Pigeon racing might not seem the natural choice of hobby for a young woman, but Katie Awdas is proving the sceptics wrong. She talks to Ian Noble.

THINK of pigeon racing and the image which springs to most people’s minds is a Northern chap pottering around a pigeon loft, wearing a flat cap and accompanied by a whippet.

Pigeon fancier Katie Awdas, 29, is not only ruffling a few feathers in the male-dominated sport, but is determined to prove her worth and pursue her lifelong hobby.

Katie of Church Lane, Bagby, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, is one of the few women to be actively involved and is continuing a long family tradition looking after feathered racers in the region. As a member of the Topcliffe Flyers club, near Thirsk, Katie is one of two women (there are eight members in total), but she is as devoted as any of them and heads off most weekends to race her birds across the UK.

“I was brought up with pigeons as my granddad (Eddie Hudson), dad (Howard Hudson) and uncle (Trevor Hudson) all had them,” says Katie.

“My mum, Chris, is involved too, so I thought if you can’t beat them, join them.”

Katie was 15 when she started helping her dad. As she got older she started to help train them. The more involved she got, the more her interest grew. “At first, I didn’t so much want to race the birds as keep them as pets,” she says. “But I found it fascinating they could start a race in Scotland and end up back home in Thirsk, and it escalated from there.”

Being female and young, Katie has inevitably faced a fair share of hostility.

She came up against a lot of opposition when she started and some enthusiasts claimed she was only involved because of her father.

“There’s bad mouthing and bitching in the sport and people have had their pigeon lofts burnt down,” she says. “It’s funny because I do just as much as the boys at the club. I’m not scared about breaking a nail or anything like that.”

Katie’s passion for pigeons continued even after she left home to go to university in Huddersfield. It was there she met her husband, Chris Awdas. While they tried to spend as much time as they could together, Katie couldn’t stay away from her feathered friends and used to pop back at the weekends to check on their progress.

“I went home most weekends to see the 100 pigeons we loft at Knayton, near Thirsk,” she says. “Chris thought I was totally loopy.”

KATIE has been a member of the Topcliffe Flyers for ten years and races with her father, both under the Hudson family name and her married name of Awdas.

She has also won a number of trophies, including the Queen’s Cup.

Her bird was the first back to its loft in the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire area, after setting off from Lerwick, Scotland, recording an impressive speed of 52mph over 406miles. The feathered champ beat all 463 other pigeons in the race.

With the racing season running from April to September, most of her spare time is now spent getting the birds ready.

“I like going out to the lofts and getting away from it all for a couple of hours. It’s my relaxing time,”

Katie says. “My friends think I’m a bit strange, but it’s amazing seeing the birds come back from hundreds of miles away. I get a massive buzz from it.”

While pigeon racing has long been a male-dominated sport, one of the best known female fanciers is none other than the Queen, who keeps lofts at Sandringham and is patron of the sport’s governing body in the UK, The Royal Pigeon Racing Association (RPRA).

“We do have some women who race in a partnership with their husbands, but we don’t have many racing in their own names,” says an RPRA spokesman.

“We would like to see more females and youngsters involved as it is seen very much as a sport for the older generation. We’d also like to see memberships increase and to get more families involved in the sport too.”

■ Topcliffe Flyers are looking for male and female members of all ages. For further information, email Katie at katieh80@hotmail.com