competing. The NFC convoy was
liberated in a north east wind
and after 9 hours 37 minutes on
the wing she was spotted racing
hard over the rooftops. She
folded into the loft, winning
2nd Section E, 4th Open NFC
Saintes, velocity 1158 flying 380
miles.
Before it was sadly disbanded
the wonderful old London
Columbarian Society was one of
the oldest clubs in the pigeon
fraternity and reached one
hundred years of age. Originally
it was formed to create
Wednesday racing for London
area shop keepers and fanciers
who had to work on a Saturday
and was probably the first ever
mid-week club. This old club
had wonderful tradition and
quality, and I’m proud to say I
was Chairman and Press Officer
of it for several seasons in the
mid 1970’s. The London Coly
had a brilliant array of top
quality trophies and cups, and
the ‘The Brooker Gold Cup’ was
originally presented to the
London Columbarium Society by
Mr W. Brooker in the early
1900’s. It was a very valuable
cup, being solid gold and is now
insured for £5,000. When the
Coly disbanded the cup was
presented to the London &
South East Classic Club and
was competed for each season
in the Yearling Derby, and was
won by the first nominated
yearling recording the highest
velocity. Steve Appleby first
won the cup racing on the
South Road from Nantes 279
miles in 1999 and his game pied
cock also recording 12th Open.
In 2006 the race took place
from Morpeth on the North
Road, a distance of 275
miles and Steve was
delighted to win this cup for
the second time. The Brooker
Gold Cup had only been won
three times before by the same
fancier, Steve, Reg & Richard
Maybey and Skeet & Keen, butthe Appleby loft was the only
one to win this coveted award
on the North Road and the
South Road. His Morpeth
yearling chequer hen, ‘Sky
Crusader’, was three weeks
after winning the Gold Cup
turned round and sent on the
South Road as a single entry to
Cholet, again with the L&SECC,
a distance of 289 mile. She was
timed after 9 hours and 21
minutes on the wing
winning recording 94th Open,
velocity 947ypm in a north east
wind. She was bred from a cock
gifted to Steve from the late
Cyril Luxton, a Guildford fancier
when he retired from the sport
and was paired to a hen on
loan from Tony Adams of the
Adams and Gilmore partnership
of Fareham.Well, I hope my readers have
enjoyed this article on my ol’
mate, Steve Appleby. He is a
great lad and gives up a lot of
his time working for our sport.