Yep.
Breeding for the future.
They were (and are) a good pigeon. Racing them was exciting
When sprinting I had line of flight contacts in our Fed who were 40 ml, 30 ml, 20 ml and 10 miles short of me. All good fliers in our Fed. Guys who were going to appear high in the Fed each time. As they timed in they'd call me. One thing people don't mess with me with is velocities. It's easy these days, you just open an app and in seconds its done for you - but I was a walking talking velocity calculator. No one argued with me. By the time the birds were within a mile or two of me I knew to the very second what time I had to be on - I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. To me, that was racing you see, that good my blood pumping. That was my excitement. I can appreciate (like Dad) he likes to sit there and wait all day for a bird on the day. It never got my juices flowing really. Even on the rare occasions that I sent to the distance and did well I can't say the joy was greater because to me it wasn't
The point of the thread is "Breeding for the Future" so follow this thread. You end up at "Champion Eddy". He was one of an army of very good brothers and sisters.
"Bobby Dazzler" was bred by me in 2006. She won the NMCC Yelverton by 9 min 59 secs. She was bred direct from "Gareth Gates" (bought in 2001 and Region Award Winner) when paired to No.1 Hen "Pale Rider" (Bought in 1998)
"Bobby Dazzler" was mated to "The Assassin" (bought in 2000).
That mating produced the 2007 hen "Megs"
It was "Megs" when mated to "Mansell" (the nest-brother of "Pale Rider") that bred "Champion Eddy"
This family is easily traceable back to the 1990's as you can see. The Dad of "Champion Eddy" was mated onto the Double G.Daughter of "Willenhall Warrior" of Lee Painter's to breed "Eddy". "Willenhall Warrior" is basically a Cattrysse pigeon
In 2022 Phil won Bird of the Year with "Mr Fahrenheit" who's Dad is brother of "Champion Eddy"
In 2023 he won the same thing with "Thiago" who's Dad is a different brother of "Eddy"
In 2023 a nestpair of hens were 1st and 2nd Fed for Phil by a clear minute. Their Dad? A different brother of "Eddy" yet again
So, as you can see, the initial purchases made over 25 years ago are still going strong. Every year I "looked" to introduce. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. It all depended, What I invariably did do though was to introduce the new stuff onto the garden as YB and race them thoroughly. Nothing got into the Stock Shed without it being a multi-performer. Getting a pigeon to win is nice, getting em to win and achieve outstanding results regularly is even better.... "The Assassin", "Gareth Gates" and "Bobby Dazzler" were all multi-performers. I would rank all 3 in the top 7-8 pigeons I ever had.
Like I always say, race em, test em, find the elite and build around them.
Birds that produced 1 winner every 4 rounds were of no interest to me, I wanted a far better strike rate than that and my best birds (like Pale Rider) offered me just that.
When sprinting I had line of flight contacts in our Fed who were 40 ml, 30 ml, 20 ml and 10 miles short of me. All good fliers in our Fed. Guys who were going to appear high in the Fed each time. As they timed in they'd call me. One thing people don't mess with me with is velocities. It's easy these days, you just open an app and in seconds its done for you - but I was a walking talking velocity calculator. No one argued with me. By the time the birds were within a mile or two of me I knew to the very second what time I had to be on - I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. To me, that was racing you see, that good my blood pumping. That was my excitement. I can appreciate (like Dad) he likes to sit there and wait all day for a bird on the day. It never got my juices flowing really. Even on the rare occasions that I sent to the distance and did well I can't say the joy was greater because to me it wasn't
The point of the thread is "Breeding for the Future" so follow this thread. You end up at "Champion Eddy". He was one of an army of very good brothers and sisters.
"Bobby Dazzler" was bred by me in 2006. She won the NMCC Yelverton by 9 min 59 secs. She was bred direct from "Gareth Gates" (bought in 2001 and Region Award Winner) when paired to No.1 Hen "Pale Rider" (Bought in 1998)
"Bobby Dazzler" was mated to "The Assassin" (bought in 2000).
That mating produced the 2007 hen "Megs"
It was "Megs" when mated to "Mansell" (the nest-brother of "Pale Rider") that bred "Champion Eddy"
This family is easily traceable back to the 1990's as you can see. The Dad of "Champion Eddy" was mated onto the Double G.Daughter of "Willenhall Warrior" of Lee Painter's to breed "Eddy". "Willenhall Warrior" is basically a Cattrysse pigeon
In 2022 Phil won Bird of the Year with "Mr Fahrenheit" who's Dad is brother of "Champion Eddy"
In 2023 he won the same thing with "Thiago" who's Dad is a different brother of "Eddy"
In 2023 a nestpair of hens were 1st and 2nd Fed for Phil by a clear minute. Their Dad? A different brother of "Eddy" yet again
So, as you can see, the initial purchases made over 25 years ago are still going strong. Every year I "looked" to introduce. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. It all depended, What I invariably did do though was to introduce the new stuff onto the garden as YB and race them thoroughly. Nothing got into the Stock Shed without it being a multi-performer. Getting a pigeon to win is nice, getting em to win and achieve outstanding results regularly is even better.... "The Assassin", "Gareth Gates" and "Bobby Dazzler" were all multi-performers. I would rank all 3 in the top 7-8 pigeons I ever had.
