“On The Road” With Keith Mott
Three Borders Federation (Blandford Race)
The Three Borders Federation sent 1,211 birds to Blandford (80 miles) for the first old bird race of the 2017 season and Paul and Rube Johnson of the Spelthorne club were back at the top of the Federation result sheet, with a good widowhood cock. The Federation convoyer, Dom McCoy, liberated the birds at 11.00hrs in a south east wind and a good steady race, with excellent returns was enjoyed by all! The race was held on the second weekend of April and the weather was fantastic, with a temperature of 21 degrees, blue sky and sunshine. Perfect for good pigeon racing! Paul and Rube Johnson have been one of the Three Border’s premier pigeon racing partnerships for many years, winning top honours in Federation and Combine every season. The final result for the top three in the Federation was a close run thing, with Paul and Rube taking 1st and 3rd Federation, and beating Spelthorne club mate, Richard Kent, into 2nd Federation on decimal point.
The first ten in the Blandford Federation result were: 1) Paul Johnson & Partner 1560.147: 2) Richard Kent 1560.108: 3) Paul Johnson & Partner 1556: 4) Frank & Sue Carson 1554: 5) Frank & Sue Carson 1554: 6) Frank & Sue Carson 1554: 7) Ken Wise 1553: 8) Frank & Sue Carson 1552: 9) Paul Arnold 1552: 10) Frank & Sue Carson 1551.
Paul and Rube Johnson of the Spelthorne club had one of their best races of all time in the 2015 season by recording: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Federation Exeter (1,078 birds). The two Johnson brothers are not only noted for their wonderful performances with their pigeons, but also for being the convoyers of the Three Borders Federation and SMT Combine for many years. Paul Johnson had brilliant 2015 season recording: (Old Birds) 1st club Yeovil: 1st club Exeter: 2nd Federation, 2nd SMT Combine Fougeres (1,294 birds) beaten on decimals: 21st Federation, 39th SMT Combine Truro (1,512 birds): (Young Birds) 21st Federation Blandford (1,802 birds): 12th, 13th,17th, 18th Federation Yeovil (1,606 birds): 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th Federation Kingsdown: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Federation Exeter (1,078 birds), 14th, 19th, 20th, 21st Federation, 48th SMT Combine Yelverton (1,617 birds). Paul was third for the Federation ‘Individual Points Trophy’ in the 2015 season, with 28 points. A great performance!
Rube Johnson was the convoyer of the London & South East Classic Club for several seasons and when he first took on the job, I can remember me putting my ‘roving reporter’ hat on and I drove over to Chertsey to have a meeting with our new convoyer, Rube. I must say it was a very nice hour spent in his company, talking about our experiences convoying on the Continent. Rube had never raced pigeons, but had been around them most of his life, with his brother, Paul, being a premier race for many years in the Three Borders Federation area. Paul is well known in the Surrey pigeon fraternity for being an outstanding all round pigeon racer and wins the Federation most seasons. Rube is equally well known for transporting and convoying pigeons, which he started when he was 21 years old and has been doing it on and off for well over 40 years. He was the convoyer for the Three Borders Federation and SMT Combine for many years and I thought we had never met, but when he answered his front door to me, I knew his face, so we must have crossed paths at some stage. He had never convoyed north road and was looking forward to going down to Tarbes, as Bergerac was the furthest he has convoyed south road. Like myself, Rube loves France and maintained Messac was the best site out there that he had visited up to that time. I visited Messac with the Central Southern Classic Flying Club birds in the 2010 season and was very impressed with the marina liberation site there, and I think it is fair to say it is one of the best sites in France. The pigeons have a perfect fly out on their liberation, with no obstacles to hamper them at all and on their arrival on site the convoyers are given a code number to the lock of the Shower / WC block and this facility is spotlessly clean. Ian Mead was to be ‘riding shotgun’ for Rube in the L&SECC 2011 season and he was really looking forward to that, as they had worked together many time over the years, and Rube said, ‘it’s the old firm back together again’. Paul Johnson is the premier pigeon racer and his brother, Rube, is one of our premier pigeon convoyers!
