Keith Mott writes...

I had a phone call today from my ol’ mate, Bob Reeves of Exeter, to inform me that his pride and joy, Champion “Reevo’s My Peggy”, had died last week at the age of eleven. Needless to say, Bob was a bit upset, as the great old champion was not only his greatest ever racer, but was also his best friend. After winning the Nantes National in 1996 she was retired to the stock loft, where she bred many premier racers and she became Bob’s pet. Bob Reeves is one of the sport’s gentlemen and is not only a great pigeon racer, but a pigeon lover, representing everything that is good about pigeon racing. He won the N.F.C. Nantes race with his two year old Warrington – Savage Barker natural hen, “Reevo’s My Peggy”, named after Bob’s late wife. This game hen won the National while feeding a youngster, but was locked out of the loft when she arrived home from Nantes, as Bob didn’t expect her home so fast and was cleaning the old bird section out. The clock and thimbles were in the bungalow and he lost a lot of time, clocking the National winner in the kitchen. The wonderful hen was medium, apple bodied in the hand, with silky feathering and had a nice tic behind her orange eyes, which really set her off. She had been a truly class act, as prior to winning the Nantes National she won many top positions including 1st. club, 4th. section, 8th. open W.E.C.A. Littlehampton, in spite of being a really bad trapper. On her build up to her National win, she had four races, including Rennes, and her last training toss was a single up from Torquay, 20 miles from the Exeter loft. There was 10,123 birds at the N.F.C. Nantes race when she won it in 1996 and she also won a motor car. A wonderful pigeon!