“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT
The Pigeon Fancy Press and the Media
I have been writing in the fancy press since 1972 and I still enjoy doing my regular pages every week in the pigeon fancy press. The very first article I did in the fancy press was the prize presentation, in the winter of 1972, for the old and now disbanded Molesey club and very soon after that had my own regular page in the Weybridge based Pigeon Racing ‘Gazette’, then run by Roy and Audrey Bishop. Later in the 1970’s I was judging at the Inter Counties Federation show in Hertfordshire and met Mike Shepherd for the first time. Mike worked for the ‘Racing Pigeon’ newspaper at that time and invited me to submit some articles and photos for inclusion in the ‘Pictorial’, which was then and still is today the premier glossy monthly pigeon magazine. Really at that time Mike was the man who took me to the top level of pigeon journalism and set me up for what I do in the fancy press today. Mike is my mentor and we have been good friends all through those many years! I have got many good friends in the pigeon racing journalism world, but another man I respect and consider a good friend is the former British Homing World editor, Cameron Stansfield. Cameron is a nice guy and his knowledge of long distance pigeon racing is second to none. I made my first pigeon photography box on a building site on a cold winters day at the end of the 1970’s, with the sole purpose of enhancing my pigeon article and it is a practice I still carry out today. Nothing looks better than an article with plenty of quality pigeon photographs!
I think I must have been the press office for nearly every organization I’ve belonged to and in the 1990’s I was press officer for the National Flying Club. When the members of the NFC sent their birds to their first International, no one really knew what an outstanding success it would be and that British racing history was in the making. John Tyerman and I were on the NFC committee and were part of the delegation that went to Belgium to negotiate our Nation taking part in its first International race. Then we convoyed the birds to the train in Belgium after marking and on the day after the race, as NFC Press Office, I drove down to Trowbridge to do an article on Britain’s first ever International winner, Brian Shepperd and his wonderful Champion ‘Legend’. That Dax International marked the start of a new era in British long distance pigeon racing and John and I were very proud to be a part of it! Writing is what I do and still enjoy it, even after all those years.
In recent years, my big involvement in the writing and photography side of the sport have prevented me from racing my birds properly, but have enjoyed the breeding side of pigeon racing and producing winners for others. Whatever I do, I will always have a few pigeons at the bottom of the garden to play around with! I must admit my competitive edge has diminished over the years and get my enjoyment from other aspects of the sport these days. My work in the fancy press over many years has been a gate way to me meeting some of the all times greats of the sport, which I have always considered a wonderful privilege that I have enjoyed very much. I met two of my oldest friends, Ronnie Wasey and Peter Obertelli, through my writing and both these great pigeon racers are family friends. Ronnie is one of the best fanciers I ever met, with him winning at the very top level for many years, including 1st open NFC Pau, through hard work and great dedication. The ‘Italian Stallion’ is from a farming family from the mountains in northern Italy and wins out of turn using his great livestock knowledge. I have made many good friends through my writing and some of the nicest people I’ve met in the sport work in the fancy press. I have worked with all the fancy press editors through my 45 years doing articles and thinking back they were all quite fair when it came to putting red lines through lines in my work.
I have appeared eight times on the television with the pigeons, the first time in 1984 and have made countless appearances on the radio. My favorite appearances on the TV were two of my most recent, BBC ‘Inside Out’ in 2007 and Channel 5 ‘Extraordinary Animals’ which was screened in June 2008 and then repeated in February 2009. I have fond memories of the time I went to the Sky studios in Isleworth, to appear live on ‘Sun Rise’ and taking my two children, Caroline and Mark, who were only young at that time, and the buzz they got seeing the inside of a TV studio and sitting in the ‘green’ room. I’m always willing to front up to the media, to promote and enhance our great sport, but hate and will never get involved with what I call the ‘Trafalgar Square’ element of the media, who want to insult pigeons and the people who keep them.
