Keith Mott Writes...

The B.I.C.C. - The early days (Part 3)

TREVOR DODD

OF TAUNTON

I had the pleasure of meeting Trevor Dodd in 1996, just after he had won the National Flying Club race from Saintes, with his champion "Fairoak Rocket" and was taken for the day out at the Taunton loft by my good friend Bob Reeves of Exeter. Trevor was no stranger to winning big time Classic and National races, recording 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Perpignan in 1982, 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Pau in 1988 and 1 st . open B.B.C. Palamos. The Dodd family lived in a quiet village called Ham, about three miles outside Taunton and his very smart lofts were set in the massive gardens with rose beds and an apple orchard. On our arrival Trevor was waiting with his grandson, Matthew, for youngsters from the Sartilly National. Bob Reeves and Trevor had been good friends for many years and Trevor said that he got as much pleasure out of Bob winning the Nantes National in 1996, as he did when he won the National himself that season from Saintes. At that time Trevor had been in the sport 50 years and had a very keen partner in his ten year old grandson, Matthew. The youngster loved football and was a great fan of Robbie Fowler and Liverpool . Matthew and his grandmother were a great help to Trevor, with cleaning and clocking the pigeons.

Trevor raced natural with his old long distance family to win the 600 miles events, but the main stay of his loft were the Billy Parkes' Busschaerts and he was mostly interested in middle distance events. The Dodd's Saintes National winner was their Busschaert blue chequer widowhood cock, champion "Fairoak Rocket" and this game pigeon had previously won several racing cards in club events. On his build up to his N.F.C. win, he had coastal tosses and two Nantes races in the local club.

Trevor's main racing loft was 44ft. long and was a double-decker, with open door trapping and office / basket store on one end. This smart loft housed mostly young birds and was spotlessly clean, being scraped out regularly. Trevor raced 18 cocks on the widowhood system, to their own 18ft. three section loft and also trapped through open doors. The widowhood cocks were paired up on 12 th . February each season, with middle distance channel racing in mind. Trevor told me, his cocks excelled up to 400 miles and the odd one or two do well from Dax and Pau . He showed the hens to the widowhood cocks for about five minutes on marking night and broke down from the race day until Tuesday morning. The birds are fed on a first class widowhood mixture and fly out around the loft at regular times. They got garlic in the drinking water and Hormoform twice a week. Trevor maintained that the natural is the best system for long distance racing and retained a few birds of his old distance family for this job.

Trevor was born in Torquay and became a pigeon fancier at the age of ten. A friend in Torquay gave him his first bird and the first club he joined was the Torbay Inv. F.C. He made a few silly mistakes in the beginning but got a lot of help and encouragement from the late Tom Pym and his son, Mervyn of Torquay. Trevor's first loft was a converted wardrobe and as a lad he just loved messing around with pigeons.

He kept about 30 pairs of stock birds, mostly Busschaerts and these were housed in several spacious lofts and flights. He picked out stock birds on pedigree and race records, not on handling or type. The stock loft retained a few of his old distance family and the breeders were paired up at the end of February. The Dodds' best stock pigeon was, "The Unrung Cock", a handsome red chequer Busschaert and he was the sire of countless winners and grandsire of champion "Fairoak Rocket". The Dodds' raced about 80 young birds each season and all went through to the longest race from Penzance, and were never paired up to race as young birds, but raced to the perch. In the 1996 season, Trevor, raced the babies a bit differently, by going up to Weymouth , then across the English Channel into France . The Dodd loft was only raced on the south road, and because they only lived 18 miles from the south coast, they had to race three races from the east, along the coast, then across the channel. The only time they raced north road was in 1983 when there was no channel racing and they won 3 rd . club Thurso (500 miles). A great fancier!

