“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT
The Human Family Special
Several generations of the Human family have raced pigeons with outstanding success in the Hampshire arera for many years. My ol’ friend, Derek Human, must have one of the best racing records in Classic and National in the south of England, including 1st open NFC Tarbes. His son, Adrian, has had brilliant success racing pigeons at his own address and of course raced his famous champion, ‘Ransdean Reliance’, to his loft in Petersfield.
After winning the 2007 NFC Tarbes race in such good style, Derek Human of Petersfield certainly had some thing to do in 2008 to equal that wonderful National win achieved by his great Champion ‘Any Distance’. Well if he didn’t equal that 2007 performance he certainly came close! Derek entered five birds in the 2008 NFC Tarbes race, with over 4,000 birds competing, and got four home on the day of liberation, clocking three of the birds within 18 minutes of his first arrival. Brilliant pigeon racing by any one’s standards! The first bird on the clock at 16.40hrs to record 15th open was Derek’s good blue cock, ‘Jack’, who is a very consistent racer in National events and was sent to Tarbes sitting 14 day old eggs. ‘Jack’ was mated to his mother, ‘Rose 2’, and she was third birds home, clocked at 16.58hrs to record 38th open in the National. This wonderful hen is sheer class, being a brilliant racer and breeder! Second pigeon on the clock at 16.50 hrs was the good blue chequer cock, ‘Kenny’, and he is a son of the Tarbes National winner, ‘Any Distance’. ‘Kenny’ recorded 32nd open and was also sent sitting two week old eggs. Derek got a phone call from his wife while at the clock station getting his National clock checked and she said a fourth pigeon had arrived from Tarbes at 21.00hrs, and turned out to be Champion ‘Any Distance’. The Human’s fifth bird arrived home early next morning and had been ripped up by a Sparrowhawk. That was some billiant performance!
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 is a very likable guy, who has always got a smile on his face and along with his pigeon racing son, Adrian, is 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, 1st open NFC Tarbes Grand National and did it in fantastic style. His wonderful champion, ‘Any Distance’, won 1st 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 NFC Certificate of Merit Award, previously winning: 8th section, 70th open NFC Bordeaux and 11th section, 71st open NFC Pau. Champion ‘Any Distance’ has had a brilliant racing career, winning other premier positions including: 1st. section, 16th. open NFC Chale, 15th section, 251st open NFC Fougeres and 19th setion, 369th open NFC 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! Derek says she was sent to Tarbes in her favourite nest condition, feeding a baby, and the squeaker she was feeding when she won the National was donated to the NFC Young Bird Auction and raised £470 for the club. In the early part of the season she was seperated from her mate to hold her moult and then was sent to the very hard Central Southern Classic Flying Club Cholet race, where she scored in the first few in the open result, and then was repaired so she had a youngster for the Tarbes National.
Derek has lived at his present address in Petersfield about eight years and on moving in he scaled down his pigeon set up to a wooden 18ft x 6ft ‘Barnsley’ loft, which has three sections. The loft has an aviary running a long the front and the birds are trapped through the old fashion ‘bob’ wires. Derek says his loft is very old fashioned, but it has the push button belt to clean out the nest boxes every Sunday morning. The loft houses all his racers, as the stock birds are kept at his son, Adrian’s house and he only keeps eight pairs old bird racers, which are mated up on 14th February. He races the natural system with the long distance Nationals in mind and when they have reared their young, they are seperated to hold their moult, and then repaired to get them ready for the race they are required for. The birds are fed on Willsbridge ‘Irish’ mixture and get very little training, only getting a few chucks from Fareham Sports Centre, 15 miles from the loft. The birds are not given an open loft because of the really bad local Hawk problem, but get good exercise around the loft in the evenings. The basic family are Davenport / Cattryse, with some Newman / Cattrysse being bought in some years ago and all Norman Bishop’s Cattrysse pigeons were purchased just before he passed away. Other premier racers at Derek’s Petersfield loft are: ‘Rose 2’ a wonderful blue Cattrysse hen and daughter of the Human’s 1996 BBC Nantes National winner ‘Rose’. Derek is not much good at keeping records of his pigeons performances, but told me ‘Rose 2’ was a champion racer winning a list of premier prizes in the Nationals, including 10th open BBC San Sebastian, 10th open BBC St. Nazaire and 1st section B. Fougeres N.F.C., plus a special ward presented by the BBC This great hen races well in any nest condition and has also score being un-paired. ‘Jack’ a Cattrysse blue cock and son of ‘Rose 2’. This game cock is only three years old and has recorded several premier positions in British Barcelona Club races.
