“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
A Three Borders Federation Special Feature.
Tony Dann of Leatherhead
The ‘Lion Brewery’ Mid-Week Club could not have picked a worst weekend weather wise for its Merville Charity Open Race, but of course it was organised around the Parachute Regiment 9th Battalion Memorial Fund and the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day landings celebration on 6th June. The whole weekend was closed in with rain in the English Channel, France and mainland England, and most organizations racing out of France that weekend, including the National Flying Club and Merville race were held over until the Monday morning. The race was self-supporting and all profits went to the old solders of the 9th Parachute Regiment. With marking stations all over the UK, including Ash, Bromley, Chichester, Exeter and Manchester the entry of 850 birds was very good and after a long wait for a clear line of flight the convoy were liberated on the Monday at 05.30hrs in a south east wind. Returns were very good with early birds being recorded all over the country, including Leatherhead, Northampton, Bromley, Exeter, Reading and Manchester.
Although I didn’t send to Merville I derived great pleasure from the race as my good friend and ‘Rat Pack’ member, Tony Dann of Leatherhead, had three pigeons well out in front to record 1st, 2nd and 3rd open. Tony was at work on the Monday morning and his wife, Gudda, clocked the pigeons in, and had two come together, the first being clocked at 08.19hrs to make a ‘banging’ velocity of 1460. The winning pigeon was a three year old natural Van Breemans blue hen, sent sitting 17 day old eggs and she had previously scored as a young bird. Gudda is Danish and she clocked the winner in, which was a blue, so Tony named his Merville winner, ‘Danish Blue’. This game hen had been at stock for two years, being restarted racing that season with two ‘Lion Brewery’ mid-week races, a West Bay training race, a Lulworth treble up training toss and then in to the Merville open race. This great hen went on to win more prizes after her Merville win, including 1st Lion Brewery Mid-Week Club from Hamworthy. The next two pigeons on the clock to take 2nd and 3rd open were two more natural Van Breemans blue hens, ‘Megan’ and ‘Molly’, and they were full sisters and a half-sister to the winning pigeon ‘Danish Blue’. All three hens share the same sire who was one of some Van Breemans pigeons purchased by Tony’s late father, Wally Dann of Cobham, in 2002. The day after the Merville race a highly delighted Tony Dann brought his winning pigeons to my home in Claygate to have them photographed and he said, ‘We did it this time! The ‘Lion Brewery’ held a very successful Merville open race five years earlier, which attracted an entry of 1,035 birds and Reg Whenman of New Malden and I were both on the same yard, with Reggie winning the race on a decimal’.
The 2010 season had seen Tony send to only a few races because of the lack of time and didn’t race his young birds, only trained them up to 120 miles. He was successful in the races he competed in and recorded: 101st open BICC Alencon (3,876 birds), 110th open BICC Saran (3,412 birds), 32nd open L&SECC Falaise, 29th, 109th open L&SECC Tours, 49th section E, St Malo NFC, 11th section E, Poitiers NFC and 164th section E, Saintes NFC.
One of my best friends in pigeon racing is Tony ‘Desperate' Dann. He is a very likable guy, who would do a favour for any one and wouldn't see any genuine person in trouble. ‘Desperate' is one of the best pigeon fanciers I know and has been a great worker for the sport of pigeon racing for many years. He had not been a member of a Saturday Federation club in the 2008 season, so decided to use the midweek Hamworthy club for training and have a go at the National and Classic events. The Dann loft had a good race from the NFC Angers (264 miles) event and recorded an outstanding pigeon to win 4th section E, 6th open with nearly 6,000 birds competing. The first bird on the clock, doing 1256 ypm, was his good natural Van Breemen blue hen, ‘First Lady’, and she was sent sitting ten day old eggs. This game hen was lost for a while as a young bird, but had raced well from France since.
Tony enjoyed some good success with his pigeons in the 2005 season, winning 11 firsts in the Epsom R.B.L.F.C. and 4th, 7th, 8th and 17th open in the Federation. He raced a few old birds in the National and Classic events to record, 140th open N.F.C. Fougeres (old hens), and in the London & South East Classic Club won 50th open Guernsey (old hens), 66th open Bergerac, 74th open Tours and 173rd open Alencon . The most outstanding breeders for Tony in the 2005 season were a pair of Steven Van Breemen pigeons and three of their off spring won races that season, two yearlings and a young bird. This pair of stock birds were purchased from Matt Rakes, by Tony's late father Wally Dann in 2002 and decided to retain them when Wally's birds were sold off.
