“On The Road” with Keith, Peter & Terry.  

“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Peter Wells of Dunstable.

I have visited Peter Wells of Dunstable several times over the years; the last time was in the company of Terry Haley and Steve Howard in December 2016, when we went to his home to film the loft and pigeons for my YouTube channel. Every time I ask Peter about some of his best performances over his many years in the sport, he has never got a clue about his racing record! I’ve known him for many years and can imagine it is difficult to remember, as his fantastic racing record is as long as your arm. Any way recently the ‘main man’ has got the books out and has given me a few details of his winnings over the years. Are you ready for this? Between 1978 and 1993 he won 693 first prizes including: 52 Open Races, 111 times 1^st Federation, 7 times 1^st Combine and twice 1^st Amalgamation. Peter calls himself, ‘Mr. Nearly’, as he has never won a National or Classic race but the last four years has recorded: 2^nd open (twice), 3^rd open (three times), 4^th open (twice), 1^st section (five times), 2^nd section (eight times), 3^rd section (six times), 4^th section (twelve times). Some of his recent highlights are: 2016: 3^rd, 7^th, 9^th section D, 6^th, 21^st, 26^th open BBC Fougeres (1864 birds), 1^st club, 1^st Federation, 2^nd Combine Yelverton (3330 birds), 2^nd section D, 2^nd open BBC Fougeres (1856 birds), 2^nd, 3^rd section, 6^th, 7^th open BICC Le Mans (3944 birds): 2015: 2^nd section E, 4^th open NFC Saintes (3740 birds), 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th section D, 13^th, 23^rd, 24^th, 25^th, 26^th, 27^th open BBC Carentan (2132 birds), 3^rd, 4^th,7^th section D, 3^rd, 4^th, 8^th open BBC Messac (1562 birds), 15^th, 16^th, 17^th, 18^th, 19^th section E, 158^th, 160^th, 162^nd, 163^rd, 164^th open NFC Fougeres (8635 birds) five birds came together, 1^st, 4^th, 5^th, 10^th section E, 3^rd, 18^th, 19^th, 57^th open NFC Messac: 2014: 3^rd, 4^th, 7^th, 8^th, 10^th section D, 136^th, 138^th, 144^th, 145, 148^th open BBC Carentan (2233 birds), 1^st, 2^nd, 6^th, 8^th, 10^th section D, 14^th, 15^th, 41^st, 47^th, 55^th open BBC Messac (2261 birds), 4^th, 6^th section E, 79^th, 164^th open NFC Carentan (9416 birds), 3^rd, 6^th, 7^th section E, 365^th, 424^th, 455^th open NFC Cholet (7006 birds), 2^nd, 4^th section D,22^nd, 41^st open BBC Niort (1005 birds), 4^th section E, 54^th open NFC Messac (6393 birds), 4^th section D, 13^th open BBC Fougeres (1008 birds): 2013: 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, 6^th section D, 2^nd, 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th open BBC Carentan (2617 birds), 2^nd, 4^th, 7^th section E, 47^th, 68^th, 94^th open NFC Carentan, 2^nd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th section, 11^th, 28^th, 30^th, 32^nd open L&SECC Messac, 5^th, 6^th section D, 13^th, 14^th open BBC Messac (1305 birds). A fantastic racing record, second to none!

The Wells loft has had some great seasons for many years racing in the Combine, Classic and National. Peter has been a fantastic pigeon racer since he started up in the sport in 1974, but is mostly noted for being the owner and racer of one of the greatest sprint pigeons in the world of pigeon racing ever, Champion ‘Super Lou’. This wonderful Joseph Van Ramadonk widowhood cock was bred by Louella Pigeon World at Leicester and Peter purchased him in a batch of pigeons, which were eight for £80, so ‘Super Lou’ cost him £10. This champion blue chequer pied cock won 52 first prizes, including 16 times 1^st Federation, 1^st open Combine and several Open races. Peter told me, he has clocked ‘Super Lou’ and then had a batch of five come together five minutes later and taken the first six in the Federation result, that how good that pigeon was! He was always paired to ‘Brandy’ and she was another one from the Joseph Van Ramadonk job lot, and she was also another brilliant racer, winning several premier races. Champion ‘Super Lou’ was sold back to Louella for £11,500!