The B.B.C. television producer, Ray Hough, sent a camera crew to the B.H.W. Blackpool Show to film me judging, which was planned to be linked up with a filming session at my loft in Claygate. The eight minute film, which also featured an in depth interview with my good friend Peter Bryant, former general manager of the R.P.R.A., was for the popular B.B.C. 1 show ‘Inside Out’ London. The programme went out at prime time on a Friday evening and featured many items of interest from the London and South East of England area. Ray Hough and I had two meetings at my home in Claygate earlier and a Monday in February was the day set for the film crew to visit me. I must say we were very lucky with the weather; it was brilliant, but a bit cold. The programme presenter, Mirander Sawyer, turned up about 30 minutes before the crew, as her taxi had had a good clear run from her home in South London, which was great, as it gave us a chance to have a cup of tea and get acquainted before our days’ work together. Mirander originally came from Manchester, moving to London about 15 years previous and was a regular writer for the ‘Observer’ newspaper. Ray Hough, his assistant, Jane Brookes and the crew knocked on my front door soon after and my house was very soon full up with their equipment. The lighting seemed to fill the back garden, which must have impressed my next door neighbors and I was amazed at the time and effort the lads put into getting the light right for different shots. The cameraman, Mark, was a big lad and he like all the T.V. cameramen who have visited my garden in the past, was soon in the loft kicking over all the water fountains. I must remember to leave them empty next time! My filming lasted all day and was light hearted, being more about the racing and showing side of the sport. Miranda started by asking me about the time I got my first pair of birds in the 1950’s and it finished that evening with them filming me photographing pigeons in the ‘factory’, my spare bedroom where I do all my pigeon work. In those many hours filming we talked about most of what I’ve done in my 45 years in pigeon racing, writing, pigeon photography, video production, convoying and the normal racing and showing things. Ray Hough was at the very top of his profession and is a great Director, who knows exactly what he wants. I found Ray a very friendly and down to earth guy, but was a perfectionist when it came to his film work. He had been in the industry for many years and had won many Royal Television Society Awards for his films. Ray invited me to go to the studios at Boreham Wood to see them edit some of the programme, which I must say was a great experience and when the ‘Inside Out’ programme was finally aired I was highly delighted with the end product.
In the May of 2008 I had just returned from France after convoying the London & South East Classic Club birds to Alencon and I received a phone call from the Channel 5 TV producer, Aneeta Chana, asking if they could come and film me with the birds for the long running ‘Extraordinary Animals’ series. Well I’m an ol’ boy now and it took me about a week to get over my convoying trips to France with the Classic birds, but I told Aneeta that I would agree to do it as long as they could make my eyes up to hide the black tiredness rings! Only joking! The lads turned up on the Wednesday for a full afternoon shoot and I must say I really enjoyed filming, especially when they dragged my wife, Betty, in for a shot. They asked me questions on the history of the sport, pigeons in the war, record speeds and distances, and we talked in great length about my work with the British Homing World and London & South East Classic Club. Mike Reilly was the Director on the day and he originally comes from Glasgow, although his family comes from Ireland. He had been working in television for 12 years at that time and had been involved in the Generation Game, Fifth Gear, and had worked with Lenny Henry and Ali G. ‘Extraordinary Animals’ was a new series of ten programmes staring on Channel 5 at 7.30pm on Tuesday 20th May. Mike told me the pigeon programme would be number eight or nine and when he let me know the date we published it in the BHW. I was talking to the camera man, Luke Atkinson, and he told me his camera costs £25,000 and the super duper lens cost another £25,000. Luke originally came from Ealing, but had only lived about five miles from me in Molesey and he has been television for 17 years in 2008. He was a freelance cameraman and had worked on many premier programmes including the highly successful Bad Girls series. Our sound man for the day was Lisala Dolo and in his nine years in the job had worked on Tonight with Trevor McDonald and Life of Grime. As usual I was busy in between takes with taking my photographs and own personal filming. They were very interested in the pigeons and were very pleased with their footage.
