“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT
Three Borders Federation (Yeovil YB Race)
The Federation had 1,207 birds at Yeovil (101 miles) for the second young bird race of the 2016 season and Dom McCoy liberated at 09.15hrs in a light westerly wind. The membership enjoyed a good race and Richard Kent of the Spelthorne club had seven babies hit the ETS in 12 seconds to win 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Federation. Fantastic pigeon racing! Richard’s winning pigeon was a Koopman blue cock, sent racing to the perch and his parents, which were both big race winners before going to stock, were both Brian Trussler bloodlines. Fred Kimpton of the Richmond club recorded 8th, 9th, 10th Federation and it is well known that Fred is the son of the late, great George Kimpton, but is wonderful pigeon racer in his own right, winning many premier positions in the Federation and Combine.
The first ten in the Yeovil Federation result were:
1) Richard Kent 1619:
2) Richard Kent 1818:
3) Richard Kent 1617:
4) Richard Kent 1617:
5) Richard Kent 1617:
6) Richard Kent 1616:
7) Richard Kent 1616:
8) Fred Kimpton 1609:
9) Fred Kimpton 1608:
10)Fred Kimpton 1608.
Two weeks after Richard’s Federation win in August, I visited his home Walton-on-Thames and as I expected, his loft and garden was a picture to behold. Like myself, he is a retired carpenter and his very smart 18ft old bird racing loft was self-built, with a pan tile roof and sputnik trapping for his ETS. At the back end of his garage he had a brick built workshop and he has converted this into his magnificent young bird and stock loft. His stock loft, which houses only ten pairs, is a bit special, with really big nest boxes and loads of room for the inmates. He pairs up in late December and all his birds have come from Brian Trussler and Danny Allison. He is racing his old birds on natural, but will be moving over to widowhood shortly and the birds are fed on a top quality widowhood mixture. Richard is a hard trainer and the old birds get tosses mainly off the south coast, with racing from France in mind.
Richard tells me he started the 2016 season with 40 youngsters, 20 bred by himself and 20 bred by Brian Trussler, and has enjoyed one of his best young bird seasons ever, winning several firsts in the strong Spelthorne club. He started by winning the first six positions in the Spelthorne club from the first young bird race, flown from Blandford, then the next week took the first seven in the Three Borders Federation from Yeovil and also recorded 2nd, 3rd, 6th, in the Spelthorne Breeder / Buyer Kingsdown Open Race (396 birds), being beaten on a decimal. He was second in the Spelthorne Open with a beautiful blue chequer pied hen and she was Frank Bristow bloodlines, coming from Brian Trussler. He puts his young birds on the ‘darkness’ system and races to the perch, having no success with paired up babies over the years. Richard is a very hard trainer, with them going down the road on most days and starts them training very early in May. The youngsters are not staved, but kept in line and are fed on a good widowhood mixture. On being weaned they get their PMV jab and are cankered before going on the ‘darkness’ system.
With me being an avid showing enthusiast, I’m busy judging pigeon shows every winter, but the winter of 2013/14 I was exceptionally busy and was invited to judge seven premier shows, finishing at the main event, the BHW Blackpool Show, in January. The Christmas period saw me have a couple of weeks off from judging and my first outing in January was the Godalming Open Young Bird Show, held at their new HQ, the Elstead British Legion Club. It was a Sunday morning handling show, which attracted 120 young birds and I made the 25 miles drive down to Elstead with my ol’ mates, Terry Smart and Richard Kent of Hersham. The two lads judged the cock’s class and I handled the hens. We enjoyed a great show on that Sunday morning in January, but for me it was an added pleasure to meet up with Richard Kent again, as I hadn’t seen him since about 1982. At that time we both flew in the now disbanded Molesey and Hersham clubs and soon after Richard left the sport because of his chest problems when he was around the birds. I enjoyed our day out judging together and I must say he looked really well! Richard has been back in the sport for about three years, starting with six babies and has now climbed back to top of the result in that time.
The Hersham RBLFC joined the Three Borders Federation at the commencement of 1981 and what a great season the club enjoyed, winning top positions including two firsts. Les Penycate won the Federation from Plymouth and Richard Kent stormed the Federation and won the Seven Counties Combine from Laval. The Combine sent 7,348 birds to the Laval (2) race and at that time that birdage was a record for this young and up and coming Combine. Richard’s Combine winner, doing 1415ypm, was his yearling blue pied cock, ‘90’, and he had previously won 5th Hersham Weymouth Open at the beginning of the 1981 season. He started up in the sport of pigeon racing in 1965 with birds obtained from Louis Massarella and Richard told me the late, Fred Elliott of Sunningdale was a great help to him in those days. Richard joined his local club, the Molesey & District HS and raced to a 6ft x 4ft loft. His Combine winning loft I 1981 was a more plush 18ft affair, with anti-bolt and open door trapping. Richard told me he tried deep litter, but being asthmatic, it up set him and had to use an inhaler before cleaning out the birds. Richard was only a small team man and paired his 12 pairs of old birds up on 14th February and bred 20 youngsters to race each season. The birds raced on the Natural system and after he had reared a pair of squeakers from each pair of old birds they were trained as much as possible.
Richard raced the Burgers pigeons and his best performances up to winning the Combine were: 1st club, 3rd Federation, 5th SMT Combine (4,268 birds) and 1st club, 6th Federation, 8th SMT Combine (5,498 birds) Rennes. He always fed De Scheemaecker ‘Natural’ corn with a little ‘Red Band’. The old birds started training at ten miles and worked up to 40 miles before the first Federation race, and then got 15 mile tosses twice a week through the racing season. At that time, Richard, rated his good friends, Dick and Brian Trussler of Molesey, the best local fanciers and said they were totally dedicated to the sport.
Those were the days and look at those wonderful birdages in the Combine races in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Brilliant! That’s my lot for this week! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT
(www.keithmott.com)
