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FROM AFRICA TO ACKWORTH
Brian & Mavis Clayburn
The 2009 Sun City Million Race Winners
by Mike Lakin
Brian & Mavis Clayburn
The 2009 Sun City Million Race Winners
by Mike Lakin
When I sat in the Superbowl in Sun City watching the 13th Sun City Million Dollar Race, I with hundreds of other fanciers worldwide witnessed a blue pigeon trap like a good one. Everyone with a blue barred pigeon in the race held their breath for a few seconds, which must have felt like hours. Then a second blue went through the trap.
Suddenly two Union Jacks were emblazed on the giant screen. Not only were Great Britain 1st, but incredibly in 2nd place also, then the name Mr & Mrs Clayburn stood out like a beacon. This really hit home to me as I have known Brian Clayburn for many years, in fact my best pigeons came from Brian’s loft over 20 years ago.
As we Brits danced a jig of delight, I was also chiding myself for not putting a few rand on the Clayburn pigeon which I had noticed as I put my wagers on a couple of my friends entries. I had resisted the temptation purely on the grounds of being too idle to re-write my entry slip.
When I spoke to Brian a minute or so later, I could tell he was also in shock as ‘East of Eden’, his only bird in the race, had made Brian and Mavis over $200,000 the richer. I congratulated Brian and promised to visit him and this is the result of my trip up Ackworth in West Yorkshire.
In the cold light of day, it should have been no real surprise to see Brian and his wife win the most prestigious race in the world because like his bird, Brian Clayburn has the right pedigree. Born and raised in West Yorkshire, I will let Brian explain. “Where I was brought up, there were roughly 80 coal mines and around these collieries were many small towns and villages. Everyone of these villages had at least one and often two pigeon clubs which resulted in up to 50,000 birds competing on a weekly basis flying into this area in several Federations.”
So it is quite clear to see that the competition like the coal which they mined and burned was ‘red hot’. Brian was always a competitive fancier and was always looking for the very best racing bloodlines. He read and he looked and decided that he must visit Belgium, the famous ‘cradle’ of the pigeon sport. Brian made some wise purchases and soon the Clayburn’s were proving hard to beat, so hard in fact that many of the local clubs disbanded and reformed with an altered radius, cutting Brian and Mavis out. This is the price of success. Everyone prefers a loser, exclusion often being the reward of success.
Having had some excellent wins at the middle distance races already, including the Catteralls Nantes race with more than 28,000 birds competing at a distance of 442 miles. With a Delbar pigeon from stock obtained from David McNeilly of Ireland. “Those were good birds,” said Brian, “I bought four pairs and raced seven young ones off them and five topped the Federation! They were good pigeons”. As he thought back in time, Brian continued, “I always liked the pigeon which was later to win the Catterall Classic race and put a marker ring on him and he didn’t disappoint, with his first race he was 3rd Club, 7th Federation. The following week he caught a bad race and the bird failed to come home. The next time I saw him was two days before Christmas as I was bending feeding the birds, he shot over my head right onto a perch. I knew it was him because he still had his rubber and his marker ring on. Goodness knows where he had been but I could see that he had had a good moult and looked well. The next season he won 1st Federation from Leicester as a yearling then amongst other wins, won the Nantes Race – he was a nice Christmas present,” laughed Brian.
As it was obvious that the local clubs did not wish to fly with Mr & Mrs Clayburn, they decided to concentrate on the longer distances into France.
In the ’80s and ’90s, I don’t think anyone visited Belgium more often than Brian. Often accompanied by Les Stuckey and Harry Austerberry, who also enjoyed the fruits of Brian’s studies and labours. Many readers will probably not know it but Brian Clayburn was the first British fancier to visit and purchase birds from a man who has gone on to become a worldwide legend. That man was Jos Soontjen. I asked Brian how he came across Jos, “Well I studied the Belgian papers and kept reading about a J Soontjen, who was winning out of his turn in the Sunday morning races. So I managed to contact him to arrange a visit.
The day before I was at the loft of William Geerts, who at the time was murdering the Antwerp Union and who I had become a good friend of and I got some fine birds off over the years. William asked me who else I was planning to see? Now I was a little hesitant to tell him because often in the past he had asked me why I wasted my time and money on birds that were not as good as his? On this occasion he said ‘you must go there, he has super birds!’ I was a little surprised and William then told me a story. ‘Not so long ago after hearing about Soontjens results,
I drove over to a port which overlooked Soontjen’s loft one Sunday morning. There was a race with 2,800 entries, so I sat and waited to see for myself these Soontjen pigeons come home. Suddenly five birds came racing up as Soontjen was sitting rolling himself a cigarette. All five dived into the loft and do you know what Soontjen did?’
