DREW CALLAN REPORTS ON
KEVIN GODFREY
Clearly talented and quietly consistent
Last year The National Flying Club was able to offer its members the opportunity to compete for a car in the second race of the programme, with each loft having only one single bird nomination. The winner of the car turned out to be a chauffeur called Danny Seedwell who raced in to the middle of Section E. In offering a car as a prize The National Flying Club was following in a rich tradition of the national and classic organisations who offered ample opportunities for their members to win cars that stretch back over the past 30 years or more, but this form of sponsorship was phased out about 10 years ago. This year the committee was keen to build on the interest and momentum that the car sponsorship created and have actually gone one better with two cars being made available for competition in the 2014 season in two different races. This kind of sponsorship does not just fall from the sky and it was the hard work and vision of two men which has seen this come to fruition. Firstly it was the initiative and perseverance of Eamon Kelly, one of the better looking and charismatic members of the committee, who put in the initial groundwork aided by other visionary committee members, and secondly we are very lucky to have as a member Kevin Godfrey who is a managing director of Hartwells. From the off Kevin was very keen to offer support to the National and he worked alongside Eamon to secure the very generous sponsorship that allowed us to offer the car last year and he has stepped up to the plate again to ensure that the partnership with the National continues with two Hartwells cars now up for grabs. The nuts and bolts of where the cars will be offered for competition will be decided at the committee meeting prior to the AGM on Saturday 11th January, but from initial discussions it looks like it will be the first and third races but this might change.
Kevin has a very demanding role within Hartwells and this sees him being kept busy all year round. To counter the stresses and demands of his job Kevin maintains a team of pigeons that help him unwind and relax. For many years he has been a top flyer at Federation level both in Oxford at his present location outside of Chipping Norton in the idyllic North Oxfordshire countryside. Kevin has always found time being of a premium but this has not stopped him being a successful fancier which reflects both the quality of the fancier and the pigeons he has worked with over the years. He keeps the system simple so that very little can go wrong and more importantly his wife or daughter can step in and assist when work demands keep him away from the loft.
Kevin outside the racing loft
Kevin served his apprenticeship in the company of top class fanciers in and around Oxford and it was from these gentlemen that he picked up the rudimentary skills that underpin his management and approach to pigeon husbandry to this present day. He flies what he calls the basic widowhood system that was taught to him a long time ago and has developed it very little as it has served him well. However, being an astute and intelligent fancier he has developed aspects of his management in light of the evolution in feeding and health knowledge that successful fanciers take on board.
The racing year kicks off when the widowhood team is paired which will be in late January this coming season. Kevin would normally pair up 2 weeks later but last season when the season was delayed by two weeks because of the cold weather the cocks went to the first race on widowhood and Kevin won the BB&O Federation so in 2014 he is altering the pairing dates to allow the team to be on widowhood for the first race. He likes to breed off the better performance cocks but all pairs will rear a nest so some will be foster parents for the stock birds. When sitting the second round of eggs Kevin blows the cobwebs off the training baskets and the cocks will get 8 tosses up to Lechlade, 25 miles to the loft. The birds are already fit as they get to fly out each weekend over the close season weather permitting so they have a sound level of fitness before the training programme starts. Kevin uses the Maxi range of Natural corn as the base feed and as the race approaches he tops this up with Energy corn supplementing the food for the widowhood cocks. Hens are always shown to the cocks on basketing night for a few minutes and are always there on return from the race. The cocks are kept on widowhood throughout the season and Kevin will race them right through to Tarbes - close on 600 miles to the loft - and all are expected to put in a good account of themselves throughout the season to have a box the following year. For 2014 Kevin has a small team of 10 hens who will be raced on widowhood and raced back to latebred cocks who will always be there to see the ladies on their return. This development has come about after Kevin visited and talked to quite a few top national fanciers who are competing at the top with hens on widowhood so he quite fancied giving it a go rather than limiting his options to just cocks.
The team is kept healthy all year round with worms and lice being controlled through the bath water and a careful watch is kept on canker and respiratory problems during the racing season. He has a bare board approach in the racing lofts but is currently experimenting with grill floors in the stock section but isn’t yet a fan of these!!
