“On The Road” With Keith Mott
‘Lion Brewery’ Mid-Week Club
The ‘Lion Brewery’ Midweek club held its big annual open show at the pub in Ash the day after Boxing Day and in spite of very foggy weather conditions on the day, the event was very well supported, with 150 birds being entered. Steve Howard, Terry Haley and me judged the four classes, which were all handled. The quality of the birds entered in the show were first class and it was very refreshing to handle the pigeons, with most open shows these days being through the wires, but this was not surprising, as whether it be racing or showing at the ‘Lion Brewery’, it’s always premier quality. I had the honour of judging ‘Best in Show’ and awarded it to the young hen’s class winner, a beautiful apple bodied red chequer owned by Clive Turner of Capel. Clive told me after the event that she was an Eric Cannon pigeon and had raced the whole young bird programme in the 2018 racing season. John Eastwood of the Guildford club won ‘Best Opposite Sex’ with a handsome Janssen blue chequer stock cock that he had recently purchased at the Epsom Show. The club secretary, Mick Worsfold, would like to thank everyone who attended for their support and a special thanks to Russell Blundell, Jim Jolly and John Woodhouse for their good work in erecting and taking down the show pens. A special thanks to Mike Armitage, who supplied free food to all comers!
The club’s ‘Show Trophy’ was won by Mike Armitage. The class winner were: Old Cocks: 1st John Eastwood (BOS), 2nd Ted Burgess, 3rd Mike Armitage, 4th Malcolm Gaiter, 5th Tony Staley, 6th Mike Armitage, 7th Malcolm Gaiter, 8th Paul Stowell: Old Hens: 1st Ted Burgess, 2nd Bob Oakey, 3rd Ted Burgess, 4th Ted Burgess, 5th Clive Turner, 6th Ted Burgess, 7th Ted Burgess, 8th Bob Oakey: Young Cocks: 1st Mike Armitage, 2nd Clive Turner, 3rd Clive Turner, 4th Clive Turner, 5th Tony Stacey, 6th Mike Armitage, 7th John Eastwood, 8th Jim Jolly: Young Hens: 1st Clive Turner (BIS), 2nd Malcolm Gaiter, 3rd Mike Armitage, 4th Mike Armitage, 5th Mike Armitage, 6th Clive Turner, 7th Tony Staley, 8th Tony Staley.
Although Clive Turner won ‘Best in Show’ at the ‘Lion Brewery’ Open Show, he is not normally noted for showing his birds, but has been a brilliant pigeon racer over many years. The London & South East Classic Club got the 2011 season off to a great start in early May, when the members entered 1,811 birds in the Alencon race. For several days before the race, according to the early weather reports, it looked like it was going to be a good race and it proved to be so. The Classic’s transport manager, Clive Turner, won the race by a ‘country mile’ and also took 4th open just for good measure! It was very pleasing to see Clive win this Classic as he was a great worker for our club, maintaining and garaging the L&SESS transporter at his yard near Dorking. The last few seasons have been outstanding for Clive and 2013 being no exception winning many major positions including: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13, South Coast Federation Fougeres, 4th, 12th South Coast Federation Saintes, 2nd South Coast Federation Bergerac, 8th section A, 48th open NFC Tarbes (548 miles) Grand National, 11th section, 28th BICC Agen (487 miles), 3rd open L&SECC Tours, 2nd open L&SECC Bergerac, plus five firsts in the very strong Horsham club. A brilliant loft performance! After Clive Turner’s great success in 2011 when he won 1st open London & South East Classic Club Alencon (1,811 birds), he has repeated his very high quality performances in the 2012 season, winning 1st Horsham RPC, 1st South Coast Federation, 1st Combine Saintes (374 miles), 1st, 2nd Horsham RPC, 1st, 3rd South Coast Federation (800 birds) Fougeres (192 miles), plus many other premier prizes in the club and Federation. Clive won the Combine from Saintes with his good widowhood mealy pied cock, ‘The Saintes Cock’, and he was bred by Keith & Betty Mott of Claygate from two Busschaert / Staf Van Reet stock birds bred by Richard and Ken O’Connor of South Norwood. The Saintes Combine winner was latish bred in 2010 and has had very little racing, but as well as winning the Combine he has won several top positions inland in the strong Horsham club this season. His sire is the mealy pied stock cock, ‘Young Roman’, who is the sire of several good winners and is son of the champion Busschaert, ‘Roman Nose’, winner of four times 1st Federation, when mated to the Paul Arnold / Staf Van Reet hen, ‘Dawn’, winner of 1st Combine. The dam of ‘The Saintes Cock’ is a daughter of the O’Connor’s ‘Champion of Champions’, ‘Batman’, winner of 17 first prizes, including five times 1st Federation and 4th open Combine. Champion ‘Batman’ is a Busschaert and half-brother to Champion ‘Roman Nose’. A fantastic family of winners! Clive’s 3rd South Coast Federation Fougeres winner in the 2012 season was also bred from Keith & Betty Mott blood lines.
