“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT - 01-09-25

“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

 Three Borders Federation (Blandford).

I’m pleased to report that the Three Borders Federation’s first three young bird races of the 2025 season have been a brilliant success! The Federation held its third young bird race from Blandford on the first weekend in August and Dom McCoy, the Federation convoyer, liberated the birds at 06.45hrs, in to a light North / North West wind situation to beat the heat and clashing with other organisations. Dom reported first class weather conditions and the convoy cleared the Blandford liberation site in good time. Members enjoyed a great steady race, with excellent returns and Stuart Emans of the Mitcham & Merton club won 1^st Federation Blandfod, recording his fifth Federation winner of the season, previously winning from Okehampton, Wincanton and Honiton (twice) with his old birds. Stuart’s youngsters really did come well, recording 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th Federation from Blandford with just under 700 birds competing. The first bird on Stuart’s ETS Pad to win the Federation was a blue cock, now named ‘Kevin’s Half Blood Prince’ and he was bred in the race loft. His sire was a Gerald Delaney cock when mated to a Kevin Pratt hen, which was one of a batch gifted to Stuart when he needed some spare hens for the racing widowhood cocks. Right behind Stuart on the Blandford result sheet were the Esher & District RPC partnership of Malik & Khan, who took the next fourteen positions. Great pigeon racing by both lofts!

The first ten in the Blandford Federation result were: 1) Stuart Emans 1657: 2) Stuart Emans 1657: 3) Stuart Emans 1657: 4) Stuart Emans 1657: 5) Stuart Emans 1657: 6) Stuart Emans 1656: 7) Stuart Emans 1657: 8) Stuart Emans 1657: 9) Stuart Emans 1654: 10) Stuart Emans 1649. This was race number fifteen of the season and at this point the Mitcham & Merton club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 62 points, with the Ashridge club being R/U on 55 points. Thanks to ‘Hire and Higher Bouncy Castles Sweets and Treats’ who are now sponsoring the Three Borders Federation.

I had a chat with Stuart on the phone after the race and he said, ‘this was our third young bird race of the season and as being the Federation secretary, I was very pleased we had a good increase in the birdage for this race, with just under 700 race birds on the transporter. This was a good improvement on the first two young bird races! As with every race day, I was in constant contact with the Federation convoyer, Dom McCoy and with great weather at the liberation site and on rout home, the birds were liberated at 06-45hrs.

After getting the loft ready for the birds return, I was able to sit down and have a coffee in the garden and enjoy the pleasant morning sunshine. At the club on the Friday marking night I was asked what time I expected the birds home. Going on the previous race and flying 10 miles shorter, I said around 1hr 35mins to 1hr 40 mins. On race day with my eyes fixed on the sky I spotted a batch of pigeon coming towards my garden and with the time being 08.35am, I thought here we go! Frantically blowing my trapping whistle, I wanted at least one to pull out of the batch and trap. This was not the case and the batch of about 20 birds raced on and went right through, and I had nothing. Two minutes later I was looking in all directions and above me a batch of ten birds were folding up and hitting the landing board. I was confident the birds had gone over and had come back to the loft! Within two minutes I had 19 birds on the clock and all of the 36 birds I sent were soon home safe to fight another day. At the club that evening the majority of the members had full returns from a great race. With ‘Gold Rings’ to sort out on the result sheet, Dave Lebby, the club secretary had his work cut out and finally produced the club race result. To my surprise I took the first ten birds on the sheet! All the clubs in the Federation put their results on the Federation WhatsApp group and it was clear I had won the Federation, taking the first ten positions. What I thought was a frustrating race turned out to be my best race ever’.

This is Stuart Emans’ fifth hit this season and because it is a young bird Federation winner we are going to talk about his youngsters and how he manages them. His young bird loft 12ft x 3ft, an aviary on the front and all trapping is for the ETS System. When he weans his youngsters at three weeks old, they go straight on the ‘darkness’ system. They are exercised around the loft once a day and called back in with a whistle, which has been used every time they are fed. Feeding consists of a breeding mixture with a little Barley added and are fed a small amounts until they start to leave the Barley. The young bird team are kept on the breeding mixture until they come off the ‘Darkness’ on the 21^st June. When they come off the ‘darkness’ they are fed on high Carbohydrate mixture, with Barley added and are fed as much as like until they leave the Barley. Stuart starts training the babies as soon as they start to rang from the loft. This is while they are on the ‘Darkness’ system. His first training toss is from five miles and the youngsters are kept at this point until they come straight out of the training basket, race home and go into the loft trap. They then move up to 14 miles and then finally 27 miles. Before the first race the young birds have been in the training basket on average around 30 times. All young birds are flown to the perch and not separated as Stuart doesn’t have the time with work commitments.

