John’s bird touches down first
Last updated 19:42, Thursday, 01 May 2008
AFTER success on the rugby field and also on the trail field, John Whitehead has reached the top in pigeon racing.
The Ellenborough Flying Club member topped the Derwent Valley Federation from Saturday’s tricky Stafford race when the 1,740 birds were flying back into a wet home county.
He only started racing young birds in 2001 after being forced to cut short his blossoming career as a trail-hound trainer where he enjoyed considerable success.
Earlier in his sporting life he played amateur rugby league for Brookland Rovers and Broughton Moor before turning professional with Workington Town.
He said: “I mostly played for the A team but remember having a match with the first team against Hull KR.
“I’d had pigeons when I was young but I got into hound trailing and did quite well in that but unfortunately I developed arthritis which meant I couldn’t walk my dogs.
“I started with young birds in 2001 and people were very good giving me pigeons. I’ve just built up from there.”
He was clocking at 12.57pm after the 10.35am liberation in a light south wind at Stafford which was almost a mile a minute for the 142-mile trip.
Topping the Federation was a nice tonic for, like a number of other fanciers, he had suffered the previous week in a bad race from Appleton. He lost 15 from that race but on Saturday dropped only two from his entry of 16.
He had been second and third in the Ellenborough club from Appleton and thought his birds were just coming into form.
The winner is a blue yearling cock, raced on the roundabout system, who was scoring for the first time. He was a second round youngster last year and was stopped after racing as far as Stafford.
He’s bred from a cock which is a Staff Van Reet out of pigeons bought by Jackie Musgrave at the sale for the late Alec Cameron. The mother was bred by David Todhunter and Rodney Ismay.
n Results on page 49