Derek and Adrian share the 20 pairs of stock birds, which are kept at Adrian’s home and these are nornally paired up at Christmas. The stock loft is 16ft x 8ft, with a massive aviary and the main feeding is Brian Wall’s ‘Breeding’ mixture. Derek sells the first round of youngsters off the stock birds each season and then breeds about 28 babies to race. Derek loves young bird racing and has been very successful through the years, the best performances being twice 1st open C.S.C.F.C. with babies. He is trying out the ‘darkness’ system this season and maintains, these days you must be on the system to do well in young bird racing. The young birds are given lots of short training tosses and then five chucks from the New Forest before going in to the first races. Derek is not in a Saturday Federation club and the youngsters go straight over the channel with the NFC or BBC, with them some times getting five channel crossings, including Guernsey and Lambelle.
Derek started up with pigeons at the age of 13 and his first loft was an old chicken shed. His first club was the old Alton club and won his first race from Guernsey, which he thought was a good performance because he beat the great Frank Jarvis of Selbourne. Derek has been in the sport of pigeon racing over 50 years and tells me his ambishion has always been to win the NFC Grand National. Many years ago he was a great friend of the NFC Pau winner, Les Davenport, and he got Derek going in pigeons with advice and six gift young birds. Those six birds are the base of the Human loft today! In those days Derek ran the NFC clock station at the ‘King’s Head’ public house in Alton and he tells me the clock station had five National winners there when it was running. Derek’s son, Adrian, is an outstanding pigeon racer in his own right and has won many premier positions in the British Barcelona Club in recent seasons.
I visited Derek Human’s loft in 1996 with my YouTube film unit and at that time he lived in Alton. The Human family lived in a converted barn set in the wonderful Hampshire countryside and Derek had a great record in Classic and National racing, winning many premier positions, including 1st Open Central Southern Classic Flying Club twice in the early 1980's. The 1996 season saw the Human loft win 1st and 2nd Open Nantes British Barcelona Clclub National and several other good wins channel racing. His BBC National winner was his Davenport x Cattrysse blue hen ‘Rose’, raced on the Natural System. Derek had a bad hawk problem living in the Hampshire countryside and losed many pigeons each year to predators. His champion hen 'Rose' was picked up in the lane outside the Humans' home, being badly injured by a hawk attack. It took her two years rest to get over it, then, she came out to win 1st open Nantes (BBC) in 1996. Previously to winning Nantes 'Rose' won 6th open CSCFC Bergerac and was named after his little grand daughter who was pigeon mad, and was constantly in the loft with him. Derek lived in Cornwall for a while, and said that with the number of birds of prey he saw there, he would never race his birds out of the West Country.
The Human pigeons were raced on both Natural and Widowhood Systems, and he trained the naturals the most. His Widowhood method was very unconventional and both sets of old bird racers were hopper fed, on a first class mixture, with channel racing in mind. Derek is a builder by trade and made his fantastic brick L-shaped loft, which had a pantile roof, with Ventaxia windows for maximunn ventilation. The 40 foot loft had a full glass front and bob wire trapping, which Derek admitted is old fashioned but suits his type of racing. He had no stock birds and the 15 pairs of old birds were paired up the second week in February if the weather is fine, and 30 young birds were reared each season. The main families housed were Davenport / Cattrysse and Vissers, and they raced with outstanding success through to 700 miles.
Derek said his biggest thrill in pigeons at that time was in 1980, when he was 1st & 2nd open Avranches Central Southern Classic Flying Club and he saw his winning 'Olympic 80' on the front page of the pigeon paper the following week and then won 1st Open Lambelle SCCFC the following season. The Central Southern Classic Flying Club sent 1,170 birds to Avranches in 1980 and liberated on the proposed day at 09.00hrs in a south west wind. Derek’s good dark chequer hen, ‘Olympic 80’, recorded 1217 ypm to win first open. Her sire and dam were perchased at Alex Reed’s clearance sale in 1979 for £6 each and produced many other top racers for the Human loft including, 2nd club Nantes, 1st club Saintes and 1st club, 6th Solent Federation Avranches. The second pigeon on the clock to win 2nd open was the Danenport / Cattrysse blue white flight hen, ‘Hampshire Girl’ and she had previously won 1st club Seaton. These two great young hens won the Avranches classic really well and were both raced to the perch. The following season the classic sent 1,256 birds to Lamballe and Derek recorded a real ‘banger’, winning the race well clear with his Davenport / Cattrysse blue pied hen, ‘Double Up’. He fancied this hen, as she had been coming well in training and slipped a pair of eggs under her eight days prior to thr classic. Her nestmate was the blue pied hen, ‘Jack’s Girl’, and she recorded 3rd section, 18th open N.F.C. Lamballe as a young bird and she was raced to the perch. What a pair of youngsters! Their dam was bred by Louella Pigeon World and was purchased on a day trip to the Stud in Leicester.
Derek's wife is a great help with the birds and his son, Adrian, who at that time lived in Bride in Cornwall, had started up in pigeon racing several years previous. Derek's birds were fed on a no bean mixture, because years ago his good friend, Les Davenport, told him beans are for horses, and peanuts were added to the diet for the longer races. The birds were kept very natural and picked up their own nesting twigs from the Humans' massive garden, and nest bowls were not used in the nest boxes. Derek has a lot of admiration for his good friend Les Davenport, who gave a lot of good help and has given him some first class stock, which are now winning Classic and National races.
Adrian Human is from a very successful pigeon racing family, with his father, Derek Human, being a NFC Tarbes winner and his grandfather also being a very good fancier many years ago. Adrian was born in Alton, Hampshire and told me, ‘I have been around pigeons all my life, going to various pigeon events with my father, such as Reading Cattle Market in the days when you queued for one to two hours for NFC race marking. In 1991 I moved to a house next door to dad, I was working in Portsmouth so started training his pigeons every day. At the time I kept British finches, which I housed in several aviaries and a bird room. After a while working with my dad’s pigeons, my interest was re-kindled and I changed to pigeon racing and built a new loft. My first pigeons came from Louella and my dad. I joined Alton club for young birds in 1992 and won my first race from Seaton and I went on to win every young bird race except one, winning the young bird average in the club. I thought pigeon racing was easy, how wrong I was’.
Adrian is only really interested in long distance racing and all the pigeon management is set up for the Tarbes and Palamos Nationals. His best pigeon is the champion blue chequer cock, ‘Ransdean Reliance’, and he is bred down from the very best Davenport / Cattrysse bloodlines of Champion ‘Game Lady’. This brilliant 600 mile cock was raced on the natural system, performing best sitting ten day old eggs, and won the BBC ‘Spanish Diploma’ winning 19th, 44th, 51st, 108th open Palamos (657 miles), and 16th open Barcelona (676 miles). He was recorded in race time from the longest BBC event five times and recorded 16th open Barcelona as a ten year old. This wonderful cock has proved to be a champion in the breeding loft, producing several premier long distance racers, including ‘The Bordeaux Cock’, ‘The Section Hen’ and a ‘Spanish Diploma’ winner for his father, Derek Human. A fantastic cock!
Adrian races his birds on natural and pairs up the first sunny weekend in February, with his race birds choosing their own mate. Training starts the second week in April, usually from Hayling Island, about 15 miles south of the loft, moving to the New Forest about 30 miles down the road and sometimes the birds are singled up. His Palamos birds are usually singled up late in the evening at around 8pm. Adrian feeds ‘PLX’ mixture early in the season changing to ‘Irish’ mixture as the distance moves up and Peanuts are fed quite heavily once the distance is over 250 miles. He says, his favourite nest condition for the long distance events depends on the individual bird, as they are all different. His present race loft is a 42ft Petron, with Hermes auto boxes and it was a gift from his dad when he downsized his loft, when he moved into a new house. It is well vented with sliding ceiling panels so the airflow can be adjusted and tells me he has used deep litter when time was short, but I like to scrape out. The main family keep are Cattrysse, because over the years these birds have done well for many different people. Adrian and Derek share the 20 pairs of stock birds, which are kept at Adrian’s home and these are nornally paired up at Christmas. The stock loft is 16ft x 8ft, with a massive aviary and the main feeding is Brian Wall’s ‘Breeding’ mixture.
Adrian and his dad have one youngster each out of each nest. New stock birds introduced only come in from good long distance lofts who race small teams of birds, like Adrian. His best breeder in the stock loft is ‘Ransdean Reliance’, as he has bred a ‘Spanish Diploma’ winner for his dad, and he is the sire of many premier racers for the Human lofts. He usually keep 40 young birds each season and half of them go on darkness, and once training starts they are fed on half ‘PLX’ and half ‘Young Bird’ mixture. They are usually parted before racing starts and allowed together on Friday lunch time of marking day. They must have at least two Channel races, and must go to either BBC Lamballe or the NFC young bird race.
Adrian told me about the early days and said, ‘I have always had an interest in the long distance races and the first birds I had in the beginning were the Cattrysse and black Krauths. When I first started with young birds, all those years ago I had a great start, but it didn’t continue. It was my lack of knowledge not the birds! My first ever training toss was a disaster, taking 40 young birds from two miles and I let them go, and watched them go over my loft and away towards London. Three hours later I had one pigeon back and by the end of the second day I had them all back in the loft. My first loft was brick built, with a tiled roof out of material I managed to acquire from various sources’.
Adrian is a builder and always has been since leaving school. He says, ‘my wife will feed the pigeons while I am away and let them out if I ask her, and one time she clocked a hen from San Sebastian, which ended up 13th open from a disastrous race. My son, Jack, likes to go to pigeon club and has a few young birds to follow, which I usually loose for him! My best performances are; 1st section, 8th open BBC Bordeaux, 2nd Section, 5th open BBC Bordeaux, 5th section, 46th open NFC Bordeaux, 8th section, 47th open NFC San Sebastian, 5th section, 11th open BBC Bordeaux and my best achievement in pigeons is my ‘Spanish Diploma’ winner ‘Ransdean Reliance’, whom has gone on to win a Gold Salver for four times Palamos, and a Crystal Vase for four times Palamos at 10 years old. He holds no offices in the sport, but likes to help at marking stations. Adrian maintains, the management of the sport has its downsides, but it is in a no-win situation with most pigeon people and thinks the sport has progressed despite there being fewer members. He thinks fanciers are more dedicated and professional these days and tells me the top fancier in his area must be his dad, putting up phenomenal performances with only a very small team of pigeons. Two other fancier he rates very highly is Dave Wells of Bordon who can get pigeons from any distance with no fancy methods and Jimmy Wearn whose dedication is beyond belief! Late breds are only taken from the best racers and parts his pigeons after the last young bird race to get the moult under way.
There you have it, the Human family of Hampshire, the long distance specialist! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments on telephone: 01372 463480 or email on
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT
(www.keithmott.com)
