A bad day with three Black hens

Jack Prescott
(Internet Published) August 2002

I very well remember when I was informed that I had to go over to Catcliffe, which is a small village 5 miles from what was then a hot bed area in the East of Sheffield, but not under the administration of the National Tippler Union of Great Britain.

Such local contests were always flown on Sundays. My assignment was to go and time/judge and referee for a certain Mr John George Hague. I objected and said, “why select me?” Then spoke president, Ben Stamp – “Jack, you must go, you have a bicycle and are quite able to get there and no one else has any transport. Apart from that Jack, you would be doing me a great favour and you would be encouraging interest from new members out there in Catcliffe and Treeton. I therefore touched my cap peak and said “Aye aye!”

I arrived half an hour before the official time release, took note of the rings, had a pot of tea and released the kit of three black hens of Sheffield type at 5am (nice birds). The day went by with the hens making appearances well within the 1 hour allowance for absences. The style of flying indicated no suspicion of defecting or dropping, although the kit did fly at tree top level at times and disappeared for about 20 minutes, returning at the same altitude. The entire fly was conducted in close and steady formation, typical of the Sheffield type. Quite monotonous, but nevertheless a style that has won many contests. In fact these birds were called flying machines.

At 7 hours 20 minutes, one hen broke kit and showed signs of instability in the failing light, whereupon the owner said “that’s it Jack”, switched on his loft top lighting and threw three white fantails out of a cardboard which was on a table in the yard. The time was then 17 hours 22 minutes. The fantails flew to the loft top 25 yards away. Within 10 minutes all three tippler hens were down to join these droppers and were then soon inside.

As I checked the ring numbers I also noticed that the hens all had some feed in their crops - Certainly not the few grains of trapping seed just given. I told the owner and said, “These hens have been down somewhere”. The owner then flew in to a rage saying that no one else would be subjected to a forensic test and that the kit had not been seen going down. I said “Mr, calm down, I am not about to disqualify you because I have not seen the kit going down even though I have been very mobile today”. The owner apologised to me for his rudeness.

We signed up for 17 hours 22 minutes and I was very pleased to learn that this owner was 5th in the contest and not the winner. This fellow quit the sport soon after and I never mentioned this episode to anyone until this day. Sometimes I do wonder what really expert examination of feet and nails would reveal after a compulsory washing of feet before each fly…

[Internet Published August 2002 at http://www.tipplers.com/jack/]