Suddenly two Union Jacks were emblazed on the giant screen. Not only were Great Britain 1st, but incredibly in 2nd place also, then the name Mr & Mrs Clayburn stood out like a beacon. This really hit home to me as I have known Brian Clayburn for many years, in fact my best pigeons came from Brian’s loft over 20 years ago.
As we Brits danced a jig of delight, I was also chiding myself for not putting a few rand on the Clayburn pigeon which I had noticed as I put my wagers on a couple of my friends entries. I had resisted the temptation purely on the grounds of being too idle to re-write my entry slip.
When I spoke to Brian a minute or so later, I could tell he was also in shock as ‘East of Eden’, his only bird in the race, had made Brian and Mavis over $200,000 the richer. I congratulated Brian and promised to visit him and this is the result of my trip up Ackworth in West Yorkshire.
In the cold light of day, it should have been no real surprise to see Brian and his wife win the most prestigious race in the world because like his bird, Brian Clayburn has the right pedigree. Born and raised in West Yorkshire, I will let Brian explain. “Where I was brought up, there were roughly 80 coal mines and around these collieries were many small towns and villages. Everyone of these villages had at least one and often two pigeon clubs which resulted in up to 50,000 birds competing on a weekly basis flying into this area in several Federations.”
So it is quite clear to see that the competition like the coal which they mined and burned was ‘red hot’. Brian was always a competitive fancier and was always looking for the very best racing bloodlines. He read and he looked and decided that he must visit Belgium, the famous ‘cradle’ of the pigeon sport. Brian made some wise purchases and soon the Clayburn’s were proving hard to beat, so hard in fact that many of the local clubs disbanded and reformed with an altered radius, cutting Brian and Mavis out. This is the price of success. Everyone prefers a loser, exclusion often being the reward of success.
Having had some excellent wins at the middle distance races already, including the Catteralls Nantes race with more than 28,000 birds competing at a distance of 442 miles. With a Delbar pigeon from stock obtained from David McNeilly of Ireland. “Those were good birds,” said Brian, “I bought four pairs and raced seven young ones off them and five topped the Federation! They were good pigeons”. As he thought back in time, Brian continued, “I always liked the pigeon which was later to win the Catterall Classic race and put a marker ring on him and he didn’t disappoint, with his first race he was 3rd Club, 7th Federation. The following week he caught a bad race and the bird failed to come home. The next time I saw him was two days before Christmas as I was bending feeding the birds, he shot over my head right onto a perch. I knew it was him because he still had his rubber and his marker ring on. Goodness knows where he had been but I could see that he had had a good moult and looked well. The next season he won 1st Federation from Leicester as a yearling then amongst other wins, won the Nantes Race – he was a nice Christmas present,” laughed Brian.
As it was obvious that the local clubs did not wish to fly with Mr & Mrs Clayburn, they decided to concentrate on the longer distances into France.
In the ’80s and ’90s, I don’t think anyone visited Belgium more often than Brian. Often accompanied by Les Stuckey and Harry Austerberry, who also enjoyed the fruits of Brian’s studies and labours. Many readers will probably not know it but Brian Clayburn was the first British fancier to visit and purchase birds from a man who has gone on to become a worldwide legend. That man was Jos Soontjen. I asked Brian how he came across Jos, “Well I studied the Belgian papers and kept reading about a J Soontjen, who was winning out of his turn in the Sunday morning races. So I managed to contact him to arrange a visit.
The day before I was at the loft of William Geerts, who at the time was murdering the Antwerp Union and who I had become a good friend of and I got some fine birds off over the years. William asked me who else I was planning to see? Now I was a little hesitant to tell him because often in the past he had asked me why I wasted my time and money on birds that were not as good as his? On this occasion he said ‘you must go there, he has super birds!’ I was a little surprised and William then told me a story. ‘Not so long ago after hearing about Soontjens results,
I drove over to a port which overlooked Soontjen’s loft one Sunday morning. There was a race with 2,800 entries, so I sat and waited to see for myself these Soontjen pigeons come home. Suddenly five birds came racing up as Soontjen was sitting rolling himself a cigarette. All five dived into the loft and do you know what Soontjen did?’