Stuart Emans lives in Sutton and for his profession he is a fireman. He took on the Federation secretary job this year, after the retirement of long standing Bryan Poulton and was the Federation ‘Point Champion’ after winning the Federation four times in 2024. He started up in the pigeon racing sport in 2008 and has won the Federation several time through the years, the highlight was winning 1^st Three Borders Federation, 2^nd Combine Bergerac and winning the Federation ‘Channel Averages’. Because of family and work commitments he had to pack up his pigeons for five year and restarted up in 2023 with young birds from his good friends Gary Young and Gerald Delaney. The 2024 season has seen Stuart race those yearlings with outstanding success. He pairs up in in February and races his fourteen cocks and seven hens on the roundabout system. His smart 24ft loft is set up for ETS trapping and is made up of a section for the old cocks, another for the young birds and the roundabout hens are housed in an aviary. He is not interested in fancy pedigrees or eye sign when selecting breeding pigeons and maintains the basket is the only way to find out if a pigeon is any good or not. Stuart gives his birds about ten training tosses up to 27 miles before the first race and then they get two exercise sessions every day around the loft once racing starts. All the races are fed on Stuart’s own widowhood mixture, which he makes up himself and the racers are never broke down.

The late Alex Fleming of Esher.

The late Alex Fleming was in the sport of pigeon racing for over 70 years and said that at the age of five he used to wait at his dad’s loft for several days, while his dad was at work, to clock in birds from 600 mile races. In those days he raced in his native county of Durham and the only breaks he had from the sport was during the war. Alex was premier prize winner in the Esher & Dist. R.P.C. (Three Borders Federation), winning six firsts in 1979 and finished up a great season by winning 1^st open SMT Combine Plymouth (young birds). His Combine winner, a Busschaert dark chequer cock called, ‘Mick’, was a gift egg from Matthews & Longman of Ashford and had won 1^st club, 9^th Surrey Federation Exeter the week before the Plymouth Combine win. Alex had his own family based on Gooters, Gits and Alf Bakers, which were good right through to 500 miles. His 18ft three section loft was set in his fantastic prize winning garden and his birds alighted on to low drop boards, being trapped through drop holes. The loft was kept spotless, being cleaned out every day. His wife, Anna, was very keen on the pigeons and was the brains behind the incredible garden. Alex never used deep litter and said from what he had seen; it could cause trouble in the loft. On my visit to the Fleming loft I noted the nest boxes which had a small perch in the corners so the hens could get away from the cocks when pairing up. The smart loft had a fence along the front to ensure that the birds alighted directly on the drop boards. The 1979 Plymouth Combine winner was Alex’s second 1^st open Combine, previously winning from Penzance in 1968. At that time, in 1968, the Fleming loft made history in the very strong Surrey Federation by winning: 1^st, 2^nd club, 1^st, 2^nd Federation Exmouth, 1^st, 2^nd club, 1^st, 2^nd Federation, 1^st, 2^nd open SMT Combine Penzance, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd club, 1^st, 5^th, 6^th Federation Exmouth, in three successive weekends. A brilliant loft performance! Alex always said his most disappointing experience was in a race when he should have taken the first four positions, but his clock stopped.

Alex maintained that the key factor behind success with racing pigeons is to look after the birds every day of the year and not just in the racing season. He raced on the natural system and trained very little with the old birds getting a few tosses up to Petersfield (40 miles) and youngsters getting about ten training tosses from 6 to 40 miles before the first race. He fed on a mixture of beans, peas, maize and wheat, with Red Band for trapping. When selecting producers he looked for good eye, feather and body and liked one or two latebreds for stock. He always line-bred and his family were a wonderful type of pigeon. Alex kept 20 pairs of old birds, which raced up to longest old bird race from Bergerac, and bred 20 youngsters which raced up to 180 miles. The highlights of Alex’s season in 1979 were: 1^st club, 1^st Surrey Federation Exeter, 1^st club, 5^th Surrey Federation Weymouth, 1^st club, 9^th Surrey Federation Exeter and 1^st club, 1^st Surrey Federation, 1^st SMT Combine Plymouth. Many fancier had outstanding success with the Fleming pigeons, including Nora Major of Putney, who founded her fantastic loft in the 1970’s with his pigeons. Alex Fleming and his pigeons are one of the most respected teams in the Surrey pigeon fraternity of all time!

That’s it for this week! Well done to Stuart Emans on his fifth Federation win of the 2025 season! If you win and want a write up in this space, contact me on telephone number: 07535 484584 or email me on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)