Andy Parsons of Salisbury

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1 Andy Parsons of Salisbury Here s the long awaited article on Andy Parsons from Salisbury. I ve had to pester him for it for ages, as Andy isn t very big on self promotion. In fact he is very modest about his achievements. A well known fancier once said to me that Andy is probably the most consistent 500+ mile flyer that hasn t actually won a big one. In this article you will not see half of Andy s 500+ mile performances. The last two seasons from Tarbes Classic he has been 3 rd Open 2009 and 2 nd Open I m sure the big one isn t far away. Well, here it is in Andy s own words. I am 58 years old, married to Janice and have two boys who have no interest in pigeons whatsoever. Living opposite Mervyn and Roy Waters I soon became interested in pigeons and acquired my first birds at 9 years old. At that time or soon after there were boys keeping birds on or near the council estate where I lived, Nigel Rigiani a good friend was one of that number. At the age of 14 I moved to Stratford-Sub-Castle 3 miles away, it must have seemed strange to see 10 or so lads carrying sections of my loft all that way and re-erecting it on the village allotment. When settled, I joined the Salisbury Club. I trained my birds at first by bike and then on the train until Ken & Sue Richardson took me under their wing and helped train my pigeons. I was lucky enough to win 1 st Fed in my first race. I was evicted from the allotment within 18 months! I then raced with Nigel at his dad's farm with no success. After a 3 year break I re-started, Ken Richardson introduced me to Len Smith of Warminster who raced Van Den Broukes, I bought 6 and they did quite well considering my lack of knowledge. In the early 80's Roy and Phillip Waters were winning out of turn with the Verhayes, so I thought I would give them a try. They won straight away and from I was top prize winner in Club and Fed. I also had a few Fred Bloor birds for the longer Club races. One particular hen was a real star winning 2 nd Combine Rennes, 1 st Bergerac, and 6 th, 8 th and 12 th amalgamation. In her final year racing I decided to enter her in the NFC Pau Race, this was a big step for me as I was a Clubman only. The year was 1988, her 1 st race was Club Plymouth, 2 nd race Nantes NFC. This was a hard race, she won 26 th Open, those brilliant flyers Mel & Sue King won the race. I then sent her to Pau and clocked her on the day to win 175 th open. G Burgess of course won the race. The timing of a Day Bird from 550 miles changed my whole outlook on pigeon racing. The middle distance and sprint birds were given to the Pigeon Youth Scheme, leaving me with the few distance birds. It's worth noting that my friends Mike and Nick had daughters off the good hen mentioned which left their mark crossed into

2 their pigeons. In 1989 I met Len Painter at a sale, when I failed to buy his bird at the sale he offered me some late breds, so with my friend Mike Rumbold we visited and took away 7 late breds which we shared. Two years later I sent one of these to Pau Classic where she was 20 th open. Mike had her nest mate which I believe won 13 th Bergerac the same year. I was gifted a hen from Mike s hen to win 10 th & 20 th Pau Classic. I introduced my present family from George Burgess in 1995, mainly from Ann, George s 3 rd open Pau NFC and a few Cannon s Culmer Gold and White Flight lines. As soon as I crossed these they produced good birds, I then introduced a Mick Spencer hen, which again clicked with my birds. Lately I have introduced a few birds from Mark Gilbert which are already a success, again crossed into my own. I tend to inbreed with the Ann pigeons of George Burgess and cross the others into them and if successful put them back to the Burgess pigeons again. I was lucky enough to visit Eric Cannon a number of times, he explained how he produced his top birds. When breeding for stock I like to breed close then out-cross. I have 16 pairs of stock these are mainly retired racers which have flown 500 miles+ 5 or 6 times. I consider breeding the most important part in pigeons, the best birds I have had for breeding are the ones clocked consistently at the distance. Over the last few years the above breeding methods have produced 6 section winners, 15 day birds at 550 miles, and a similar amount in the 1 st hundred in the NFC from 550 miles and many good prizes in the BBC, BICC and CSCFC from 550 to 670 miles. For us in the South we need our birds to be given a chance to fly 500 miles+ on the day, to breed from these enables us to maintain a good family. Pigeons that fly two stints at 250 miles produce the sort of pigeons that can t be relied on, that is why The Classic is so important to us with their early liberation for the longer races i.e. Tarbes to Northern flyers and Palamos to us in the South. I think a liberation around mid-day would be ideal allowing the birds an 8 hour fly on the first day, this will allow them to get up and come again on the second day. I am talking about racing pigeons, not the birds that return 4 to 5 days from 700 miles after liberation. I am only interested in maintaining my family at the distance, which is why I send some of my 2 year olds to the Classic to try and clock on the day, the remainder will go to the National. All my birds 2 years old, or over go to Tarbes or Palamos each year, none are spared. I start with about 80 birds, 40 old birds and around 40 yearlings; I send them celibate and then pair up for the distance, because of the Falcon problem I keep my birds in from September to late March. The birds struggle in the early races but start to come better around early June. I would say my distance team are under, rather than over raced when Tarbes comes around. I d rather they met their Waterloo at 550 miles than at an intermediate prep race. They usually have 2 short channel races in preparation for the distance. Of course there are lots of ways to race and prepare birds but the above suits me. When the birds are re-paired I train once a week usually north or east this enables me to get on the motorway as soon as possible and get as far as possible, but because of the hawk problem I am losing good birds training to prepare for Tarbes. I feed Gerry Plus with added farm beans at times usually in the early races; I use oil seeds just before Tarbes. For new beginners in the sport. Before buying in stock, decide which type of racing you want to compete in, then go to the two most Consistent flyers in your area and if possible purchase late breds. Ideally the people you go

3 to have an established family of birds which have won over many years. Don t bother with the distance if you are not single minded and can t take being beaten in the shorter races, it s not luck that Brian Shepherd, the late Eric Cannon and the Bush family are so consistent at the distance races. There are many Flyers I admire in our sport; usually they are Fanciers who maintain a family of winning pigeons over many years, in my opinion Mel King and Paul Kendall are two of the best. A special mention for three of my Club mates, Mike Rumbold & Nick Smith who are hard to beat at the distance And Mark Gower, one of the best flyers in the South of England. What would you change? I would reduce the National Race programme to 3 races only, I would also like to see our Clubs race up to 250 miles, this I would hope would lead to bigger birdage in the Classics and Nationals for the Longer races. I can t see any point in sending a handful of birds at the distance, it costs too much to send half empty Lorries over to France, and it only serves the people who want to be a big fish in a small pond. It would be better to challenge the top Classic and National flyers. In conclusion a few words on the exploits of the Salisbury boys over the last 2 years at the Tarbes Classics. In those two very hard races all but 2 birds clocked into Salisbury, Mark Pegler s 8 th Open and Nick Smith s 3 rd bird clocked had one thing in common, they all had George Burgess s breeding somewhere in their pedigree. Good Luck to everybody in the distance races. Andy and Jan.

4 1 st Section B 8 th Open NFC San Sebastian 1 st Section 4 th Open BBC Palamos 38 th NFC San Sebastian

5 68 th NFC San Sebastian Dam of 4 birds to finish in top 350 of NFC Tarbes Top 500 mile racer for Andy.

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