John & Linda Tyerman of Bracklesham Bay.

John & Linda Tyerman of Bracklesham Bay. The highlight of the 2011 racing season for me was to see my good friend, John Tyerman, win the Central Southern Classic Flying Club s longest old bird race from Tarbes. Johnny has not enjoyed good health over the last couple of years, which has created a worrying and distressing time his wife Linda and his family in general. I m happy to say he back in some good form now and as I write this article, John and Linda are off on a five week touring holiday of France and Spain. He has spent a life time working for our sport, most of the time at the detriment of his own pigeons and for Betty and me to see him win the CSCFC blue Riband race in such great style was the great thing this season! I recently asked John about his Tarbes success and he told me, the Tarbes Classic birds were liberated at 07.00hrs into a North West wind and although weather conditions were favourable in France the south coast evening forecast was not good, as a weather front was predicted to move from the Atlantic into the English Channel. This turned out to be the case, with heavy rain, bad light and poor visibility from around 18.00hrs and indeed it was just like a winter evening, certainly not what you would expect in mid-summer. With the adverse weather and poor light I did not think there would be any day pigeons, and as I sat in my conservatory with the rain hitting the windows. I suddenly saw a bird come off the English Channel and land on top of the loft, and realised it was my blue hen. The light was so bad I had to put the loft interior lights on to coax her in and she was timed at 20.25 hrs. She was a bit wet but seemed none the worse for her long fly and was keen to get into her nest box and her mate. My winner was a two year old blue bar hen that was flown on a celibacy system, mainly due to the fact that I had been quite ill and it seemed easier to do this rather than have hens laying all the time. Normally I do fly on the natural system so flying the sexes parted was relatively new to me, but I found they exercised well and seemed much fitter. My winning hen now named "Brackbay Star had been paired in early March and after rearing two youngsters was parted to fly the celibacy system. As a young bird she was not raced, but as a yearling she flew several races north with the Southampton North Road Federation as far as Ripon. Then prior to winning Tarbes she raced Leicester, and was then was turned south across the Channel to Fougeres and Tours. I should explain that my loft is only about 100 metres from the English Channel and normally the bird s dog-leg back along the coast to me, which loses time, but on this occasion she came straight off the sea, when visibility was very poor indeed. Most fanciers don t appreciate how difficult it can be for Channel pigeons, which are often faced with strong winds, heavy seas and poor visibility over the last 100 plus miles from France to the UK mainland, but living close to the sea I often marvel at how they manage to do it. The winning hen is a grand-daughter of my Barcelona Cock who was 5th and 7th BICC Barcelona (661 miles) and also 15th BICC Perpignan International. He in turn is a double grandson of my good hens "Rainbow Lady" and "Dorking Supreme", both outstanding distance pigeons, from my old Carmichael/Kirkpatrick family. There were three other gallant pigeons clocked that night from Tarbes and all flying over 500 miles, so my congratulations to these other fanciers for an outstanding performance on a difficult flying day. John Tyerman and I have been good friends for many years and we have been through several pigeon campaigns together, including serving on the NFC and L&SECC committees and convoying pigeons together. We roomed together when we travelled for the National Flying Club committee meetings and in 2003 we convoyed the

