Keith Mott writes...

The B.I.C.C. Winners - Part 3

JOHN & DARREN MAY

OF WORCESTER PARK

The premier Worcester Park partnership of John and Darren May own one of the best lofts of racing pigeons in the south of England and have won it all, including 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Perpignan in 1994 and 1 st . open B.I.C.C. Bihorel national in the 2000 season. I have visited the Surrey lofts on several occasions and I must say, I have never failed to be impressed. My last visit was in 2004, on the Monday morning after the L.& S.E.C.C. Le Ferte Bernard event and on my arrival John and his loft helper, John Lay, were exercising the young bird team. John and his son, Darren, had won the classic race on the Saturday and recorded their second L .& S.E.C.C. winner, previously winning from Alencon in the 2000 season.

The racers are paired up in January, but are not bred from, being put on the widowhood system after sitting near time on their first round of eggs. The cocks are trained from 30 miles for two weeks before racing and the first three inland Federation races are used for training tosses, with National and Classic racing in mind. When I visited the May's loft in 2004, the partners were trying out a few hens on the roundabout system and John told me that the racers are not broken down on the day of the race, being fed on a first class widowhood mixture. The cocks are shown to the hens on marking night and allowed to go down in the bowls with them before going in to the basket. The hens are left with the cocks for about one hour on their return from the race. John says the maize content in the mixture is increased to 50% for the long distance races and his widowhood system has won from 80 miles, right through to 618 miles. The May's are only interested in channel racing and their loft has won 1 st . open British International Championship Club (twice), 1 st . open L.& S.E.C.C. (twice), 2 nd . open National Flying Club (twice) and 1 st open Combine three times. A brilliant racing record!

John and Darren's wonderful 50ft. racing loft has a tiled roof and grilled floors and the inmates are trapped through open doors and 'super' traps. A new loft was erected about four years ago on the other side of the garden and used for racing, but John wasn't happy with the results to the new structure so the racers went back into the old loft and produced brilliant results! The new loft is now kitted out with wire flights and houses the 55 pairs of stock birds. Johnny May has always obtained the very best pigeons for his stock loft and I must say he appears to have one of the best stock teams in the U.K. Whenever he purchases pigeons, he always has to have direct childred of the champions and at the time of my visit, the Worcester Park breeding loft had many stock birds direct from the Janssen and Van Loon lofts in Belgium. The breeders are paired up in late December and are fed on a general breeding mixture.

Johnny Lay of Mitcham has been a pigeon fancier all his life and has helped out with loft management for the last three seasons at the May's Surrey loft. John says that about 100 young birds are bred for racing every year and a special team is set aside to race in the National Flying Club young bird race. All the youngsters are put on the darkness system two weeks after weaning and they are trained hard off the south coast. They are split into two teams, with mainly the young hens going to the young bird National and the cocks flying the Federation programme. The young cocks are never over raced as they are needed for the future widowhood team.

Johnny May has been in the sport of pigeon racing since he was 10 years old and he took over his fancier brother's birds when he packed up the hobby. He started racing as a lad and won the big Earlsfield Open race from Bournemouth in his first season. John raced for many years in partnership with the late Joe Grant, as Grant & May, and they won the Federation many times and in some seasons recorded over 40 times 1sts. One of John's greatest ever pigeons is his Champion "Cheeky", a Verheye blue chequer cock bred by Louis Massarella, and he won 23 times 1sts. (10 firsts as a yearling) and seven times 1 st . Federation. He won several Open races, including 1 st . Kingston £1,000 Open and 1 st . Fulham £1,000 Open. This once in a life time pigeon has had several champion racers bred down from him. A wonderful loft of pigeons!

MIKE ARMITAGE

OF ASH

Mike Armitage, the pigeon racing publican from Ash, won 1st open British International Championship Club from Le Ferte Bernard in the 2000 season. Mike has won the L.& S.E.C.C. twice and although I've visited his home many times, the last time was when he won the Classic from Alencon , with 3,252 birds competing. I was chief convoyer and press officer for the Classic at that time, and drove down to the 'Lion Brewery' to see his winning pigeon. Mike's winner, a Fountainhead Janssen blue chequer cock was raced on Mike's own semi-widowhood system. This handsome pigeon, named "Wonder Boy" by Mike's young son, Tom, had won five races previously and raced in the Weymouth mid-week race on the Wednesday, before winning the Classic on the Saturday. The Armitage loft had a brilliant weekend winning 1st and 10th open L.& S.E.C.C. Alencon, 8th open B.I.C.C. Le Ferte Bernard and 1st club Sennen Cove. A fantastic loft performance for one weekend!

Mike started up pigeon racing in his home town of Hull over 50 years ago and has been an outstanding fancier over the years, winning many premier racing honours, including: 10th open N.F.C. Pau, the first ten positions in an open race and 1st . open Federation many times. Years ago he liked sprint racing, but is now in to channel racing with the B.I.C.C. and N.F.C. He has been a publican for over 30 years and this year is his 25th at the 'Lion Brewery', a wonderful little pub set in the Surrey countryside at Ash. The 'Lion Brewery' is very much a pigeon pub, with several clubs being based there, including the British International Championship Club. Mike has three lofts totalling 160 ft. smartly set in the pub garden and all the birds are trapped through open doors. The families raced are Fountainhead Janssens and Busschaerts, and the fantastic Marriotts obtained from John Grey of Hull in 1977. The Marriott pigeons have been outstanding for Mike over the years and the 8th open B.I.C.C. Le Ferte Bernard winner on that brilliant weekend was a Marriott blue chequer hen, raced on the semi-widowhood. The Armitage pigeons are raced on Mike's own semi-widowhood system, where by he can race both cocks and hens in different races on the same day. He pairs up on 14th February and the pairs are split in the normal widowhood way after their first round of youngsters. The cocks are raced and the hens trained in midweek, with them seeing one another two or three times during the week. Mike says he brakes down a little, but the racers are mostly fed on a first class widowhood mixture. He works very hard with his birds and they are so tame, that some times they land in the garden on their return from a race, and Mike can pick them up and clock them on the lawn. He keeps a bit of condition seed in his loft coat pocket and the birds follow him around the garden, looking for a tit-bit, which he gives them by hand. Mike's lofts and pigeons are a credit to him!

Well that's your "ON THE ROAD" article for this week and I hope my readers have enjoyed this insight into these two premier B.I.C.C. winning lofts. I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See Yer!