Pigeon racing in Ballymoney during the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s

I was a member of Ballymoney HPS from 1963 to 1997, after a break of seven years I joined Rasharkin & District as AC & T Tweed with my wife Anne and son Chris.

My first memory of pigeons was when I was 13 in 1959, and old man called Jonnie came to live in an old run down house near my home. He brought some pigeons with him, he said they were Doofers. He put them in an old lean to shed at the gable of his house. As there were no windows he cut a few lengths of ash out of the hedge to make a frame for a netting wire door. Jonnie had a greyhound bitch and him and I would walk for miles looking for a hare to chase. We would also eye out old houses and sheds where pigeons were staying and we would go back at dark with cycle lamps and catch the fancy coloured ones. I knocked up a rough shed for some of my own, sadly Jonnie passed away September 1961.

I left school at Christmas holidays. I didn’t attend too well for the last three months as I gathered potatoes for two or three farmers, one of the farmers asked me to work for him a few months of 1962. On the 30th July, 1962 I started work in the old Pork Processing Firm in Ballymoney. Little did I know when I walked in the door that morning that this would be my employment for the next 50 years. We left the old building in April 1982 and moved to a new purpose built factory 15 miles away in Cullybackey. This would be me for the next 30 years until my retirement in 2012.

When I started work in Ballymoney in 1962 I was pleased a gentleman called Willie Smyth worked there. He had real racing pigeons and supplied me with pigeons for many years. He had a family of Red and Mealy pigeons, Bricoux and Logans that could race right through to France.

Willie invited me out to his house to see his young birds coming in from Wexford. I enjoyed sitting quietly in the corner of the garden watching them trap into his small young bird loft. Willie told me to get rid of the Doofers and build a wee loft and he would gift me some birds. Late October he told me they were holding a show in the Clubroom and invited me to come and see the show and he would bring a pair for me. He said the Clubroom was down a lane opposite the Tech School. This was where the Secretary Horace Devine lived. More about Horace later. I cycled to the show on a dark October night, down the lane I found the Clubroom. I walked up to the door I could hear voices inside. I didn’t know whether to open the door or not. Then down the lane and out of the darkness appeared a big tall heavy built man, he was a fancier called John Gilmore a local policeman known to all local people as “Big John Gilmore”. John told me when the judges had finished they would switch on the outside light and then we could go in. Soon the light went on and John and I went inside, I can still picture the scene, over at the left hand side on a top pen there was a lovely blood red hen - she had got a VHC card. It was the first one I went to look at. John told me this was a bird of Willie Smyth’s and had said to him earlier he was giving this hen to a young chap, my heart gave a jump. Soon Willie arrived and confirmed this and showed me another gift of a Blue Cheq Cock. I took them home in the saddle bag of my bike. I treasured that VHC card and filled in every detail. The judge was Hugh Montgomery from Coleraine. He was a very posh spoken man known as H.A. Montgomery; he was on the NIPA Committee.

I joined the club to fly young birds in 1963. Back then the birds were transported by rail, they were race marked at a quiet end of the platform. A small table and big wicker hampers bedded with nice pine smelling shavings stayed there during the racing season. Old Sam Graham would sit on the table dangling his legs and working the rubber ringer. He would be smoking his pipe and spitting on the floor.

When the birds would be all rubber ringed and the hampers tied and sealed one of us young boys would be sent to bring round a set of heavy scales to weigh one hamper. Then we would fetch one of the hand carts the porters used, they had long shafts and big wheels. We would load the hampers on and wheel them out to the edge of the platform, about three of us would then wait for the train to come. The rest of the members would head up to the Clubroom at the head of the town to set the clocks. The clock setters were Horace and another member called Willie Neill nickname “Tappy”.

After the train would depart we would rush up to the Clubroom to help with the strike for the first two races. I didn’t have a clock so I had to cycle to use another member’s clock, it was about five miles away and uphill. I was allowed three minutes to the mile. My bike was made up of parts of three or four different bikes with just one gear, not much chance of winning a race.

The third race Horace reached me a wooden case printer clock with a big T shaped key on the top. He said the owner had no birds away and wouldn’t mind me borrowing it. I was so pleased to know my birds would get their right time. For the next few races he lent me a 10 bird toulet, it was for sale but I hadn’t got the money. That Autumn I gathered a lot of potatoes on Saturday’s and bought a used 12 bird toulet for £15.