I think my biggest single buzz was when one my favorite people on television, Mary Nightingale, had a laugh at my expense! Phil Reay-Smith of ITN News asked me for a film session at my loft to ask me about ‘bird flu’ and how it was affecting our pigeon racing. Phil Reay-Smith and his cameraman, Micky Lawrence, had a good run down from London and we were soon in the garden doing the business, as the item was to be screened in the ITV National News at 18.30 hrs and then repeated on New at Ten that same day. The interview went very well and I did include a big mention of the recent ‘bird flu’ problem. I was set up for a joke by Phil, who on camera asked me what I thought of people who said pigeon fanciers were ‘anoraks’ and I was hit with this question with no warning or rehearsal, and of course had no answer. I’ve had been on Television several times talking about pigeons and the questions to be answered are always sorted out off camera. I was hit right between the eyes on camera! This was a deliberant ‘Gaff’ that should have been left on the editing room floor, but it was left in the interview and I’m glad it was, because it was really funny. The highlight of the whole thing for me was to see Mary Nightingale smiling at my joke, that evening on the 18.30hrs news! She always seems a very nice person and in my opinion comes over the best of all the news readers.
Another enjoyable filming session was for the Sky programme ‘World Business’. A few years ago I received a phone call from T.V. reporter, Alex de Jong, of NCBC Europe television asking me if he could bring a film crew to my loft in Claygate and interview me with the pigeons. The recording was for a five minute sports slot on his ‘World Business’ programme, to be screened on Sky and the programme was also screened on 18 channels globally and on 20 International airlines. The interview covered every aspect of our sport including, long distance and sprint racing, and of course I gave a good account of our problems with Hawks and the recent ‘bird flu’. After the filming, I joked with Alex saying that the media have nick named me ‘One Take Keith’ and he said after the filming had finished that he would have to book more editing time, because I talked too much. What could he mean? LOL! I’m always happy to appear on the national media, to tell them what a great hobby pigeon racing is and it’s not all Trafalgar Square, dirty street pigeons under the railway arches and pigeon droppings. It seems to me that most times I see pigeons featured in the national media, whether it is Television, Radio or in the Newspapers, it’s detrimental to our sport. I’ve now appeared on national T.V. eight times and on several occasions have turned down an appearance on national T.V. because I knew it was going to be a ‘micky take’ and detrimental to pigeon racing. I feel very strongly about this and I hate to see anything adverse about pigeons in the national media. I have made many films on pigeon racing and showing, which have been used by the major television companies and I think my ‘factory’ might house the biggest archive of pigeon articles, photos and films in the pigeon world.
Since the outset of the ‘Bird Flu’ problem in Europe several years ago the sport of pigeon racing and showing has had to suffer several crippling restrictions and temporary ‘blanket’ bans to its general functioning, in some cases with catastrophic affect. We have seen out breaks of ‘Bird Flu’ in the UK and Europe, and had major races and shows cancelled at a last minute. Everybody has their own opinion if these restrictions were too strict or in some cases even necessary, but the main factor is our government body dealing with the virus, DEFRA, thinks they are necessary. Peter Bryant, the general manager of the RPRA at that time, had been in constant contact with DEFRA in one form or another since day one and had been our ‘champion’ on this major problem of restrictions on our sport and in some cases had gained us races we probably would not have had, especially from France. Peter had represented us, the pigeon fancy, brilliantly and the fancy in general must be grateful for his wonderful efforts! All through the ‘Bird Flu’ campaign, Peter, had been asking DEFRA to make a visit to a pigeon loft, so they could see first-hand how we keep our birds and talk to a fancier to gain information on how our sport operates. DEFRA decided a loft visit and a chat with a fancier would be a good idea and Peter Bryant emailed me, and asked if I would host the meeting. As always, I was more than happy to help! If I could say or do something to get the restriction eased and improve our then state of racing and showing, it would be great. After several emails and phone calls between Peter, DEFRA and me, the visit was set for Thursday, 8th May 2008.
