Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

The Champions of Yesteryear - Part 16

MATTHEWS & LONGMAN

of Ashford

In last week's article I featured premier Middlesex fanciers, Eric Matthew of Ashford, so this week I'm going to write about his brother, Roy, who flew in the Matthews & Longman partnership of the 1970s. The partnership of Roy Matthews & Mick Longman went on for about 15 years and showed outstanding consistency flying both north and south roads. They had both been top flyers in the Thames Valley NR Federation for a number of years and in the 1978n9 seasons won 4 x 1sts, 2 x 2nds and 3 x 3rds in that very strong federation. They were devout North Road fanciers, although they had two outstanding seasons on the south, winning 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 9th Open SMT Combine (5,955 birds) Angers; 1st club, 3rd TB Federation, 11th Open SMT Combine (7,787 birds) Plymouth; 2nd club, 4th TB Federation, 26th Open SMT Combine Angers; 1st club, 2nd TB Federation (2,132 birds) Seaton; 2nd and 4th Slough Dulux Open Truro (two-bird limit) winning a pewter tankard for Best Two-Bird Average. The partners said that their most disappointing experience was when turning their birds from north to south, they lost their champion Cattrysse cock Banker at Wadebridge. Champion Banker, a blue chequer cock, was a great-grandson of the Cattrysse brothers Barcelona National winner Figaro and the partners won out of turn with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren off him. During his racing career, Banker won many positions in the first six, including 1st club, 5 th federation, 5th Open North Thames Combine (3,393 birds) Fraserburgh; 2nd club, 2nd federation (2,200 birds) Wetherby; 1st club, 1st federation (2,100 birds) Doncaster ; 1st club, 1st federation, 4 th Open North Thames Combine (4,500 birds) Berwick; 1st club, 17th Federation Thurso. A champion in the truest sense. The partners were really north road fanciers and said they didn't .like the south road very much. The two main families kept were Cattrysse and Busschaerts, with some Alex Fleming of Esher pigeons, being outstanding for Matthews & Longman at the end of their partnership. The partners rated Alex Fleming as the greatest of the local fanciers as he had been consistently at the top for over 50 years. Alex won 1st Open SMT Combine Plymouth in 1979 with a Busschaert cock called Mick, after Mick Longman, which was a gift egg from Matthews & Longman. Roy's & Mick's Busschaerts were all bred down from 10 birds purchased in 1974, seven direct from M. Busschaert and three from Tom Larkins. The partners somewhat regretted that they sold these 10 pigeons at the London auction for £1,000, as the offspring won out of turn after the sale. The Cattrysse pigeons were mainly down from pigeons imported direct from Cattrysse Brothers, by Roy some 35 years ago. Roy Matthews was in the sport for about 25 years, starting up after finding a stray bird in the road and on starting up he was in partnership with his brother Eric. Roy & Eric had a successful building business in Ashford and Mick Longman was an electrical contractor. Mick had pigeons since he was 10 years of age, and he was in partnership with his father when he started up racing pigeons. The first birds Roy Matthews had on starting up were Silver Dawns from Hughie Ambler of Southend. I visited the lofts of Matthews & Longman in February 1980. They were situated at Roy 's home with the exception of a small stock loft which was at Mick Longman's Langley home. The first pigeon I handled was the 'ace' blue chequer pied Busschaert cock Bandit, and he was bred from the original Busschaert stock birds. He handled long cast, above medium, with a wonderful eye and his dam was the highest priced pigeon at the London auction being sold for £260, which was a very good price in the 1970s. This cock had a sleepy look and was very relaxed in the hand, and Mick said all their best pigeons are like this, as mad birds were not entertained. The Bandit won racing: 1st club, 1 st federation (3,329 birds) Pontefract; 1st club, 8 th federation (3,401 birds) Doncaster ; 2nd club, 6 th federation (3,053 birds) Pontefract; 3 rd club, 8 th federation (3,205 birds) Catterick. All the Busschaert pigeons in the Matthews & Longman lofts were bred. down from De 45, De 85 and Rapido. Another outstanding Busschaert pigeon that I Inspected was the blue chequer cock Bill and he had won racing: 1st club, 1st federation (2,694 birds) Pontefract; 2 nd club, 2nd federation (2,732 birds) Nottingham . The partners had a wonderful 50ft L-shaped racing loft build of brick and red cedar wood. The sections were four widowhood, one natural, two young bird, a corn store and a flight for the widowhood hens at the rear of the racing loft. The partners used 26 widowhood cocks for the short races and 20 pairs on the natural system for the longer events. Pairing up started in mid-February, with a section being paired every week so as they had birds at different stages of condition when racing arrived. About 50 youngsters were bred each season. The birds were trapped through drop holes and deep litter was used in the stock lofts, which they found was very good using 'natural' granules in preference to sand. Roy & Mick liked line-breeding and said the best pairing is half-brother, half-sister mating. They liked high protein and fed a good mixture of beans, peas, with a little maize and fed linseed and wheat when the birds were moulting. The birds were given 'multivitamin' once a week and were given glucose on their return from the races. The old birds were given two short training tosses before racing, when no training was given as they were flagged for an hour in the morning and evening. The youngsters got 10 to 15 tosses before racing; then four tosses per week for the first few weeks of racing. The partners had clear-cut ideas on what was wrong with the sport and said there should be a law passed to clear all street pigeons. They didn't agree with averages and maintained that a points system should be used instead of averages. When selecting producers they looked for similarity to the best of the strain and said their best producers had not always been their best racers. They liked a few latebreds and these were put to stock until they were 2y, when they were put on the road. The birds were treated for worms and canker before pairing up. For nesting material they used a mixture of straw and tobacco stalks.

That's another "ON THE ROAD" done and dusted! I can be contacted on the dog n' bone number: 01372 463480. See yer!