Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

Arthur Hayter of Southall.

Arthur Hayter's first introduction to pigeons was as a lad in his home town of Abertillery, South Wales. He purchased a couple of pairs from the local market at 6d each. These increased to a dozen and were fed on chicken corn. The war came and Arthur had to give them up as he couldn't get corn to feed his homers. Arthur's interest was kept alive by his fancier uncle who invited him around regularly to see his race birds come home. After the war he came to London and a few years passed but the interest was still there. He lived in lodgings and flats, but on getting married he bought a house with a garden. Arthur says it was an act of fate. One evening he found a stray with a damaged wing on his front door step. On reporting it the owner told Arthur he could keep it and he recalls it was well bred, being T.P.R.A. registered. A fellow Welshman, workmate Len Oram, provided him with eight good youngsters, so he was on his way. This was in 1967, he joined the Southall R.P.S. in 1968 with encouraging results. He recalls his first winner was in 1969 which he said was amusing in itself. When he went to take the clock down the garden to wait for the returns, he found the seal wire on the clock was broken, the birds were due so he jumped on his bike and raced down to the club HQ to get the club's spare clock. On picking up the clock he pedalled like hell to get home in time. On running down the garden his pigeon pitched on the loft, he clocked it and recorded his first winner. Arthur said over the years he had won from every race point on the North Road including Thurso twice. He turned South Road with young birds in 1981 with the Cranford S.R. club, winning the young bird averages in 1982 and 1983.

Arthur said that 1983 was probably his best ever season winning several firsts including first West Middlesex Federation three times. Although looking back his biggest thrill was winning Thurso in 1971 when he only sent the one pigeon to win. The Hayter Bricoux and Dordin pigeons were housed in a 12ft Kidby loft and were raced on the Natural system.

In the summer of 1983 Arthur and his wife had to travel to Wales for a wedding and good friend Ray Maybey offered to clock the birds from Weymouth that Saturday. Ray clocked the young pencil blue cock ' The 67 Blue Cock' to win the West Middlesex Federation with 1,261 birds competing. '67' was a Cattrysse and a gift bird from Arthur's old friend Herbie Wiggins of Southall. This fine cock also won 4th club Exeter, 5th club Plymouth in 1983 as a youngster. Arthur's other 1983 young bird Federation winner was the blue hen 'The 63 Hen'. She was a daughter of the outstanding racer, blue cock '38', winner of many top prizes including 1st club, 4th Federation, 6th S.M.T. Combine (3,843 birds) Plymouth and 1st club Pontefract. '38' was a son of the sire of Arthur Hayter's loft 'The Dutch Cock' which was the sire and grandsire of many winners for Arthur both racing and in the show pen. This handsome blue cock came into Arthur's loft as a stray and on reporting him, he received the ring card and a note saying "Good Luck" from the breeder, H. Vestjons of Holland.

'The Dutch Cock' had won many firsts in the show pen including best in show at the West Middlesex Federation show in 1982. Arthur was always a fancier to be feared in the show room and has won countless open shows and several under my judgement. I have always had a great admiration for his birds in the show pen, he was a master in producing condition. He said he enjoed showing and success in the show pen indicates that a fancier cares for his birds all the year round. His Bricoux pigeons race and show with outstanding success, these were obtained from Arthur's good friend Billy Wright of Fleet. Arthur had also had birds from Stan Cecil of Ramsgate the winner of 1st and 3rd Open from Barcelona, Stan bred him birds to win from Berwick and Thurso.

Although the Bricoux's and Dordin pigeons performed well Arthur has made an introduction of of the Vanhee strain. He paired his four pairs of stock birds on February 1st. and his 12 pairs of racers two weeks later and bred 24 youngsters every year. Arthur was a coach builder with London Transport and said he couldn’t afford fancy prices for stock, with most of his best birds being bred from gift birds. His wife took a great interest in Arthur's pigeons and in 1977 she clocked his Thurso winner. He said he was always striving to achieve fitness in his birds at all times. He liked his old birds to race up to 500 miles, his yearlings up to 300 miles and the youngsters right through the card to 200 miles. The birds were fed on a good mixture and Arthur always went for the best he can get, he also used Red Band conditioner, and all birds got one twenty mile toss once a week. He liked his birds sitting between 10 and 14 days for the best results racing. He wasn’t into eyesign but likes to see a nice rich eye and maintained you can tell good health and condition by the eye. Arthur often told novices of a remark once made by Mr Cecil of Ramsgate, "Learn from other peoples mistakes, there's no time to make them yourself". Arthur rated Bob Bell of Cranford the best local fancier and maintained Bob came to the top at all distances which is the mark of a good fancier. The Hayter birds were not inbred, the closest Arthur went was grandchildren to the grandparents.

He didn’t change the birds feed for the moult, but added oil seeds, like Linseed etc. He only bred the odd late bred for stock and didn’t use deep litter because of the dust. Most of his best birds were tame, he didn’t like wild erratic pigeons. When selecting birds for stock he liked birds with good performance ratings that showed signs of character, as he thought ‘like breeds like’.

Arthur's third Federation win was in old bird racing with his good mealy hen ' The Mealy 09' and she topped the West Middlesex Federation from Exeter with 2,436 birds taking part. Another great pigeon housed in the Hayter loft was the mealy hen '94' and she had won many firsts in the show pen and three firsts racing, her sire won 1st Thurso for the Hayter loft.

There you have it Arthur Hayter of Southall, one of the best all round fanciers you could hope to find! He won the Federation again several times, before packing up his birds, because he could not cope with them. We still get him out in the winter months, to judge the odd show for us! See yer!

TEXT & PHOTO BY KEITH MOTT.