NRCC Perth
By George Wheatman
THEY raced for more than 300 miles, side by side almost certainly, and at the finishing line there was hardly one extra flap of the wing between them. The athletics equivalent of ducking for the tape decided the North Road Championship Club’s second race of the season from Perth on Sunday.
“Over the moon” after this dramatic photo-finish was the Norwich partnership of Nick Barran and Bob Frew. “Sick as a parrot”, just a few yards away, was their Costessy clubmate, Keith Warnes, left to rue what might have been, in second place but a hairsbreadth away from winning a national.
That honour, after a 70-mile-an-hour-plus epic duel, now goes to two men Keith describes as “two of the nicest in the club.” But could the difference have been that fact that the winner was timed via ETS, while Keith, always opposed to the introduction of electronic timing, was using a T3? He will always argue that it was.
Nick and Bob express sympathy for their clubmate, who was leading the website verifications until the death, but they do know that they have a quality pigeon that has won this most competitive of classics. Bob said: “My only regret is that we had to beat a clubmate, but I have been involved in pigeons for most of my life and this is the best pigeon I have ever had.”
Just how tough it is to win this race is emphasised by the quality of fanciers baying at their heels. The next 12 on the ‘phone-in first-bird verifications have won NRCC races at various times, some of them more than once.
Norwich fanciers had dominated the first race of the season from Dunbar, and there were predictions that this clean sweep could be repeated when the race day produced a strong north-west wind but, in the event, these two were well clear of their Norfolk compatriots, and most of the other early positions were filled by Lincolnshire members of Section Two, including the inimitable Frank Tasker whose friends and family made sure his birds were in the total of 3,969 sent by 372 members, despite the fact that Frank was hospitalised by a stroke days before the race.
This was one of the major talking points at the Boston marking station, with members sending Frank every good wish for a speedy recovery.
Adding more poignancy to this race is the decision of the winning partnership to name their pigeon “Jakes’s Boy” as a heartfelt tribute to the late Jake Cotterill, who won the NRCC Lerwick race in 1991 when competing from Boughton, and from whom Nick and Bob obtained pigeons which have produced this outstanding winner.
Jake, many readers will remember, lost his life in a motorcycle accident a few years ago, but, before that, had also suffered the trauma of losing his daughter in a road traffic accident.
He is remembered by Nick and Bob as an outstanding, genuine fancier and the source of some of their best pigeons.
With some emotion, Nick said: “Jake was a lovely man. He let us have some good pigeons, and said they would do well for us. That has turned out to be true, and naming this pigeon is a sincere tribute to him.”
Nick and Bob join a long line of Costessy club members who have become national champions. Nick can reckon up eight of them, some of whom are still members of the club and keeping everyone else on their toes.
The Barran and Frew partnership has been in existence for about five years. Bob is 55 this year and runs a plumbing company. The race birds are kept at his home. Nick admits to being 43 and has a drains repairs company, and keeps the stock birds at his home.
A race loft has emerged there also this year to enable his eight-year-old son to join the partnership. Typical of eight-year-old boys, however, the interest is beginning to wane a little, but his two-and-a-half-year-old sister is very keen on the pigeons. Young bird racing from Barran and Frew (Loft One) and Barran and Frew (Loft Two) could well develop into interesting competition between Nick and Bob!
The partnership was born when Nick was having problems with sparrowhawks and was on the verge of quitting the sport. At that time Bob was finding that being self employed was a time consuming business.
And the combination has worked a treat.
They have had a lot of success over the years, and have been in particularly good form this season.
The open winner is a five-year-old blue white flighted widowhood cock bird with lots of “previous” to his cv, including three Federation wins, two Section wins, a scuttleful of club cards, and, earlier this year, 104th open from Dunbar.
Although they have bred only a couple of youngsters from him in the past, a daughter has shown considerable promise, and to take more young birds from him will be on the future agenda.
Whether he will race again is still open to debate. Before Sunday’s win he had boosted the partners’ coffers by more than £2,000, so he owes them nothing.
Said Bob:”We are living for the moment right now. It has hardly sunk in. The pigeon will go nowhere unless conditions are right.”
