GLADWIN, JARVIS & FAMILY - Winners Gouden Duif UK & RoI

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Lees hier het artikel in het Nederlands.

While we were all enjoying the atmosphere of the Golden Duif celebration at Broechem in February 2020 and partying hard, the first reports began to filter through via contacts in China about just how serious the emerging pandemic in China was and little did we appreciate just how desperate and sad things were about to get in Europe. 

In England the first lock down meant we were unable to start racing until the 1st of June. As a result the old bird season was shorter than usual and reduced the number of opportunities to qualify for the 2020 competition and a terrible weekend in September racing from France with youngsters resulted in two of the National Clubs reducing the distance of their final flights again reducing the opportunities for some fanciers to gain qualifying performances.
But as the old proverb goes "Cometh the hour, cometh the man"  - although in 2020 "Cometh the hour, cometh the man and woman" is more appropriate as the winners of the UK & RoI are the husband and wife partnership of Gladwin, Jarvis and family of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex.

This is how they won the Gouden Duif UK & RoI
Cat. 1: old 60-225 miles
20.6 Purbeck (137 miles), 2512 p.: 3 (35 mee)
Cat. 2: old  225-425 miles
26.7 Le Mans (246 miles), 1655 p.: 1 (13 mee)
Cat. 3: old greather than 425 miles
15.8 Narbonne (592 miles), 197 p.: 2 (2 mee)
Cat. 4: young 60-175 miles
8.8 Purbeck (137 miles), 1595 p.: 1 (44 mee)
Cat. 5: young greather than 175 miles
20.9 Carentan (177 miles), 577 p.: 9 (3 mee)
Total coefficient: 14,43

Leigh-on-Sea, 64 km East of London on the Thames Estuary, dates back to the Roman British times and has been voted one of the best places to live in the UK. It must be true as the pigeons of Gladwin, Jarvis and family race home at break neck speed.

John Gladwin en John Cowlin in november 2015, toen ze alle gekochte duiven bij Frans Zwols ophaalden. Een gouden zet, zo blijkt achteraf! The partnership is made up of the husband and wife partnership of John Gladwin and Theresa Gladwin (nee Jarvis), assisted where necessary by any of their 3 children or their 7 grandsons when visiting or staying with Nanny and Grandad on weekends or school holidays.
John is 45 and works in the financial sector in the City of London, a very high stress job, so it is just as well he has such a relaxing hobby as the pigeon sport to relax with. A third generation fancier John initially flew with his parents John Snr and Pam until he and Theresa formed a partnership in every sense of the word both in life and with pigeons in 1996. In fact John was born into the sport as his mother was training her husband's youngsters during her maternity leave and went into labour after the pigeons had been sent to the race, she told John Senior to clock the youngsters in and then come to the hospital ready for the baby to arrive, however John has different plans and recorded a faster velocity than his father's pigeons and was "clocked in" before his dad arrived at the maternity hospital!
Theresa (a gentleman never asks a ladies age but she obviously looks younger than John) is originally from East London is also a third generation fancier with her father and Grandfather being well known London fanciers.
John has to commute into London to work which can add up to 4 hours on his working day and some days can be away for fourteen hours, so during the week Theresa is in full control of the lofts & family life with school runs, cooking and numerous other responsibilities in addition to the pigeons so plays a huge part in the lofts success.

Formula 1 Lofts (breeding loft)

The majority of the race team are bred from the "Formula 1 Lofts" stock team from Dr Frans Zwols of Gramsbergen (NL). Formula 1 Lofts is a breeding stud founded in 2003 by John & Theresa Gladwin and John Cowlin with the express intention of breeding a race team from the breeders for each of the partners own lofts and to then offer the later rounds to other fanciers. 
This allowed John and Theresa (with 3 children) and John Cowlin (who was 17 and had just left school) to pool their resources and re invest any thing earned from the later rounds in further introductions. 
The Dr Frans Zwolls pigeons were first introduced via Stuart Wilcox in 2010 with instant success, further direct introductions from Frans followed and in 2015 when Frans retired from the sport John and John as Formula 1 Lofts purchased the "orchard" to ensure they not only got apples close to the tree but that they also brought all the trees as well.
Since then 51 x 1st or 2nd National winners have been produced via the Formula 1 Lofts breeding team of Frans Zwolls including 7 x 1st Nationals for either John Cowlin or Gladwin, Jarvis and Family. 
The 2020 highlight being the National Flying Club race from Coutances on September against 3,159 youngsters entered by 315 lofts where John Cowlin and Gladwin, Jarvis and Family took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th prizes between them with multiple other prizes further down the result.

