17/09/2026
TOP RACING PIGEONS đď¸
ERIC CANNONâS âCIRCLE QUEENâ
Some pigeons are remembered for one huge result.
Others become part of the foundation story of an entire family.
âCircle Queenâ was one of those pigeons.
She was a dark chequer hen, late bred in 1949 by the outstanding Godalming fancier Stan Edgington, and she went on to become one of the key birds behind 50 years of remarkable long-distance racing by the late, great Eric Cannon.
Ericâs story is a proper old-school pigeon story.
He began keeping pigeons while he was still at school, buying his first birds for only a few pence and training them from a pushbike. He joined Godalming club as a junior, surrounded by some of the finest National Flying Club distance men of that era.
This was a club with serious names in it. Fanciers who had featured right at the top from San SebastiĂĄn, Mirande and other massive races long before many people were even thinking about Channel racing.
Eric always spoke highly of them. Despite being established National men, they gave younger fanciers room to enjoy themselves. They would often take just one inland position rather than sweeping the board, and made a point of congratulating the youngsters when they won a prize card.
That sort of environment mattered. It gave Eric a front-row seat to the world of distance racing and helped shape what became a lifelong obsession with breeding pigeons capable of flying home from the hardest places in Europe.
His pigeon career was interrupted by four years of Army service during the war. He suffered a serious foot injury, met his wife Pat while she was working as a nurse in a wartime hospital in Liverpool, and eventually returned home to rebuild his pigeon career after the war.
It was then that âCircle Queenâ entered the story.
Bred by Stan Edgington of Eashing, she was not just a pretty dark chequer hen with a good pedigree behind her. She was a genuine all-round race pigeon, proving herself on both the North and South Roads before going on to tackle some of the longest and most demanding races available.
Her record is a brilliant example of how pigeons were tested properly in that era:
⢠1949: raced from Doncaster
⢠1950: raced three times, through to Berwick
⢠1951: clocked from NFC Pau
⢠1952: clocked from Libourne
⢠1953: 171st Open NFC San Sebastiån
⢠1954: 136th Open NFC Pau
⢠1955: 112th Open NFC Pau
⢠1956: 7th British Section, 120th International Barcelona
Just stop and think about that for a second.
This hen raced as a young bird, travelled the North Road, crossed the Channel, raced from Pau multiple times, got home from San SebastiĂĄn and eventually timed from Barcelona in the International.
That is an outrageous career.
She was not protected after one good race. She was not put to stock because she had one decent result. She was repeatedly tested against distance, time, weather and the brutal reality of old-school National racing.
And she kept coming.
That was the making of Eric Cannonâs family.
The Cannon pigeons were built with performance as the starting point. Eric believed in pigeons that could race, recover, return again and breed the same strength into the next generation.
âCircle Queenâ was one of the earliest major building blocks, but another key foundation arrived in 1950 when Eric bought a blue chequer hen from Mr Wiggins of Ipswich for 30 shillings.
That hen, known simply as â50 1753â, had a dam which was a major winner from Lerwick. She went on to become the dam and granddam of no fewer than 34 pigeons that scored in Channel races.
That is the difference between owning a good pigeon and establishing a true family.
A good pigeon can win you a prize.
A great pigeon can shape your loft for generations.
Eric Cannonâs long-distance success would continue for decades, but the roots were right there: talented pigeons, tested hard, bred from on performance, and a young fancier willing to learn from the best people around him.
âCircle Queenâ was more than a Barcelona pigeon or a Pau pigeon.
She was one of the hens that helped begin an incredible 50-year journey in long-distance pigeon racing.
A proper pigeon from a proper era.
