NRCC Thurso 2011
By George Wheatman
John Salt has a fund of stories to tell from more than half a century in the sport of pigeon racing. Now he has another one - about the day he became the winner of the North Road Championship Club’s 34th race from Thurso.
It was a good, proven pigeon that gave him his second NRCC national win. The three-year-old blue widowhood Soontjen cock bird was flying Thurso for the third time, and was a previous Derbyshire North Road Federation topper from a shorter distance.
It has had a busy year, having been sent to every race until a week before NRCC Fraserburgh, when he was given a week’s rest before going to this race which turned out to be a tough test.
And when the winner returned for its Thurso triumph, it came with a vengeance, said John. No messing about, and through the ETS trap in an instance. “It was very hot at that time of the afternoon, and I was dozing off,” he added. “But that soon woke me up. I thought the way he came, and from the time he had done it in, that it could be a good pigeon.
“Then I looked on the website and saw that I was out in front, I could hardly believe it. Then there was the long, anxious wait, wondering if some of the longer flyers would have a better velocity. It turned out to be a good win, and one of the best moments of my pigeon racing career. I think he came home in better condition that he went.”
John does not go so far as to say that it is his best-ever performance in his life of pigeon racing. That accolade goes to when he competed in three different Federations on the same day, sending six birds to each, and winning all three.
And then there was the time, back in 1975, when he won the young bird NRCC national, a tough race this, on a velocity of 975.
“That win was by a mealy cock called Chips,” he recalled. “It was a hard race. I timed another one 35 minutes later and was 20th open with that. I also remember being seventh open in the young bird national with a silver hen that came home with its head all ripped open. I think that was the year Johnny Wallwork, of Grantham, won it.”
The stories of past successes abound. There have been a lot of them over the years and, at one stage or another, John has been top prizewinner in pretty well every club or Federation in which he has competed.
John’s latest win in the top flight, however, comes in a season which did not start too well. In fact, it was probably his worst-ever start to a season.
“I had a bad start to the season,” said the 63-year-old. “I have lost 31 pigeons this year. In the past 30 years I don’t think I have lost that many in total. It was not going very well at all, and I was on the verge of killing the lot that were left.
“I had only had three firsts in the club, and usually I had won much more than that.
“I had a friend round who thought the birds had a respiratory problem. I treated them, but there was no improvement. In the meantime, I was talking to a friend of mine in Wales, and he was having the same problem as me. The one thing we had in common was that we were using the same corn.
“I rang Jef Van Winkel, my friend in Belgium, to seek his advice, and he said he had been offered the same corn but did not take it because he did not think it was the right mixture. There was nothing wrong with the quality of the ingredients, it was just the mixture. He felt it was not made up right. I went back to my old corn and added some maize to it, and things began to improve.”
In fact they improved so much, that he ended his old bird NRCC programme with an impressive win that will live long in the memory.
John does not usually compete from Lerwick, and had nothing to send to Saxa Vord, so Thurso was his last NRCC old bird race of the season.“I don’t like waiting all that time. I lose interest,” he said of the long races.
The partnership name does not include that of John. He just keeps the name of F and T Salt Bros and Son for old time’s sake. It was Fred, his father, and Tom, his uncle, who were the founders of the partnership, but the son was, in fact, John, who started in the sport at the age of six or seven in 1954.
The family then had shops in Bulwell – green grocers and fish and chips – but, when these were sold, John moved to Kimberley.
He is a diehard north road fancier. Having been forced to race from the south once, because his then Federation switched from the north, he did not like it, and was delighted when the Derbyshire North Road Federation was formed to enable him to carry on with his first love – racing from the north.
His present day family stems, in the main, from pigeons he bought direct from Jos Soontjens back in 1989. He bought six, but sold one because he was offered “silly money” for it. That sale paid for the other five, every one of which, said John, bred winners – including Gold Medal winners.
John was keen on eyesign in those days, and he says this helped him choose the birds.
“They were marvellous,” said John. “The last cock bird I killed only a year or so ago. They bred birds to win in club and Federation.”
It was around the time that John made this timely trip to Belgium that Frank Sheader, famous for his stud of Soontjens, was also looking to buy birds from Jos. Now, ironically, John is looking to bring into his loft some of the Sheader Soontjens because, after years of close breeding, he feels that his are beginning to lose size.
