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Mark Brown Rings For A Favour
this little tale began on thursday, with a telephone call from Mark Brown nothing unusual in that, as lightning rings most mornings at aboyt 07.00, and we have a chat about the birds and what we are upto on the day, With Mark Living down south in Hungerford, and myself in the NorthWest, and both traviling to work at the same time, it makes the rush hour traffic more bearable, Bit this day we had our early morning chat, when he rings again at lunch time, only this time the opening line is hows my bestest buddy, straight away i new he wanted something, so straight to the point i ask what u want, nothing was the reply, just thought id ring my bestest buddy to see how hes doing, so now i new he wanted something, ok what do u want i ask again, long silence, then he said well i do need a favour, he said can i borrow ur van Sunday as he needs to collect some box perches he had bought, at this point i had to say no, as i would not have the van this weekend, but i did say leave it with me and i would see what i could do. Friday opened with the normal call at 07.00, which last the journey of who ever got to work first, by about 14.00, i found out my van was not required, so i rang Mark told him he could have the van, great he said so how u fixed for driving it lol, i knew i would get roped in some how, ok i said, Little did i know just what id let myself in for. So it was arranged that i would \meet him at his mum and dads in St Helens Bill & Pat at 09.00. Sunday morning.
Sunday morning up bright and early, birds cleaned out and fed, then up to Bill and pats to wait for Mark, Pat as always had the kettle on when i arrived about 0830.while we waited for mark to travel up from Hungerford, i did ring hime about 08.45 asking where he was and that he was going to be late, trust me he said ill be there for 09.00, sure enough mark rolls up a minute late, with his beautiful daughter Mia who was going to stay with nanna and grandad .
I still was not not aware of what i let myself in for even when Pat came out with enough rations to last us a week lol
With the van loaded with the rations for aweek we left St Helens, first port of call was to be Newark Nottinghamshire, mark ahd bought three sets of box perchs on ebay, which is about a two hour drive, and as people know i always get lost, even wuth a sat nav for some reason i dont trust them u think i would have learnt my lesson by now that they know best, anyway this time i took the wrong turning on no less than three occasions, driving conditions weret that good with heavy rain, and the topic was wonder why the boxes were up for sale another fancier calling it aday as he was also selling some widowhood boxes on ebay as well
But that could not have been further from the truth, as we turned into the lane and drove a little while we saw what looked like a pigeonloft, we pulled up at the gate and mark rang the telephone number he had to say we were at the front gate of the Drive
While we waited we could see the stock lofts but couldent really make anything out as they were in the distance at the top of the Garden.
Mrs Asley walked down opened the gates and told us to Drive down, where her Husband Marvin Ashley would meet us, as he as just come out of Hospital and was on Crutches.
I drove the Van upto the main racing lofts which is aprox 50ft in lenght and design by Marvin
Here is a photo of the racing loft
As u can see Marvin as put a lot of thought into this design, at the moment thare are no birds in it, due to hime being in hospital, and the loft is a replacement forr the one that was distroyed in the very strong winds we have just had
The next photo is of Mark talking to Marvin outside the loft
As you can see Marvin is on crutches after his operation, on talking to Marvin we were suprised to learn that he is still a novis with the set up and birds he has, he flies in the Notts and Derby Fed, and that he had been refused in one club even though he is on the west side. The Next photo is of one of his Stock lofts yes i did say one lol
The Birds Marvin Houses are Staff Van Reets, Heesion lines and Marden lines sons, daughters of the originals, he also has bushaerts, and the original redfox Janssens. the last to photos are of his other lofts
As you can see Marvin as a brilliant set up, unfortunatley he was not fit enough to show us his birds, but i dont think it will be too far off before we pay another visit when he is much better and up to it, with the tour of the lofts over, he invited us in for a welcome cup of tea and a quick Chat, Marvin wife as been looking after the pigeons while he was in hospital and from what we could see she as done a first class job with them, while talking to Marvin we found him to be a very Knowledgeable man ambitious and always wanting to learn more, and feel it wont be long before hes on the champions table, after saying are good byes we got back in the van for Stage Three of our epic journey as it was turning out.
Stage Three was a trip to Derby to the racing lofts of Jason Phillips, Here Mark had bought a couple of babies from the Auction Jason had run on behalf of his club to raise funds for the prize fund, this turned out a very good auction in need and Jason should be proud of what he did, and i thinkthe members owe him a pint or two, as clubs need fanciers like him in the clubs, this journey took about an hour and half, it dident help i missed the turning yet again, and when i tried to turn around found the road closed, but we still found a way round it
We arrived At Jason who flies from his back garden this is a very neat set up, we introduced our selfs or should i say Mark introduced me as Mark already knew Jason. We followed through into the Garden where we were should the youngbirds which were a credit to look at, then onto the racing lofts where one by one Jason let us handle his birds, which consisdering they have just finished feeding young birds the condition of them was spot on, the Birds jason houses are the Caesart, Mark had come to collect the two young birds both blues and felt super
With Time getting on and Stage four of our Journey to compete we couldent stay as long as we liked so we said our good byes put the young birds in the Van Just like to say to Jason thanks for making us very welcome and it was nice to put a face to a name.
Stage Four of our Journey was Derby to Hungerford down South, the home of Mark, so we set the sat nav it shoewed an arrival time of 16.50 hours some two and three quator hours away, any way we set of got onto the m1 but the sat nav wanted to direct us to the m6, Mark was having none of it said follow m1 to the m40 will save us half an hour, ok with me being a softie i followed his instructions, guess what, when the sat nav recalculated the time had gone to an ets of 17.40 hours it had\ put time on our journey, so for the next \couple of hours we had a lot of friendley banter about the eta time, in the end we arrive at Marks about 17.00 hours, first thing first was put the kettle on cup of tea then Mark would go and clean the birds out, i did take a photo before he scraped the birds out, but he threaten to do me some serious damage if i put it on. and because i dont like blood espeacialy my own ive left it off lol the the first Phot whis of his stock loft with avary, and young bird loft sorry it looks Dark but by this time the light was fading fast
So that was stage four completed just one mor Stage to do and that was Hungerford Back upto St Helens, so it was one more cup of Tea then hit the road again this time it was marks turn to Drive and me sit in the pasenger seat, the jouney this time no hic \cups and we arrived back in st ahelens Tired and exhausted, More Mia Maks little Girl had been sick think this was down to the excite=ment of sleeping at Nanna Pat and Grandad Bill, also think she missed her dad as well, so it was one last cup of \tea then i headed home to warrington got home at 22.00 hrs, switched loft lights on gave the birds a quick scrape out light feed, fed my self and got to bed at 23.45 , We had a cracking Day long and tiring but we enjoyed it, would just like to say a big thankyou to marvin in Newark, and Jason in Derby for making us welcome and makeing it a smashing day, Mark drove back home today at a nice leisurly pace, thanks a lot mark next time uo need a favour DONT ASK ME lol only joking
Ken
Thanks for the article Ken, enjoyed reading it....
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The N.E.H.U race from Melton Mowbray 21/4/2012 was won by Peel bros of South Shields, they took 1st club 1st fed, also taking 2nd and 4th club and 15 of the 25 birds clocked in the club......well done Peel brothers.