Tony took early retirement from work. He says much is written about the decline in the sport of pigeon racing over the last few years, with many authors of such letters stating there is an urgent need to encourage new young blood into the sport. While not disputing the fact that youngsters need to be given every encouragement, are we perhaps missing a much richer vein of new membership? He was talking about the early retired, aged 50-plus people who have brought up their families, whose mortgages are paid off, are financially secure and looking for a new interest and sport to occupy their time in retirement. He maintains that such active people could offer experience and expertise to many facets of the sport. Obviously, we would need to promote the sport to this sector in a much more professional way, but how, is the million dollar question. We should be much more imaginative. For instance, why can't we advertise in the national Sunday newspapers supplements, quoting a free phone number where information about getting started can be advised, giving out details of local pigeon clubs. Tony says that the advertising part of his idea would be funded from the B.H.W. Blackpool ‘Show of the Year' proceeds. This would mean that less money would be donated to charities in the short term, but without a healthy and expanding pigeon racing sport there will come a time when there will be no money to give to any of the worthwhile charities which currently benefit from the Blackpool Show.
The Dann loft had a good season channel racing in 2002 and recorded several premier positions including 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 8th open S.M.T. Combine Alencon, 1st club, 4th Three Borders Federation, 6th open S.M.T. Combine Nantes, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th club, 3rd, 11th, 12th and 16th Three Borders Federation, 11th, 46th and 48th open S.M.T. Combine, 18th open Amalgamation Bergerac (447 miles). Brilliant pigeon racing by my ol' mate, Tony! His Alencon Federation winner was his three year old Meulemans / Ayton Marshall mealy cock, “Copthorne Sarge”, and he was raced on the natural system. This game cock had previously won 1st club, 4th Federation, 5th open S.M.T. Combine Bergerac. His dam was purchased at the Bob Wilkinson of Crawley sale, being bred from direct Belgium Meulemans imports. Tony obtained some outstanding stock birds a few years ago from the late Ayton Marshall of the Up North Combine and these have produced many top racers for the Dann loft, including “Copthorne Sarge”, with his sire being a pigeon from the north east of England loft. In 2000, the season before the foot and mouth problem, Tony also won the Surrey Federation from Alencon with his ace blue Meulemans cock, “Copthorne Prince”. He had been an outstanding racer on the natural system, winning many prizes, including 1st club, 1st Federation, 2nd open S.M.T. Combine Alencon (2,221 birds), 1st club, 19th Federation Exeter (2,594 birds) and 1st club Blandford. He is brother to Tony's good hen, “Copthorne Princess”, winner of four inland races. Before the 2001 racing season started, Tony said, that he had his birds walking around the garden, when all of a sudden they flew away very distressed. He ran out of the house to find pigeons flying about the sky in all directions, with eight or nine birds behind the loft in a dazed state with fright. He heard a flapping sound from his next door neighbours' garden and when he looked over the fence there were feathers everywhere. He spotted a hen Sparrowhawk eating his best hen, “Copthorne Princess”, alive, threw a piece of wood at the hawk, which frightened it off and the pigeon flew away, returning to the loft two hours later with no feathers on her back and a few deep lacerations. In the 2001 season this game hen won two more races, making her prize tally four times 1st club, 12th and 15th open Federation inland.
Tony raced with his late father, Wally, from 1958 until he married in 1967, and started up on his own in 1979. Tony says that in the 1960's he looked up to the late, great Tommy Woodcock of Wimbledon, who had a lifetime of top class pigeon racing. Tony's loft was set up with birds from his dad and Tommy, and he won a young bird race in his first season! His first loft was 15ft. long, purchased for £25 and he says his early mistake was overfeeding. Tony's Leatherhead loft was 24ft. long, with three sections built by his dad, Wally, who was a retired carpenter. For many years he raced the widowhood system with fantastic success, winning the Surrey Federation many times and being the Federation premier prize winner several times. In 1994 he raced natural to have a go at the channel races and installed the “super trap” system in his loft. The loft housed 14 racing pairs, 10 pairs of stock birds and about 30 youngsters were bred to race each season. He pairs up in February and after racing widowhood for ten years, went back to natural racing in 1994 with outstanding success. He measures out the feeding twice a day, with a light feed in the morning. In recent years Tony and Gudda moved to Bookham and still race successfully in the Esher & District RPC (Three Borders Federation).