Richard Kent lives in Walton-on-Thames and he enjoyed a wonderful 2016 young bird season racing in the Three Borders Federation. The Federation had 1,207 birds at Yeovil (101 miles) for the second young bird race of the 2016 season and Richard Kent of the Spelthorne club had seven babies hit the ETS in 12 seconds to win 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Federation. Fantastic pigeon racing! Richard’s winning pigeon was a Koopman blue cock, sent racing to the perch and his parents, which were both big race winners before going to stock, were both Brian Trussler bloodlines. Two weeks after Richard’s Federation win in August, I visited his home and as I expected, his loft and garden was a picture to behold. Like myself, he is a retired carpenter and his very smart 18ft old bird racing loft was self-built, with a pan tile roof and sputnik trapping for his ETS. At the back end of his garage he had a brick built workshop and he has converted this into his magnificent young bird and stock loft. His stock loft, which houses only ten pairs, is a bit special, with really big nest boxes and loads of room for the inmates. He pairs up in late December and all his birds have come from Brian Trussler and Danny Allison. He is racing his old birds on natural, but will be moving over to widowhood shortly and the birds are fed on a top quality widowhood mixture. Richard is a hard trainer and the old birds get tosses mainly off the south coast, with racing from France in mind.
Richard tells me he started the 2016 season with 40 youngsters, 20 bred by himself and 20 bred by Brian Trussler, and has enjoyed one of his best young bird seasons ever, winning several firsts in the strong Spelthorne club. He started by winning the first six positions in the Spelthorne club from the first young bird race, flown from Blandford, then the next week took the first seven in the Three Borders Federation from Yeovil and also recorded 2nd, 3rd, 6th, in the Spelthorne Breeder / Buyer Kingsdown Open Race (396 birds), being beaten on a decimal. He was second in the Spelthorne Open with a beautiful blue chequer pied hen and she was Frank Bristow bloodlines, coming from Brian Trussler. He puts his young birds on the ‘darkness’ system and races to the perch, having no success with paired up babies over the years. Richard is a very hard trainer, with them going down the road on most days and starts them training very early in May. The youngsters are not staved, but kept in line and are fed on a good widowhood mixture. On being weaned they get their PMV jab and are cankered before going on the ‘darkness’ system.
It was good to meet up with Richard again, as I hadn’t seen him since about 1982. At that time we both flew in the now disbanded Molesey and Hersham clubs and soon after Richard left the sport because of his chest problems when he was around the birds. I enjoyed our time together on my visit to his loft and I must say he looked really well! Richard has been back in the sport for about three years, starting with six babies and has now climbed back to top of the result in that time.
The Hersham RBLFC joined the Three Borders Federation at the commencement of 1981 and what a great season the club enjoyed, winning top positions including two firsts. Les Penycate won the Federation from Plymouth and Richard Kent stormed the Federation and won the Seven Counties Combine from Laval. The Combine sent 7,348 birds to the Laval (2) race and at that time that birdage was a record for this young and up and coming Combine. Richard’s Combine winner, doing 1415ypm, was his yearling blue pied cock, ‘90’, and he had previously won 5th Hersham Weymouth Open at the beginning of the 1981 season. He started up in the sport of pigeon racing in 1965 with birds obtained from Louis Massarella and Richard told me the late, Fred Elliott of Sunningdale was a great help to him in those days. Richard joined his local club, the Molesey & District HS and raced to a 6ft x 4ft loft. His Combine winning loft I 1981 was a more plush 18ft affair, with anti-bolt and open door trapping. Richard told me he tried deep litter, but being asthmatic, it up set him and had to use an inhaler before cleaning out the birds. Richard was only a small team man and paired his 12 pairs of old birds up on 14th February and bred 20 youngsters to race each season. The birds raced on the Natural system and after he had reared a pair of squeakers from each pair of old birds they were trained as much as possible.
Richard raced the Burgers pigeons and his best performances up to winning the Combine were: 1st club, 3rd Federation, 5th SMT Combine (4,268 birds) and 1st club, 6th Federation, 8th SMT Combine (5,498 birds) Rennes. He always fed De Scheemaecker ‘Natural’ corn with a little ‘Red Band’. The old birds started training at ten miles and worked up to 40 miles before the first Federation race, and then got 15 mile tosses twice a week through the racing season. At that time, Richard, rated his good friends, Dick and Brian Trussler of Molesey, the best local fanciers and said they were totally dedicated to the sport. Those were the days and look at those wonderful birdages in the Combine races in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Just brilliant!
That’s our article for this week. I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me at:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT
(www.keithmott.com)
