The legend that is Frank Tasker (UK) - Part 1

The Tasker strain has been winning, not only for Frank, but for many other fanciers throughout the length and breadth of these islands for more than 30 years. Club, Federation, National and  Combine races as well as Queens Cups have been won by those fanciers from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland who have been fortunate to obtain these multi talented racers from this ever helpful master fancier.  Frank Tasker has himself won hundreds of first prizes at club and Federation level at a number of locations in central and eastern England not to mention his SIX outright National wins with the ultra competitive N.R.C.C., home to some of the best north road fanciers in the U.K.

This article is to be the first in a series on this great fancier as it would in all honesty take a book to do full justice to one of Britain’s greatest ever sprint / middle distance fanciers.
    So where do I start this massive task? Let’s be conventional and start at the beginning! Frank was born on 29th July 1942 in Melton Mowbray and had his first pigeons as a seven year old and started racing to a converted chicken shed when he was 10 years old. His early career saw him working in his uncle’s butcher’s shop, a career that he was to see through until his early retirement in 1988. Whilst in Melton Mowbray Frank met the love of his life, Ann, and the couple soon moved to Market Rasen in Lincolnshire to set up their first family home. Further moves saw Frank and Ann move successively to Leamington Spa, Warwick and finally Radford Semele, a small village on the outskirts of Leamington, where they set up their own butchers business. It was also whilst at Radford Semele that Frank was first able to properly establish a loft of racers. At that time , the mid 1960’s, the Somerset partnership of Reg and Myrtle Venner  was setting the racing scene alight on both north and south roads with their fantastic team of all purpose racers. Frank, not one to miss an opportunity, soon got his hands on the Venner pigeons and started winning from the off. All racing at that time was done on the natural system but in 1976 Frank converted to widowhood flying and as a result he began his search for top class pigeons from the Continent, pigeons that had been born to this “new” way of flying.

    These new introductions came via the French National winning loft of Claude Hetru. Frank being Frank, only the best would suffice and so direct children were purchased from the double National winning blue cock “Eole” along with others from brothers and sisters to Eole and also from Eole’s parents. Eole had won 1st National Poitiers 300 miles and 1st National Royan 400 miles and was, at that time, the only pigeon living that had recorded such a feat.
 Once back in England the Hetrus started to take the opposition apart. One blue hen bred from the Hetrus went on to become one of the greatest stock hens to grace any loft in the U.K. or Europe for that matter. This was the incredible “Whitenose” hen which was responsible for literally hundreds of 1st prize winning pigeons at all levels of competition, both for Frank, and those fortunate to obtain some of her offspring. This writer had a direct daughter of this great hen and she was to become the mother of our loft breeding winner after winner and also breeders of winners from 60 – 486 miles. Two of her daughters produced two cocks to win 2nd Open WGNFC Thurso for other Welsh lofts. The nest mate to this hen was gifted to Frank’s friend the late, great Arthur Beardsmore for whom she bred many top class racers including Champion Joan’s Boy a multiple first prize winner.

As a direct result of the phenomenal initial success of his French imports, Frank subsequently carried out some research on the origins of the Hetru National winning pigeons and came up with the name of Mencke- Haelterman. This partnership seemed to be at the root of all the best pigeons that he had introduced. One pigeon in particular cropped up consistently and this was the legendary “Jonge Korte” bred and raced by the partnership of Hilaire Mencke and his nephew Paul Haelterman. The Jonge Korte was not only a champion racer, having won the equivalent of £12,000 between 1964- 1969, but also a super star when retired to the stock loft. Once again, Frank being the determined, single minded and persistent man that he is decided that he had to get more of the Mencke-Haelterman pigeons and so he set off to Belgium in an attempt to track down these Belgian masters. It was late in 1978 that Frank and Paul Haelterman first met up and a lasting friendship has endured for the past 32 years. During these years many top quality pigeons have moved between the two friends lofts in Belgium and England and just as importantly much sound advice has passed from the elderly Belgian to his English apprentice.