Peter has a very smart 100ft ‘L’ shaped loft, which consist of three widowhood sections, two young bird sections and a stock section, with a wire flight so the inmates can get out into the weather. He has had his pigeons on deep litter for all his 40 years in the sport and thinks it’s brilliant, as it creates a dry atmosphere in the loft. The racing loft has double glazed frosted windows and doors, ETS trapping off landing boards and roof is made of Perspex for light and warmth. The stock loft is closed in with louvered windows for ventilation and this loft houses the widowhood hens during the racing season. Peter races 50 cocks on widowhood and 20 hens on the roundabout system and these are paired up in mid-February. The hens never see the cocks and some of the racers are flown dry, and never rear youngsters before racing, but are allowed to rear a late bred once racing has finished. Peter feeds a good quality widowhood mixture and breaks down in the early part of the week. The hens are only shown to the racing cocks on marking night in the early part of the season and never for the channel events, and Peter tells me he likes all racing from 80 through to 550 miles. One of Peter’s best birds at this time is the yearling blue cock, ‘Marieke Vink’, bred by his good friend Simon Schofield and winner of: 1^st section, 2^nd open BBC Carentan, 15^th section, 19^th open NFC Messac, 12^th section, 22^nd open BBC Messac.

The main family raced are basically Janssen and Peter tells me his loft houses several variations of the family, and have been very successful for him at all distances. The stock birds are fed on a standard ‘breeding’ mixture and he tells me his best stock bird is his Janssen hen number ‘11’. He keeps 15 pairs of stock birds and these are paired up the same time as the race team in February so a few eggs off premier breeders can be floated. Peter says, he pairs up quite late compared to most fanciers, but hates breeding in cold weather. Most of his best success has come from sprint / middle distance racing, although he has clocked a couple time on the day from Pau and Tarbes (560 miles). These days when he is looking to bring in new stock birds he is looking for quality long distance bloodlines. Good performance is the key when selecting new stock birds. He breeds about 80 young birds to race every season and they are put on the darkness system. Peter says, his darkness system isn’t very good, as he forgets and the youngsters sometimes get a lay in! The youngsters get lots of training through to 50 miles and Peter enjoys racing them through the whole programme. They race to the perch and are fed a standard young bird mixture and he maintains young birds have to race to get an education, and experience the English Channel in the first year. Peter told me he likes late breds, as training them after the racing season has finishes, gives him something to do and he has produced a few good racers from his late breds over the years. The birds are not parted in the winter months and for the moult they are fed a good resting mixture with oils on it. Peter is a heavy barley feeder in the winter months.

Peter’s entry in to the sport of pigeon racing was very similar to so many other fanciers I have met, with his relation picking up a pigeon with a broken leg in a local quarry and being fascinated with the bird, Peter volunteered to nursed it back to health. He had always liked pigeons and on contacting the owner, he didn’t want the bird back. The pigeon was housed in an empty chicken shed in Peter’s back garden and he obtained a John Gore hen to mate to it, and that was the start of him becoming a pigeon fancier. Those first birds bred and the following season Peter won one of the premier races, the Inter Counties Open, with a yearling, which was a brilliant achievement in his first full season racing. Peter told me the fancier who really helped him to start up was John McLaughlin of Dunstable and the top racer at that time was the late Derek Taylor of Leighton Buzzard who won the MNFC and L&SECC. His early pigeons were of the Dordin family and on establishing a small team of racers he joined the Dunstable SR Flying Club. Peter had caught the pigeon ‘bug’ and started as he has continued to do right through his 40 years in the sport, winning big races!

When I asked Peter how many times he had won the Combine he told me he had lost count, but had won it quite a few times and could remember that he had won 1^st open Combine three times in one season. One of his best pigeons was the red pied hen, ‘The Cheetham Hen’ and she was bred by Frank Cheetham of Yorkshire. This wonderful hen was a true champion in every sense of the word, winning many firsts from Exmouth (150 miles) through to Bergerac (450 miles), including 1^st Federation and Open Races. She also won two positions in the first hundred in the NFC Pau Grand National result and bred a 1^st open Combine winner. What a pigeon! I first met Peter Wells in 1980 when he came to my home in Claygate to have his current 1^st open Combine Bergerac winner photographed. He had enjoyed a brilliant 1980 season winning 29 firsts including six times 1^st Federation and three times 1^st Championship Club. He is a great Open Race specialist and in 1980 won 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th West Croydon Open Blandford and 1^st, 2^nd Stopsley Two Bird Open Dorchester. Brilliant pigeon racing, as in those days we used to use rubbers and clocks! In the 1980 season ‘The Cheetham Hen’ won 13^th section E, 21^st open NFC Pau Grand National (560 miles) with 5,894 birds competing and lifted £744. The Middle Counties Combine flew its longest old bird race from Bergerac in 1980 and the 1,960 birds were liberated at 05.30hrs in a light west wind. Peter Wells had two birds arrive at his loft together at 19.18hrs and he clocked them together to record: 1^st Dunstable SR Flying Club, 1^st Phoenix SR Flying Club, 1^st, 2^nd Federation, 1^st, 2^nd open Middle Counties Combine. Although Peter has won the Combine many times since, he rates this Bergerac performance one of his best! I can remember Peter’s Bergerac Combine winner was a handsome Kirkpatrick mealy cock called, ‘Super Sub’, and he had plenty of previous good form winning: 9^th open Combine Niort, 1^st club Guernsey and 1^st Beds & Herts 3 Bird Championship Club Nantes. The winner of 2^nd open Combine Bergerac that day was a red chequer hen bred by Bill Wells of Luton.

