User:	Ballrollers
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My name is Cliff Ball and I breed and fly the James Turner family of Birmingham Rollers. I was born and raised in Canton, Ohio where I kept rollers as a boy. Those birds were Whittinghams, obtained from a German fellow by the name of Krupke.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Kent State University, and a Doctor of Dental Surgery and Master of Science degree in the Specialty of Orthodontics from Ohio State University, in 1980, I came to North Carolina, the home of my ancestors, to raise my family and practice dentistry. I returned to the hobby (with every intention of flying competition) in 2004 obtaining a family of pedigree "pure" Pensom birds from Tom Williams of Kansas City, MO. After breeding over a hundred birds and getting nothing by way of performance that I was pleased with, I culled them all (but one black self hen from a Plona line).

After doing more research, I learned that a fellow 30 miles from me had just won the NBRC 11-bird National Championship, Jay Yandle, so I decided to pay him a visit. I was in awe at the quality, speed, depth, and frequency of the performance of his birds......this is just what I was looking for! In the successive months, Jay became my mentor in the sport and let me have a number of quality breeders and performers selected from the air, from which I started my family of birds. I began attending local competitions and developed friendships with a number of Carolina roller men; such as Wendall Carter, Joe Bob Stuka, Clay Hoyle, Lathan Collins, Gregg Truesdale, Charlie Stack, Joe Mitchell, and many more. I soon learned that competition in this region would be a true test, because of the level of competition. Several of the flyers are National Chmpions or World Cup Champions. But I paid attention to the things these men had to say about breeding, training and flying these birds; read everything I could get my hands on, attended all the local flys and I began competing with this family of birds.

As I began to get more involoved in the NBRC and the hobby on the national level, I began attending all the regional competitions and flys as well as the NBRC National Conventions, which I highly recommend to everyone. I soon learned that there was a great deal of unjustified prejudice from a few vocal roller men accross the country beig promoted on internet sites; based on the fact that rollers with color modifiers that had been obtained through a breed outcross at some point in their distant past, were used by James Turner in the development of this family. The vast majority of these stories are based on a number of inaccuracies and unjustified rumors about this family of rollers....that the men who breed them are more interested in color than
performance. Nothing could be further from the truth! It has become my mission to educate the roller men accross the United States about this family, it's qualities and its faults, and to dispel the rumors and heresay being propogated by those with a "purist" agenda, as fact. I have been active and vocal in discussions on a number of roller sites over the years, some of which have come and gone. In addition, I have written a number of articles on this family of rollers and the Carolina Roller men, after conducting interviews with James Turner himself,as well as the many men who have flown and competed with this family for many years.

I have served as NBRC Regional Director, World Cup Regional Director, and for the past three years, as NBRC National Fly Director. This experience has garnered quite a number of friendships with roller men accross the country and, most importantly, the opportunity to see rollers from the majority of major families all accross the country. Through these experiences I have been fortunate enough to qualify for the finals in the NBRC and World Cup in every competition in 2007 and 2008 from my region. I raise a number of rollers each year, though I do not sell rollers. However, I am not able to meet all the requests that I receive for these birds. I hope that everyone is as lucky and as disciplined with them as I have been. Both will help to ensure their success. I can be contacted at cballdds@yahoo.com or 336-601-6877.