L&SECC FORUM

with Keith Mott

JAMES CROSS

OF CARSHALTON

In the week building up to the Tours Classic the weather forecast hinted that there would be a holdover on the Saturday and, sure enough, it rained on the day so the classic convoyer, held over the 1,959 birds. The Sunday dawned with perfect pigeon racing conditions and sunshine on the baskets, so the classic birds were liberated at 08.50hrs. in a North West wind. The members enjoyed a good race with nearly all their entries home on the day of liberation.  

The winning pigeon, a Van Loon / Van den Bosche blue widowhood cock bred by Tony Gelbrath of Thornton Heath, was recorded at the loft of James Cross of Carshalton and was one of a pair of squeakers gifted to James by Tony. His nest mate is an outstanding inland racer. James has only recently moved into his Carshalton address and all his pigeons, including the Tours classic winner, are broken birds. Having all previously flown out and raced to his old house. The classic winner had the Le Ferte Bernard classic on his build up to Tours (280 miles), plus lots of training tosses from the south coast. James races only nine cocks on the widowhood system and pairs them up in January. They rear a pair of youngsters and are put onto widowhood when the hen lays her second round of eggs. James told me he is only really interested in channel racing and shows the hens to the racing cocks on marking night for these events, but not on training or inland races. The cock has his hen for two hours on his return from the race and the birds are broken down only on easy races. The main feeding is a good widowhood mixture. The racers are repaired for the longest old bird races and sent sitting eggs. The loft houses nine pairs of stock birds and they are paired up in January, with their first round of eggs being floated under the yearling racers. Most of the stock birds are from his good friend, Tony Gelbrath, and James says when he is looking at new stock birds, he likes a nice, strong back on a pigeon. He breeds 50 youngsters to race every season and never pushes them to win young bird races. Their training starts at Guildford Cathedral (15 miles) and they have about 14 tosses up to 40 miles before the first race. The babies are never put on the ‘Darkness’ system, being fed on a young bird mixture (no maize) and if their moult is okay they go to the Guernsey Young Bird Classic, being raced to the perch. The loft is 32ft. long, with three sections and trapping is in sputniks. The floor is made of wood, but James says he wants to change this to grilles, to increase the general ventilation, which he maintains is very important for the health of the inmates.

MARRIOTT & SEEREY

OF WEST DRAYTON

The London & South East Classic Club kicked off the 2005 season last weekend, with a banger of a race from Alencon, in northern France and with lots of wind and rain on the day, it produced plenty of thrills and spills. The heavy showers didn’t seem to have any baring on the out come of the first classic, but the strong south westerly winds produced some very high velocities. La Ferte Bernard was the classic’s first choice for this 200 miles race, but with loss of the car park liberation site a few weeks ago, it was switched to Alencon. I think it was a shame that the R.P.R.A. lost the La Ferte Bernard site, because it was one of the best the 200 mile stage. The Alencon site is not one of my favourites, it has a good open area for liberating the pigeons, but on my last visit had no facilities for watering the birds, or toilets. Back to the race! The members sent 2633 birds and after a good over night run down to Alencon, the convoyer, Ken Scholtka liberated at 07.35hrs. in a south west wind. The returns were very patchy, with the leading pigeons making over 1900 y.p.m.

Marriott & Seery of West Drayton won the race with their all pooler, a champion widowhood Busschaerts cock named “Nobby” and he made a winning velocity of 1928 y.p.m. This game three year old blue cock is no stranger to winning, having previously recorded, twice 1st. club inland, 2nd. club, 3rd. Federation, 12th. open Combine Fougeres (beaten by loft mate) as a yearling and 1st. club, 1st. Federation, 1st. open Combine Fougeres (200 miles), 1st. club, 4th. Federation, 4th. open Combine Guernsey as a two year old. He is bred from the very best Busschaerts bloodlines, with his sire coming from Tom Sparks of Gravesend and his dam from Roy Fox of Harrow. “Nobby” has won many other premier positions racing and has a brother that has won seven firsts racing. A brilliant line of Busschaerts! Tony Seery sent six birds to the Alencon classic and clocked his winner at 10.49hrs, flying 212 miles.

Tony Seery has had pigeon on and off since he was a lad, with his brother in law, John Wight, starting him off when he started to race proper, many years ago. He formed his successful partnership with the late, Bill Marriott, in the mid-1990’s and has kept the same flying name out of respect for his friend, since his passing in 1999. He has won 1st. open Combine four times and told me he thought his best performance ever was when he was 2nd. open L.& S.E.C.C. Alencon in a north east wind, a few years ago, losing the race on decimal to the winner in Surrey. Tony races 20 cocks on the widowhood system and likes to race all distances with them, telling me, ‘if they are right, they go’. He pairs up the week after the Blackpool Show in January and all the racers rear a pair of youngsters before going on the widowhood. The cocks get about six training from Newbury (45 miles) before the first race and get daily work around the loft during the racing season. Tony’s widowhood system is a bit different from the norm, as he trains his cocks once a week during the season, in fact “Nobby” had three training tosses from Newbury in the week prior to his classic win. Tony gets his feeding from Sough Corn and feeds Verselle-Laga Irish mixture, which is also unusual for the normal widowhood system, as it is a very heavy mixture and normally used by the long distance lads. The pigeons are never broken down. Tony told me he feeds heavy, that’s the reason why he has to train the widowhood cocks during the racing season. A very interesting system, which is very successful! He has a regular 18ft. “L” shaped loft, which houses the widowhood pigeons and stock birds and it has open door trapping. Tony has seven pairs of stock birds and the main families kept are Busschaerts and Janssen. They are paired up the same time as the racers and are kept on deep litter, with the feeding being “breeder mixture” and Hormoform. Tony is a great believer in Herbs and gives his birds them regularly, obtaining them from Ingram & Spavin. His 40 youngsters race to their own 10ft. loft, which has sputnik trapping and races them on the darkness system. He puts them on the system on Good Friday and takes them in mid- June. Tony is not a keen young bird racer and some times only gives them two or three races in a season, with the cocks being stopped at 150 miles, and the hens going to the longest race. The babies are fed heavy and trained heavy, with lots of tosses from Newbury (45 miles). Congratulations to Tony on his brilliant classic win!

STEVE TOTE

OF STAINES

Doug Went and I convoyed the first Classic of the 1997 season from Alencon, which had a record entry of nearly 2,400 birds. With adverse weather in the English Channel the birds were held over, being liberated at 11.00hrs in a south west wind on the Sunday morning. Although the Channel was foggy on our home crossing, the birds had a clear run earlier in the day and everyone enjoyed a good race with excellent returns.

The race was won by Steve Tote of Staines, with a yearling Van Brauene blue chequer cock flying in his first ever race, feeding a two day old youngster. Steve races mainly the Van Brauene strain obtained from Mr. Stone of Egham, and is only interested in Channel racing. The old birds only get about three races each season, but lots of training tosses from the south coast, and Steve never races inland. The birds are paired up at the end of March and although he is only interested in long distance events, feeds on a widowhood mixture. Steve has been in the sport for 30 years and has won many premier prizes in recent seasons including 33rd. open N.F.C. Nantes.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.