Given the success that Kevin has with yearling cocks you would think that the young bird team are worked on darkness right through the young bird programme to educate them for the job expected later in life. In fact nothing could be further from the truth, time does not allow Kevin to put the birds on darkness and the team only get 4 training tosses from 25 miles and then are finished for the year yes you read right, he does not race the young birds at all, they get only 4 tosses and are left to moult through. The yearling cocks are then brought out and trained up with the older cocks and entered in to the race programme at the second or third race weather permitting. They go through the full inland BB&O and all yearling cocks get at least one channel race when the air warms up.
Kevin has seen his bloodlines change over the past 15 years from an all conquering Willie Geerts based family to the present day where he has focused on sons and daughters of top performing national/international pigeons. This was not initially through choice, but on one of the rare occasions that he sent to a young bird race the birds brought back an illness that rapidly went through the lofts with devastating efficiency. Over the course of 2 weeks Kevin saw 48 birds dying including multiple club and federation winners and the parents of these. Lesser men would have quit but Kevin had a regroup, burnt the lofts and bought a new one. He looked around for a team of pigeons that would compete at federation level with a consistency that would match his old family, and settled on the Jan Loots Janssen based family and they have met his expectations. These birds proved themselves at club and federation level and you know you are doing something right when your club members all need to know your time and congratulate each other if they manage to beat you. Kevin has moulded these birds into a high performing team that has given quite a few sleepness nights and headaches to his fellow club members and along the way he has won the BICC from Sennen Cove with a bird bred by his good friend Graham Caple. So it was obvious that when the occasions presented themselves Kevin was more than capable of mixing it with the big boys above and beyond federation racing.
1st Section I winning Jan Loots x Posey a sign of things to come
A few years ago a series of circumstances conspired to make Kevin consider giving up racing and only keeping a few birds to fly around the lofts. As is often the case in these situations he was given wise counsel from his wife Michelle and settled for drastically reducing his numbers whilst he had a rethink. The end result was that Kevin started to look towards national racing as a focus for his limited time. His reasoning was that as he wasn’t sure if he would have the time to do the birds justice in the weekly racing arena he could set out his stall for a more limited racing calendar. Kevin set about researching winning birds and fanciers at national level in Britain and broad and did his homework well. He also had an eye to the future and having more time available when he retired and could compete across the board, so with this in mind wanted to lay the foundations for a family that would win from 60 miles out to 600. He started with the tools that were already available to him and through his good friend Dave Posey he acquired the best of his international winning blood and crossed these Dordin based birds into his Jan Loots. The thinking being that this could put a bit of speed and improved orientation in the proven distance birds. The first few birds from these crossings have proved a bit tasty and have produced a section winner in 2013 in the NFC. Kevin has continued along this theme by crossing in a few birds from the consistently good national distance loft of Richard Howey. To take his ambitions further Kevin has added to the stock team and has spent clever rather than spending big and his loft includes a balance of distance bloodlines from the likes of Mark Gilbert and sound middle distance birds including Bolton &Williamson Van Loons, direct Andre Roodhooft, Eddy Groontjans and a few other tasty introductions. The masterplan is to cross the various lines, race the offspring hard up to 600 miles + at national level and select out accordingly in pursuit of producing a family of all rounders. Kevin knows this is no overnight job but is relishing the task ahead and I think it’s fair to say the challenge has rekindled the fire in his belly.
The widowhood cock race team for 2014
When talking to Kevin he made a few very intelligent observations and one that has stuck with me was his belief that top quality birds can only enhance your performances and this realisation came about when he saw how the performances of ‘average’ club flyers were vastly improved after introducing a couple of quality birds. This underlined his intentions to buy clever and let the basket do the rest. Based on the successes that Kevin has achieved in the short time he has been targeting national racing I have no doubt that he will be a force to be reckoned with at national level for quite a few years to come; the quality of the bloodlines at his disposal and his inherent ability as a fancier will ensure that. At present you get the impression that he is keeping his powder dry as he puts together a team with depth and experience but get ready for the fireworks.
Drew Callan
PO The National Flying Club
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Elimar December 2013
