Spinksy

Steve ‘SPINKSY’ Spinks – R.I.P.

4th July 1944 to 3rd September 2001
“Forever Missed – Never Forgotten”

A Tribute by Carl Spinks

As many visitors to the Boglin Marsh Web Site will know by now, the original author of this web site is no longer with us. Over the last few years, Boglin Marsh has become a great web site for both for pigeon fanciers and non-fanciers alike. This is due entirely to the work of its author, Steve ‘Spinksy’ Spinks. This page is my tribute to my Dad – Steve ‘Spinksy’ Spinks. He did not particularly like any attention, recognition or publicity and used to keep himself to himself. However, now that ‘Spinksy’ is no longer with us, it’s about time people knew a bit more about ‘Spinksy’ – I hope I do him justice.

Steve was born on either the 4th or 5th July 1944 in Medicine Hat, Canada whilst his father was serving in the Royal Air Force over there. I guess he started as he meant to go on….as he used to say,
“It’s not everyone that has two birthdays….”.
Officially, it was the 5th, but his mother insisted,
“I had him and I know when I had him, and it was before midnight – not after!”.
The family always celebrated his birthday on the 4th July, (but as kids we would get him a 2nd gift for the 5th, just in case…).
I think ‘Independence Day’ suited him better anyway.

His family moved back to England when he was four and they settled in Bramhall on the outskirts of Manchester near Stockport. The family decided to move to Blackpool and bought a Guest House in the South Shore area of Blackpool. Although the “Blackpool landlady” lifestyle suited Steve’s mother, his father eventually moved back to Manchester. Steve and his older sister helped with the Guest House and with raising their two younger siblings.

I am told that as a youngster, Steve was a great footballer. His brother admits that ‘Spinksy’ may have exaggerated sometimes,
“If he says he scored six, he probably only really got three, but he could bend the ball from the corner flag, straight into the net!”.

Football was not his greatest sporting love, he had his sights set on being an Olympic High Board Diver. Apparently, he was an extremely good diver, until an accident left him with terrible back pain. Later on in life he was diagnosed as having several ‘slipped discs’. Later on, he also had to give up the football, due to an injury, which almost cost him his leg.

He then backpacked across Europe to Switzerland via the “scenic route”. Many a time he would recount sleeping rough on some roadside or in a field under the stars. Looks like he some fun too!

Spinksy in Switzerland

In Switzerland he trained as a Patisserie Chef. At the age of approx. 20, after gaining his qualifications as a “Chef de Patisserie”, he returned to Blackpool, where he worked in many of the Top Hotels at the time including The Savoy Hotel and later The Norbreck Castle Hotel, at which he eventually became Head Chef.

Some of Spinksy’s work at the Savoy Hotel.
The chocolate petitfour basket and the pastry volcano are his.

Spinksy the Chef with another work of art.

It was during this time he met Carol, the story goes that he was in a Bar in Cleveleys near Blackpool, and his older sister was giving him a hard time about not being married. He offered that he would pick a girl in the bar and marry her. When challenged by his sister to go ahead and pick one, Steve replied,

“OK, that girl over there…….”.
The rest as they say is history.

Whilst at the Norbreck Castle Hotel he also renewed his interest in Aquatic sports and took up as the Junior Swimming Coach of the “Norbreck Swimming Club”. Between Steve and the Senior Coach, they turned the club into a very successful amateur swimming club in the Lancashire area. This is how my sister and I were introduced to the world of Amateur Swimming. At the time the club had one of the National Team’s swimming stars, Cheryl Brasendale. One evening at training Cheryl had been having a laugh about how good she was, and Steve being Steve, challenged her to a 1 length race over the 25m pool. The whole club gathered to watch, as Spinksy in his mid thirties took on the one of the nation’s young stars.
Yes, he beat her – and she took a flyer before the whistle!!!!

In the late Seventies we moved to Lancaster, approximately 30 miles north of Blackpool. Steve gave up the Chef’s job to take on the Lancaster branch of his brother’s retail fabric business. It was the “Thatcher” era in England and after eight years of battling, the business did not survive along with many other businesses in the area.