    By the early 1980’s the Tasker – Haeltermans were burning the skies up whilst competing with the Warwickshire Fed and Upper Thames Fed in the sprint races. I do not intend to bore readers with a long list of the many club and Federation wins achieved during this time but will highlight some of the performances from the 1984 old bird season which are fairly representative of the performances achieved by the Tasker/ Haeltermans in the 1980’s as a whole.
Starting with the Taunton race at 112 miles the Tasker team took the first six positions in the club plus 9th & 11th Fed. Exmouth at 141 miles saw them take the first five prizes at both club and Fed level with 2,239 birds competing. Plymouth saw the team win the first six club prizes plus 1st,2nd 8th , 9th ,13th , 16th  Fed 1,896 birds. Back to Exmouth once again and it was the same old story the first six club prizes and also the first six federation positions with 1,915 birds competing. The next Plymouth race saw the team in the first six prizes in both club and Fed plus 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th Fed from a field of 1,542 birds. By the time of the second Taunton race the team were obviously on the wane as they only managed the first six club prizes and a lowly 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th & 14th Fed with 2,000 birds away!!!!!

As a result of the extraordinary racing successes of his pigeons Frank was in great demand to sit on panels at pigeon “moots” throughout the length and breadth of the British Isles. Frank was usually accompanied on these panels by his long time friend the late great Arthur Beardsmore, along with Geoff Kirkland, Ron Green and for a short time Martin Young. It was at one of these talks held at Merthyr Tydfil in 1981 that I first met Frank and a lasting friendship was forged that has lasted for close on thirty years.

     Some of the Champion pigeons in the Radford Semele lofts at this time were multiple first prize winners like Captain Paul [15 x 1sts]. This amazing Dark chequer widower not only won first prizes at club level with ease but also won 1st Fed with 1,896 birds;1,915 birds;2,093 birds and 2,114 birds competing not to mention nine other top ten finishes with entries in excess of 1,500.
 Yet another top class racer was a light chequer cock named “Smartie” who’s wins were numerous but just as importantly to Frank he was a true character. Whilst living at Radford, Frank rescued a young kestrel which had fallen out of a nest. Frank hand reared it to maturity only for a visiting decorator to later accidentally break its wing. He nursed it back to health and had the wing set by a local vet. The kestrel was never able to fly again but spent most of the time during daylight hours tethered to a post on the lawn in front of the widowhood loft. Smartie’s party trick was to fly out of the loft and land on the lawn just outside the reach of Frank’s tame kestrel. He would then proceed to walk around the lawn out of harms way much to the obvious annoyance of the raptor!

    Many other super pigeons were raced successfully but the true loft champion was a blue pied cock bred in 1983 and later named Champion Filmstar. This amazing racing machine won no less than 26 x 1sts plus 12 x 1st Fed  and  two RPRA awards before being retired to the stock loft where he was to go on to breed winner after winner. Filmstar survived at Wainfleet until his twentieth year and left a legacy of top class children which also bred many winners. This truly great champion’s bloodlines can be found in the breeding of 1st NRCC; 1st NFC;1st MNFC;1st CSCFC; 1st London NRCombine;1st Up North Combine and 1st Welsh SENFC.- truly a once in a lifetime pigeon.

The lofts at Radford were set in a beautiful garden with rolling lawns and abundant flower beds, all tended to by Ann. Everything about the set up was immaculate and professional. A brick built stock loft was sited adjacent to the bungalow and this had room for no more than 20 pairs of stock. The main racing loft was a 24ft x 6ft Kidby style loft that Frank had adapted to suit his needs for widowhood flying. It was split into three sections each of which had controlled ventilation and thermostatically controlled heating. See accompanying diagram for exact details of the set up. It was to this modest but exceptionally well designed loft that all the previously named champions raced.

 The young birds were housed in a separate loft to the rear of the widowhood loft and these lived a life of leisure being allowed an open loft to come and go as they pleased during the old bird season. They were only confined to the loft during the twice daily exercise periods of the widowhood cocks. Fed on a light high carbohydrate diet they used to range the countryside around the lofts from early morning until early evening. As yearlings they were housed in a separate loft to the older widowers and were brought on slowly as Frank took great pains to educate them on the widowhood system. The best of these yearlings were then transferred to the main loft if Frank thought them worthy of this “promotion”.

    In the next section of this series I will outline the continued development of the Tasker strain and the lofts and methods used by this master fancier at the new site at Wainfleet.

To be continued…