Gudda, Tony's Danish wife, is a great help with the training of the birds and feeding in the evening. She says that he takes the birds to seriously, because the couple can only take their holidays when pigeon racing is finished. To a point, Tony says this is true, but like most things, you only get out what you are prepared to put in. The old birds and youngsters are trained the same, with as many 40 mile tosses midweek as possible, during the season. The main families raced are Meulemans from Bob Wilkinson of Crawley, the Ayton Marshall's from the north east of England. When I think back a few years, Tony's young birds were fantastic in 1994, winning six of the Esher Club's seven young bird races, including the longest race from Wadebridge, lifting the young bird average. He had a record breaking young bird in 1986, in the form of the Delwich Jet blue pied hen, “00114”, and she won the very strong Surrey Federation three times as a young bird, flying against about 3,000 birds, also winning an R.P.R.A. award. He likes nice, compact pigeons in the hand, but maintains that winning birds come in all shapes and sizes, so when introducing new stock he goes for outstanding winning bloodlines. As I've already stated, ‘Desperate', is a great worker for our sport and was chief clock setter at the Esher club for many years and chairman of the Three Borders Federation. A great lad!
The late Wally Dann of Cobham.
When Wally Dann passed away, aged 91, a few years ago the sport of pigeon racing lost another of its great fanciers and characters. Wally was a natural flyer, through and through and was a winner, right up to the end, recording 1st club, 13th Federation, 18th Combine (3,281 birds) Fougeres, 1st club, 7th Federation, 11th Combine (2,746 birds) Messac and 1st club, 3rd Federation, 3rd Combine (2,498 birds) Messac in his last season
When you asked Wally what his best performance was, it was hard for him to answer, as in a life time in the sport he won just about everything in the Federation, Combine and Classic racing. He started racing in the early 1900’s, when he raced with his father as W. Dann & son in the Wimbledon club. He always raced on the natural system, but tried widowhood for about five weeks; he hated the system and in spite of winning several races, went back to natural. His loft housed several strains of pigeons, but mostly Van Winckel which raced well for him, from the shortest to the longest race. When he was fit, he used to take the birds training most days and liked to toss at about 25 miles in the early morning. He liked any race, long or short distance, but he told me, you don’t stand much chance racing natural against the widowhood cocks in sprint races. Wally won his fair share in the sprints, but really excelled in the Channel events. . One of his best racers in recent years was, ‘Wally’s Girl’, a natural De Klak blue hen bred by his good friend, Vic Johnson of Kingston. She chalked up, 1st club, 7th Federation, 11th Combine Messac, 1st club, 13th Federation, 18th Combine Fougeres, 16th open L.&S.E.C.C. Sennen Cove and 1st club Weymouth.
One of Wally’s best seasons was in 1989, when he recorded 1st Surrey Federation (2,005 birds) Tours, 1st Surrey Federation (1,517 birds) Niort and chalked up 2nd SMT Combine. The 1992 season saw him win nine races in the very strong Esher club, including Wadebridge (young birds), Tours and the longest old bird race from Bordeaux, with the only bird recorded on the day of liberation. His natural racers won ten firsts in the 1993 season, including the longest young bird race from Wadebridge. Wally Dann won the sprints through to the longest events, every season.
Wally was our local corn chandler and enjoyed a chat with the fanciers when they called at his Cobham home, to pick up their pigeon feed. He was a retired carpenter and did a lot of site work through the years, being general foreman on several big jobs. His smart loft set up was all self-built and he favoured the old fashioned type drop hole trapping and doweled nest box fronts. Wally’s son, Tony Dann, is one of our premier local fanciers and his very smart widowhood loft at his Leatherhead home was also made by his dad. There you have it, Wally Dann, one of the Surrey area greats!
The late Fred Emberson of Godmerston.
