Keith Mott

The Champions of Yesteryear (Part 33)     

VINCE DURRANT

of Godalming

Vince Durrant has won the S.M.T. Combine twice in recent years and has excelled at the long distance events, since coming into the sport over 40 years ago. He has been a long time member of the Godalming club and has been a great worker for the club over many years.

The last S.M.T. Combine old bird race of 1986, was the Blue Riband event from Bergerac (450 miles) and it saw Vince Durrant win 1st Combine with 2,439 birds competing. The Combine winner was his two year old Louella bred mealy cock 'The 62 Cock' which was raced widowhood. For the first S.M.T. Combine race of the 1987 season members sent 3,929 birds to Rennes (220 miles) and Vince won the Combine for the second time with a red chequer son of ' The 62 Cock'. Vince thought the 1986 Bergerac race was his best to date recording 1st, 5th & 8th club, 1st Surrey Federation, 1st S.M.T. Combine, winning several highly rated trophies. Another outstanding performance in 1986 was 8th Section E, 21st Open Pau (N.F.C.) recorded by his two year old blue pied hen '05', which also recorded 7th Open Tours (B.B.C.) in 1986. The Durrant loft also won 1st & 2nd Open Tours in 1986, and recorded nine of 15 entries in the Rennes young bird National on the day, winning 30th, 90th, 141st, 240th, 262nd, 282nd & 349th Open. Brilliant pigeon flying!

Vince has kept pigeons for over 40 years, starting at the age of 11 with a pair of Ron Dodd of Shalford pigeons, which turned out to be two hens. Three Guildford North Road fanciers gave Vince a lot of help when he started, they were three brothers who all raced separately, Bert, Charlie & Doug Webster. Vince played a lot of football up to a few years ago, but now plays quite a lot of squash. He is also a keen fisherman. His first club was the now defunct Guildford North Road club and he won the odd card racing from the north. Other fanciers who have helped Vince since were Ron & Chris Cox of Farncombe who have supplied the majority of his stock, and have helped by taking his birds for marking. Vince's wife's grandfather is the late Godalming 'ace' Stan Edgington and Vince raced his pigeons to Stan's back garden for many years.

When Vince married in September 1986, Stan clocked his birds so as Vince could go off to the church, and recorded 4th club, 47th S.M.T. Combine Bodmin. Stan, a retired carpenter built Vince a new 30ft loft in his own back garden and sited on top of a hill. Vince said his early mistakes were overfeeding and overcrowding his first loft which was a garden shed. He maintains a loft should not be too wide so as to keep the birds manageable. He also thinks getting feeding right is one of the most important factors behind success with racing pigeons.

The Durrant loft houses four pairs of stock birds, 25 pairs of Natural racers, 11 Widowhood cocks, which are paired up in February, and he normally breeds 40 youngsters. He races the majority on Natural because he likes hens for the distance races, especially on a hard day. He keeps a few Widowhood cocks to try and be competitive in short sprint races. Vince is a manager of a wholesale meat company in Guildford and before he met his wife he did a lot of overseas travelling, visiting the U.S.A., Canada, South America, Barbados, and the Far East, Singapore, Thailand etc.

The majority of the Durrant pigeons have come from Ron & Chris Cox and  the late Stan Edgington. He had introduced a pair of Vanhees from Louella, the cock being the Bergerac Combine winner ' The 62 Cock' and some Kirkpatrir.ks also from Louella. Vince's wife is his flying partner and she does a lot of the training and cleaning out. Some years ago, Vince recalled that a non-fancier friend clocked in for hirn when he was away. When the birds arrived he got confused and finished up clocking in a celluloid ring from an old stock bird and couldn't understand why it was so difficult to get the rubber ring off the bird's leg.

Vince likes the old birds to race as far as possible, Bergerac, Pau National and Palamos with the B.B.C. Yearlings go through to 350 miles, with a few going to Bergerac and youngsters fly the programme as long as they are alright in the moult, he likes to train his birds from Petersfield (20 miles) and if possible tossing them in twos and fours so as they work. The birds he wants for the distance races are singled-up along the coast as often as possible and young birds are trained every day. He feeds a good mixture for most of the year, with extra Linseed during the moult and more Barley is fed just before pairing and up until the eggs are laid as this keeps the hens in trim. Once the hens have laid he feeds the good mixture again, until the youngsters have been weaned and pots of Maple Peas are put in the nest boxes when they are rearing. When racing starts he feeds more Barley with the mixture and varies that amount according to the race distance. The birds are trapped with Red Band condition seed.

Vince favours hens when selecting producers, nothing too small, with good wing and good steps in the flights. He has never really studied eyesign and the main thing in the eye he likes is deep colour, well defined, he never pairs two similar eyes together. Favoured racing conditions are hens sitting 10 to 14 day eggs and cocks two years old or more starting to drive their hens to nest. He said he has been in the sport for over 40 years and in his opinion nothing startling has changed in that time, apart from the fact it is easier now to get a good family of birds thanks to Louella and similar studs. He thinks the standards of most people's birds have improved greatly, which must make for better racing.

Vince rated the late Eric Cannon the best local fancier, because he knows the races he is interested in and is single-minded and dedicated in his preparation for those races. He thinks the main reason for flyaways is overcrowding and says youngsters should have plenty of room and spare perches, so they are contented and not always battling for somewhere to roost. He doesn't breed late breds as they need too much individual care and attention if they are going to be any good. The only time he would take a late bred would be out of a special pair for stock. He practises line-breeding with the majority of his best distance birds. Vince thinks the moult is very important and the birds should be fed the best corn available during this time with added Linseed. The birds need rest and all the best nourishment they can when growing new feathers. He says his tamest birds have been his best performers, but then again he spends a lot of time with the pigeons and has no really wild ones.

This week we have featured one of the very best fanciers in the Godalming area, not only a great pigeon racers but outstanding worker for the club. I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.