Neil, that's great. When i had rollers (back in the 1950's) it was just word of mouth who had roller pigeons and we would go to each others homes to watch there birds fly. I had a (Hen) bird that everyone around had seen her fly or had heard of her ( called Whitey) she was pure white. I had her stolen twice,but when they turned her out to fly (or she got out) she came back home.
. When i got married i gave Whitey, and all of my birds to my Best friend, i knew he would take good care of them. Did your friend take his birds to compete for a contest? If he traveled very far away (like another state) i would think he would loose his birds, because they were not used to the area and get lost? My birds were Pensen Rollers, he probably had the Fireball breed and didn't care if they came back or not.
Jack