THE name of Kevin Lawson will live for ever as one of the legends of north road racing after his second win of the season when he topped the North Road Championship Club race from Fraserburgh on Saturday.
It was his sixth NRCC open win, passing the record of five old bird wins shared briefly with the late, great former club President, John Lovell, and equalling the six titles held by another legend of the sport, Frank Tasker. Indeed, the Ollerton ace will have edged to an all-time record of seven wins if his success in the Perth Yearling Classic by his open Perth winner is also included in the honours list.
After his two-year break from competitive flying, the 50-year-old Kevin has stormed back with a bang this season with an outstanding team of privately trained yearlings.
He had a good Dunbar race with his inexperienced pigeons, although some would say somewhat modest by his standards, before taking the Perth race by storm, both in winning it and placing several pigeons among the early results.
And now he has produced another gem of a performance to be a clear winner of the Fraserburgh race with a pigeon that was second open NRCC from Perth when it could so easily have been timed to win that race as it came together with its winning loftmate.
Perhaps a blessing for both bird and fancier because, had it won from Perth, it would not have been sent to Fraserburgh.
Now Skylight, as Saturday's winner has been named, will go into the stock loft with a first and a second open NRCC to its credit from the only three races of its life. He will join Betty's Boy - named after Kevin's mum who died sadly on the day following his Perth win - on breeding duties. Betty's Boy has to his credit one open NRCC win (Perth) in the only race of his career.
NRCC chairman Brian Garnham, who verified the Fraserburgh winner, this week joined in the praise of Kevin for his performances this season, following on from where he left off two years ago.
Said Brian: "This is a brilliant performance by an excellent fancier. It is a super pigeon prepared by a man on top of his job.
"Kevin has a very nice set-up and the pigeons are obviously happy in their environment."
It may be good news for other members of the NRCC - although not for those who want to compete against the very best - but this will be Kevin's last race of the season. He thinks his team of yearlings have had enough and they will be left to rest until next year, enjoying the privilege of being paired up for a few weeks.
The rest from racing will give time to prepare the team of youngsters for the next onslaught, not in this year's young bird racing, but in backing up a team of two-year-olds next year. Kevin Lawson with yearlings and two-year-olds to race? The mind boggles! But the really competitive fanciers in the NRCC, and there are many of them, will be looking forward to the challenge and Kevin is well aware of the expectations resting on him. He constantly raises the bar, not only for other competitors but also for himself.
He sent a team of 55 on Saturday but Skylight was out on his own to finish some 20 yards a minute in front of the second pigeon in the provisional result, 13 minutes or so in front of the nearest neighbouring pigeon and 17 minutes before his next loftmate. All of which suggests that he must have broken away from the early leaders of the near 3,000 entry sent by 300 members and flown for many miles on his own.
"We could see him a 100 yards away," said Kevin. "He never broke flight. It is the best I have ever seen. He went straight into the loft. His hen was there but he went into the wrong nest box. He was a bit fidgety but David, who was in the shed waiting, timed him in."
Kevin reckons his pigeons trap so well because they are not handled frequently. They are driven into crates prior to training.
Skylight was certainly bred for the job, his mother being Twilight who won second and third open Lerwick NRCC, and his father a SoontjenxVan Loon cock bird that has bred four pigeons to take second open NRCC. Kevin said Twilight used to finish her races "like a train." Like mother, like son.
The Fraserburgh team, which then came like an avalanche after the second arrival, had not been trained since the Perth race, but had been prepared for the season by a series of private training tosses and being released alongside local Federations on race day. They had also been privately trained as young birds, a policy which Kevin will adopt again prior to next year's NRCC programme well aware, he says, that he will have to try even harder to keep up to expectations and to fend off the challenge in an organisation where he believes the standard of competition is improving every year. In preparing for this season's races he has shown that he is not afraid of hard work.
When pressed to name his best-ever NRCC performance, bearing in mind the array of success from which he has to choose, Kevin believes that Skylight has done as well as any of his predecessors. He said it was a hard race and the wind, west to south-west all day at his location after a release in a light south-east wind, was not favourable, a feeling backed by the fact that most of the early birds were down the east side of the membership area. Add the fact that the pigeon obviously had to fly for a long time on its own, and you have a quite outstanding performance.
Kevin feeds super-widowhood mixture all the time, although he will probably try several brands through the year.
At the Boston marking station they were drooling over the condition of the birds entered by the Mamwell Brothers, and their brother and rival, Richard - both lofts from Louth - and NRCC vice-President, Geoff Clare, predicted that anyone who beat these pigeons would win the race.
Well, that is exactly what did happen. Mamwell Brothers were in second place in the provisional result, and Richard Mamwell third. Some prediction!
It was not an easy race and birds had to work hard against a varying wind, but returns were reported as good and pigeons were verified from all quarters of the membership.
Section winners were: One - Kevin Lawson; Two - Mamwell Brothers; Three - Frank Bristow, Horbling; Four - Terry Winterton, Holbeach; Five - Miss M Judd, Ramsey; Six - R Lakin, Diss; Seven - RW Fox and Justice, Harrow; Eight - E Ball and Son, Ipswich.
The names of previous NRCC winners were littered liberally over the early results.
Kevin Lawson has become the first fancier to win this race twice.
The liberation from this fishing port in the north east of Aberdeenshire was described as brilliant - "as good as any ever seen" - but convoyer Phil Ringe is having to rely on onlookers for this description. As he was busying himself with making sure everything was in order, he never actually saw the birds leave. When he turned round they had gone.
The secret of his success, however, was revealed this week when he talked about his pre-race preparation. Phil reckons that Julie Preston, wife of NRCC President, Bob, is the best cook this side of the Shetland Isles and she makes sure he sets out having had an excellent meal when he stays overnight with the Prestons.
This leaves the intriguing question about what Phil expects at Lerwick. Perhaps he will reveal all after next week's trip to the longest race on the NRCC calendar.
Secretary Steve Spinks is appealing to members to not leave their entries until the last minute, and chairman Brian Garnham believes that members' birds should be well prepared for the ultimate test at Lerwick bearing in mind the less than easy races they have already had.
