“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT - 12-12-25

“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Central Southern Classic Flying Club

I had eight great years convoying racing pigeons through to the south of France for the London & South East Classic Club. It was hard work and very stressful, but I loved it! It was brilliant fun traveling down to the south of France in those Lorries and producing great racing for the classic clubs. I went to longest race points (550 miles) eight times, Pau six times and Tarbes twice. In most of those seasons I convoyed three organisations, the London & South East Classic Club, Central Southern Classic Flying Club and Welsh National Flying Club to the longest race together on the L&SECC transporter, which was good fun. At the end of the 2008 season I thought to myself, ‘I’m too old for this lark now’ and packed it all in! In 2010 I received an invitation to convoy for the mighty Central Southern Classic Flying Club that season and because I didn’t have to drive and it was mostly new race point in France that I had never visited before, I gave it one more season and accepted the job. I must say it was great fun and a privilege to work with one of the best pigeon club secretaries in the sport, the wonderful, Clare Norman. She is brilliant!

It looked like I was back on the road again that coming 2010 season and I couldn’t wait! It became common knowledge amongst the Classic fraternity that I had returned to my old roaming ways as chief convoyer of the Central Southern Classic Flying Club for the 2010 season. I had eight very enjoyable years as Convoyer for the London & South East Classic Club and I must say, with some help from my old race adviser and weather man, Steve Appleby; we had a very good record, producing some great Classic racing for the members. I first started when Doug Went and I convoyed the first Classic of the 1997 season from Alencon, which had a record entry at that time of nearly 2,400 birds. Doug Went was one of the greats of convoying racing pigeons, with many years experience on the South and North roads and I must say, working with him for 18 months taught me a lot about being on the road with the pigeons. I took over as chief convoyer for young birds in 1998 and I think the best liberation site we visited was Bordeaux. It is very spacious and has full facilities for the pigeons and convoyers. This site is the main lorry driver’s stopover car park in Bordeaux and has a truckers hotel and petrol station, so it’s easy to water the birds and for the convoyers to get a meal and shower. This site is very near to a river and, like Pau, is prone to early morning mist.

I first heard the name of Robertson & Vaizey of Portsmouth was when they won their first ever Classic race that they had competed in and it was funny that it was my first race as convoyer for the Central Southern Classic Flying Club! I completed my first convoying stint for the CSCFC in mid-May of 2010 and I must say it was one of the most enjoyable trips I’ve had to France with the birds. One of the main reasons that got me out of retirement and start convoying again this season, was the prospect of visiting some new liberation sites and our first destination was Messac, which is on the west side of France, midway between Rennes and Nantes. I was very impressed with liberation site at Messac and I think it is fair to say it is one of the best sites I’ve visited in France.

With the North West element in the wind the first three in the open result were clocked in the Portsmouth area and it was congratulate Steve Vaizey and Barry Robertson who won the race handsomely! The partners clocked their Vandenbeele blue cock to record a velocity of 1298 ypm and won the Classic by a clear 11ypm. Brilliant pigeon racing! The day after the race Steve said, ‘I’m still recovering from winning the Messac Classic and the feelings great! We are only back garden flyers and last year we won all the Milton HS old bird averages and the combined average, plus the Solent Federation old bird average, three longest race average and combine average with just ten cocks and eleven hens. Our pigeons are flown on the roundabout system, so we can race both cocks and hens. Our Messac Classic winner had every Solent Federation race in his preparation and flew the BBC Vire race the weekend before his CSCFC Messac win’. I spoke to Steve on the phone to arrange this loft article and he told me we have met many years ago. It turns out he is the son of the late Len Vaizey of Kingston and we met when he was a lad in the early 1970’s.

Barry and Steve kept only a small team of pigeons and raced both cocks and hens on the roundabout system, with everything racing every week through the Federation programme. The racers were normally shown their mate on marking day and were trained up to the first or second race. The birds were not broken down until the longer races came up and as the races got longer the racers got their mates for longer on their return on a Saturday afternoon. Barry told me, ‘We are not in to long distance racing yet, but our birds race well and win at Federation level up to Bergerac, which is 417 miles to our loft in Portsmouth’. The partners raced about 40 young birds each season and these were put on the dark system from weaning until mid-June. They were trained well up to 25 miles and allowed to pair up if they want to. Steve said, ‘our youngsters are race through the full programme to test them and whatever is left at the end is worth keeping’.

The twenty pairs of stock birds were kept at Steve’s home and he was the breeding manager, which was based on the eyesign method. He told me, ‘I’m mad on the eyesign theory and all our stock selection and pairings are mainly based on the pigeon’s eyesign. I have learnt that there is more to it than any one knows with the different theories and I’m just beginning to have my own. Our 2010 CSCFC Messac winner, ‘Blazing 22’, was the result of a pure 100% eyesign pairing and it takes two good eyes to produce winners, meaning you might have lots of good eyesign pigeon in the stock loft, but the secret is knowing which eye to mate to what eye to produce the winners’. The partners were friends with Keith Arnold of Leamington Spa and they raced his Staf Van Reets with outstanding success, and also Jack and Lee Madgin’s Vandenabeele and Soontjen pigeons. The stock birds were paired up at Christmas time, but because their young bird loft only coped with about 50 youngsters comfortably, their only took one round off the breeders. Barry told anybody starting up in the sport that a well ventilated loft and well-bred stock birds are the most important factor for success.