National victories and other noticeable achievements
2015: 1st Section, 1st National Alencon 218 miles (349 km)  4,651 b
2016: 1st Combine Falaise 189 miles (302 km) 2,000 b
2017: 1st, & 2nd Section,  2nd & 3rd National Coutances 197 miles (315 km) 842 b
2018: 1st Section, 1st National Fougeres 213 miles (340 km)  613 b
2019: 1st Section, 1st National Agen 534 miles (855 km) 993 b
2020: 1st Combine Le Mans 245 miles (392 km) 1,600 b

Racing System

The Gladwin, Jarvis & Family race team consists of 5 pairs of sprinters and 7 pairs of long distance pigeons flown on total widowhood. These are paired late January and are parted before the hen lays the second round of eggs. The cock and one youngster remains in the box until weaning and the other youngster along with the hen are moved to the young bird loft until weaning when the hens return to their racing section of the old bird loft.
The sprint pigeons are raced every Saturday in the local Hullbridge Club, the long distance pigeons fly a couple of Inland races, then a couple of middle distance races from France and then prepared for the distance race/s they are scheduled for.
There are also 24 cocks and 24 cocks and hens on a celibacy system who race the middle distance combine and National programme and these race to their own compartments. Never being paired pre season, after the season and are not show the opposite sex either before or after racing. John exploits their territorial urges to increase motivation with great success.
Road training for the sprint team is short and often, the long distance team are rarely trained by road once the season is underway although John does take specific candidates for a 40 mile (64 km) individual flight on the line for the National flights.
The middle distance team are raced Inland between Channel races but if they are not raced on a particular weekend will be taken road training up to 40 miles (64 km) to keep them mentally stimulated and prevent same sex pairing.
Due to some tough racing from France in 2019 the old bird team totalled 50 pigeons.
The 75 youngsters reared from the Formula 1 Lofts breeding team are darkened from 21st March to 21st June and are flown using a variety of motivational techniques including to the nest and on the sliding door.
Due to the low lying location where John and Theresa live some years the youngsters take a while to exercise well and learn their home location. If it is a year when the youngsters freely explore the local area they start road training at 5 miles (8 km) with as many training tosses as possible out to 45 miles (72 km) before their first competitive race from 137 miles (219 km). However if it is a year where they don't leave the local area freely near home then training is much steadier starting from 1 mile (1.6 km) and only move to the next spot when returning home well.

Lofts

The old bird loft is 23 metres by 1.8 metres with six compartments (3 male, 3 females) with a tiled roof and was the same loft Mark Gilbert was 2nd International Dax in 2003 followed by 1st International Dax in 2004 with Southfield Supreme which John and Theresa brought and moved from Windsor to Leigh-on-Sea when Mark upgraded his lofts following his International victory. Each section is fitted with an aviary/trapping area from D&D aviaries which allows John and Theresa to lock the pigeons in fresh air between exercise sessions.
The separate young bird loft is 7.2 metres by 2.4 metres in three compartments. Again with the trapping aviaries from D&D in Birmingham, which also allow the youngsters to relax safely in the sunshine without attack from predators.

Het hok voor de oude vliegduiven.Clubs

Sprint racing is via the local Hullbridge Club which is extremely competitive as many of the members are National winners or multi National winners. Hullbridge is affiliated to Thames North East Counties Flying Club and is one of the most progressive in the UK offering any age racing to educate youngsters before the rest of the UK commence, as in the UK the old pigeons are raced from April until late July and the young pigeons from late July until the end of September. The Hullbridge Club races are held from Littlehampton 73 miles (116 km) to Honiton 173 miles (276 km).
There is also Combine racing, both Inland and from France via the Inter Counties South Road Federation and National racing from France via the National Flying Club, British Barcelona Club and the British International Championship Club. (UK National racing is different to Belgium and the Netherlands as fanciers must pay a members fee annually to be able to enter the races.)
John and Theresa's French races are from Coutances 197 miles (315 km) out to Narbonne 581 miles (929 km).

Feeding & supplements

The race mixtures are from Versele Laga and the base mix is Gerry Plus, so much is used it should be renamed "John Plus"! This is supplemented with Superstar Plus and Energy Plus (fats). The introduction and quantity will depend upon the previous weeks race, next race and weather conditions in both, there is no fixed feed schedule when the pigeons race different distances every week.
The youngsters feeding regime is similar with the addition of G10 pellets which contain a probiotic.
The breeders are given A breeding mix from Bamfords and in the moult and winter period the race team are also given Bamfords mixes.
A grit mix called Matrix is used with fresh provided daily.
In winter Naturaline and apple cider vinegar are added to the water.
On return from a race Strike from Gem products is given for 48 hours (allicin powder).
John and Theresa have tried many supplements over the years but have seen little benefit from them and now just use the previously mentioned three: Strike, Naturaline and apple cider vinegar. 

Health and medical

The annual PMV vaccine is administered and a blanket treatment for paratyphus is administered in November for 14 days using Para-Coli from Dr Vincent Schroeder following the family holiday in October.
The youngsters just have the PMV vaccine at weaning and nothing else unless instructed by the vet.
Swabs and dropping samples are regularly tested by Holly and Lisa at Pigeon Health in Colchester and depending upon the findings any treatment is with Schroeder-Tollisan products.

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