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IN THE 4 GROUND - RE-VISITED. PART 3.
PETER FIRTH, SILKSWORTH.
By Davey Barkel.
“Fighting Cancer, Flying Pigeons, Peter Firth of Silksworth.”
My third Pigeonland loft visit was again a relatively close trip for me! My club mate Peter Firth who I’ve known for quite some time joined Pigeonland as “Pigeon Pete” a short while back. Peter has been more than a tidy flier in the time I’ve known him, with some cracking performances to his credit, so I thought a loft report here would be of interest.
The Melton Mowbray race is just over, the sun is shining down brightly on Sunderland. As Amanda and myself trek up the bank on the Ski Slope View allotments in Silksworth, I’m smiling to myself having just heard Sunderland are leading 2 - Nil against Burnley at the Stadium of Light! At the top of the bank, the view is one of the best in Sunderland, being able to view quite a large part of it. My beloved Stadium of Light (built on the location of the old Monkwearmouth Colliery) cuts an imposing figure about 3 miles over to the east of the allotments!
Peter has been involved with pigeons since being 4 years of age, his own bloodline coming through the Allen family, noted pigeon people in the north east and beyond! His Grandad “Tot” Allan was the Steward in the Ryhope WMC, and used to take Peter to the lofts of the fanciers there. Peter informed me he used to help out my Dad sometimes as a boy, years before I was born! He even described the massive old fashioned key we used to have for the loft! Blast from the past there alright! “Tot’s” brother Joe, still races actively in the Silksworth Club and I believe he is into his 80’s now! Peter’s Uncle Howard and Aunty Nan had the old Ryhope Poplars Club where the late legendary North East comedian Bobby Thompson made a video of one of his shows! Peter’s late Aunty, Joyce Allen of Dunstable was a top writer in the BHW Gazette. When I had the original RP Column all those years ago, I corresponded with her many many times helping her in a small way to keep in touch with her North Eastern roots. Joyce visited us on a couple of occasions and frequently wrote of her enjoyment of her trips “home.” Happy times, which I enjoy quietly reflecting on in peaceful moments. She was a lovely woman whom I was privileged to have known. Joyce’s husband, Peter’s Uncle Norman still races in Dunstable, in the Pheonix South Road Club. The round currently in Peter’s stock lofts are destined for his uncle Norman, and after seeing the parents, I think he’s going to be one very happy uncle! Norman topped the Fed twice last year with Peter’s “Dibbler” pigeons! More about these shortly!
As Peter grew, he flew in the famous Ryhope “Strag” club where many of today’s local aces cut their teeth! The local young lads would compete against each other, no clocks, just a designated place where you had to run, cycle, hitch a lift, etc to, after you had got your bird. You would arrive at the destination with the rubber off your bird, if you got their first you won, and so on! Pete laughed as he recalled racing on his bicycle against Ian “Nizzy” Naisbett (Small & Naisbett, Silksworth) tearing down Ryhope bank trying to knock each other off their bikes they wanted to win the race that much!
Aged 11, he moved to Silksworth and had his first allotment loft on the top gardens next to what is now the local health centre. He said he fed his birds on hen corn from his uncle who kept hens nearby. At 14, the nomadic Pete moved again, down into the middle Silksworth gardens where he flew with schoolmate Ray Clarke. He says they worked paper rounds, milk rounds, all of the jobs at the pigeon club, they would do anything at all where they could earn a shilling to pay for the birds!
Round about the time all the Colliery’s were being closed, Peter left school and was earning good money as a joiner. His dad like many North East men at the time, was a miner, (he was located at the Monkwearmouth Colliery). He had started to take an interest in Peters birds, mainly due to Peter asking for help while he was now working. With the pit closure looming, he was needing something to do with his time more than his favoured “few pints and a game of dominoes!” It was shortly before the Christmas and his friend requested a shift swap, which he accepted as a favour to his mate. They were changing the coal cutting machine when an accident happened, the machine cutting through a 12” x 12” beam, which then hit Peters Dad, killing him. He was left, a young lad, now the man of the house, the sole bread winner, helping his mum to raise his young sisters. This great loss devastated young Pete, and along with losing his Aunty Joyce, these were the saddest moments in his time racing.
