Rooted in Poverty

Jack Prescott
(Internet Published) Oct 2000

The Mecca of Tippler flying sport was Sheffield England. It was created in Poverty and extremely hard times. Many men took to Tippler contesting because they could not afford the expenses of the more lucrative sport of racing pigeons.

The only real expense to train and fly a kit of Tipplers is the time and many men of Sheffield, even on the bread line had plenty of that and nothing else. These days of course, men have everything but the time, which is the essential ingredient of Tippler contesting. It is exceedingly difficult to understand that in those "breadline" days in Sheffield, some men lived for their Tipplers and it is remarkable that in extreme poverty men will gamble and compete. I'm saying that the original Tippler sport was based on gambling, competition and poverty. Hard times have always made exceedingly hard men.

Nevertheless, those days are gone and we English have become a race of softies where the criminals have more rights than the victims. There are more evil and wicked men in affluence than there ever were in poverty.

We now get to the basics and we come to Barley - The bread and water diet that will bring Tipplers under control. It is written that any man will work and do as he is told on bread and water, with the odd lash of the proverbial whip. Low diet is a form of control. On the pigeon diet list, Barley is the lowest. In Sheffield, it was the very cheapest of grain and the Sheffield Tipplers had to fly on that in training, or have their necks dislocated, regardless of price or pedigree.

A kit of contesting Tipplers is three, by ruling, so why fly more? The build-up feeds have caused men to argue and fight in the gutters of old Sheffield. Brothers have fought brothers, yet we "Sheffielders" have become more civilised now, or so I am told. But now, in Sheffield, the contest flying Tippler is extinct.

[Internet Published Oct 2000 at http://www.tipplers.com/jack/]