South Africa won the World Cup, staged in Warwickshire in 2011. It was the third Polocrosse world championship. On the previous two occasions Australia had won, with the UK team coming second in 2007. For more information visit www.polocrosse.org.uk – here you will find information about the UK’s 16 clubs, from Scotland to Devon and from Wales to Kent.
PIGEONS
I end this chapter on my way to see the fastest long distance athletes of them all, those marathon travellers who are involved in one of the oldest sports, and whose place in our history is guaranteed. I am talking about the racing pigeon.
They may be the cousins of the feral mangy-looking ones that we see in towns and cities, which Ken Livingstone once described as rats with wings, but racing pigeons are very different. Many come from a long line of pedigree birds going back over 20 years. They are vaccinated against various diseases and parasites, and dine only at the top bird tables eating the finest food. You may well spot one in your garden at some point and as well as looking smarter, the racing pigeon will have a ring around one of its legs.
If you find one, you are looking at a remarkable bird – one which has made its mark on society throughout history. There is evidence that they were reporters for the ancient Olympics in Greece, flying the results out to the surrounding communities. But it’s their subsequent use in wars that really underlined their heroic status. They were used by the ancient Egyptians in the siege of Rome. A racing pigeon brought news to England of the death of Napoleon after the battle of Waterloo, and over a century later nearly half a million birds served their country in the two world wars. They were a vital part of the war effort.
They had proved so effective at getting messages back home from the trenches in the First World War that at the outbreak of World War Two, some 7,000 of Britain’s pigeon fanciers gave their birds to the military to act as carriers. The National Pigeon Service was formed and as a pigeon fancier himself, my Uncle Don was allowed to stay at home rather than being sent to fight. It was more important that he was supplying and training his pigeons. During the war, pigeon lofts were built at RAF and army bases and nearly a quarter of a million birds were used. All RAF bombers and reconnaissance aircraft carried pigeons in special waterproof baskets, and in case the plane had to ditch into the sea, a message was placed in a container on the pigeon’s leg so it could fly back and report what had happened. Many more were dropped by parachute to help the French, Dutch and Belgian resistance.
The intelligence they ferried back saved thousands of lives at a time when using a radio was far too dangerous. Pigeons themselves though carried a risk. As their reputation spread, being caught with a racing pigeon meant death by German firing squad.
It wasn’t just the British who had cottoned on to their value. The homing pigeon was also used by American, Canadian, and German forces all over the world. And their work didn’t go unrecognised. Animals that served in the war were later awarded the Dickin Medal, commonly known as the Animal Victoria Cross. Horses, dogs and a naval cat were among those to have the medal hanging around their necks, some posthumously, but of all the 53 Dickin medals handed out for animal bravery, 32 of them went to pigeons.
One bird, GI Joe, was awarded the honour for saving over 1,000 Allied soldiers in one move. On 18 October 1943, an American infantry division called for a heavy aerial attack on a town called Colvi Vecchia in Italy. It was occupied by the Germans, or so it was thought. To the Allies’ surprise, the Germans retreated from the town and a British brigade was able to secure the area that day. They would have become the victims of a friendly fire massacre, because radio signals were failing to get through to their base telling the Americans to call off the bombing. So GI Joe was released, with the lives of a whole division resting on his wings. He flew 20 miles in 20 minutes and arrived just as the American planes were on the runway. The mission was aborted.
Another pigeon, Winkie DM, helped rescuers find his stricken crew after their plane had crashed into the sea in 1942. And then there was White Vision. He flew 60 miles over stormy seas from the Hebrides off the north of Scotland, through thick mist and against a vicious headwind. Visibility was no more than a hundred yards for most of the journey and so rescuing her stricken RAF crew would have been impossible without precise information about where they were. Thanks to White Vision struggling against the odds, this crew was also saved. Even more recently, in the Gulf War pigeons were again valuable, because their messages weren’t affected by electronic jamming.
Racing pigeons were already been involved in sport long before the world wars. Long distance racing grew with the spread of the railway system and was officially organised in 1897 with the formation of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. The spread of the railways was important, because one of the ways pigeons find their way home is by recognising landmarks or lines on the ground, be it a railway line or road. That’s not their only talent, because on their own, map reading skill wouldn’t be enough to get them back home during 1,000-mile races.
Research is still being done to pinpoint exactly what it is, but it’s thought they have an inbuilt ability to navigate using the position of the sun in the sky and the earth’s magnetic fields. Some scientific evidence which is being studied by university teams suggests they have a magnetic receptor in their brains. Other research points to them using smell.
After the war, pigeon racing became fashionable, thanks in part to footballers. In the days before they earned huge amounts of money, they would own racing pigeons rather than racehorses. They made the sport popular with the masses. Some involved in football today have maintained their love for the birds. The former England football captain Gerry Francis was one of the big names involved, and he still has a loft. At the time of writing, he is assistant to Tony Pulis at Stoke City.
What attracted the footballers was that the birds were cheap to buy, but were fast and unpredictable to race. What’s more, according to Stewart Wardrop, General Manager of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, you just never know what may happen.
‘You can be a beginner or have a pigeon that has a pedigree you have nurtured for many generations, but everyone has an equal opportunity. No one knows if the weather is going to be right, or if the elements are going to be in your favour. You all have the chance to win the big race.’
Footballers may have moved on to horse racing, but the attraction is still the same. You can still become an owner for ten pounds, and in one race your bird could win you £20,000. You do pay a one-off fee, perhaps in the region of £100, if you want to keep your bird with a manager and trainer at a professional loft. Here it will be trained, and its natural instincts honed. Jeremy Davies is the manager of the One Loft near Malvern, where one of the big annual races is held and where 1,500 pigeons are housed. Jeremy gets birds in when they are around four weeks old. He then provides their health care and gives them the right nutrients and food to help them settle in. They learn to fly around the loft before eventually being taken for their first flight home. To begin with, Jeremy will take them a mile away. Then days later it will be two miles, and then he will release them from five miles and 10 miles, building up gradually to 50 miles. All the time, the birds are programming the map of the ground below into their brains. In races they will often track a road, even to the point of going around the outline of a roundabout in the sky.
‘It’s like managing a racehorse,’ says Jeremy. ‘You have to give them the right diet so they stay really fit and healthy. I take them out to increasing distances to train them so they get to know their way home, but it’s all about them really and their natural ability to read the earth’s magnetic fields and the sun. I make sure they have the right food, and make it nice here for them, so that they want to come home, to the hens and the cocks. These are all motivational factors to make them go that little bit faster. It’s the love of home really.’
Jeremy’s