Although the partners had won the Federation many times, they maintain 2^nd open BBC Messac and their CSCFC Messac win that season were their best performances to date. Steve won a training race in the Sun City Million Dollar Race on 1^st December 2007 and then lead the UK averages in the final and 12^th in the world averages with his good pigeon, ‘Bramble’. Up to recent seasons Barry and Steve had been basically Federation flyer, but had decided to have a go at National and Classic racing. They told me three great local fanciers were ‘Bomber’ Mellis, Jason Ross and Albie Webb, and if you had a pigeon in front these lads you have a good one!

Barry had been in the sport 50 years and as a lad used to catch strays from the local church tower. His first club was the Portsmouth north road and his first top pigeon was in 1979, a red cock from John Parrack’s ‘Polly’. Barry’s success story really started when he introduced the Les Davenport / Cattrysse pigeons in 1980 and the Keith Arnold / Cattrysse in 1999. Steve was born in to pigeons with his father, Len, being a successful fancier in the Molesey and Kingston clubs in the early 1970’s and his first ace bird was a red cock from the late Trussler Brothers of Molesey, which won the Surrey Federation. Through the years Steve had had various strains but liked the Delbars and Kempeneers in the 1980’s, and had some good results with them. He told me he has had some bad luck with his pigeons and years ago he had a pigeon home to win the Young Bird National from Guernsey, but flew around with a batch of pigeons in the next street for five minutes!

Barry and Steve believed in line breeding and inbreeding, but said at the end of the day, if you have two outstanding families they need to be crossed at some stage. Steve told me, ‘people say the moult is very important and I was always inclined to agree, but our birds had a bad moult in 2009 and we were wondering how they would get on this racing season. We have come out and won the CSCFC from Messac, is it just another theory?’

Although it was a big congratulations to Robertson & Vaizey, it was also nice to see my late friend, Derek Human of Petersfield, up in the Messac result at 2^nd open, as he recently had the very bad luck of having his 2007 NFC Tarbes winner Champion ‘Any Distance’ killed by a Sparrowhawk. Derek was telling me at Messac marking about having several of his premier pigeons killed and I must say it was really bad news to hear his Tarbes winner was dead. Derek’s 2^nd open Messac pigeon was a yearling hen flying in her second race of the 2010 season, bred by his son Adrian and was a granddaughter of Champion ‘Any Distance’. Derek Human and I go back many years, starting in the early 1980’s when he had his wins in the Central Southern Classic Flying Club and he came to my home in Claygate to have his young bird champions photographed, and I covered his successes in the fancy press. Derek was a very likable guy, who had always got a smile on his face and along with his pigeon racing son, Adrian, was always up for a laugh. I for one was over the moon to hear the great news that he had won the greatest prize in long distance pigeon racing in the 2007 season, 1^st open N.F.C. Tarbes Grand National and did it in fantastic style. His wonderful champion, ‘Any Distance’, won 1^st open Tarbes (540 miles) with 3,477 birds competing and won the strong Section B. by 133 y.p.m. clear. A brilliant performance at the highest level! This game five year old Cattrysse blue chequer hen was sent to Tarbes feeding a nine day old youngster and has won a N.F.C. Certificate of Merit Award, previously winning: 8^th section, 70^th open N.F.C. Bordeaux and 11^th section, 71^st open N.F.C. Pau. Champion ‘Any Distance’ has had a brilliant racing career, winning other premier positions including: 1^st. section, 16^th. open N.F.C. Chale, 15^th section, 251^st open N.F.C. Fougeres and 19^th setion, 369^th open N.F.C. Sennon Cove. A champion racer in the truest sence of the word, winning at at the very highest level and as her name surgesses, at any distance!

I’ve stated several times before on this page that this convoying lark is a young man’s game and every season I personally found it harder and harder! I was sixty years of age in 2010 and was defiantly getting to old for the hard work involved in convoying pigeons properly to France. I loved the job, but it didn’t love me anymore! I had all sorts of health problems in the later years through convoying the pigeons and finished the 2010 season completely knackered. The 2010 season was my last year convoying pigeons! The member of the Central Southern Classic Flying Club enjoyed some great pigeon racing that season; I certainly enjoyed the experience of doing the convoying work and using their wonderful transporter. In spite of the general run of ‘not so good’ weather conditions that  summer, I think it is safe to say that we made the best of it and produced some good Classic racing for the members. I made some good friends and enemies in my year as chief convoyer of the CSCFC, but this is part and parcel of the job, if you are doing it properly. I have always said how brilliant Clare Norman is at her jobs as secretary of the CSCFC and now I’ve worked with her that year and now know first-hand just how brilliant she is! Martin Norman and his brother Bill were two very hard workers for the Classic and I must say it was a pleasure working with them both, they are two great guys. At the time I said a special ‘thanks’ to my drivers, Geoff Biffen and Mike Clarke, and my race advisors, Roy Ferriman and Steve Appleby for all their good work in the 2010 season. The Central Southern Classic Flying Club: pigeon racing at its best!

Well that’s it for this week! Something a bit different this week and I hope my readers have enjoyed this look back at my season as chief convoyer of the great Central Southern Classic Club. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters 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).