In the later sixties Horace would become the secretary of the NIPA, an organisation of over 100 clubs all with a lot more members than clubs have now. He also took on the job of INFC secretary, the only man to hold these two jobs at the same time. At the same time he had a full time day job, first in the office of Nestles Milk Processing Plant, when it closed he had no bother getting an office job in Chestnutt’s Animal Feed Mill, not many computers then. I always heard people say, “Horace was a great man with a pen”.

The NIPA erected a large wooden office in his garden just a few yards from our Clubroom. When he came home from his day job every evening and all weekend was spent in that office. He would sit at a big wooden table wearing a headset talking on the phone and working away with a pen at the same time. In the middle of the table there sat a big ashtray about 12 inches square and two inches deep, it always contained a lot of cigarette butts, you see Horace didn’t buy Gallaher Blues in a pack of 20 he bought a carton of 500, the carton always sat beside the big ashtray.

In the later sixties the NIPA changed over to road transporting, it was no problem to the mighty NIPA to put six gleaming new transporters on the road. I well remember seeing the first visit a transporter made to Ballymoney, the first driver was our own member Willie Neill, Willie was an experienced lorry driver. His day job was driving a large flatbed lorry delivering farm machinery. The lorry looked lovely with the photo of a cheq pigeon on the top of the cab. I remember being told the pigeon was called Iron Man raced by that top Ballymena fancier Tommy Harper.

I had reason to call at our Clubroom one Saturday afternoon one week before the first race by road transport, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The Clubroom was stacked from floor to ceiling with rolls of cardboard, this was the cardboard all the clubs would use to line their crates for the full year. Horace, Willie and another member, local Blacksmith Davy McKay were starting to cut all this cardboard to fit the brand new crates. Davy had been tasked to design and build a guillotine to cut with, they had this contraption setup, it had a round bar slightly longer than a roll about two inches thick, they slid a roll onto it just like a toilet roll holder, then pulled the end of the cardboard out to a marker. It was Davy’s job to let the blade come down to chop it to the right length. They tied sheets in bundles of 25. I was told that during the next week the corridor of the transporter would be packed full each day and delivered to all the NIPA Clubs, quite a job. In later years the cardboard was delivered to our clubs in rolls for us to cut ourselves - now it comes already cut.

I wonder has the NIPA committee got a guillotine in the Dromore office? With Horace being NIPA secretary and Willie now driving the transporter we lost our two clock setters. A meeting was called to try and get two volunteers. It was the same back then as it is now, hard to get workers. Eventually Willie Smyth said he would give it a try and asked me if I would help, I was delighted. I had wanted the job but I was young and shy and didn’t put my hand up.

We got a crash course from Horace one Saturday afternoon, what a collection of different clocks, there was 10 bird and 12 bird Toulets, Begigas, Le Continental, Sky Masters, STB, Kovo and metal and wooden cased Benzings and more. A big job as the membership grew bigger and climbed to a peak of 75 members.

Going back to my mentor Willie Smyth, he was a great believer in eye sign theory, he studied pictures, read books on the subject and always seemed to have an old eye glass to hand. He would hand me one bird after another and say, “take a look at that eye”, or “what do you think of that eye”.

After the middle of 1966 I wasn’t interested in pigeon eyes, I had started going out with a pretty 17 year old girl called Anne with lovely red hair, I was more interested in looking into her eyes. I am very pleased to say she is still my rock and we look forward to celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary on the 26th August 2020.

I will end this chapter now but hope to come back with part two consisting of following.

Timing from France 1974,75,76,82,83. Taking my eye off the ball and losing positions, money and losing a Derby by two yards. Also a funny story about the night the 15 bird limit was voted through and a mention of some characters - Sam Graham, Jimmy Kinnaird and Sandy McCaughan.

That’s all for now.

Tommy Tweed

Long Service for Ballymena & Dist partnership

With racing about to restart can I thank all those who supplied text for the various Loft Features over the past number of weeks, anymore which will be returned I will keep until space permits the publication.

For this report I will return to Ballymena & District often referred to as the ‘Big Club’, I suppose that was going back to a time when Ballymena & District HPS had a massive membership, and had many lofts that became household names of the sport.

Robert Service & Son are new members having joined from Harryville where Robert was a long time member and had served as both Secretary and Chairman. Prior to this they had a big family connection with Kells going back many years, going back to when I started the sport in 1971 Tom Service came in and set the clocks for the Derby races, all the old type clocks no ETS then.

This season 2020 Robert will celebrate his first time to be elected Chairman of the Mid Antrim Combine some 20 years ago with just one break of a year when Harryville decided to opt out. When joining Ballymena & Dist he was quickly re-instated to that role and has also been established as Chairman of the club. He is also on the Appeals Committee of the RPRA (Irish Region) and a Committee member of the Irish National Flying Club.