The Turner pigeon set up consists of three very smart lofts, with a back drop of the beautiful Surrey countryside, and Clive races 30 cocks on widowhood, with the backup of 12 pairs on the roundabout system. He likes all racing, but prefers regular Saturday Federation racing and says he doesn’t race every week as he has 13 grandchildren and he likes to spend time with them in the summer months. The racers are paired at the end of January and are fed on a good widowhood mixture. Clive tells me he breaks the racing cock down during the season, but for a shorter period on the Continental events and has always practiced this method, even when he raced natural many years ago. Generally the cocks don’t see their hens on marking night, but get their mates on their return home, with the duration depending on how hard the race has been. The racers are trained prior to the first race, but never during the season and are exercised around the loft for an hour twice a day, and raced regularly to keep them fit.
Clive has had pigeons most of his life, but packed them up once many years ago, when he had a young family and was very busy farming for a living. He explained to me why he raced as D. Turner! When his son David was a lad he had a ‘five minute wonder’, obtaining a loft and some pigeons from a friend and when he got fed up with them, Clive took them over, but has never changed the ownership name. Clive had a period of his life living in Hounslow in the late 1960’s and raced in the Hounslow Mile and a Quarter Club in the company of greats like Freddie Meal, Hicks Brothers, Mr. Spratley and the great partnership of Claremont & Meads, who was the secretary at that time. He has been a great pigeon racer for many years and has been highest money winner in the very strong Horsham club several times over the years. He tells me he is a pigeon lover really, but doesn’t keep the widowhooders for the sprint races only, the whole old bird team race through to 450 miles. When I asked Clive what family of birds he kept he said, years ago they started off as the Busschaerts, which are the base family, but now he could call them ‘Turners’ as he has crossed in over many years and has now created his own family of pigeons which excel from 80 miles through to 450 miles. He says some of his original birds were purchased in Guildford market for £2 each! He has won many premier positions over the years, including 1st Section in the National Flying Club and 9th open L&SECC Pau (550 miles). The stock team is made with eight pairs of mostly good retired racers and these are paired up the same time as the racers so their eggs can be floated in the race loft. When I asked Clive what he looked for when selecting new stock birds, he said, ‘I can’t really explain, but when you get a bird in the hand, some tells you if it is right or not’. Clive races about 60 babies each season to the perch and only gives them minimal racing for education purposes only, but likes to train them well down to the south coast. He doesn’t use the ‘dark’ system with his babies, but races them natural to the perch and if they want to pair up during the racing season he allows them to do so for motivation.
The ‘Lion Brewery’ Midweek Club at Ash had another successful season racing out of West Country in 2018 and one of the main plus’s for me with the ‘Lion Brewery’ Midweek Club is they race mark on Wednesday morning for all Wednesday inland races and the birds can have a good 100 miles fly for only 70p each and not have a night in the basket. Great training for the long distance events! This 100 miles mid-week racing is proving to be a great help in getting pigeons ready for the main National and Classic events and ‘Lion Brewery’ members have figured high in several open results in the 2018 season. The subs are £25.00 and all young fancier under 18 years of age don’t pay any sub, but pay the full price for their birdage each week. That’s another plus for the ‘Lion Brewery’ Midweek Club in my reasoning, is having Mick Worsfold as club secretary! Mick Worsfold is a ‘straight down the line’; no nonsense sort of gentleman and everything is spot on with him. We have been good friends for many years and must say it’s great to have him at the helm! Mick races his pigeons in partnership with his wife, Pauline, at their home in Bisley and their record Channel racing over the years is second to none, winning 1st open Combine (twice), 1st open British Barcelona Club (twice) and 1st open London & South East Classic Club (twice).