Local ace Teddy Usher took him under his wing, and a new era began for him in pigeons. Teddy Usher is the man who Peter admires in the game because he was an ace fancier and he showed Peter so much with pigeons. He was 16 when he joined forces with Teddy, and this is when he actually started to learn.
Peter and Teddy flew magnificently together, being second top prizewinners in the Fed 5 years on the trot, beaten by different fanciers on each occasion. The same people never beat them twice! It was during this time he had his favourite achievement in racing, putting no less than 9 birds on the North East Counties Fed sheet. This was his best moment during his racing career!
The best bird Peter ever owned was a Dark Chequer Cock he called “Shergar.” A winner of no less than 10 x 1st & 9 x 2nd Clubs, he won the Bird of the Year in Silksworth two years running! He was of Josef Van Den Broucke x Busschaert blood. The Van Den Broucke blood came via a gifted pair from Fred McCluskey. The Busschaert came through the main producer, Peter fondly remembered her ring number, 64L2190, as she was the Dam of his loft. She was responsible for 180 cards in three seasons! She was bred from the Jack Hudson of Murton’s famous “59 pair!” Jack had paid George Busschaert £120 for the pair, IN 1959! The “59 pair” were three years prior to the “Newton Pair!”
“Shergar” was a G/son of the 64L2190!
Peter moved to the Isle of Man after a bitter divorce, and only returned to the North East in 2004. He got straight into the pigeons again and has loved being “home!” His lofts are impressively neat and tidy, and surprisingly deep. I likened them to the “Tardis” of Doctor Who. They look like they are an average loft depth, but inside they are at least three, if not four times as deep as they look! If Peter hadn’t have been there we could have got lost!
The families currently housed here are his old “Dibbler” lines from his uncle Joe. These are Wildemeersch x Soontjens, and have been torturing the competition around our area for years! Others are Lindelauf’s via Foxwood Lofts, responsible for his Mr Farook 4th UNC, and a few Janssen’s. Peter has been able to acquire the parents of a 500 mile SNFC winner. A cracking pair of Vos Janssens!
The team is made up of 14 Widowhood Cocks, 17 pair on Roundabout, and 60 Youngsters, on the Darkening System. When introducing new blood, he looks for quality of feathering, balance, good eyesign. He is always on the look out for weeding out problematic birds. Advice for new starters is to try and get birds from local ace fanciers, the best birds are local ones! He says that there is no magic formula in a bottle, the only magic formula is “HARD WORK!” And whatever happens, win, lose or draw, “ENJOY YOUR PIGEONS!”
The photo shows Peter taken with his good racer “Mr Eltringham.” A beautiful Blue Pied Cock of the “Dibbler” lines. Winner of:
1st Club, 14th UNC Brooklands 31,000 birds.
3rd Club, 90th UNC Brooklands 16,000 birds.
3rd Club, 195th UNC Maidstone 16,000 birds.
Some pigeon, eh!
I asked big Pete for a humorous story, and he reeled off quite a few! Quite a few years ago one of the older fanciers nipped to the toilet in the Comrades club. In walks Teddy, and as the lad starts to pee, Teddy quick as a flash swiped the lads hat and put it through his legs! Before the guy had a chance to know what was going on he was peeing into his own hat!
Another from years back, 1976 actually! Peter had been wanting to try some new blood in the loft, and went to Louella for a direct son of Arjan & Irma. He got what he wanted, but was despondent on the way home. His mate Oaksey asked him what was wrong. “I haven’t got a hen good enough to go with this cock!” was his reply. Oaksey then asked him what he was going to do with the Arjan cock then? Pete‘s response ……..” I‘m gonna sit and look at it!”
