qualms about sharing their routines and methods with you. Neither Dave or pat are from a pigeon fancying background and it wasn’t until they moved to the current address in 1980 that interest in the sport grew and in 1982 the Evans back garden saw the actual start of pigeon racing. Over the years their time and effort dedicated to the sport has clearly paid off and their impressive collection of results can only be attributed to the hours put in by both Dave and Pat, from the initial pairing up and breeding of the stock birds, right the way through to the conditioning and preparation of the race team it is a shared journey that both clearly enjoy being a part of. The structure and preparation for the babies is as follows; Once the babies have been weaned and moved across to their race loft and are just starting to roam, they are put in training crates. After being familiarised with the training crates and seeing the loft from the outside, the training program begins. The first release is done from just across the road from the Evans lofts, in a school carpark, where they are all released together as one batch. They are then gradually moved up the road starting with two, one-mile training tosses which then gradually increase until eventually they are trained up from Laceby, just over 23 miles. In preparation for the old hen’s race, at the end of the old bird race programme all of the cocks are taken out of the race loft leaving just the hens. The loft is in two sections which can be closed off from one another and is the one the babies are also moved into once weaned. With the two sections closed off initially, babies one side, hens the other, Pat and Dave don’t allow them to mix together until the babies are ready for training. The door between the sections is then opened and the birds are then left together throughout the young bird race programme with the hens being trained with the babies. Training locations are from both sides of the Lincolnshire Wolds so, should the wind be in either the East or West, the birds should be familiar with the terrain and be able to get home. The old birds are raced on the natural system with twice weekly training, throughout the race programme, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They are fed a heavier mix at the start of the week then as the week progresses towards race day, the feed is lightened up. Dave and Pat feed Mariman’s with the only additive being a bit of homemade garlic oil on the corn. The birds are communal fed twice daily, half feed in the morning after training/exercising out and again in the afternoon after being let out for a second stretch. There isn’t a big mixture of pigeons in Dave and Pats loft with most of the stock housing lines bred down from Frank Tasker and Guy Evraert from Belgium. The winning old hen is a great, great granddaughter of their 2014 NRCC Arbroath winner ‘Annie’ which they have called ‘Margaret’ after Pat’s mum. The winning young bird is a hen who they have decided to call ‘Lexie Rose’ after their great granddaughter. I must add here that the winning young bird hen is the daughter of the winning old bird hens’ race which makes this double whammy win just that extra bit more remarkable and special. Dave tells me that he isn’t afraid to send winning pigeons back to races as this is the only way to build a winning team, winners breed winners and this just proves the point! Once again, it was a privilege to be welcomed into both their home and loft. Dave and Pat would like to acknowledge the help and advice they received from Carl Upsall who has been a big help and good friend. Well done to Pat and Dave and all that sent and got birds home to take positions in the NRCC. The sections winners will follow this article in due course. The committee would like to express their thanks to Mark Eastman for standing in as convoyer.
Christina the lincolnshirelondoner@gmail.com