I had a chat with my ol’ mate Mick Worsfold at the winter open show and he outlined some news of the clubs 2018 season. The Mid-Week marks on a Wednesday morning (09.00 hrs to 11.00hrs) for an afternoon race from Hamworthy and in recent seasons has adopted a rule very good rule: ‘Bad weather, no mark, no race, no holdover and no unnecessary expense’. Mick tells me the club had a great season and only missed a few races through bad weather, but most clubs had some difficult races, especially the young birds. He is correct when he says, ‘I don’t know why, but sometimes we have bad races on good days, which is pretty general in our sport today. One major problem racing from our former race point, Hamworthy was the birds having to fly right across the full length of the New Forest and the Sparrow Hawk and Peregrine Falcon attacks they have to suffer’. Since Mick took over as the club secretary seven years ago the ‘Lion Brewery’ membership has risen from about 12 member to well over 50 members and on some races the birdage has been over 450 birds in the 2018 racing season. The birds are convoyed with the Bromley Mid-Week pigeons by Tom Firmanger on one of the BICC transports and the birds are liberated at about 14.30hrs.
‘Lion Brewery’ Mid-Week RPC premier prize winners in the 2018 racing season were: Mike & Lyndsey Armitage: 11 firsts / 2 seconds / 2 thirds, Paul Johnson & Partner: 3 firsts / 3 seconds, Mick & Pauline Worsfold: one first / 6 seconds / 4 thirds, A. Bradbury: one first / 2 seconds / 3 thirds, Farr & Woodhouse: 1 first, 1 second, 2 thirds, John Eastwood: 1 first, 2 seconds, C. Staley & son: 1 first, 1 second, 1 third, W. Carr & son: 1 first, 1 second, 1 third, John Waldron: 1 first, 2 thirds, George Burgess: 1 first, Gerry Francis, J. Harrison, J. Deville and Russell Ayres. Mike and Lyndsey Armitage won all the 2018 averages in the ‘Lion Brewery’ club, including: Old Bird Average, Young Bird Average, Combine Average and Old Hens Average.
The ‘Lion Brewery’ Mid-Week Club has its HQ at the ‘Lion Brewery’ PH set in the wonderful Surrey countryside at Ash and it is common knowledge that the pub has been run for the last 40 years by the premier pigeon racing partnership of Mike and Lyndsay Armitage, who have won both the BICC and L&SECC in recent seasons. The pub is a marking station for the NFC and BICC, and has been the home of the ‘Lion Brewery’ Mid-Week Club since 1980. Mike’s wife, Lyndsay, has a great interest in the pigeons and works very hard for all the clubs who are based at the pub in Ash. The very smart lofts are sited in the pub garden and Lyndsay has her loft of all white racing pigeon in the garden of the Armitage’s house next door to the ‘Lion Brewery’. Mike Armitage started up pigeon racing in his home town of Hull over 60 years ago and has been an outstanding fancier over the years, winning many premier racing honours, including: 10th open NFC Pau, the first ten positions in an open race and 1st open Federation many times. Years ago he liked sprint racing, but is now in to channel racing with the BICC and NFC. He has been a publican for nearly 50 years and has been 38 years at the ‘Lion Brewery’, a wonderful little pub set in the Surrey countryside at Ash. The ‘Lion Brewery’ is very much a pigeon pub, with several clubs being based there, including the British International Championship Club, which has been there at Ash for over 20 years. He told me when the BICC first came to the ‘Lion Brewery’ it had 164 member and now it has progressed up to over 1,600 members, which he maintains is full credit to a great management team. Mike has three lofts totalling 160 ft. smartly set in the pub garden and all the birds are trapped through open windows to the ETS system. Mike has in recent seasons erected a new loft in the pub garden and I must say it looks very smart. The main 50ft Belgium style racing loft was purchased from Johnny May of Worcester Park after his recent retirement from pigeon racing and is kitted out with slatted floors, Perspex roof lights, German up and over nest boxes and the ETS. The families raced are Fountainhead Janssens and Busschaerts, Roger Lowe’s Hartogs and the fantastic Marriotts obtained from John Grey of Hull in 1977. The Marriott pigeons have been outstanding for Mike over the years and the 8th open BICC Le Ferte Bernard winner on that brilliant weekend was a Marriott blue chequer hen, raced on the semi-widowhood.
