“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Three Borders Federation (Weymouth Race 2).
The fifth race of the 2026 season was flown from Weymouth (110 miles) and the weekend was plagued with a cold east / north east wind, but the members enjoyed a good race, thanks to our ‘smart’ convoyer, Dom McCoy. He had an early liberation when the weather had warmed up and tossed the 733 birds at 09.00hrs in broken cloud and bright sunshine. The birds had a steady push home in the east wind, but the members enjoyed a good race, with good returns. It was certainly the Esher clubs day, with Paul Arnold taking 1st and 3rd positions and winning the Federation with his yearling widowhood dark chequer cock, ‘The 28 Cock’. Going back many years I can remember Paul winning the Federation countless times and winning firsts in Combine, Classic and National races. He is a good worker in our sport and is certainly a ‘legend’ in the Surrey racing pigeon fraternity. It was a very close call at the top of the Weymouth result, with the first three pigeons being on decimals.
The Holder & Pratt partnership of the Mitcham & Merton club were 2nd Federation and caring on their recent good form. Kevin Pratt and partners won the Federation from Wadebridge recently with their outstanding Lambrecht mealy pied widowhood cock, the ‘Forgotten Cock’, which has won many other premier positions. Great pigeon racing!
After the race I had a chat with Paul and he said, ‘Thank you for your congratulations mate, it is much appreciated. A bit of a turn up for the books this week, I don't normally win the Federation from the shorter ones, normally it’s the races from Honiton and upwards that I tend to do the best, but this week we had an east northeast wind, which obviously helped. Anyway Keith, the winner a dark chq cock, inbred closely to my NFC Messac winner, raced on widowhood of course, bred from two, 2024 latebreds. My best stock birds are getting on in years now and in the summer of 2024 I decided to breed a few late ones off my best breeders. Not many of these latebreds were retained, only two pairs, with the best pair being the sire and dam of this cock. The sire a blue cock, a direct son of "True Faith" my 1st open National winner, paired with a van den bulk hen. The dam was a daughter of two of my best racers, ‘VIP’ a double Federation winner, which should have been two more, but for dodgy trapping and also won the Federation ‘Pigeon of the Year’ in 2022. ‘VIP’ is a nephew of the National winner, when paired to ‘Jet’, a dark chq hen, and direct daughter off the National winner. She won the Federation and was 2nd SMT Combine Okehampton and was also 3rd Federation three times, each time arrived with and beaten by loft mates. No fancy pedigrees here mate, just generations of winners paired to winners. If I bring in new stock and it works, the genes of that pigeon are added to our gene pool, if it doesn't do it quickly, its gone. So Weymouth race day, the birds have been really well so far. I won the previous Weymouth race, then sent to the North Thames and Eastern Counties open from Guernsey, in which I was 3rd, then they had a week off and in to Weymouth this week. My birds were originally going to Alencon with the BICC, but because of the uncertainty of when they were going to be liberated, I instead decided to send to Weymouth with the Federation, to prepare them for Fougeres in the BBC the following week. So waiting for the birds, ’The 28 Cock’ came bang on line racing, half a turn and was on the board. Then I realised there was another cock chasing him down, at this point the dark cock saw this other cock too and rather than going in, he banged off the trap to chase the second pigeon. NICE! I don't think you will be able to print my reaction. You asked me what his name is, let’s just call him ‘The 28 Cock’ but my neighbours might think he's called something else! I suppose luck was with me that day. I must admit I do prefer the channel racing to club racing, but every week regardless whether I'm getting them ready for a big race, they are sent to win every time. You might have noticed that I had a year off from pigeon racing last year and only had one race from Falaise with the BICC, in order to have a break and rebuild my team. This hiatus as certainly spurred me on this year and it’s great to be racing again and above all winning once more! Congratulation to Paul on his brilliant performance!
The first ten in the Weymouth Federation result were: 1) Paul Arnold 1370: 2) Holden &Pratt 1370: 3) Paul Arnold 1369: 4) R. & W. Morris 1367: 5) Eric Fry 1360: 6) Tony Baughen 1360: 7) Tony Baughen 1360: 8) Tony Baughen 1360: 9) M/M Steve Gasson 1359: 10) Tony Baughen 1359. This was race number five of the season and at this point the Mitcham & Merton club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 23 points, with the Esher club being R/U on 19 points.
When Paul Arnold was in his Covid 19 self-isolation in the early part of 2020, he never dreamt that when he was finally let loose to race his successful team of pigeons, he would win a major National Flying Club race. Paul is a class act and has been one of the premier winning fanciers of the Surrey pigeon racing fraternity for many years. After having a good race and scoring: 16th and 27th open from the first NFC race from Fougeres, he sent a small team of five widowhood cocks to the second race from Messac (255 miles) and hit the ‘jackpot’. Paul clocked his good four year old blue cock, ‘True Faith’, in five hours six minutes to win 1st open National by nearly 30 ypm, with over 5,000 birds competing. Paul named his Messac National winner, ‘True Faith’, after a relative who had recently passed away and told me, that for day after the race was in a dream world, coming to terms with fact that he had won the National. ‘True Faith’ was bred from one of Paul’s Staf Van Reet cocks and a Gaston van de Wouwer hen from Derek Nichols. This champion cock recorded 1st section E (639 birds), 1st open (5,097 birds) NFC Messac (255 miles) and has been retired to the stock loft. On Paul’s build up to winning the NFC, he won in the Three Borders Federation: 3rd Federation Honiton (925 birds), 13th, 23rd Federation Newton Abbot (846 birds), plus 1st club Wincanton. Paul is a member of the Esher & District RPC and all the members, including me, were very proud of his great achievement in winning the National Flying Club.