Within a short while, the Andre Berte Janssen’s were hitting the big time here in the UK. Pete went and bought a sister to Sheer Elegance to pair to his Arjan Cock. They bred a 74th UNC straight away, and when Pete flew 27th UNC from Oudenaarde with one he rung the guy up to tell him, he couldn‘t believe it as he said, ……... “but they don’t fly the channel!” Good job Peter didn’t tell his Oudenaarde entrant that!
Big Pete has plenty club & Fed turns to his credit, but I will list only a brief overview of his UNC results.
Since returning in 2004:
4th UNC Maidstone. 14th UNC Brooklands. 54th UNC Lillers.
90th UNC Brooklands. 104th UNC Clermont. 104th UNC Folkestone.
Amongst numerous more positions.
From his previous racing career:
6th UNC Beauvais. 12th UNC Bourges. 27th & 49th UNC Beauvais.
27th UNC Melun. 16th UNC Folkestone. 19th UNC Folkestone.
27th UNC Oudenaarde. 19th UNC Folkestone again.
Again, from numerous other positions achieved.
As always when the crack is great, time absolutely flew past, and as always, it was great cracking on about the birds and old times!
For the last five years Peter has been fighting bowel cancer, having had 8 operations in the last five years. This terrible disease recently turned into lymph gland cancer, and has now spread to his lungs. This looks to be Pete’s last season racing, the treatments are taking their toll. I have to say in all honesty, the lad has been through hell and back, and through hell again, numerous times, yet has never bleated on, not once, never felt sorry for himself. He even took the secretary’s job in the club, while fighting this disease, and always has a totally positive outlook on things. The man to me, absolutely oozes class!
Thanks for the hospitality and the time Pete, we really did enjoy it. We genuinely hope that you get put right, and that you are able to continue your efforts racing in the UNC.
I only hope the write up does you justice my friend!
All the best ………
Davey B.............AKA Dicky Darky
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PETER FIRTH, SILKSWORTH.
By Davey Barkel.
“Fighting Cancer, Flying Pigeons, Peter Firth of Silksworth.”
My third Pigeonland loft visit was again a relatively close trip for me! My club mate Peter Firth who I’ve known for quite some time joined Pigeonland as “Pigeon Pete” a short while back. Peter has been more than a tidy flier in the time I’ve known him, with some cracking performances to his credit, so I thought a loft report here would be of interest.
The Melton Mowbray race is just over, the sun is shining down brightly on Sunderland. As Amanda and myself trek up the bank on the Ski Slope View allotments in Silksworth, I’m smiling to myself having just heard Sunderland are leading 2 - Nil against Burnley at the Stadium of Light! At the top of the bank, the view is one of the best in Sunderland, being able to view quite a large part of it. My beloved Stadium of Light (built on the location of the old Monkwearmouth Colliery) cuts an imposing figure about 3 miles over to the east of the allotments!
Peter has been involved with pigeons since being 4 years of age, his own bloodline coming through the Allen family, noted pigeon people in the north east and beyond! His Grandad “Tot” Allan was the Steward in the Ryhope WMC, and used to take Peter to the lofts of the fanciers there. Peter informed me he used to help out my Dad sometimes as a boy, years before I was born! He even described the massive old fashioned key we used to have for the loft! Blast from the past there alright! “Tot’s” brother Joe, still races actively in the Silksworth Club and I believe he is into his 80’s now! Peter’s Uncle Howard and Aunty Nan had the old Ryhope Poplars Club where the late legendary North East comedian Bobby Thompson made a video of one of his shows! Peter’s late Aunty, Joyce Allen of Dunstable was a top writer in the BHW Gazette. When I had the original RP Column all those years ago, I corresponded with her many many times helping her in a small way to keep in touch with her North Eastern roots. Joyce visited us on a couple of occasions and frequently wrote of her enjoyment of her trips “home.” Happy times, which I enjoy quietly reflecting on in peaceful moments. She was a lovely woman whom I was privileged to have known. Joyce’s husband, Peter’s Uncle Norman still races in Dunstable, in the Pheonix South Road Club. The round currently in Peter’s stock lofts are destined for his uncle Norman, and after seeing the parents, I think he’s going to be one very happy uncle! Norman topped the Fed twice last year with Peter’s “Dibbler” pigeons! More about these shortly!