The day arrived and it was perfect for viewing racing pigeons, being nice and warm, with a blue sky and sunshine. My front door bell rang and on opening the door, I found two lads in their early thirties standing there with smiles on their faces and not the expected suited government types. My first words to them were, ‘Hi lads! It nice to see you are human. I fully expected to see two little horns sticking out of the top of your heads’. They had a good laugh and that really broke the ice for the very important loft visit. I had visited thousands of pigeon lofts in my 45 years as a pigeon scribe, but this one must rate as one of the most important of them all! The officers were David Middleton, who corresponded with Peter Bryant over our pigeon restrictions most of the time and Balazs, a DEFRA vet who came from Hungary. They had a short chat in the Claygate back living room, and then the officers got dressed up in grey hooded suits and plastic bags on their feet, for the viewing of the pigeons in the loft. David said this protected clothing was very necessary, as they didn’t want to risk bringing anything in to our loft.
David and Balazs were at my home for just under two hours and they never stopped talking about pigeons for the duration of their stay. I assured them that all the information I gave them would be accurate and I had done nothing special to the loft or pigeons for their visit. Everything was as normal. I clean my loft out twice every day and it had been scraped that morning, and the birds exercised as usual. They covered every aspect of racing, including the widowhood system for sprint racing and the natural system for the long distance events. They did talk in length about racing from the continent and in particular my experiences as convoyer for the London & South East Classic Club. They asked if all the birds got home on the day from Pau (550 miles) and I told them the 2007 Pau Classic was one the best races in the history of the L&SECC and they had about 100 birds recorded on the day of liberation. I also explained that most of the birds worked home over the next couple of days. David asked me about the feeding and training of the racers, and seemed to enjoy looking at the youngsters in the nest bowls, in the stock loft. They appreciated the performances of one or two of the better racers, in particular the my good blue chequer hen, ‘Foxwarren Complete’, which had scored well four times in Classic races over 550 miles. Balazs asked me about our Paramixo vaccination programme and told me there had been a recent outbreak of Newcastle’s Disease in Germany. In our conversation I kept bringing up the DEFRA seven day rule on pigeons that fly from the continent and told them it was very detrimental to our pigeon racing and clubs were suffering badly with it being in place. Pigeon racing clubs were losing out on their sport and it is affecting them with big financial losses. I told them if it could be reduced, even to six days, it would be a great help to our sport. I also told them about all the activities of the pigeon year, from pairing up in January, racing in the summer, the moult period in October, through to the winter shows in November and December.
We spent a lot of time talking about the winter shows and how they had suffered financially and activity wise. Many major shows had to be cancelled at the last minute at that time, including the RPRA Southern Region Show, NEHU South Shields Show and the ‘Old Comrades’ Show, and the organizers had encored big financial losses. The previous winter I had been booked to judge at the two major West Country events, the Duchy Show and the Devon & Cornwall Show Racer Society open show, and both these were cancelled because of the ‘Bird Flu’ out break at the Turkey processing firm in Norfolk. All these societies had booked hotels for the traveling judges and big halls to stage the events and when their shows were called off at the last minute, they incur big financial losses, which they could ill afford. The financial loss was one thing, but the Show Racer lads had a very short season, with only a few Classic events, and missed out on a lot of their sport with these cancellations. On my meeting with the DEFRA lads I reminded them of the many thousands of pounds these winter Classic shows donate to charity every year. I mentioned to David that the situation seemed to be getting better with less ‘blanket’ bans accruing with the recent ‘Bird Flu’ out breaks and more localized zones being set up around the affected areas. He told me the containment procedure for say the Turkey farm in Norfolk and the Swan sanctuary in Dorset were different, with a shed full of Turkeys being easier to handle than Swans flying loose. The DEFRA lads appreciated the skills of racing our birds out of the short and long distance, and they witnessed the great affinity we have with our birds. I for one would like to applaud DEFRA for their efforts to find out how our sport clicks and familiarize themselves with the ‘grass root’ of pigeon racing and showing, in an attempt to help us with our ‘Bird Flu’ restrictions. The two officers, David and Balazs, were really nice people and Betty and I enjoyed their visit very much. I did an article on the DEFRA visit to his loft, which had to be approved by the Government Press Office, after which it appeared in the fancy press the following week, but no photos were allowed.
That’s our article for this week. Another walk down ‘Memory Lane’! Happy New Year and all the very best of luck with your pigeon racing in 2016! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT
www.keithmott.com