Mike and Lyndsay Armitage were premier prize winners in the ‘Lion Brewery, but the 2018 racing season also saw the partnership win 1st open Amalgamation from France in the very strong Godalming RPC (South Coast Federation). They have had many premier successes in National and Classic races through the years, but one of their best was a few seasons ago in the London & South East Classic Club. They sent six widowhood hens to the London & South East Classic Guernsey old hen’s classic and had a brilliant race, timing in five of their entries to record 1st, 7th, 26th, 75th and 91st open. Wonderful pigeon racing by any ones standards! Mike’s classic winner was his good yearling blue hen, ‘LuLu’, and she was raced on Mike’s widowhood method, which he says is really a jealousy system. This game hen won the old hen’s classic by over 50 ypm and also beat the young bird classic winner! She had every ‘Lion Brewery’ Mid-Week Hamworthy race and three Federation channel races on her built up to her Classic win, and was not stranger to success having won several premier prizes for the Armitage loft. Her sire is Mike’s good racing cock, ‘Centenary Boy’, winner of 1st club, 365th open Nantes Centenary Race (65,000 birds) in 1999 and he was bred Roger Lowe’s Hartogs and Mike’s old family of Marriott. The dam of ‘LuLu’ was one of the premier stock hens at the Ash loft, ‘The Taylor Hen’ and she was bred by the late Colin Taylor of Kent. The Armitage partnership have won 1st open British International Championship Club from Le Ferte Bernard and have won the London & South East Classic Club three times, and although I've visited their home many times, one of the most recent as a pigeon writer was when he won the Classic from Alencon , with 3,252 birds competing. I was chief convoyer and press officer for the Classic at that time, and drove down to the ‘Lion Brewery' to see his winning pigeon. Mike's winner, a Fountainhead Janssen blue chequer cock was raced on Mike's own semi-widowhood system. This handsome pigeon, named “Wonder Boy” by Mike's young son, Tom, had won five races previously and raced in the Weymouth mid-week race on the Wednesday, before winning the Classic on the Saturday. The Armitage loft had a brilliant weekend winning 1st and 10th open L&SECC Alencon, 8th open BICC Le Ferte Bernard and 1st club Sennen Cove. A fantastic loft performance for one weekend!
The Armitage pigeons are raced on Mike's own semi-widowhood system, whereby he can race both cocks and hens in different races on the same day. He pairs up on 14th February and the pairs are split in the normal widowhood way after their first round of youngsters. The cocks are raced and the hens trained in midweek, with them seeing one another two or three times during the week. Mike says he never breaks the racers down, but the racers are mostly fed on a first class widowhood mixture. He works very hard with his birds and they are so tame that prior to ETS, sometimes they used to land in the garden on their return from a race, and Mike could pick them up and clock them on the lawn. He keeps a bit of condition seed in his loft coat pocket and the birds follow him around the garden, looking for a tit-bit, which he gives them by hand. The stock birds are housed in nice big aviaries. He feeds all ‘Gem’ corn and never breaks his racers down. He pairs his stock birds up on 10th December and the races in February, when they rear a single youngster before going on the widowhood system. At the end of the season Mike breeds a select few late breds off his best racers which are retained for stock. Mike breeds about 60 young birds for himself to race and these are put on a semi-darkness, which Mike says, they are taken off earlier than the conventional darkness pigeons, as he like them to moult as normally as possible. Mike uses the ‘Lion Brewery’ Mid-Week for training his youngsters and says, ‘a 100 mile race every Wednesday is brilliant education for them and then they race the Classic and National races’. Mike's lofts and pigeons are a credit to him!
That’s it for this week! 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).