Peter likes to do his bit for our sport and is on the National Flying Club committee, President of the Mid-Shires Federation and is on the Federation committee, including forming the race programme ever season. When I asked him what he thought was his best performance to date his reply was, clocking on the day of liberation from the NFC Pau Grand National and winning 1^st and 2^nd Combine Bergerac in 1980 and clocking the only two birds in the Federation on the day. He has a great respect for the Corkett Family and says they are very dedicated, and work brilliantly as a team with their pigeons. Peter maintains the key to successful pigeon racing is dedication and hard work!

Terry Robinson of Goff’s Oak.

My good friend, Terry Haley, arranged this mini loft tour of Hertfordshire for me, with the view to doing some articles and I must say it was most enjoyable, with us visiting two of the very best fanciers in the area. I had a good run up the M25 Motorway and after picking Terry up at his home in Abbots Langley, we were so on the road to our first visit with Peter Wells and then on to the ultra-successful loft of Terry Robinson of Goff’s Oak.

Terry resides at Gary Ross Farm and has lived in Goff’s Oak for 16 years, and owns a very nice house set in several wonderful acres of land. He finished North Road and started South Road racing about six years ago when he introduced long distance stock from Brian Denney and Chris Gordon, but the main family raced is his original Busschaerts with different cross introduced through the years. He like all racing from 80 through to 600 miles, but gets his real buzz from long distance National and Classic races. Terry first phoned Brian Denney in 2003 with the view to obtaining some of his best 750 miles lines and purchased several direct from his champions, including Champion ‘Tuff Nut’. Terry’s good hen ‘Ruby’ was bred down from a daughter of ‘Tuff Nut’ and she won 2^nd open BICC Perpignan National (630 miles), 5^th open BICC Perpignan National and flew 600 miles six times.

The pigeon loft set up at the Gary Ross Farm is outstanding, which compliments the stables that house several horses owned by the Robinson family. Terry has several lofts, but two main racing lofts, with the old birds flying to a smart six section loft. The loft has slatted floors, electric nest boxes, a tiled roof with big air vents and the birds are trapped through open windows off landing boards. He thinks ETS is a good idea and has owned one for six years, but has never used it! The young birds are housed in a nice spacious 20ft loft with a tiles roof and they also trap through open windows. Terry races 40 cocks and hens on the widowhood and roundabout systems, and mixes his own feed which is widowhood mixture. He never breaks the racers down and as an extra gives the birds ‘Gerry Plus’, peanuts and sunflower hearts. The racers start at the shortest race and fly through the programme to 600 miles, with only the hens being repaired for the longest races. The race team are paired up on Terry’s return from the BHW Blackpool Show in January and he likes the yearling to rear a youngster or two, but the old birds are raced dry, and do not rear at the start of the year. Terry tells me that the birds exercise so well around home that some years he doesn’t train them before racing starts and he shows the hen on marking night, but most times it is just in and out. The long distance racers see the hen for an hour and on their return stay with their mates for several hours. Terry says in his opinion South Road racing is really West Road racing and to be fair the powers that be should centralise all race points on all organizations.

When I asked Terry how many stock birds he owns he said, ‘too many’. The best stock birds are kept in individual flights, so as to guarantee parentage of the youngsters, but the bulk of the stock birds are housed in big barns on the property. They are paired up the same time as the race team in January and some of their eggs are floated under yearling racers to establish them to their nest box. The breeders are fed the same corn as the race birds, but with extra maize and protein added. When bringing in a new stock bird he has a type, but the bottom line is performance and has no interest in strains, just good winning pigeons. Terry is a very keen eye sign man, but only in the stock loft and maintains you can’t pick out outstanding racers on the eye sign. Arthur Beardsmore and Alf Baker were both premier eye sign fancier and a bit of the method rubbed off on Terry and they maintained that any eye will win races, not any eye will breed winners. Terry has a son of Brian Denney’s Champion ‘Tuff Nut’ and his fantastic eye sign has been admired by ever one who has visited the loft at Goff’s Oak, and he is the sire of many outstanding winners. One of Terry’s premier breeding pairs in recent times is the blue chequer cock, ‘Robbo’ and the dark frill hen, ‘644’, and they bred many top racers including ‘Ruby’ and ‘Wine’. ‘Robbo’ had a brilliant racing career, including 4^th open London NR Combine Stonehaven and ‘644’ had a sensational eye sign, the like of which I have never seen before. A perfect matched breeding pair! Terry breeds about 60 young birds to race and tells me 2013 is his last year he is going to put them on the darkness system, as he is convinced it is detrimental to them in later life. The youngster are given lots of training up to 30 miles and not being interested in young bird racing, Terry gives them several races for education, but likes the young hens to have one National event in their first year.

