RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33675, 26 October 1974, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

BIRD IN HAND

Having savoured the success of a test century at Lord’s, victory in the Cresta run, a dropped goal in the last, vital | moments of a deciding I test against the Springboks, and a couple of consecutive pars at Rawhiti, it seemed time to find new worlds to conquer. Already we had won more than enough amateur boxing titles, taken the South Seas ballroom dancing championship on three occasions — each one with a different partner, and once when afflicted with a painful attack of lumbago — and defeated the bent that an admittedly depleted field at Wimbledon could offer. We were, frankly, bored. We sold our Formula One car. Also our Formula Two. The Formula Three we kept. It is handy for shopping. We gave aw’ay our Henley- | winning skiff to some i youngsters down the road and presented the whole collection of gold cups' to the 43 Christchurch

3 Sportsmen of the Year i / contests. And we decided j » to take up pigeon racing; 1 .something new, some--1 thing simple. Or so we f ; thought. But before we bought a ( f bird, a well-meaning r • friend thrust into our ) hand a bulletin put out t - by a firm which deals 1 with the preparation of t i pigeons for racing. t We discovered that if I i we were to meet our due e i measure of success, we < i would have to buy t a t i product designed to con- t - trol the spread of disease - through the drinking t 1 water. It iseemed clear we t 1 also would need another s i preparation to counter 1 i respiratory disease. An- i . other to combat one-eye ' cold, a fourth to knock i i off bird and feather-dam- I - aging parasites. i If we were to be with- [ s out red mite and other ' j parasites in the loft, yet < - another item would be' j needed. And what about 1 I feather rot? And some- 1 3 thing to produce virility i > and fertility. In the birds, i i of course, We would, it [

was very clear, have to purchase yet another commodity to counter nutritional roup and acute Vitamin A and D deficiency. And another for; respiratory catarrh. We had not eventhought, until the next! paragraph, about the! treatment of hairworm! and common roundworm.;/ But something was avail-! able for that malaise. And of course we would have to equip ourselves with the aerosol spray to give the bird all-weather protection, and capsules for tapeworm infection, and a splendid disinfectant for the protection of lofts against disease. After that we got on to the firm’s ideas on how to feed the perishing pigeon. ... We have retired from pigeon racing. It’s a game which needs a bond. Not 007. That Australian one, !who spent about ; $6,000,000 chasing the 'America’s Cup. He could race a pigeon for not I much more than half the |price<