Keith Mott writes...

GARRY DYER

OF BANSTEAD

Garry Dyer has moved home several times in recent years and in spite of keep moving his pigeon loft he has kept his name at the top of Federation and Combine results nearly every year. The 2005 season was a very good one for the Banstead loft recording 8 x 1 st , 12 x 2 nd , 10 x 3 rd , including winning the longest old bird race from Bergerac (450 miles) in the very strong Esher & Dist. R.P.C. and several premier positions in the Three Borders Federation, including twice 1 st . open Federation with young birds. In the 2005 young bird season he recorded a staggering : 1 st , 2 nd ,4 th , 5 th . club, 1 st , 7 th , 8 th . 11 th . open Federation (2,113 birds) Lulworth, 1 st , 2 nd , 5 th , 6 th . club, 4 th , 5 th , 14 th , 15 th , 18 th , 24 th . open Federation (1,800 birds) West Bay , 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , 5 th , 6 th . club, 1 st , 9 th . open Federation (2,180 birds) Lulworth, 1 st , 3 rd . club, 7 th , 16 th , 17 th . open Federation (2,100 birds) Blandford. For Garry to win so many top prizes in the Esher club this year was an outstanding achievement, as the club were the Three Borders Federation points champions of the 2005 season. Great pigeon racing! In past seasons Garry has been premier prize winner in several clubs including the Mitcham club and Merton & Morden club, both in the London Federation and has won the Federation many times through the years. Although most of his 2005 achievements were in short sprint races, Garry says, most of his past wins have been in channel racing and in 2000 he raced six channel events in the Mitcham club, to record 4 firsts and 2 seconds.

Garry's grandfather was a pigeon fancier in London many years ago and, Garry recalled, he wasn't a great racer, but loved his pigeons. His grandfather got him interested in pigeons and Garry got his first birds at the age of 15, from local fanciers, including Bob Simmons and Bob Parsons. His first loft was a converted garden shed and he was quite successful from the outset, winning his first race from Plymouth .

Garry has lived at his present address in Banstead for three years and told me he likes racing up to 300 miles best, but always tries to win any race he enters. He races 24 cocks on the Widowhood system and pairs them up at the end of January, with sprint racing in mind. The cocks rear a pair of youngsters before going on the widowhood and get six training tosses before the first Federation race, and then get regular exercise around home. Generally the cocks are never trained once racing starts, but if Garry picks out one or two birds for the longer channel races, he some times gives them a toss or two off the south coast. Garry's good friend, Lenny Graham, is a great help with the pigeons and does a lot of the loft management and training work at the Banstead loft. I've known Lenny since the 1970's, when we all raced in the old Kingston club together and he has always been an out standing pigeon racer. The widowhood cocks are fed on V. L. Widowhood mixture and are normally broken down for two days a week during racing, but were not in the 2005 season. The hens are never raced as old birds, but fly the programme up to 200 miles as youngsters, with some outstanding performances being put up by young hens, including 1 st . open Federation. Both of his Federation winners of the 2005 season were young blue Van Reet hens, including "Rose", and she won showing up to an old cock. Garry races about 50 young birds every season and these are put on the darkness system from weaning. On his system they are opened up form 8am until 6pm and are on the darkness for about 12 weeks up to mid-June, when he starts training. He is not a believer of long training tosses for the babies and gives them lots of chucks up to Bentley (20 miles), and once racing starts they get two tosses a week. They are fed twice a day, light seed in the morning and as much good mixture as they want for the evening feed. Garry is a member of the local classic club and maintains it is wrong to send old hens with the young bird classic race.

Garry doesn't keep any stock birds and the main families kept are, Staf Van Reet, Busschaerts and Janssen, being obtained from many premier lofts, including John Keywood, Mark Adcock and Arthur Jones. He told me, he likes stock birds to fly out and if they are locked up in a stock loft all their life, they get old quickly and are very prone to pick up deceases. When bringing in a new pigeon, he has no particular type or family he prefers, he is only really interested in good winning lines. He enjoys showing his birds in the winter months. Garry's thinks our sport is in decline because there is no young people coming in and the way forward is National racing. His idea to build up National racing is to introduce National racing days, where on certain weekends through the season only the National races and all other racing stops. If fanciers want to race their birds on those weekends they must race in the National and we would see birdage of 20 or 30 thousand birds.

Garry's Banstead loft is 40ft. long, with seven sections and is well ventilated. All the birds are trapped through open doors and no deep litter is used, as Lenny cleans out every day. In one race Garry took the first six positions in the Esher club, which has never been achieved before in the history of the club, and he told me, he was very pleased to win the long standing £100, put up by the club secretary, Allen Palmer, for the first person to do so. Garry won the longest old bird race in 2005 from Bergerac, with his good widowhood blue chequer pied cock, "Lenny's Boy", and he is mainly bred from the Van Reet bloodlines, with his grand sire coming from Johnny Keywood. This game pigeon has a wonderful racing record winning: five seconds including, 2 nd . club, 2 nd . Federation Lulworth and then went on to win 1 st . club, 20 th . Federation, 46 th . open Combine (1,795 birds) Bergerac in 2005. Well done to Garry, on his brilliant 2005 season!

Well that's your "ON THE ROAD" for another week! Next week we are featuring the West Country partnership of Geoff and Catherine Cooper, who I rate as one of the best long distance lofts in the U.K. today. I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!