The son of the partnership, Robin, volunteered to cover the role of Treasurer at the club, and being one of the younger members had a leading role with others in getting the club set up to satisfy the new protocol for race marking and clock checking.

LOFT FEATURE

Q1. When started racing, what club and was any family involved? Why did you start in the pigeons and what birds did you start with?

My interest in racing commenced when I joined Kells & District to race with my father and brother.

Q2. What organizations do you fly with currently?

We fly with the Mighty NIPA, Irish National Flying Club and locally with Mid Antrim Combine.

Q3. Your Loft, Structure, length and how many?

Every single bit of space is used in the back garden at our house at Drumtara in the Ballee Estate on the main Antrim Road. Recently modified we have one loft 20ft x 6ft, one 16ft x 6ft and an 18ft x 4ft enough space to house the complete stock kept, stock birds, old bird racers and young bird racers.

Q4. Racing/training methods for old birds and young birds. Do you put YB’s on Darkness System, and what about Old Birds – Widowhood, Roundabout or just Natural?

The old bird team are raced Roundabout while all the young birds race to the perch. We don’t use Darkness System.

Q5. Feeding and systems etc. over the season?

Our main feeding would be Versele Laga, a super mixture.

Q6. Treatments, what and when used? Do you use Vitamins, if so what?

Multi-vitamins usually twice per week.

Q7. Breeding info when done etc? - now that the rings are available before Christmas.

Last week of December every year.

Q8. Birds at stock, strains kept and families etc.?

Around 10 pairs of stock birds, main strains are Jos Soontjens and Janssen.

Q9. Racing results over the years – Club, Sect & Combine and best Open positions with NIPA & INFC?

Our two best results have been in the NIPA Yearling National. In the 2016 season winning 1st Club, 1st Cullybackey Centre, 1st Section B & 7th Open NIPA Yearling Hens National. Two years later the loft scored 1st Club, 1st Mid Antrim Combine, 1st Section B & 6th Open NIPA Yearling Hens National.

Q10. Outstanding racers and stock birds since starting the sport?

Harkness/Busschaert grandson of the famous “Shifty” sire of 11 x 1sts. Blue cock winner of 5 x 1sts plus 1st, 4th and 5th Section B.

Q11. What about cross channel racing both old bird and young bird?

We would be a big supporter of the cross channel racing for both old birds and young birds.

Q12. Any positions held past or present? – Any work covered at the club?

The senior partner Robert as I had mentioned held Chairman at Harryville HPS for several years and for a time was Secretary. He has been involved for a long time with Mid Antrim Combine first elected as Chairman 20 years ago and in the current Chairman in the MAC.

Q13. Special mention of anyone who helped, or influenced you in the sport? Any views for the future?

Just one person, my father the late Bert Service.

Q14. Last but not least your best result, and what was biggest disappointment in the sport?

Winning the NIPA Section B in the Yearling Nationals of 2016 and 2018.

Q15. Anything I missed you would like to mention?

Would love to see more interest in younger members to get involved in the sport in some way, the yearly decrease in the membership is a big concern. Thanks to HOMER for giving us the opportunity to give some details of the R Service & Son partnership in Ballymena.

After the delay due to the shutdown the first race was flown on Monday 8th June having had the restrictions on training lifted a fortnight earlier. It was an eventful weekend of weather having had sunshine and no rain for the best part of eight weeks. After consideration the liberation committee set Monday as the best day to start. Well done to every single club who race marked Sunday with a small team all observing the rules and regulations of the agreed protocol. The NIPA released in Tullamore at 11.45am in full sunshine in a light North wind and the birds cleared very well

2020 season update from Irish Nat FC - On reviewing the current legislation it is still not possible to make plans for the 2020 season. The current legislation in Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland prohibits large gatherings of people. Until this legislation changes we cannot provide any further information on a 2020 race programme. Trevor Topping, INFC Secretary.

Sam Murphy Pigeon Training. Please note - Collection Cullybackey HPS yard 7.15/7.45am, Cromkill 8.00am, Dunsilly Park & Ride 8.15/8.30am. Any other details contact. Sam Murphy Tel: 07714 790516. HOMER training as usual - Collections Danny Dixon 8.15am, Ahoghill Clubrooms 8.45am. Loading at home up to 7.45am, or on return at 9.15am. Please have correct money, any queries text or Phone: 07538 238364.