Roaring Lion still flying high

Roaring Lion had some visitors from the animal kingdom on Thursday when Trevor Booth and John Roper bought two of their racing pigeons to meet our world champion.

Trevor and John live five miles from Tweenhills and Trevor has been racing pigeons since the age of 10, when he joined Tewkesbury & Dist FC. At 18, Trevor was the youngest person to win the Young Bird Championship with the Gloucester Fed from Avranches.

Trevor went on to work for the The Cheltenham Echo and The Gloucester Citizen, which is where he met John, a partnership and friendship that has lasted over 30 years.

Both have known our own David Redvers a while through the Ledbury Hunt and, therefore, have taken a keen interest in the horses coming from Tweenhills.

They avidly followed Roaring Lion throughout his career – even naming a pigeon racing team after him – and jumped at the chance to come and visit the four-time Group 1 winner, bringing a couple of youngsters from their “stable” along for the photo opportunity.

The pigeons were just six weeks old, and Trevor an John deliberate bought the lighter of the pair because of it's colour - known as grizzle in the pigeon community - and it's similarity with our own grey superstar.

We had great fun seeing Trevor and John’s pigeons and will be following their exploits this year as much as they have been following ours!