As Peter grew, he flew in the famous Ryhope “Strag” club where many of today’s local aces cut their teeth! The local young lads would compete against each other, no clocks, just a designated place where you had to run, cycle, hitch a lift, etc to, after you had got your bird. You would arrive at the destination with the rubber off your bird, if you got their first you won, and so on! Pete laughed as he recalled racing on his bicycle against Ian “Nizzy” Naisbett (Small & Naisbett, Silksworth) tearing down Ryhope bank trying to knock each other off their bikes they wanted to win the race that much!
Aged 11, he moved to Silksworth and had his first allotment loft on the top gardens next to what is now the local health centre. He said he fed his birds on hen corn from his uncle who kept hens nearby. At 14, the nomadic Pete moved again, down into the middle Silksworth gardens where he flew with schoolmate Ray Clarke. He says they worked paper rounds, milk rounds, all of the jobs at the pigeon club, they would do anything at all where they could earn a shilling to pay for the birds!
Round about the time all the Colliery’s were being closed, Peter left school and was earning good money as a joiner. His dad like many North East men at the time, was a miner, (he was located at the Monkwearmouth Colliery). He had started to take an interest in Peters birds, mainly due to Peter asking for help while he was now working. With the pit closure looming, he was needing something to do with his time more than his favoured “few pints and a game of dominoes!” It was shortly before the Christmas and his friend requested a shift swap, which he accepted as a favour to his mate. They were changing the coal cutting machine when an accident happened, the machine cutting through a 12” x 12” beam, which then hit Peters Dad, killing him. He was left, a young lad, now the man of the house, the sole bread winner, helping his mum to raise his young sisters. This great loss devastated young Pete, and along with losing his Aunty Joyce, these were the saddest moments in his time racing.
Local ace Teddy Usher took him under his wing, and a new era began for him in pigeons. Teddy Usher is the man who Peter admires in the game because he was an ace fancier and he showed Peter so much with pigeons. He was 16 when he joined forces with Teddy, and this is when he actually started to learn.
Peter and Teddy flew magnificently together, being second top prizewinners in the Fed 5 years on the trot, beaten by different fanciers on each occasion. The same people never beat them twice! It was during this time he had his favourite achievement in racing, putting no less than 9 birds on the North East Counties Fed sheet. This was his best moment during his racing career!
The best bird Peter ever owned was a Dark Chequer Cock he called “Shergar.” A winner of no less than 10 x 1st & 9 x 2nd Clubs, he won the Bird of the Year in Silksworth two years running! He was of Josef Van Den Broucke x Busschaert blood. The Van Den Broucke blood came via a gifted pair from Fred McCluskey. The Busschaert came through the main producer, Peter fondly remembered her ring number, 64L2190, as she was the Dam of his loft. She was responsible for 180 cards in three seasons! She was bred from the Jack Hudson of Murton’s famous “59 pair!” Jack had paid George Busschaert £120 for the pair, IN 1959! The “59 pair” were three years prior to the “Newton Pair!”
“Shergar” was a G/son of the 64L2190!
Peter moved to the Isle of Man after a bitter divorce, and only returned to the North East in 2004. He got straight into the pigeons again and has loved being “home!” His lofts are impressively neat and tidy, and surprisingly deep. I likened them to the “Tardis” of Doctor Who. They look like they are an average loft depth, but inside they are at least three, if not four times as deep as they look! If Peter hadn’t have been there we could have got lost!
