Keith Mott Writes...

The B.I.C.C. Winners! (Part 2)

CRATHORNE & PARROTT

OF BENFLEET

The Essex partnership of Budgie Crathorne and Len Parrott won 1st open in the B.I.C.C. National from Gellainville in the 2004 season and continued their glittering racing career, which has been full of excellent performances. The partners have won it all at Classic and National level, including 1 st . open in the 2003 N.F.C. Falaise old hens national, with their brilliant blue white flight hen, Champion "Kiln Falaise".

The 2003 Falaise old hens national attracted 1,512 birds and was won by Champion "Kiln Falaise" and she was sent feeding a 12 day old youngster. Budgie and Len sent 15 young birds and three old hens to the National and enjoyed an excellent race, recording their first youngster six minutes after their National winner, to be in the first few in the open young bird result and got all their birds home on the day of liberation. "Kiln Falaise" is 50% Montgomery / Krauth and her grandsire, a Rutter Brothers pigeon, has bred over 30 winners for the Crathorne & Parrott loft. The National winner had raced well on the widowhood system, being a winner as a young bird and her sire, "Kiln Barcelona", recorded 7th . open B.I.C.C. Pau in 2002 and 18 th . open B.I.C.C. Marseille in the 2003 season. A brilliant family of winning pigeons!

Budgie Crathorne visited my home in Esher the weekend after his National win to have Champion "Kiln Falaise" photographed and Mark Gilbert, the 2003 Grand National winner, was also visiting so we had a good couple of hours of pigeon banter in my garden. Mark and I were very impressed with the condition of Budgie's hen, she was perfect in the moult, with not a feather out of place and blooming with super fitness. Budgie told me that he had been in partnership with his good friend, Len Parrott, since 2000 and the racing loft is at his address, with the 52 pairs of stock pigeons being kept at Len's home. He said that Len was a wonderful stock man and has a great knack of pairing pigeons on the eyesign method, to breed winners. Budgie raced pigeons in Germany while doing army service and won 1 st . and 2 nd . open in the German National. He returned to the U.K. in 1993 and began racing north road, with outstanding success, winning many firsts in the club and Federation, including 1 st . open Combine Stonehaven and 1 st . open Combine Ripon. The partners turned completely south road in 2002 and have won many premier positions, including 2001: 18 th . open N.F.C. Guernsey (first Gold Ring), 2002: 4th. open N.F.C. Guernsey (Old Hens), 2003: 2 nd . open B.I.C.C. Falaise and 1 st . open N.F.C. Falaise (Old Hens).

Budgie and Len race the widowhood system to a 30ft. four section loft and the race team is made up of 12 hens and 28 cocks, which are paired up in February. The first round of eggs from the stock loft are floated under the race birds and the widowhood pigeons are on the system when their mates are taken away, their first round of youngsters being 16 days old. When the babies are taken away, Budgie, starts to train the race team and they get about 25 tosses up to 90 miles, before the first race. He told me, he used to like sprint racing, but that bores him now and he's only really interested in long distance events with the B.I.C.C. and N.F.C. The inland club races are used for training and sometimes a few of the widowhood racers are re-paired for the long distance International races.

The partners own many quality pigeons from different families and say they are trying to build their own family of long distance pigeons. Len handles all the breeding side of the pigeon partnership and the stock birds are housed in a big loft, with a wire flight on the front, so the inmates can enjoy the weather. They are very keen on eyesign and all their pairings are done on this method. The partners sell young birds each season and about 60 are retained to race, these being put on the darkness system. The week after they are weaned, the youngsters are jabbed and one week later are put on the darkness system. They are worked hard and get lots of training tosses, starting at 3 miles, working through to 50 miles. Budgie maintains that most pigeon fanciers try to run before they can walk and rush training, which he thinks is wrong. He gives his babies lots of short tosses and works them up to the longer training points in stages. In the early part of the young bird season the sexes are kept apart, but later on they arte allowed to run together and pair up if they wish. The youngsters are fed on a good mixture and are trained twice a week from 30 miles, during the racing season, and race the whole programme. No youngsters are saved for the widowhood system and all have to race. Budgie says ventilation is very important in the loft and, although his widowhood loft has a closed-in front, it is well ventilated, with big vents, back and front, and big chimneys in the flat roof. All birds are trapped through open doors and the loft is cleaned out twice a day, when the birds are out for their hour's exercise.

FRED HALL

OF WORTHING

Fred Hall is not only a first class pigeon racer, winning top honours in the very best company, but is also a great worker for our sport. He has been secretary of the very large and successful Brighton & Worthing 5 bird club for several seasons and enjoys racing in it, which is all channel racing. Fred won 1 st . open B.I.C.C. from the Le Ferte Bernard national in the 2004 season.

Fred Hall also won the N.F.C. Pau Grand National with his champion blue chequer cock, "Foxgrove Prince", in 1998. The weekend before his N.F.C. win, Fred, recorded 4 th . open London & South East Classic Club Pau with his blue widowhood cock, "Foxgrove Pencil". A real purple patch! His Pau National winner was a two year old when he won and had every channel race in his build up to his Pau win. "Foxgrove Prince" was a consistent young bird, winning prizes on the darkness system and on the build up to the Pau National, had no training whatsoever. He is of the Jackson & Andrews of Yorkshire strain and is medium deep-keeled in the hand. On handling this great champion the day after he won the greatest prize in the British pigeon racing sport, I noticed he was half way up on his first flight. There was only a handful of pigeons clocked on the day from Pau and this game cock flew the 518 miles, being clocked at 18.55hrs. as black clouds and rain loomed over the south coast loft. A wonderful pigeon!

Fred started in the sport in 1968, at the age of 16 and says racing then was very different to these days. He had a very successful family of Janssens and Herman pigeons for many years, but these were mostly wiped out in 1989 by a bad bout of salmonella. Fred obtained latebreds in 1993 from Jackson & Andrews and says this loft has a wonderful record, averaging 40 first prizes every season. Fred bases his widowhood system on Jackson & Andrews' system and since obtaining stock from them he has never looked back. The Hall loft is very successful at all distances, but in recent seasons has won many positions in the N.F.C. including 1 st . and 150 th . open Pau , 53 rd . and 176 th open Sennen Cove, 81 st . and 148 th . open Guernsey , 98 th . open Vire and 147 th . open San Sebastian . The two Pau races in 1998 were the first time that he sent the Jackson & Andrews pigeons over 500 miles and the results were pure fairytale! Fred likes races over six hours, as the Jackson & Andrews' birds need that time on the wing to get racing. Richard Mauger of Guernsey won 1 st . open Bordeaux with the B.B.C. in 1997 with a blue hen called, "Misty Lady", and this champion was bred by Fred Hall from his Jackson & Andrews stock. Fred pairs up during the first week of December and races 24 cocks on the widowhood system. The cocks get very little training, being sent regularly to Guernsey with the local Brighton & Worthing 5 bird club, to get them fit for the main channel events. They are fed on a heavy breeding mixture and are also hand fed peanuts and maize for the long distance events. The cocks are never broken down after the race. When Fred won the Pau National he lived at Portslade and when I visited the garden, the day after his brilliant Pau National win, I was very impressed with his very smart loft set up. He is a first class bricklayer by trade and needless to say, his two lofts were built of brick, with smart enclosed wooden fronts. Fred is only a small team flyer and his small widowhood loft was a double decker, with a great outlook from the top section.

It's two of the best, this week and I hope you've enjoyed reading about them! I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!