by Kemo Basic [For PDF version Click Here]

This was my family of birds before I obtained Shannons in 1996 My best flying time with these birds as some of you know was 15:47 young ones and 16:24 in 1992 as old birds.

I built this strain of Tipplers with a light grizzle cock # 655. This was the son of original Bartholomew cock NTU-4265/73 Oskar got from Wayne Tomsic in 1984. 655’s mother was the FTA-714/84 a black mottle hen bred by Oskar.

I loved grizzle pattern on my new tippler family and have to emphasize that pattern and color in Tipplers is not important as it don’t fly ;-)) but some times it satisfies pleasure side of Tippler breeding while the bird with all attributes of high Tippler quality including good information is required. Our every little Tippler has to have these necessary attributes in order to be successful, appreciated and considered in flying and breeding program other wise the culling must takes place.

All my grizzles had an amazing conformation at its best. As you can see the single bird in the pic demonstrates it very well.

To maintain and have dominant grizzle factor and also to avoid black color influence of 655’s parents I bred my new cock bird with 2 of Swansea X Wayne’s Lovatt Grizzle hens. Over the time I was able to maintain and control grizzle pattern I preferred. At the same time I created my own inbred female family that was sex balanced by inbreeding the birds bred from only one cock and two hens. With a few years of selective flying and breeding my birds were all of the same size expression and type. Breeding these birds to my ideal Tippler was an interesting and enjoyable project of a special stage in my Tippler life experience. These birds were uniformed and produced true to type as a strain should always do. They were beautiful smart, reliable and easily trained. Luckily all this qualities I have presently in my Shannons. Switching to Shannons from my own family was easy decision because Shannon birds are the magic birds I was looking for all my Tippler life. With my Shannon based family of birds I don’t enjoy challenges in my new flying location. I am preserving this type and maintaining its high quality as much as I possible can with limited tools and lack of proper measuring.

It would be easier if I did not move where I had safer flying location, hawks free area.

Back to 80’s; Mr Hunt, Oskar and I got Lovatts in early 80’s from Wayne. Helmut Lemke also had Lovatts from Wayne and crossed them with some of his beautiful Swanseas including Josh Davies. Helmut had the really classy English Flying Tipplers. I was lucky to have some of Swanseas which I out-crossed with my Lovatts and luckily it was a good combination and I was satisfied in my breeding, training and flying progress. Out-crosses were smart birds, good fliers and medium size birds.

Oskar like them and that was a compliment to my stock selection. He asked me to give him a specific pair of youngsters for his friend. Oskar and I exchanged birds and often helped each other in the sport related matter like timing for each other.

Oskar and I were new guys in Tippler sport and highly enthusiastic about breeding training and competing with our birds. We were always looking for that magic birds that would produce the best fliers. Oskar bred one season 1093 blue Swanseas cock which was a gift from his Irish friend Gord Hamilton and when he didn’t have use for it any more he gave it to Marthy as a gift to help him in the start of hobby. Marthy did not like ‘’the ugly blue cock’’ he asked me if I would like to have it. I jumped to Marthy’s offer because I new the bird was Swansea and probably had some Josh Davies blood in it and I though it was a perfect bird, well put together with good quality feathers and wings. It looked as a Tippler with a lot of potentials. My stock sense was right and for a few years I bred some of the Swansea X Lovatt until a guy from States, Oskar’s friend visited me one day with Oskar and had to have nothing else but 1093. He did not take no for an answer. On the end I reluctantly gave 1093 and his daughter 378 to my new friend who unfortunately did not do any good with these amazing birds that I loved.

Beside Bartholomews Wayne brought many Lovatts to Canadian Tippler man including my self to enjoy them and share with other Tippler guys. I vividly remember the beautiful Paul Green’s red mottle hen, another original English Flying Tippler Wayne brought for Oskar.

On one occasion I visited Mr Hunt when he flew in his kit one young Lovatt over 17 hrs bred from Wayne ’s birds. By the way, Oskar was official timer at that particular competition. Unfortunately Mr Hunt could not drop his young birds kit in the dark as they had no night training at all.

Wayne is a fine Tippler man who with his buddies Stan Ogozalek and Tim Kvidera relentlessly promoted Tippler sport in North America

Canadian Tippler history would not be the same with out guys like Wayne, Shannon and Fenton who contributed generously and helped us tremendously to shape our sport into a form that it is today. Thanks guys. Also thanks to Michael who created the FT, the brilliant idea we use to promote our sport at home and throughout the world.

All the best
Kemo