John competes in the Kimberley Miners’ Welfare club and, although it is not strong in numbers, it has other talented NRCC competitors among its membership.
He sent six pigeons to Thurso, and had four home, three of them on the day.
Having rubbed shoulders with many of the greats of pigeon racing, including the likes of Louis Masserella and John Lovell, and having travelled to the Continent in pursuit of his hobby, John has many stories to tell about the people he has met.
Today he often seeks advice from Belgian ace, Jef Van Winkel, whom he rates highly, and who he met when trying to do a deal with him over a pigeon at the Blackpool show.
John has competed mainly with widowhood cocks over the years, but has flown some hens this year, and plans to use them even more next year, again tapping into the advice of his Belgian friend on the best way to do this.
Wife Maureen is interested, and is a big help, particularly in trapping the birds after training tosses.
The pigeons he sent to Thurso were all cock birds.
The winner will now go to stock. “I think he has earned his place there,” said John.
John is a great advocate of regularity in his loft management, and he is ruthless in his selection of pigeons to keep. If any pigeon comes back an hour, or more, later than the first arrival at the loft, it receives a black mark. If it does that three times, it no longer has a home with Mr Salt.
He says he has been a member of the NRCC since about 1969, and still gets an immense amount of pleasure from competing against the top fanciers who are also members. Especially this year, of course.
He believes the pigeon should take all the credit for this Thurso win and, to that end, requested that his photograph should not appear in the pigeon papers.
“It is the pigeon that won the race, not me,” he said.
The longer NRCC races have not been easy this season, and this was no exception, but, after a holdover until Sunday, it can be rated a success, with many of the 293 members who sent 2,069 birds verifying and, indeed, having good returns.
The grumpy Weather Gods, however, still had to poke their noses into proceedings, and give some of the longer flying birds a difficult end to the race.
The committee of the NRCC would like to thank Frank Widdison and Chris Sutton for verifying, and photographing the winner. It is the second successive race that they have been called into action, as Section One members took the top honours again.
As usual, however, there were plenty more outstanding performances which deserve mention in a future article.
NRCC Thurso 2011
By George Wheatman
John Salt has a fund of stories to tell from more than half a century in the sport of pigeon racing. Now he has another one - about the day he became the winner of the North Road Championship Club’s 34th race from Thurso.
It was a good, proven pigeon that gave him his second NRCC national win. The three-year-old blue widowhood Soontjen cock bird was flying Thurso for the third time, and was a previous Derbyshire North Road Federation topper from a shorter distance.
It has had a busy year, having been sent to every race until a week before NRCC Fraserburgh, when he was given a week’s rest before going to this race which turned out to be a tough test.
And when the winner returned for its Thurso triumph, it came with a vengeance, said John. No messing about, and through the ETS trap in an instance. “It was very hot at that time of the afternoon, and I was dozing off,” he added. “But that soon woke me up. I thought the way he came, and from the time he had done it in, that it could be a good pigeon.
“Then I looked on the website and saw that I was out in front, I could hardly believe it. Then there was the long, anxious wait, wondering if some of the longer flyers would have a better velocity. It turned out to be a good win, and one of the best moments of my pigeon racing career. I think he came home in better condition that he went.”
John does not go so far as to say that it is his best-ever performance in his life of pigeon racing. That accolade goes to when he competed in three different Federations on the same day, sending six birds to each, and winning all three.
And then there was the time, back in 1975, when he won the young bird NRCC national, a tough race this, on a velocity of 975.
“That win was by a mealy cock called Chips,” he recalled. “It was a hard race. I timed another one 35 minutes later and was 20th open with that. I also remember being seventh open in the young bird national with a silver hen that came home with its head all ripped open. I think that was the year Johnny Wallwork, of Grantham, won it.”
The stories of past successes abound. There have been a lot of them over the years and, at one stage or another, John has been top prizewinner in pretty well every club or Federation in which he has competed.
John’s latest win in the top flight, however, comes in a season which did not start too well. In fact, it was probably his worst-ever start to a season.
“I had a bad start to the season,” said the 63-year-old. “I have lost 31 pigeons this year. In the past 30 years I don’t think I have lost that many in total. It was not going very well at all, and I was on the verge of killing the lot that were left.
