Keith Mott

The Champions of Yesteryear (Part 31)

 GRANT & MAY

of Morden

One of the premier lofts in the south of England is that of John and Darren May of Worcester Park. The father and son partnership have won every thing at Federation, Combine and National level in recent years, but prior to that, in the 1980’s John May was in partnership with the late Joe Grant of Morden. The Grant & May partnership also put up some brilliant performances in the 1980’s and we are going to look at them in this week’s article.

The Grant & May partnership was Anglo / Italian with Joe Grant being born in Italy and Johnny May in London. They formed their partnership and started racing in 1981. Right from the outset they were successful, winning nine 1sts in 1981 and nineteen lsts in 1982. The highlights of their 1982 season were 2nd. Sect. E, 4th. Open Nantes NFC, 1st, 2nd. & 9th. Greater London Continental Specialist Club Penzance Open, 1st. & 2nd. Mitcham 2 Bird Specialist Club Guernsey Open, winning in excess of £2,500.

Both partners had been outstanding fanciers in their own right for over 20 years, winning many top awards, including 1st SMT Combine Niort by Johnny May in 1970. Many thousands of pounds had been spent obtaining the very best Cattrysse, Busschaerts and Van Wanroy bloodlines. The Cattrysse and Busschaerts did the damage in 1982, the Van Wanroy pigeons were obtained from Joe Hendriks of Holland, winner of 1st Barcelona International 1980, to improve their long distance performances. The Cattrysse bloodlines were Slabbinck and Les Davenport, which had been the backbone of John's loft for many years.

The stock lofts contain many top Busschaerts including a daughter and double grandson of Champion 'Shy Lass'. The Champion stock pair 'King' and 'Queen' were owned by Grant & May at the cost of £1,250 and they were direct Busschaerts. They were the sire and dam of C. H. Besant's champion 'Little Dark' which was purchased by Regency Lofts and in turn 'Queen' was a daughter of 'Domingo'. When selecting stock birds the partners went by the look of the bird and the eyesign to a small extent. They said if a pigeon is carrying a good eye it doesn't mean it is going to be a good breeder, unless it has some other good points in its make up.

Joe and John raced on the widowhood system and found it an advantage because the cocks require less road work, which the partners don't find time for as they both work all day. The star of the loft was their champion Cattrysse blue cock 'Hillcross Pride' and he had won on Natural and Widowhood, inland and from France. 'Hillcross Pride' had won too many positions to list, but his firsts were, 1st club Dorchester, 1st club Exmouth, 1st Greater London C.S.C. Penzance, 1st club Blandford, 1st club Plymouth, 1st club Blandford, 1st club, 5th Federation, 6th Combine Le Mans, 1st club Blandford. This great pigeon had also bred many outstanding racers including 'Hillcross Galahad', 'Hillcross Lass' and is brother to 'Hillcross Joe'. The very handsome blue cock 'Hillcross Galahad' was the partner's 1982: 4th Open Nantes N.F.C. winner and his previous racing form was outstanding winning, 1st club Weymouth, 1st club Blandford, lst club Weymouth, 61st Open (10,500 birds) Guernsey N.F.C.

The partners raced 16 cocks on Widowhood in 1982 and said they were increasing the team to 40 for the 1983 season. They had two racing lofts, with open door trapping, and the six sections were made up of four Widowhood and two young bird. The stock loft had nice wire flights so the birds could take a bath and enjoy the fresh air. Deep litter was used in all the

lofts as they thought it keeps the loft dry, which is most important. When pairing up they liked to put good racer to good racer and if necessary would inbreed to a certain extent. Joe said he thought the moult was most important and if a bird had a bad moult it will affect it's racing the following year.

Another star of the 1982 season was the Cattrysse yearling blue chequer cock 'Hillcross Johnny' and he chalked up, 1st club Exeter, 1st club, 1st Federation (3,028 birds) Blandford, 1st club Dorchester, 1st club Blandford, 4th club Dorchester, 6th club Weymouth.

When they both started in the fancy Joe said he had a lot of help from H Harper now of Catford and Johnny from the Wimbledon 'wizard' Dingle Jones. Johnny said he used to train Dingle's birds for him at a local spot 4 miles away from the loft and win races. The partners paired the stock birds early in February and racers in mid-February and reared about 50 youngsters. They said they had got the right birds for the short races and that's why they visited Joe Hendriks in Holland to obtain the Van Wanroy pigeons which they consider the best long distance family around at that time. Johnny maintained the Cattrysse and Busschaerts had been really good up to 350 miles. Joe said the most important thing behind good loft management is to make sure the birds are fed right and that they are 100% fit before they are sent to races. The Grant & May team were fed on the best corn available with the old birds getting very little training and youngsters got plenty of schooling. They said when they flew Natural they liked birds sitting 10 to 14 days, but every bird is an individual. Johnny said if he had the power to put a rule in force it would be that no birds should arrive home before 1 pm on race days.

One of the favourites at the Grant & May loft was the six year old Cattrysse chequer cock 'Hillcross Supreme' and he has won 1st club, 2nd Federation, 5th Combine Melle, 1st club Weymouth, 1st club Dorchester, 2nd club, 13th Federation, 48th Combine Le Mans, 2nd club Dorchester, 3rd club Bergerac, 3rd club Exmouth, 3rd club Blandford. A really great pigeon!

That’s it for another week! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT