“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Reg and Richard Maybey of Virginia Water.
The loft that set the Surrey / Berkshire pigeon fancier alight in recent seasons was that of the late Reg Maybey and his son, Richard, who raced in partnership with their wives, Jocelyn and Silvie. The pigeon racing at the Berkshire loft was very much a family affair with Reg and Richard being a father / son partnership and another important part of the team was family member, Harold Coleman, who had been helping out with the very successful pigeon management for over 25 years. The partners won the Three Borders Federation four times in one season and also won the Berkshire Federation four times, and to topped off a brilliant season by winning 1st open SMT Combine (3,174 birds) Messac. The Combine winner was the two year old widowhood blue chequer cock, called quite plainly ‘The Combine Cock’, and previous to his Messac win he recorded several premier positions including 1st club, 5th Federation Yeovil. On the first race of that season Reg and Richard put up a fantastic performance by recording 1st, 2nd, 3rd Three Borders Federation and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Berkshire Federation on the same day. The partners won 1st Federation eight times in that season. Brilliant pigeon racing!
The Maybey partnership raced their old birds in two teams, one on pure widowhood in the Berkshire Federation and the other on the roundabout system in the Three Borders Federation. The racers were paired the same time as the stock birds in late December and the widowhood pigeons rear at least one youngster before going on the system. The racers started training three weeks before the first Federation race and were given ten tosses up to 35 miles. Richard told me, un-like most widowhood fanciers they continue to train for the first two weeks in the season and then they just got exercise around the loft twice a day. The roundabout racers were not broken down, getting a ‘Sports’ mixture all the time, but the widowhood cocks got depurative mixture for two days after the race as a brake down and then got the ‘Sport’ mixture for the rest of the week. Both teams saw their hens on marking night for about two or three minutes and on their return got their mates for about an hour, depending how tough the race had been. The partner’s very smart loft was the late Roy Bishop’s old Kidby loft which was sited at Weybridge and it was extended five years earlier, making it 65ft long and ‘L’ shaped. Reg maintained a loft must be dry and they used deep litter in the stock and young bird sections, with the old bird racers getting the floor boards scraped regularly.
The Maybey partnership’s performances in the Three Borders Federation in that year were: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 21st Federation Wincanton (1,367 birds), 5th, 6th, 8th, 17th Federation Yeovil (1,837 birds), 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th Federation Kingsdown (1,703 birds), 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th Federation West Bay (2,027 birds), 11th Federation Fougeres (1,038 birds), 1st, 22nd Federation West Bay (1,691 birds), 1st, 8th Federation Messac (1,008 birds), 1st open SMT Combine, 3rd Federation Exeter (1,415 birds), 1st, 12th Federation Kingsdown (1,453 birds), 20th Federation Tours (825 birds), 13th Federation Portland (1,228 birds).
In that same season the winners of the London & South East Classic Club ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ were Reg and Richard, with their good yearling widowhood blue pied cock, called ‘The Gold Cup Cock’. His sire was bred by Orly en Dirk Pals of Bovenkerk and was purchased on trip to Holland in 2007. His dam was a Grizzle gifted to the Maybey’s by club mate John Waldron and Richard said, ‘I took a shine to this hen the first time I handled her at the club and John promised me that when she retires I could have her’. She was a 2002 bred pigeon who has scored over the channel many times, with her mother being a Combine winner from Nantes and her father was a purchase from Lier market in Belgium. The partners previously won the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ in 2007 with their good blue chequer hen, ‘The Classic Hen’.
Reg and Richard bred 100 young birds each season, 50 for racing in the Three Borders Federation and the other 50 for the Berkshire Federation. Starting at 5 miles, they were trained on a gradually build up to 40 miles and were not raced on the darkness system, but kept natural all season. When they were weaned they went on to a ‘Breed and Wean’ mixture for a while, then on to their own light mixture of young bird and depurative. The old and young birds were all raced on supplements supplied by Ken Wise of Isleworth, from Travipharma and Natural Products. The partners had enjoyed many successes through the years with their pigeons, including 2009: 1st open SMT Combine Messac, 2008: 2nd open L&SECC Bergerac and 2007: 2nd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH). Reg said at the time, over the last few seasons they had specialised in sprint / middle distance racing, but in recent seasons had become members of the London & South East Classic Club and National Flying Club, so hoped to enjoy some quality long distance racing in the near future. Their family raced well up to Bergerac (450 miles) and in the last three seasons had won over 80 first prizes, including 18 times 1st Federation. Richard told me it was a great thrill to win the SMT Combine from Messac in 2009 and to achieve that allusive first after winning 2nd, 3rd and 4th open many times over the years. In their short time racing in the L&SECC, Reg and Richard had been very successful racing hens, with their main classic stars being ‘The Bergerac Hen’ and ‘The Classic Hen’. Both these two champion hens had put up fantastic results in the classic being raced on the roundabout system. I think their performances are well worth a mention with them winning: ‘The Classic Hen’: 2nd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 5th open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 12th open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 23rd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 55th open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 72nd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 8th Federation Picauville: ‘The Bergerac Hen’: 2nd open L&SECC Bergerac (450 miles), 6th open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 15th open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 108th open L&SECC Bergerac, 3rd Federation Kingsdown. Two fantastic hens!
The Maybey family were originally based in Hounslow and at that time, Reg had been in the sport about 40 year, with Richard coming into the partnership as a six year old ‘floor scraper’. Reg recalled his first birds were six gift squeakers from his good friend, Charlie Francis of Shepperton and the only other family member to keep pigeons at that time was Uncle Arthur who lived in Wellington Road, Hounslow. Reg’s first club was the Egham North Road RPC and won his first race from Leicester. Early mistakes were over feeding. The first loft was a 16ft x 8ft structure, with 12 natural nest boxes and was purchased from a man whose divorce story appeared in the Daily Mirror and News of the World news papers at that time! Reg tells me the fanciers who were doing all the winning locally in those early days were Fred Elliot, George Worsfold and the Besant partnership of New Malden. The partners got more and more interested in the sport and bought in some Vandevelds, Delbar and Dordin pigeons which started to win straight away. A few years later a good Krauth hen was purchased from an auction at Ascot and she turned out to be a champion in the stock, producing winners every year, and then six Krauth youngsters were purchased from George Corbett to strengthen up the family. The Van Loon pigeons were introduced in 1989 when Reg’s wife, Jocelyn, purchased a pair from Clwyd Lofts at the RPRA Southern Region Show and they were called ‘the wonder couple’ as they bred many winners over the years. Reg told me one of the best performances in the early days was clocking early in the morning to win 1st club, 2nd Federation, 3rd open Combine Dax (550 miles).
Richard said, when they brought in new stock birds it was normally a bird that has caught their eye, but they did like a bold looking medium sized pigeon, with good feather quality and nice eye. The partners liked the eye sign as one of the characteristic of the pigeon’s make up. They fed the stock birds moulting mixture, with high protein mixture and 30% Barley. Richard told me, they were very fortunate to own several pairs of stock birds that were responsible for breeding multiple winners. The main family raced was Ludo Van Tuyn and he was a Belgium fancier who has had a lot of success with his family of pigeons racing in Thailand and Germany. Reg and Richard still had a few Van Loon, Luc Bart Geerinx, and Joop Hock and at that time had purchased some original Willy Thas.
Reg and Richard both worked in the Airfreight industry and the whole family were involved in making the team tick! Reg and Richard tended not to get involved with the politics of the sport, as they found their work stressful enough and viewed pigeon racing as a sport and a way to relax. They said, in their opinion the best local fancier was the late great Fred Elliot of Thorpe, as his results and achievement in the sport over a long period of time, with a small team of birds were second to none! They also said Mark Gilbert of Windsor had been exceptional over the last few years. Richard was asthmatic and told me the moulting time of the year is the worst for him, but never the less it was a very important time, with the birds being separated and fed on a good ‘Moulting’ mixture. At that time most of the birds in the loft were line-bred and the odd late bred was reared off the premier racers for the stock section. On looking over the information Richard had given me for this article, the thing that demonstrated the brilliance of their pigeons for me was the performance of their blue pied widowhood cock, ‘The 70906’, winner of 3rd Federation Kingsdown, 3rd Federation Wincanton, 6th Federation Lulworth, 15th Federation Exeter, 16th Federation Kingsdown and never scored higher than 3rd in the club, being beaten mostly by loft mates! The late Reg and Richard Maybey, a fantastic pigeon racing partnership!
That’s our article for this week! There you have it, the late, great Reg Maybey story! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 07535 484584 or email:
EXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com).