As well as enjoying the odd day out fishing in and around Lancaster, ‘Spinksy’ also turned his hand to amateur photography. Another opportunity to demonstrate his sharp sense of humour and his abilities as a chef at the same time. Take this finger roll…..

A Spinksy Finger Roll anyone?

Steve, my mum, and sister Tracy returned to Blackpool. (I stayed on in Lancaster for a further 2 years to complete my education, returning home to Blackpool at weekends). Steve stepped in to help his brother’s fabric business due to the sudden loss of his brother’s wife. Carol & Tracy also took up in the business. This sadly was not to last – not due to the economy this time, but a huge fire at the main branch in Blackpool’s Bond Street.

During this time, I believe, he started to write the odd article or two for the British Homing World paper and he again took up his love of pigeons. ‘Spinksy’ began to write about the place called Boglin Marsh. His articles began to appear more often and he became a well respected scribe for the paper. This was something that would keep him going during the hard times ahead.

He re-established his pigeon lofts at his house in Bispham, Blackpool – he had not been able to keep his pigeons since moving to Lancaster. As a boy he had spent many an hour with a Blackpool Pigeon Fancier called Arthur Gomersall. Arthur introduced him to the world of pigeon racing and taught him his craft. When Arthur passed away, Steve was convinced that Arthur was his guardian Angel watching over him, and after more than a few happenings throughout the years, maybe he was right.

Steve turned his hand to Insurance sales, as his bad back was now too telling to be able to return to the hectic world of the Chef. The Insurance game did not work out, and so ever resourceful he turned to being a “Cabbie” and joined the ranks of Blackpool’s infamous taxi drivers.

Steve also had a great love of music, especially Chris De Burgh’s work, but was partial to a bit of Rock Music too. Which was a good job, as in the late Eighties, both my sister & I had taken up with local Rock bands and were using Spinksy’s front room as our practice pad. Four or Five nights a week the place would be buzzing to a 1,000 watts of thumping Bass & Drums, and lead guitars trying to get as high as his pigeons. But as Spinksy’s grand children began to arrive on the scene, the bands fizzled out.

A few years down the road and Spinksy had to relocate to a smaller house. He transformed the ramshackle back garden in to Boglin Marsh, complete with his pigeon lofts, fish pond, flowers everywhere and of course the ‘bog’ itself. The grandchildren used to visit to throw a penny in the pot and make a wish…..

As times were hard, Spinksy had to also take on a part time job as a cleaner at the local school. It did not take him long to start to educate the staff the Spinksy way. He used to use the time whilst pushing his brush to compose his next pigeon article, ponder on the world, and plan his next web page.

As visitors to Boglin Marsh will know that the Autumn of 1998 saw my dad & I start work on his pigeon web site, as he wanted to give something back to pigeon world and learn enough that he could help me with Tangerine Design. He had never touched a proper PC prior to that. The most modern bit of technology he had was an old Amstrad that just ran the Blackpool Homing club’s accounts & race results, and his trusty electronic typewriter for his articles.

I don’t think either of us realised at that time, just how big the Boglin Marsh site was to become. But once he started, and as I taught him more over the 1st couple of months, he soon was teaching himself and on occasion me, with new things he had picked up. Boglin Marsh became his passion, his way to pass on his knowledge to other fanciers. As he put it once,
“I’ve got my buzz back, and a fire in my belly”.
He certainly had, he was never off the phone, relaying his next plan of attack, or relating the new article he had just published on the site.

He had just reorganised& rebuilt some the pigeon lofts to provide a play house for the grandchildren, and Spinksy removed the bog. He was going to slim down his birds and concentrate on breeding a new strain of grizzles, “The Boglins”……

An early Boglin Pigeon – “Aimee’s Boy”

The night of his passing he had been on the phone to impart his next idea for Boglin Marsh….maybe one day……

We like to think that he went out on a high, something he always wanted to do….

I know that from the many letters, cards and emails that we have received, he will be greatly missed by all of his friends world-wide.

Carl Spinks (Spinksy’s son).