The late Fred Emberson, resided near Canterbury in Kent, but prior to that was one of the leading long distance racers in the London area for a great many years. Fred was a fancier who joined an elite band of long distance specialists who had won the London & South East Classic Club Pau / Tarbes Merit Award, which was awarded to any pigeon that records three positions in the first fifty of the open result of the longest old bird race. This certificate was very hard to win and Fred won it in 2009 with his beautiful six year old blue chequer pie hen, ‘Links Show Girl’, and she recorded: 2007: 23rd open L&SECC Pau, 2008: 22nd open L&SECC Tarbes and 2009: 28th open L&SECC Tarbes. Fred named his latest champion 550 miler; ‘Show Girl’ and I must say she really was a show girl, being a super hen in the hand with soft feather and beautiful eye. The 2010 season was very hard and had proved to be a ‘bumper’ time for the L&SECC Merit Award, with several pigeons winning the award at Tarbes that time. Fred told me at that time that he had been waiting 25 years to win the Merit Award when he won it in 2009 with his Blue Chequer Pied ‘Links Show Girl’. He had enjoyed another great Tarbes Classic the following season and won another Merit Award with his Blue Chequer WF hen ‘Links Confidence’, a fantastic long distance racer and winner of 2007: 43rd open L&SECC Pau, 2008: 15th open BICC Tarbes, 2009: 1st SE section, 13th open Tarbes: 2010: 17th open L&SECC Tarbes. Fred waits 25 years to win a Merit Award and then wins two in two years!
Fred’s loft was 100% geared to natural long distance pigeon racing and told me he had never raced the Widowhood or Roundabout systems. The loft was 18ft long, with three compartments, two for the old birds and one for the youngsters. Fred’s self-built loft had open door trapping and he used granules on the floors. Fred kept seven pairs of racers and three pairs of stock birds, and these were all paired up the first week in March. He told me he couldn’t remember the last time he sent to an inland club race and maintains he preferred to give the birds a 50 or 60 mile single up. He was not fussed which way the birds are trained and quite often took them the opposite direction to the continental race point, as long as they got a good fly. The Emberson racing pigeons were fed on 50% Irish Mixture and 50% Diet all produced by Natural, and the stock birds were fed on Countrywide young bird mixture, which was nearly all Maple Peas. Fred maintained that all pigeons are individuals, racing best to whatever suits them and recalled his good blue chequer white flight hen, ‘Links Confidence’, winner of 1st SE section, 13th open L&SECC Tarbes (550 miles) in 2009, was sitting 14 day old eggs and was slipped a small baby on marking day. The typical build up for his old birds for the main long distance events was three or may be five training tosses, one mid-distance race from somewhere like Tours and then into Tarbes. Fred had an open loft right through the racing season and of course had had his problems with the Sparrowhawks, with the worst time being the time when he lost nine pigeons in ten day period. Fred told me the Sparrowhawks always pick out and kill the best ones!
Fred was very proud of his record racing in long distance events over the years and quite rightly too, it was fantastic! At club level between 1981 and 1999 he won in the longest old bird race, nine times 1st Bergerac, twice 1st Bordeaux, once 1st Marmande and five times only birds on the day. In the London & South East Classic Club he had won long list of premier positions, the highlights being: 4th, 6th open Dax, 6th, 14th, 20th, 21st open Pau, 7th, 26th open San Sebastian, 13th, 23rd, 28th open Tarbes, 4th Narbourne Inter Open, 4th, 12th, 15th, 20th, 27th, 30th, 40th, 46th open Bordeaux and Bergerac. Fred had won the L&SECC South East section four times from La Ferte Bernard, Bordeaux, San Sebastian and Tarbes. Other great positions won were: 4th open BICC Dax, 13th open BICC Pau, 15th open BICC Tarbes (twice), 7th open BBC Palamos, 36th open BBC Palamos and 46th open BBC Palamos. A fantastic record in the very best long distance events!
The origin of his family of racers were, four birds obtained from A. H. Bennett, including a son of Champion ‘Andre’ and Fred told me all his birds could be traced to these original stock birds. Another good introduction was two late breds, gifted to him by his nephew, Vicky Emberson of Banstead, and these were bred from pigeons obtained from Lol Green. Fred brought in the odd cross from time to time, but was disposed of very quickly if they don’t work out. The stock birds were paired up the same time as the race birds in March and quite often would be mated to a race bird, so it had a safe mate throughout the season. When Fred brought in a new stock bird he liked small birds and also liked to see the wing tip touch the dark bar on the tail. He bred approx. 20 young birds each season and very rarely raced them in their first year, as there were far too many youngsters lost in young bird races. Many years ago he visited the NFC Pau winning loft of A. H. Bennett and Albert never raced his youngsters, so Fred tried the same system, and maintained, not racing the babies make absolutely not difference to them in later life. Fred stressed that although they don’t race, the young birds got plenty of good training with lots of tosses off the south coast. On the odd occasion that he had raced a youngster or two, they went straight in to the National or Classic and were never put on the darkness system.