Like I always say, race em, test em, find the elite and build around them.
Birds that produced 1 winner every 4 rounds were of no interest to me, I wanted a far better strike rate than that and my best birds (like Pale Rider) offered me just that.
Here's an interesting report (to me at least) from back in 2007
It features (to my mind) one of my best performances and supports the "always look to introduce" theory
In this race we entered 3 birds. 3 yes but to my mind it was actually 2 because the one cock had had a bump and was returning to the race basket after 5 weeks out. He was short of fitness and needed the graft to bring him on, so he was never gonna contend really.
The other 2 cocks were "Jack Flash" and "Merlin"
"Jack Flash" topped the Fed against 1,462 birds that day
He and "Merlin" came together and trapped together - "Merlin" was 3rd Fed.
Had there been ETS back then we'd have been 1,2 Fed but the cocks raced to different Sections at opposite ends of the garden so I timed one then had to run to the other.
"Jack Flash" was bred by Jack Walker of Cannock. Without doubt "Jack Flash" was THE No.1 trapper I ever had. Even as he was going through the door he was still folded up like a bullet.
Because of the success of "Gareth Gates" being the Worcester Fed Champion and Region Award winner in 2003 I went and got another nestpair out of Gareth's Dad in 2004. This time the Dad "Westkapelle" had been mated to "Band of Gold" who went onto become the No.1 hen for Mark Evans.
The resulting nestpair were "Merlin" and "Mr Incredible" - both good cocks ("Merlin" was the better one).
Point is, both "Merlin" and "Mr Incredible" were purchased and raced. Nothing goes to Stock that easy
https://www.elimarpigeons.com/articles/ ... 8-p-w12607
It features (to my mind) one of my best performances and supports the "always look to introduce" theory
In this race we entered 3 birds. 3 yes but to my mind it was actually 2 because the one cock had had a bump and was returning to the race basket after 5 weeks out. He was short of fitness and needed the graft to bring him on, so he was never gonna contend really.
The other 2 cocks were "Jack Flash" and "Merlin"
"Jack Flash" topped the Fed against 1,462 birds that day
He and "Merlin" came together and trapped together - "Merlin" was 3rd Fed.
Had there been ETS back then we'd have been 1,2 Fed but the cocks raced to different Sections at opposite ends of the garden so I timed one then had to run to the other.
"Jack Flash" was bred by Jack Walker of Cannock. Without doubt "Jack Flash" was THE No.1 trapper I ever had. Even as he was going through the door he was still folded up like a bullet.
Because of the success of "Gareth Gates" being the Worcester Fed Champion and Region Award winner in 2003 I went and got another nestpair out of Gareth's Dad in 2004. This time the Dad "Westkapelle" had been mated to "Band of Gold" who went onto become the No.1 hen for Mark Evans.
The resulting nestpair were "Merlin" and "Mr Incredible" - both good cocks ("Merlin" was the better one).
Point is, both "Merlin" and "Mr Incredible" were purchased and raced. Nothing goes to Stock that easy
https://www.elimarpigeons.com/articles/ ... 8-p-w12607
I forgot about this one
Here's another "Gareth Gates" x "Pale Rider" pigeon
"CHURCHILL". 14A16117
A great racer/breeder
Winner of :
Section F OB of the Year
NIPA OB CHAMPION OF THE YEAR!!
Irish Region RPRA Awards
BEST OLD BIRD PERFORMANCE 2017
BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE 2017
1st Club, 1st Section F, 17th Open NIPA Fermoy 5544 birds
1st Club 1st Section F, 32nd Open NIPA Fermoy 5 Bird 2241 birds
1st Club, 1st Section F, 69th Open NIPA Roscraberry National 5373 birds
2nd Club, 2nd Section F 984 birds Mullingar (beaten by loftmate)
4th Club, 8th Section F 1245 birds Corrins
A pigeon closely related to "CHURCHILL" was the winner of
1st Section, 1st Open NIPA Roscarberry National 2018 for our good friend Ken Armstrong against over 6,000 birds!!
And another "Rider" pigeon
Here's another "Gareth Gates" x "Pale Rider" pigeon
"CHURCHILL". 14A16117
A great racer/breeder
Winner of :
Section F OB of the Year
NIPA OB CHAMPION OF THE YEAR!!
Irish Region RPRA Awards
BEST OLD BIRD PERFORMANCE 2017
BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE 2017
1st Club, 1st Section F, 17th Open NIPA Fermoy 5544 birds
1st Club 1st Section F, 32nd Open NIPA Fermoy 5 Bird 2241 birds
1st Club, 1st Section F, 69th Open NIPA Roscraberry National 5373 birds
2nd Club, 2nd Section F 984 birds Mullingar (beaten by loftmate)
4th Club, 8th Section F 1245 birds Corrins
A pigeon closely related to "CHURCHILL" was the winner of
1st Section, 1st Open NIPA Roscarberry National 2018 for our good friend Ken Armstrong against over 6,000 birds!!
And another "Rider" pigeon
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