Paul Arnold’s present loft is a converted brick built double garage and the building was converted in the winter of 2003 by Paul and his good friend Barry Jarvis. The conversion work took a lot of planning, but says he has got it virtually right and the air flow in the loft is excellent. He has always raced on the widowhood system, but for some seasons has raced what he calls a double widowhood, racing both cocks and hens. Paul tells me returned back to conventional widowhood for the 2009 racing season. The widowhood team is normally made up with 16 cocks and 16 hens which are mated to the stock cocks. The feeding is varied; depending on the conditions and Paul mixes his own corn so can vary from one week to the next. The widowhood racers are sometime shown their mates on marking night, depending on the type of race and most of the birds are expected to race from Bergerac (450 miles). He never repairs the racers for the longer races and says he has tried it in the past and it has always been a complete disaster. Although he repaired ‘Victor’ in 2011 to win the Combine from Bergerac, but this was a one off! On their return from the race the cocks get their hens for as little as ten minutes at the start of the season, but on really hard races they may stay together over night. The old birds will be given two or three training tosses at the start of the season, if in the weeks prior they are flying well around the loft and then after a couple of inland club races they are ready for racing out of France.
Paul was born in Wandsworth and being born in to a really big pigeon racing family became interested in the sport at a very young age. When he was a youngster in the 1970’s he raced with his father and brother in the Mitcham club, but was a very keen footballer and played most Saturdays and Sundays through the season. In the 1970’s Terry Goodsell dominated the Mitcham club and the young Paul always wanted to emulate him, and finally did in the 1990’s, winning everything at Federation and Combine level. After a break from the sport Paul returned in the late 1980’s and raced with his brother, Gordon, for a short time, before going it alone with a few late breds in 1989. Paul’s first club, which is the same one he races in today, is the South Downs in Epsom and his first loft was a brick structure at the bottom of the garden. His brother started him up with a nice kit of Louella / Verheyes and Paul won his very first race from Blandford with a thirteen week old blue chequer pied hen, which also recorded 5th Federation (4,500 birds). He maintains the Verheyes were good pigeons and they won a lot of races, but when he introduced the Staf Van Reet pigeon it was obvious that they were not in the same class. Since Paul says, ‘over the years I have found there are many fads and fallacies involved with pigeon racing, but I’ve always done my own thing, sometimes it’s been right and sometimes wrong, but I’ve always learnt from it’. Paul has raced on his own for over 20 years and has won it all! He has won the Federation many times through the years and lifted many Federation average trophies, including the London Federation O.B. Inland Average in 2006. His fantastic Staf Van Reet pigeons have excelled in Combine Channel race over the years and have won: 1st, 2nd, 3rd open Combine Messac (three hens), 1st open Combine Le Ferte Bernard and 1st open Combine Sennen Cove. When I asked Paul about his family of pigeon he said, ‘I’ve had the Staf Van Reets for about 19 years now and they really are fantastic pigeons to race, and as I’ve always stated they are so good they make me look good. They are outstanding in any weather and any wind, but are especially good in head winds and, on hard days. I’ve tried many other families of pigeons against them in the past few years and none have come close to their excellent performances. I have been very lucky to own several ‘once in a life time pigeons’, but the two supreme pigeons are the base of my loft, in the form of the two Staf Van Reet Champions ‘Santa Vosse’ and ‘The Governor’. Champion ‘Santa Vosse’ is responsible for literally hundreds of winners all over the world, including many multiple winners of 15 up to 18 times 1st club. ‘The Governor’ is responsible for countless winners, including at least 80 Federation, Combine, Amalgamation and National winner’. A wonderful family of Staf Van Reet pigeons!
Paul was a self-employed plasterer and sometimes when he is very busy at work, his wife, Helen, and his then ten year old daughter, Charlotte, were an enormous help to him with the pigeons. He says, although they are not really interested in pigeons they will help out and do anything around the loft. He would be lost without them! Every year Paul gets many phone calls from fancier who are winning with his pigeons, in spite of not being a seller of many birds. It gives him a great sense of pride to produce so many winning pigeons for other fanciers, especially when he has only a small set up and keeps only a few birds. Paul loves middle distance channel racing up to 450 miles with the Classic and National and maintains he is no longer really interested in club racing. He told me his biggest thrill was in the early 1990’s when he realised how good his Staf Van Reet pigeons were and they were taking the first six positions in the club, and peppering the Federation result. When I asked Paul if he held any offices in the sport his reply was, ‘No none! Although I have held offices in the past, I am not the least bit interested in the politics of the sport and just want to enjoy my sport in my back garden’.
That’s it for this week! Congratulations to Paul Arnold on his Federation win, it was a great performance! I can be contacted with any pigeon comment on telephone number: 07535 484584 or email
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