Fred said the best pigeons in his loft at that time were: Blue WF ‘Links President’ winner of in 2009: 15th open BICC Tarbes: Blue Chequer WF ‘Links Confidence’, a fantastic long distance racer and winner of: 2007: 43rd open L&SECC Pau, 2008: 15th open BICC Tarbes, 2009: 1st SE section, 13th open Tarbes, 2010: 17th open L&SECC Tarbes: Blue Chequer ‘Links Just Reward’, winner of 2004: 65th open L&SECC Bordeaux, 2006: 28th open L&SECC Bergerac, 2008: 78th open L&SECC Bergerac, 31st open East of England Bourges, 2009: 13th open BICC Pau, 4th Narbonne Inter Open, Blue Chequer Pied ‘Links Show Girl’, the 2009 L&SECC Merit Award winning hen, 2007: 23rd open L&SECC Pau, 2008: 22nd open L&SECC Tarbes, 2009: 28th open L&SECC Tarbes.
Fred first recollection of pigeons was when he was in his pram and his father had some birds in a little cope hanging on the wall and he used to sit and watch them. In those days the family lived in Sutton and at ten years of age the young Fred scrounged birds from the local fanciers and set up his first loft. He joined the local Sutton club and in his first race won 3rd club Christchurch, and following week broke his novice status by winning 1st club Dorchester. Soon after that he had to do his National Service in the army, so the pigeons had to go, but restarted again when he got married in 1957. Fred maintained it is very hard to race pigeons in the National and Classic where he lived in east Kent, because he thought the birds come in from the Continent at the Portsmouth area and ‘dog leg’ in to the east side of England. His pigeons never come in from the south when racing the National or Classic, always from the west or north. Fred said his nephew, Vicky Emberson and wife Lou, were great workers for the sport and were outstanding sprint fanciers, winning the Federation consistently every season. Fred felt very strongly about the Hawk problem which is killing our sport and said, ‘the powers that be protect the Sparrowhawk and something should be done to change their policy, as not only are they killing pigeon racing, they are wiping out all the song birds that live in our gardens’.
Vic & Lou Emberson of Banstead.
Vic Emberson had pigeons as a child, but really started racing in 1988 at the Banstead lofts. His late uncle is, Fred Emberson, who has been an outstanding channel racer in the London area for many years and he was a great help in getting Vic started in the sport. The Emberson loft has won the Federation countless times through the years and has recoded 1st open National several times, including 1st open NFC Fougeres (old hens) in 2004. Vic and his wife, Lou have won many major prizes in National racing in their years in the sport, but rated highly their performance in the 2005 season by recording 1st open BICC Alencon National. Vic’s recent account of the Alencon race was; “On the day of the BICC Alencon race the wind was strong westerly and we were expecting the winner to be in the East Section. On arrival, the cock came out of the east, confirming our belief that the winner would be in that section, but what a pleasant surprise we had when we were informed we had the leading pigeon, which was named ‘Valiant Leader’. This cock was half-brother to our 2000: 1st open Alliance of Specialist Clubs Millennium National race and car winner, ‘Alliance Leader’ and was also related to ‘Ellie’, our 2004 NFC Fougeres old hens winner”. A great family of winning pigeons!
Vic Emberson races 20 cocks on the widowhood system and pairs up in mid-January with the Federation sprint races in mind. The racers are put on the widowhood system after the first round of youngsters and are broken down from Saturday until Tuesday morning during the racing season. Vic mixes his own corn and the main family kept is Staf Van Reet because he likes sprint racing. The widowhood cocks are not trained during the racing season, just exercised around the loft twice a day to keep them fit. The partners have two very smart self-built lofts and the stock birds have a nice wire flight, to get out into the weather. The race team are trapped through ETS traps and sputnik traps. Vic’s wife, Lou, and his sons, Carl and Neil, have been great workers with the pigeons through the years and he says a lot of his success years ago were down to their help, but now races on his own.
That’s it for this week! The Danns and Embersons, what two great racing pigeon families! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com).
