Keith Mott's tribute to
TONY HARTLEY
of Epsom
I received a phone call this week from the son of the Epsom pigeon racer Tony Hartley to inform me that his dad had passed away on 8th July at the grand old age of 89. Tony had packed his pigeons up in recent years, but he did phone me up in recent times for a catch up, such was his lifetime interest in the sport. Tony was a gentleman and in his many years in pigeon racing was a credit to our sport. Condolences from Betty and I to the Hartley family at this very sad time.
Tony had always been in the sport and started as his father's loft manager, having the job of cleaning out and changing the water every day. Tony said his father was a fanatic and the loft had to be spotless, with no corn left on the floor. He told me most of what he knew was taught to him by his father who put up some great performances from the longer races.
Tony started up on his own in 1957 when he purchased his own house. His start was with birds obtained from Mr Greenslade of Ewell and Mr Collins of Canvey Island. Tony's first loft was a converted chicken coop and he was successful from the word go. He only raced the Channel, using the odd inland race for training; the old birds also got three tosses a week, although there was no set system. The young birds got one or two inland races to show them the ropes, and then they went across the Channel to Avranches or the BBC Rennes event. Tony's performances from the Channel events were outstanding and the longer they got, the better they got. He had owned many great pigeons including his 1960 bred red chequer hen, winner of 1st Bordeaux twice, flying Bordeaux four times and Barcelona once and his 1974 bred blue chequer pied hen 'Tenacity' winner of 1st club, 6th Surrey Federation, 11th S.M.T. Combine Bergerac 1976. Tony rated the late, great Eric Cannon of Wormley as the top fancier and said his performances in the NFC races spoke for themselves.
It was second time lucky for Tony when he won 1st London and South Coast Combine Rennes in 1978, as he had done a similar feat before although it was not recorded as such. Many years back Tony flew in the London Coly and their birds were convoyed with the London & South Coast Combine, and despite the birds having a simultaneous liberation the Coly did not fly in the Combine. Tony sent a late bred Gits red chequer cock sitting 14 day old eggs to Bergerac, recorded it on the day and won the Coly velocity 1162ypm. The Combine winner which was recorded on the south coast at Worthing recorded a velocity of 1159ypm. The great race controller in the sky smiled on Tony in 1978 and made it second time lucky! The 1978 L&SC Combine Rennes winner was a pure Price two year old blue chequer cock named 'Tony Boy', which handled above medium and was a deep type pigeon. At that time the London & South Coast Combine was probably one of the strongest combines in the south of England and Tony's win was in excellent style with 6,462 birds taking part.
In the February of 1979 I visited the Epsom home of Tony and his wife Ruth, who was very interested in the pigeons, and he was thinking of painting the lofts ready for pairing up. The main racing loft was a three section 16ft Beacon loft with drop hole trapping and all the nest boxes were removed in the winter months. Tony said at the time he thought deep litter was a good idea, but found it too dusty, so Ruth scraped out three times a week. He maintained that a dry and well ventilated loft was a must for any degree of success. The self-built stock loft was also 16ft with three sections, with a nice roomy flight in the front. The stock birds were housed one pair to a section and the three pairs were paired up on 14th February. The eighteen pairs of racers were paired up on 15th March and about 30 youngsters were bred each year.
KEITH MOTT 2014
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