KEITH MOTT
writes about winning fanciers past and present
TOM WILLIAMS OF ORPINGTON
Tom Williams only races a very small team of 12 widowhood cocks, with great success, and the 2014 old bird season saw him win a list of prizes in his local club and the National Flying Club. His whole season's racing is a build up to the NFC Tarbes Grand National and this time he sent three really fit widowhood cocks, clocking on the winning, on what turned out to be a very hard race. Tom’s star bird this season was the three year old blue pied cock, ‘Tarbes Pathfinder’, and this season he won several top positions including 23rd section E, 76th open NFC Tarbes (2,769 birds), plus 2nd club Messac, being beaten by a loft mate, doing 835 ypm on a very hard day. This great cock likes it long or short on easy or hard days! When he was a two year old he flew the NFC Tarbes Grand National (565 miles) and as a yearling won 1st club Poole, doing the 100 mile race on 1975 ypm, and that same season won 20th open L&SECC Bergerac, flying 451 miles on the day of liberation. The Classic only had 25 birds home on the day from Bergerac and ‘Tarbes Pathfinder’ was doing 1007 ypm. A great all round racing cock! When I ask Tom how his great cock was bred he told me, ‘his sire is a bird I call ‘Seagull’ and was given to me from Dave McSween, the great Up North Combine racer. Dave is a real gentleman and a credit to the sport of pigeon racing. ‘Seagull’ is the sire of several other top winners for me, including a cock that won 1st club, 5th Federation, 11th Combine Poitiers and he is a double grandson of ‘Wearside Lass’ who won 1st UNC from Bourges 565 miles. The grandson of ‘Seagull’ is ‘Lionheart’ and he was 2nd UNC also from Bourges for Dave McSween. The dam of ‘Tarbes Pathfinder’ is a hen I brought from John Searle from Cambridge and she is the Brian Denney bloodlines, right through to Champion ‘Tuff Nut’.
Tom only races a small of 12 widowhood cocks each season and these are housed in an 8ft x 8ft loft with open door trapping. He clocks his birds on rubbers and tells me he has on need for ETS with the type of racing he is interested in. The widowhood cocks are paired up just after the BHW Blackpool Show in January and some years they rear a baby and some year they don’t before going on the system. In recent seasons Tom has just let them sit eggs to about 18 days and then took the hens away, and they are never repaired, not even for the long distance events. Once the birds are paired up in January they are not let out of the loft, but are given lots of 5 mile training tosses while on their first drive to nest, and then are raced inland with the Federation get them race fit for Continental racing. The birds are given ‘diet’ mixture on their return from the races, apart from this they are not broken down and are fed on ‘Gerry Plus’ mixture. The widowhood cocks are not always shown their hens on marking night, but stay with then all afternoon on their return from the race.
The champion pigeon of the Orpington loft is Tom’s great blue cock, ‘Mr. Reliable’, and he recorded 2011: 2nd section, 18th open L&SECC Bergerac (854 birds) being clocked at 451 miles on the day of liberation, 2012: 21st open L&SECC Alencon (1380 birds), 2nd section, 70th open L&SECC Tours (850 birds), 2nd section, 16th open L&SECC Tarbes, being clocked at 562 miles on the day of liberation. ‘Mr. Reliable’ is now retired to the stock and breeding top class long distance racers for the Williams loft. A fantastic performance!
When I asked Tom how long he had been in the sport he told me, ‘I’ve kept pigeons off and on since I was ten years of age and back in the 1970’s and 1980’s I raced in the Coulsdon & Caterham RPC, which was affiliated to the Surrey Federation. In those days I was only interested in sprint racing and was very successful with my 12 widowhood cocks. I was top prize winner for many years and in the 1983 season when we were banned from racing from France because of the ‘foot and mouth’, I won 12 of the 14 races in my club and was second in the other two. I won the Surrey, Croydon and Sussex Federation, and shortly after that gave up my pigeons due to the back biting, that spoiled pigeon racing for me. In 2007 I was very ill with bowel cancer and at that time I decided to get some birds and spend the rest of my days racing pigeons on the long distance. What of the future? I’m 75 years young and hope to race my pigeons as long as he above allows me to and will enjoy every minute of it.’ There you have it, the Tom Williams story! What a great fancier and I must say a very nice man.