Terry was born in Euston in London and his uncle, Billy Robinson, was good pigeon racer many years ago. He got his first pigeons in 1969 at the age of 15 years old and when he got married he joined the Hyde PH pigeon club and started racing North Road with the Dordin pigeons. He had his own car tyre business and the late great Alf Baker used to go in to his shop, so he got to know the North Road ‘master’ very well. He obtained some top quality racing pigeons from Alf, but the main stock birds were from the late Gus Allen and Sid Jones, who at that time were two of the best fanciers in the area. He won his first race with a Sid Jones pigeon from Essendine (73 miles) and in 1979 Terry visited the loft of Arthur Beardsmore, and purchased a wonderful pair of Busschaert pigeons, whose bloodline still run through the Robinson loft today. Terry told me, that they were the best pair of pigeons ever! He maintained that Arthur only had a small team of pigeons, but they were fantastic. Terry has won it all through his years in the sport, but in the early days was the first fancier to win two Combine races on the trot on the North Road. In 1992 Terry won the ‘Tommy Long Cup’ and in those days, he told me, you had to beat 22,000 birds to win that wonderful North Road trophy. The winners were ‘Blue Hawk’ 1^st open Combine Thurso (500 miles), ‘The Kestrel Cock’ 1^st open Combine Stonehaven and ‘Sparrow Hawk’ 5^th open Combine (10,000 birds). His best pigeon was the great champion ‘Motivator’ and this handsome blue chequer cock won the London NR Combine ‘Order of Merit Award’, and won a long list of premier positions including: 2^nd open Combine Stonehaven, 4^th open Combine Thurso (500 miles), 25^th open Combine Berwick, 4^th open Combine Thurso for a second time and was 1^st open London Federation (twice). Terry says ‘Motivator’s’ best performance was when he was clocked after 16 hours on the wing from Thurso (500miles) in a south east wind, with only five birds clocked on the day and he recorded 4^th open Combine. A fantastic pigeon!

Terry has had many racing and breeding champions in his time in the sport including: Champion ‘Motivator’: the champion ‘Merit Award’ winner and breeding cock: ‘Robbo’: winner of 1^st Federation, 1^st section, 4^th open London NR Combine Stonehaven. The ‘ace’ breeding cock, being the sire of many top racers including, ‘Ruby’ and ‘Wine’: ‘Mr. Reliable’: winner of 1^st club Whitley Bay, 1^st section, 2^nd open, 6^th Amalgamation, 10^th open London NR Combine Thurso (500 miles), 62^nd open LNRC Thurso, 82^nd open LNRC Thurso, 60^th open LNRC Stonehaven: ‘Ruby’: winner of 1^st section, 2^nd open BICC Perpignan National, 630 miles (1^st open hens), 14^th section, 60^th open L&SECC Tarbes, 5^th section, 5^th open BICC Perpignan National, 630 miles (2^nd open hens), 5^th section, 74^th open L&SECC Tarbes, 1^st section, 1^st open Federation Eastbourne (963 birds): ‘Wine’: a fantastic racing hen and winner of 1^st section, 53^rd open (Hens) BICC Tours, 5^th section, 165^th open BICC Falaise, 4^th section, 44^th open BICC Falaise, 2^nd section, 16^th open BICC Hens National, 6^th section, 19^th open L&SECC Guernsey (Old Hens), 18^th section E, 21^st open NFC Old Hens National, 38^th section E, 148^th open NFC Tours (3,693 birds): ‘Misty’: winner of several premier positions in the NFC and Classic including 1^st section, 23^rd open L&SECC Tarbes, 53^rd section E, 129^th open NFC Bordeaux: ‘Rosie’: winner of 5^th section, 42^nd open London NR Combine Thurso (500 miles), 3^rd section, 25^th open London NR Combine Thurso. A fantastic loft of champion racing pigeons!

That’s our article for this week! The outstanding racing performances of Peter Wells and Terry Robinson. I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)