Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

The Champions of Yesteryear - Part 15

ERIC MATTHEWS

of Ashford

This week I'm going to feature a very special fancier, who I have known and respected since the 1970s, Eric Matthews of Ashford. He was a bricklayer by trade so it's understandable that his wonderful loft is partly built of brick. Although I'm going back a few years with this article, Eric is now retired from his very successful building business and is still one of the premier fanciers in the Middlesex area. His team of Cattrysse and Silver Dawn pigeons have kept him good and steady, making him one of the most consistent fanciers in Middlesex over the past 40-odd years. Eric found his pigeons a great relief from the pressure of business when he was working and they took his mind off building problems when he was at home. Eric first purchased the Silver Dawn pigeons from Hughie Ambler of Southend in 1955, obtaining one pair to start. The cock was a 10y blue called the Smashing Blue, being a really handsome pigeon and he was a champion breeder and racer in his own right He won 7 x 1st prizes and scored right up to Thurso, 500 miles. The 'Smashing Blue' was paired to a Silver Dawn grizzle hen and bred many winners for the Matthews loft. At that time Eric also purchased a pair of Moss pigeons from a great friend of Hughie Ambler, a Mr Wilkinson of March, and Eric then gradually blended the two families together. All the Silver Dawn/Moss pigeons in the Matthews loft went back to those original two pairs. Those pigeons won inland, but really excelled at the long distance. Eric's main family are made up of two lines of Cattrysse pigeons, one from Les Davenport and the other direct from Cattrysse Brothers some 40 years ago.

In the 1980s the loft housed so many outstanding pigeons that it is hard to know where to start, but I think we will begin with the great Cattrysse champion blue cock, Solitaire. He was a Davenport Cattrysse bred down from Les's. first national winner, Game Lady, and Eric says Solitaire's Eye was the same as the Davenport champions. Eric pairs up by eyesign and tried to breed the Cattrysse champions' eyesign into his birds. Solitaire was very nice in the hand, being medium, and his outstanding racing performances are. 1974: 1st club, 1st federation (1,743 birds) Plymouth . 1995: 1st club, 11th federation, 30 th open SMT Combine (4,256 birds) Niort.1976: 1 st club, 1st federation, 5th open SMT Combine (4,003. birds) Bergerac. 1977: 1st club, 1 st federation (1,688 birds) Plymouth ; 43rd section Nantes NFC, 4th club Lava!. 1978: 2nd club, 8 th federation Plymouth and bred some outstanding racers. A true champion. The star bird of the 1979 season' was the Silver Dawn/Moss blue cock Spartacus, who was above medium, long cast in the hand. He won £1,010 in two national races in 1979, recording 6th section E, 39th open (4,781birds) Pau NFC and 326th open (10,367 birds) Nantes NFC.

I think Eric Matthews is one of the pioneers of racing pigeons from the long distance on the widowhood system, perfecting the method 40 years ago and being one of a very few fancier to be consistently outstanding over a lot of years, on the system. The birds are raced mostly on the widowhood system with the early part of the season being flown on the natural system. The old birds are not trained at all and the young birds get about four training tosses before the first race, but all are flagged to fly one hour morning and night The hens fly the young bird programme and the young cocks are selected after two races, so that Eric has a good number of yearling cocks to go on the widowhood. Eric designed his fantastic 50ft 'L' shaped loft and a few of his carpenters built the front out of red cedar. There is a nice wire flight at the rear and stock birds and the widowhood hens are housed in that. The birds are trapped through the drop holes. Eric is allergic to dust, so the loft floors are slatted to let the dust fall away. The birds are cleaned out twice a year, from under the loft. Eric calls the birds out of the sky by tapping the driving stick on the path. The loft consists of five sections: young birds, stock birds and three widowhood sections, and it has a nice .com store. The birds are hopper fed with a good mixture and the widowhood pigeons are paired up in mid-February.

Many great pigeons have been bred in the Eric Matthews loft including the great '69 blue cock Champion Bullet. Eric bred this cock from Cattrysse Brothers pigeons and he was raced by Eric's son-In-law, Rod Berry , with outstanding success. Bullet won 13 x 1sts in the Ashford NR Club and 3 x 1sts in the Thames Valley NR Federation, winning at most race points including Perth (364 miles). Bullet was bred down from the Cattrysse champion Draaier and was sold to a Midlands fancier for £700. Eric says some good winners were bred down from the great Bullet. In return, son-in-law Rod bred Eric's good blue cock Balloon and he won 1st club, 1st federation (1,824 birds) Exeter ; 2nd club, 7th federation (1,457 birds) Weymouth . Balloon was bred from a brother to the great Solitaire. Another of Eric's best racers was the Silver Dawn/Moss blue cock, The Roman, and he won 1st club, 2nd federation, 6th open BTB Combine (3,750 birds) Niort; 1st club, 4 th federation, (1,564 birds) Weymouth; 3rd club, 6 th federation (1,759 birds) Exeter; 15th Federation (1,319 birds) Avranches.

Eric started up in the sport in 1955 and says he learnt a lot from Hughie Ambler of Southend. He broke his novice status with a Sion pigeon from Bournemouth in 1956 and the first Cattrysse pigeons were introduced in 1964 with the Davenport Cattrysse in 1971. Eric maintains the best way to build a lasting family is to purchase two pairs of pigeons of the same strain, but two different lines. For example, take Solitaire and Bullet, both Cattrysse but of different lines. Children of Solitaire paired to children of Bullet bred good winners. Eric says he has seen many a new fancier make the right start and do well for a few years then bring in crosses from here, there and everywhere, instead of purchasing only one good bird. These fanciers usually experience a steady decline in performance. If a one-bird cross is not successful, it can be put right with ease, but with a lot of crosses the mission is almost impossible, with many wasted years. Novices, please note!

Eric thinks the reason for such heavy losses at the first few young bird races is due to the clashing of federations. Eric's success goes back years, but says his biggest thrill was when he clocked his old pigeon '12345' to win Thurso (513 miles). Eric says in his years in pigeons he has never had a young bird flyaway and thinks it is because he puts youngsters on the trap boards before they can fly. As soon as they can fly from the trap boards to the ground, he only puts them out after 7am and if they don't fly around after two weeks he makes them fly for about 10 minutes at first. The main thing is to bring them on slowly for the first 4 weeks after weaning. He says it is very important at this stage to get the youngsters used to all the noises and movement around the loft like lawnmower, children and other pets. In selecting producers he says they must show super fitness at all times and breeds a dozen youngsters from them over two years, then he can be able to select or reject them as producers. He says he has used deep litter in the very distant past, but didn't like it because of the dust. Eric likes a few latebreds for racing and breeding, but not bred later than September. Eric's 1980 combine winner was a 3y Cattrysse/Silver Dawn blue cock called Oscar, flying the Matthews widow hood system. Members of the Seven Counties Combine sent 5,553 birds to their second Laval event and because of adverse weather the convoy was held over to the Sunday.

The combine liberated at 7.30am in a north, northwest wind and Eric clocked Oscar at 1.27pm , also recording four other pigeons in the combine open result. Eric says his first two pigeons came together and it was a matter of first bird to hand which won the combine, recording 1st, 2nd and 7 th open combine. Oscar was a very consistent racer winning 3rd federation Weymouth , 10th open combine Niort and 1st open combine Laval. A wonderful performance!

I hope my readers have enjoyed this article on Eric Matthews, he is a very special man and outstanding pigeon fancier! He is still successfully racing pigeons in Ashford and has recently won 1 st . open Combine from France again. Next week we are going to feature Eric's brother, Roy Matthews, who was also a very good pigeon racer. See yer!