A & T DEACON

OF WATERLOOVILLE

In 1997, I did a "Many Miles with Mott" video tour of the Portsmouth area and had the great pleasure of visiting the highly successful long distance loft of A. & T. Deacon of Waterlooville. Of course it was the loft of the present, hard working secretary of the British International Championship Club, Jan Deacon and her husband, Albert. At that time, Jan, had been the secretary of her local club for 15 years and was secretary of the Portsmouth S.R. Federation. Albert and Jan have won the B.I.C.C. four times: 1990: 1 st . open Perpignan , 1991: 1 st . open Dax, 1999: 1 st . open Perpignan (Two Bird Average) and 2000: 1st open Brive. A brilliant loft performance!

Albert has been in the sport about 50 years, starting at the age of 11, when he says every school boy seemed to have pigeons. It was a very popular sport in the Portsmouth and still is with about 20 racing pigeon clubs in the area. His family of birds were based on the old Norman Southwell lines, which were taken over by John McLaren, who was a leading National flyer at that time. These birds were taking good positions at National level for Jimmy Shepherd and Albert's cousin, Ernie Deacon, and he obtained his original stock birds from these two fanciers. The Deacon partners also purchased some Van Bruaenes from Albert Bennett in 1983, which proved to be a very good cross. Albert considers winning the N.F.C. "Langstone Gold Cup" to be their best performance and the following year were runners up for the Gold Cup, which is for the best average for Nantes , Pau and the young bird National. The Deacon's have also won averages with the British International Championship Club and C.S.C.FC. Up to 1997 Albert and Jan had won 1 st . Section in the Pau N.F.C. race twice, once in 1985 when they recorded 2 nd . open with their champion dark hen, "Siverdale Supreme" and again in 1990, when they won 18 th . open with the blue hen, "Phoebe Dancer". The blue hen was the only bird on the day from Dax in the B.I.C.C., with "Rose Marie", half sister to "Phoebe Dancer", and this hen came in appalling conditions with strong winds in the channel, constant rain, near dark, and the Deacons thought it was impossible to get a bird in those conditions. They won the Two Bird Average from Perpignan four years in succession, including winning the race with the only bird on the day in the British International Championship Club. The B.I.C.C. also saw the partners win the 2 bird average from Barcelona when they recorded 2 nd . and 3 rd . open, with only three birds on the day, this was a day when the N.F.C. held over at Pau due to the adverse weather. Albert says their family of birds seem to do better when it is a hard race, and from the N.F.C. Pau race of 1995, which was extremely difficult, the Deacon's won 23 rd , 60 th . and 94 th . open, with five other birds in the National result. In the 13 seasons up to 1997 the partners had not been out of the first 200 open in the Pau N.F.C. race or first 100 open in C.S.C.F.C. Pau classic. Albert says his most thrilling experience in pigeon racing was in 1988 when they clocked nine birds on the day from the Pau N.F.C. race.

Albert pairs his 30 pairs of Natural racers the second week in March, stock birds in February and breeds about 60 young birds to race each year. He has always raced on the Natural and has an open loft for most of the day. Albert hand feeds a bean-based mixture and likes to make the birds fly around the loft for about 40 minutes night and morning, but likes to give the long distance candidates three or four 50 mile training tosses a week before the main event. He likes the old birds to fly 600 miles, the yearlings 450 miles, and although the partners are not great likers of young bird racing, they have to go through to 200 miles. Albert and Jan have a wonderful loft set up, with old fashioned bob hole trapping, and told me, dryness and good ventilation is very important in loft design. When purchasing new stock birds, Albert, looks for good performances from Pau and has no favourite type, saying good pigeons come in all shapes and sizes. The partners said they admirer many premier long distance fancier in the U.K. , but maintain Eric and Pat Cannon of Godalming were in a league of their own. Needless to say, Albert and Jan are great workers for the sport and when I visited their home in 1997, Albert was the Chairman of the local club and the Federation.

Well hope my readers have enjoyed the third part of the early days of the B.I.C.C., the forth episode will be written shortly. I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!