The families currently housed here are his old “Dibbler” lines from his uncle Joe. These are Wildemeersch x Soontjens, and have been torturing the competition around our area for years! Others are Lindelauf’s via Foxwood Lofts, responsible for his Mr Farook 4th UNC, and a few Janssen’s. Peter has been able to acquire the parents of a 500 mile SNFC winner. A cracking pair of Vos Janssens!
The team is made up of 14 Widowhood Cocks, 17 pair on Roundabout, and 60 Youngsters, on the Darkening System. When introducing new blood, he looks for quality of feathering, balance, good eyesign. He is always on the look out for weeding out problematic birds. Advice for new starters is to try and get birds from local ace fanciers, the best birds are local ones! He says that there is no magic formula in a bottle, the only magic formula is “HARD WORK!” And whatever happens, win, lose or draw, “ENJOY YOUR PIGEONS!”
The photo shows Peter taken with his good racer “Mr Eltringham.” A beautiful Blue Pied Cock of the “Dibbler” lines. Winner of:
1st Club, 14th UNC Brooklands 31,000 birds.
3rd Club, 90th UNC Brooklands 16,000 birds.
3rd Club, 195th UNC Maidstone 16,000 birds.
Some pigeon, eh!
I asked big Pete for a humorous story, and he reeled off quite a few! Quite a few years ago one of the older fanciers nipped to the toilet in the Comrades club. In walks Teddy, and as the lad starts to pee, Teddy quick as a flash swiped the lads hat and put it through his legs! Before the guy had a chance to know what was going on he was peeing into his own hat!
Another from years back, 1976 actually! Peter had been wanting to try some new blood in the loft, and went to Louella for a direct son of Arjan & Irma. He got what he wanted, but was despondent on the way home. His mate Oaksey asked him what was wrong. “I haven’t got a hen good enough to go with this cock!” was his reply. Oaksey then asked him what he was going to do with the Arjan cock then? Pete‘s response ……..” I‘m gonna sit and look at it!”
Within a short while, the Andre Berte Janssen’s were hitting the big time here in the UK. Pete went and bought a sister to Sheer Elegance to pair to his Arjan Cock. They bred a 74th UNC straight away, and when Pete flew 27th UNC from Oudenaarde with one he rung the guy up to tell him, he couldn‘t believe it as he said, ……... “but they don’t fly the channel!” Good job Peter didn’t tell his Oudenaarde entrant that!
Big Pete has plenty club & Fed turns to his credit, but I will list only a brief overview of his UNC results.
Since returning in 2004:
4th UNC Maidstone. 14th UNC Brooklands. 54th UNC Lillers.
90th UNC Brooklands. 104th UNC Clermont. 104th UNC Folkestone.
Amongst numerous more positions.
From his previous racing career:
6th UNC Beauvais. 12th UNC Bourges. 27th & 49th UNC Beauvais.
27th UNC Melun. 16th UNC Folkestone. 19th UNC Folkestone.
27th UNC Oudenaarde. 19th UNC Folkestone again.
Again, from numerous other positions achieved.
As always when the crack is great, time absolutely flew past, and as always, it was great cracking on about the birds and old times!
For the last five years Peter has been fighting bowel cancer, having had 8 operations in the last five years. This terrible disease recently turned into lymph gland cancer, and has now spread to his lungs. This looks to be Pete’s last season racing, the treatments are taking their toll. I have to say in all honesty, the lad has been through hell and back, and through hell again, numerous times, yet has never bleated on, not once, never felt sorry for himself. He even took the secretary’s job in the club, while fighting this disease, and always has a totally positive outlook on things. The man to me, absolutely oozes class!
Thanks for the hospitality and the time Pete, we really did enjoy it. We genuinely hope that you get put right, and that you are able to continue your efforts racing in the UNC.
I only hope the write up does you justice my friend!
All the best ………
Davey B.............AKA Dicky Darky
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