International birds to the waiting train in Belgium, when Brian Sheppard of Trowbridge won the race with his wonderful blue chequer cock, Champion Legend. When the members of the NFC sent their birds to their first International, no one really knew what an outstanding success it would be and that British racing history was in the making. That Dax International marked the start of a new era in British long distance pigeon racing and John and I were very proud to be a part of it. John was a founder member of the London & South East Classic Club and in the early days of the club, he was one of the main workers in making it a success, including convoying the Classic birds out to France on a lorry. In those days John and his wife, Linda, lived in Dorking and he was a member of the famous Dorking Mafia, a band of fancier in the Box Hill area, who supported and worked very hard for the Classic. John was a great committee worker for the L&SECC for many years until he moved to Bracklesham Bay and was the Classic s President for three years. He was on the NFC committee for nine years and is currently a vice president of the BICC. John likes middle and long distance racing and has been very successful in National and Classic race for many years. The Tyerman red chequer Kirkpatrick pigeons have taken the Classics by storm in recent seasons, winning in National races and shows with the same birds. His top pigeon in recent years was the Carmichael red chequer hen, Rainbow Lady, and she died only a few months ago of old age. This great hen was a champion racer and breeder, with her best nest condition for the 550 mile events being the old favourite, sitting 10 day old eggs. She won many premier positions including, 1 st open Bromley Anglo / French De Luz St. Gean (550 miles) Open Race, 1 st Sussex Federation Nantes, 12 th open BICC Dax and scored from Pau and Saintes. Rainbow Lady bred many top racers for John, including being dam of the mealy cock, winner of 43 rd open in the NFC Dax International race and she was grand dam of a cock that won 7 th open BICC Barcelona and 15 th open BICC Perpignan. Another of John s best was the blue hen, Rainbow Blue Lady, and she recorded 8 th section, 22 nd open Fountainhead Dax International, 42 nd open L& SECC Le Mans. Since early childhood in Dumfries, Scotland, all John can remember is being associated with pigeons, but in those days it was fancy breeds that took his eye. His grandfather, the late John McKay, was a well established fancier who kept exhibition homers and these were shown with much success at the large shows throughout the country. Whilst accompanying his grandfather to the shows he was often given pigeons including tumblers, tipplers, rollers and fairy swallows. With fascination he would spend hours just watching the tipplers and rollers in the sky. Being a pigeon fancier, John s grandfather was friendly with many of the Dumfries racing men, one of whom was Andy Wilson, in those days a young man with many National successes. John left Dumfries in 1965 to join the police in the Border country and for the next two years was stationed at Hawick, where he was unable to keep pigeons, but kept in touch by visiting local fanciers. It was here in Hawick that John met George Jackson a fellow police officer whose father and uncle were top National pigeon racers in the Annan area. George and John became firm friends and in 1968 John moved to Earlston on marrying his wife, Linda, and it was not long before permission was sought to erect a pigeon loft in the garden of the county police station. To say the police authority were less than enthusiastic would be true, but what they did not know was that the police clerk of works was

none other than John Robertson on Jedburgh, who was to make SNFC history by becoming a double winner of the SNFC with his Kirkpatrick champions, Double Top and Man Friday. Fate was on John Tyerman s side and John Robertson recommended his application for a loft alongside the police office. At that time John found that a local butcher at Gordon, was no other than Joe Newcombe, one of the famous Newcombe Brothers and the local baker at Lauder was the legendary John Carmichael. John Tyerman became good friends with Joe and John and when the loft was erected, he was given pigeons from the very best. That same year Joe won the SNFC Avranches race with Tabby, a strawberry mealy hen. George Jackson soon followed John Tyerman to Earlston and between them they policed a large rural area in the heart of the Scottish borders. Soon the best pigeons from Annan also arrived at the loft, including a black hen from George Kean. Having pigeons from the Carmichael, Newcombe and Keen bloodlines it was not long before the pigeons started to win prizes for the Tyerman loft. John and George Jackson became pigeon partners. One of their first big races was the Vaux Usher race from Beauvais where 20,000 birds were liberated at 06.00hrs in a light wind. At 16.40hrs John clocked a black Newcombe hen and during the next hour another five Kirkpatrick pigeons were timed in from a distance of 480 miles. A great performance, with the first bird recording 2 nd section, 5 th open into Scotland. The following year three birds were sent to the SNFC Avranches race, which turned out to be a very bad race and after 13 hours on the wing the black Kean hen dropped on the loft in the rain. The partners clocked two of their three entries in two minutes to win 32 nd and 34 th open National. Many other good positions were won and over the next few years more pigeons were added from Joe Newcombe and John Carmichael. Sadly in 1973 John had to part with his pigeons when he was given an appointment with the police in Hong Kong. George kept them going but on his promotion he was moved and the pigeons were disposed of. On John return to the UK in 1977 he settled in Dorking, Surrey, some 25 miles from London and 40 miles from the south coast. A loft was soon erected, and pigeons obtained from good friends Andy Wilson of Dumfries, John Peterson and Kirkpatricks from John Carmichael. In the early 1980 s the Carmichael / Kirkpatricks put up some tremendous performances into Scotland in National racing and the Tyerman s found that the family excelled in long distance events on hard days. John Tyerman s pigeons are a family perfected by the late John Carmichael and he says many fanciers owe their success to this great Scottish champion. The Tyerman loft housed many direct Kirkpatricks from John Carmichael and one of the main direct stock birds was the red chequer cock, Lauderdale John II. This handsome cock was the sire of many top performers and was a son of Carmichael s Lauderdale John, which was four times in the first 100 open in the SNFC results. John and Linda had many successful and happy years living in Dorking but on his retirement from the Police a decision was made to move firstly to Spain and then later to Bracklesham Bay, near Chichester, and they moved there in late 1999. He retired all his top Dorking pigeons and put them to stock at his new address in Bracklesham which ensured no loss of the winning genes. He became a member of both north and south road clubs at Chichester and over the years have found that racing on both routes is good experience for the birds. Like many southern fanciers he is a member of several specialist clubs and his friends in Scotland find it difficult to comprehend