BRIAN BATCHELOR OF ELSTEAD
Brian Batchelor has told me recently, he is suffering with a bad lung problem and after 50 years in the sport, sadly has to pack up his pigeons at the end of this season. His pending retirement from the sport has spurred him on to have one big final fling with his birds and he has enjoyed a brilliant 2014 old bird season. The highlight of the season was sending three cocks to the NFC Tarbes Grand National and clocking all three on the winning day, recording, 15th, 31st, 40th section A, 90th, 233rd, 308th open. A brilliant performance in such a hard race! The first bird on the ETS from Tarbes was Brian good blue Cannon / Van Bremen widowhood cock, ‘The Tarbes Cock’, and he also won 36th section A, NFC Carentan (495 birds) this season. This handsome cock is a direct son of Brian’s foundation stock bird ‘The Old Cannon Cock’, when mated to his good racing hen, ‘Baby’, who was clocked on the winning day from Tarbes and Pau. Brian’s small racing team have won list of prizes this season, the highlights being: 1st club Yelverton (254 birds), 3rd club, 4th Federation, 5th Amalgamation Bergerac (1,213 birds), 4th club, 11th Federation Messac (1,042 birds), 5th, 12th club, 19th, 37th Federation Nort sur Erdre (632 birds), 74th, 294th open BICC Poitiers (1,934 birds), 36th section A, NFC Carentan (495 birds), 15th, 31st, 40th section A, 90th, 233rd, 308th open NFC Tarbes (2769 birds).
Brian Batchelor is a ‘hard-core’ long distance enthusiast and in recent seasons has been very successful in the National and Classic races from 550 miles. He races in the very strong Godalming club and the 2012 season has seen him win the longest old bird race from Bergerac (450 miles), and record 3rd SMT Combine. When I recently asked Brian about his family of pigeons he told me, ‘my main family of long distance racers are the late Eric Cannon of Wormley bloodlines, with the sire of the loft being ‘The Old Cannon Cock’, which must be described as a champion breeder having produced a long list of premier racers from 550 miles. This handsome blue cock was bred by Keith and Betty Mott in 2004 from their Number Three Eric Cannon stock pair and he is a grandson of Champion ‘Culmer Sam’ and Champion ‘Culmer Bess’, the NFC Pau Merit Award winner. ‘The Old Cannon Cock’ is a full brother to the Eric Cannon stock cock, ‘Foxwarren Fred’, who is the sire of many premier long distance champions including: 1st Federation Bourges (581 miles), 2nd Federation Bourges, 2nd Federation Bourges, 2nd Federation Bourges, 3rd Federation Bourges, 5th Federation Bourges, 8th Federation Bourges and is grand sire of 1st Amalgamation Bourges (581 miles) in the 2012 and 2013 seasons. He is the sire of the champion cock, ‘The Five Times Bourges Cock’, winner of 3rd, 5th, 8th Federation Bourges and sire of 1st Amalgamation Bourges (twice)’.
Brian owns the Post Office in the village of Elstead in Surrey and his very smart little loft is site in the garden of the premises. He is only a small team man, about 50 pigeons in all, including old bird racers, young birds and his stock team. The old birds are raced most seasons on a celibate system and the racers only see their mates on race day or returning home from training tosses. Brian says his system is very similar to widowhood, but he races both the hens and cocks. Working where his pigeon are he can keep to a tight routine, with the cocks getting an open hole for three hours in the morning, the hens getting the same in the afternoon and young bird team have their fly in the evening. They are fed on Buckton’s Economy protein mixture and standard widowhood mixes. They also get Old Hand Golden Boost, Versalaga Pellets, minerals and only GSE purifier is added to the drinking water once a week. Brian tells me no medication is used in the off season, but during the racing season he has a medication regime. In the week between races the birds get one or two training tosses from about 30 miles, if possible in to the wind regardless of direction. His young birds receive ten tosses and then three or four races, before being stopped to finish their very import moult.
Prior to starting up with pigeons at Elstead in 2004 Brian had racing pigeon in New Zealand where he had lived most of his life before returning to England permanently, the country of his birth. In New Zealand he had pigeons off and on since he was eleven years old and tells me he had some good success at times. Two memorable races in New Zealand were in 1994 when he was 2nd, 3rd Young Birds National and 1st Section, 2nd overall Auckland Federation Timaru (560 miles), with the same pigeon recording 5th Section, 5th overall in the same race the following year, which was flown on the day in 13 hours 26 minutes. He also still holds the record in one club he belonged to, when his pigeon flew 453 miles in 8hours 27 minutes. In the later years of his New Zealand pigeon racing he flew in partnership with Digby Riemann, under the flying name of Royal Oak Lofts and scored numerous positions including 3rd, 4th, 6th Auckland Futurity, 3rd Young Bird National on a hard day and 2nd section, 2nd Federation overall Timaru (560 miles).
There you have it, two small team fanciers scoring big in the very hard 2014 NFC Tarbes Grand National. That’s our article 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)
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