Both agree that he will be prepared for the next NRCC race from Fraserburgh. Whether he will actually be sent is still open for debate. Or he could go to Thurso?
Bob has a good pigeon racing pedigree, and his 87-year-old father, Jock, is still competing with the Norwich and Norfolk club – and still winning. He took the first three places in a club sprint race at the weekend, just the show the “boys” that they are not the only ones who can do it!
Bob’s 14-year-old grandson, Dexter, is now helping out at the club, setting clocks etc, and “shadowing” secretary David Hicks.
Both partners are highly complimentary about the Costessy club and its members, and want to thank them for their support, competition and congratulations. They have had lots of calls but Nick says he is sorry if he has sounded “vague” but the enormity of the success had not registered.
They also wanted to thank NRCC club officials for the great job they do in running this famous club.
These two men have been an absolute delight to talk to, and are great ambassadors for the sport of pigeon racing and, in particular, the North Road Championship Club.
So how does the partnership function? Nick says Bob does 75 per cent of the work, and Bob says that is probably right in the day to day chores as he likes to be around his own garden, but he says Nick’s contribution is a major part of their success because he enjoys talking to fanciers throughout the country, likes the social life of the sport, and is always searching out new ideas.
Anything he discovers and wants to try, they talk about and arrive at a jointly agreed action plan. Both have opinions, but don’t argue over them, and simply work out the best way forward.
“We have had more good times than bad”, said Bob, “but it is often more useful to have a partner’s opinion when things are not going quite right. I think the partnership has been good for both of us.”
Nick says Bob is very methodical, and is the laid back one of the two
They do not race a big team, and started the season with 18 cocks and 15 hens, and, after the weekend when they dropped two, have nine cocks and nine hens to see out the season which, they hope, will see them compete in the remainder of the NRCC programme.
Most of the work with the race birds is done in the morning. Bob says he is up with the sun to exercise the hens, and then the cocks. Usually there is a midweek training toss, but, just to make a change, they missed that prior to Perth, but were flying exceptionally well around home. The young birds are exercised in the early evening.
Runner-up Keith Warnes, aged 53 this year, and 28 years a fancier, admitted to being “as sick as a pig” at being so close to the top honours, but he did not want his own feelings to take anything away from the achievement of the winners, his respected clubmates.
“These were two exceptional pigeons on the day, and I can console myself by thinking there are, really, two new champion pigeons in Norwich. I can’t help thinking, however, about those few seconds that made the difference.
“I am pleased for them, but sorry for myself. Perhaps we should have deadheats in pigeon racing, because this was as near as you could get to a deadheat. The pigeon trapped well.
“One consolation I have is that my bird was beaten by a very good pigeon, and two nice members of my own club.
“But I just can’t help thinking what might have been.”
His pigeon had been a steady performer before, but went to Perth in good condition, and may now face a trip to Fraserburgh.
Keith had been well pleased with his performance from Dunbar when he was third club, 15th section and 27th open.
He is hopeful of being competitive in the remaining NRCC races, particularly Lerwick where he will be sending a six-year-old favourite, Budgie’s Boy, which he reckons is one of the best long distance birds in Norwich. It comes from a swap with the ace fancier, Budgie Crathorne.
Race secretary Ian Bellamy had another busy day as most members verified.
Veteran convoyer, Phil Ringe, came out of retirement to take charge at Perth, to enable Steve Spinks to attend a family wedding, and says it was an easy decision to hold over on Saturday when there was bad weather pretty well all over the country.
But he said members very nearly did not get a race on Sunday, either, because there was rain in front and more coming in from behind. However, with the help of the race adviser, and contacts along the line of flight, he was able to liberate at 8-30am on Sunday.
He did not, however, expect such amazing velocities, as there was hardly any wind at the liberation site. He said the birds cleared immediately.
Phil said he would like to thank all his contacts for their help, and particularly, George and Margaret Anderson, of Perth, for their hospitality over the weekend.
Next NRCC race is from Fraserburgh on June 12th, last date for entries Tuesday June 8th, and marking on Thursday June 10th.