that there are often as many as 40 Channel races available, but John says it certainly sorts out the "wheat from the chaff" and over the years you are left with a fairly consistent family of pigeons that will tackle the last 100 plus miles of sea in even the most difficult conditions similar to the night of my Tarbes win. After moving to Bracklesham Bay he re-established a good team of race birds from his Cannon and Carmichael pigeons and had a few outstanding Gaby Vandenabeele pigeons from his good friend Ian Crammond of the highly success Crammond & Langstaff partnership and they proved good at the shorter races, especially on the north road. In John s garden he has three small timber lofts and a larger 26ft one which faces north. Johnny told me, my pigeon set up is nothing fancy but is suits me and the birds have flown well enough. In the past I have flown natural but this past season tried a form of celibacy/roundabout which proved quite successful. I usually rear around 70 young birds but this year only around half that number due to my health issue. They are trained and some are raced but it does not bother me if they do not go to any races, as I have found as yearlings it makes no difference. All his birds are treated for the usual pigeon diseases and this year he also vaccinated for salmonella/ paratyphoid using the Cheviot vaccine. He firmly believes that preventative treatment for salmonella/paratyphoid is very important as it is the "silent killer of form" in racing pigeons. John knows many fanciers are divided on this issue of treatments, but most of the top fanciers he has spoken to on the Continent all recommend preventative treatment for paratyphoid/salmonella. In 2006 the Tyerman s friends John and Lou McGee stated their intention to move to France, and after a fair bit of research decided on the Nord Pas De Calais region as the area had several thousand fanciers and was good for International racing being about 40 miles from the Belgian border. They found a smallholding in the village of Hernicourt with great views across the Ternoise Valley and as John Tyerman and John McGee had earlier discussed the International racing scene the idea of the "Barcelona Challenge" was formed and in 2007 the first birds were sent from many premier UK and Irish lofts. It was in effect a one-loft race but all races were to be flown in the large Nord Pas De Calais Federation. The McGee / Tyerman plan was to train and race the entries culminating in them being sent as two year olds to the Barcelona International some 625 miles to the lofts in Hernicourt. John sent a team of birds across to John McGee and in 2011 his red Carmichael cock now named Brackbay Barcelona" won the Barcelona Challenge, being timed at 10.23hrs on the second morning from Barcelona flying 625 miles. He in turn is a grandson off John s good hen "Rainbow Lady". He has also been 8 th, 9 th, 11 th, 16 th and 23 rd in the Barcelona Challenge proving to him that his family of long distance pigeons can more than hold their own in the stiffest of competition. Over the years he has won many good positions in distance racing with the NFC and the BICC, but he says, it is fair to say there are often many disappointments and even the best bred pigeons do not guarantee success. It takes time and a lot of patience to build up a consistent long distance family of pigeons. John s management is quite simple with no fads, and most of his birds are raced on the natural system, with a small number of the cocks on widowhood. He pairs performance birds together and quite often selects one or two that he feels would do justice in the show pen. The John Carmichael pigeons are a wonderful type, with brilliant feather quality and the Tyerman loft has won firsts at all the premier UK

shows with them. His feeding consists mainly of a good protein mixture, with vitamins and Aviform used in the water. He maintains the droppings are a sign of the bird s health, and if all is not well, that s where he looks first. Antibiotics are used, but not on a regular basis, as used too often the birds do not build up natural resistance. There you have it, my ol mucker, John Tyerman, an officer and a gentleman! TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.