“I had only had three firsts in the club, and usually I had won much more than that.
“I had a friend round who thought the birds had a respiratory problem. I treated them, but there was no improvement. In the meantime, I was talking to a friend of mine in Wales, and he was having the same problem as me. The one thing we had in common was that we were using the same corn.
“I rang Jef Van Winkel, my friend in Belgium, to seek his advice, and he said he had been offered the same corn but did not take it because he did not think it was the right mixture. There was nothing wrong with the quality of the ingredients, it was just the mixture. He felt it was not made up right. I went back to my old corn and added some maize to it, and things began to improve.”
In fact they improved so much, that he ended his old bird NRCC programme with an impressive win that will live long in the memory.
John does not usually compete from Lerwick, and had nothing to send to Saxa Vord, so Thurso was his last NRCC old bird race of the season.“I don’t like waiting all that time. I lose interest,” he said of the long races.
The partnership name does not include that of John. He just keeps the name of F and T Salt Bros and Son for old time’s sake. It was Fred, his father, and Tom, his uncle, who were the founders of the partnership, but the son was, in fact, John, who started in the sport at the age of six or seven in 1954.
The family then had shops in Bulwell – green grocers and fish and chips – but, when these were sold, John moved to Kimberley.
He is a diehard north road fancier. Having been forced to race from the south once, because his then Federation switched from the north, he did not like it, and was delighted when the Derbyshire North Road Federation was formed to enable him to carry on with his first love – racing from the north.
His present day family stems, in the main, from pigeons he bought direct from Jos Soontjens back in 1989. He bought six, but sold one because he was offered “silly money” for it. That sale paid for the other five, every one of which, said John, bred winners – including Gold Medal winners.
John was keen on eyesign in those days, and he says this helped him choose the birds.
“They were marvellous,” said John. “The last cock bird I killed only a year or so ago. They bred birds to win in club and Federation.”
It was around the time that John made this timely trip to Belgium that Frank Sheader, famous for his stud of Soontjens, was also looking to buy birds from Jos. Now, ironically, John is looking to bring into his loft some of the Sheader Soontjens because, after years of close breeding, he feels that his are beginning to lose size.
John competes in the Kimberley Miners’ Welfare club and, although it is not strong in numbers, it has other talented NRCC competitors among its membership.
He sent six pigeons to Thurso, and had four home, three of them on the day.
Having rubbed shoulders with many of the greats of pigeon racing, including the likes of Louis Masserella and John Lovell, and having travelled to the Continent in pursuit of his hobby, John has many stories to tell about the people he has met.
Today he often seeks advice from Belgian ace, Jef Van Winkel, whom he rates highly, and who he met when trying to do a deal with him over a pigeon at the Blackpool show.
John has competed mainly with widowhood cocks over the years, but has flown some hens this year, and plans to use them even more next year, again tapping into the advice of his Belgian friend on the best way to do this.
Wife Maureen is interested, and is a big help, particularly in trapping the birds after training tosses.
The pigeons he sent to Thurso were all cock birds.
The winner will now go to stock. “I think he has earned his place there,” said John.
John is a great advocate of regularity in his loft management, and he is ruthless in his selection of pigeons to keep. If any pigeon comes back an hour, or more, later than the first arrival at the loft, it receives a black mark. If it does that three times, it no longer has a home with Mr Salt.
He says he has been a member of the NRCC since about 1969, and still gets an immense amount of pleasure from competing against the top fanciers who are also members. Especially this year, of course.
He believes the pigeon should take all the credit for this Thurso win and, to that end, requested that his photograph should not appear in the pigeon papers.
“It is the pigeon that won the race, not me,” he said.
The longer NRCC races have not been easy this season, and this was no exception, but, after a holdover until Sunday, it can be rated a success, with many of the 293 members who sent 2,069 birds verifying and, indeed, having good returns.
The grumpy Weather Gods, however, still had to poke their noses into proceedings, and give some of the longer flying birds a difficult end to the race.
The committee of the NRCC would like to thank Frank Widdison and Chris Sutton for verifying, and photographing the winner. It is the second successive race that they have been called into action, as Section One members took the top honours again.
As usual, however, there were plenty more outstanding performances which deserve mention in a future article.