Keith Mott writes...

THE SHOW RACERS OF GREAT BRITAIN

- PART 1

The end of January marks the conclusion of the current show season, and I must say I’ve had a great time visiting all the major shows, through the winter months. Although I love long distance racing pigeons, many of my racing friends can’t understand my passion for showing pigeons. I can never turn pigeons off and when racing is finished in September, the Mott loft goes into showing mode. I have to have my ‘fix’ 12 months in every year.

I suppose I’m a bit of a frustrated show man at heart! I think breeding pigeons for type and winning with them at a Classic show is as much an art as breeding outstanding racers, and winning a National race. I derive as much pleasure out of seeing a Best in Show winner at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show, as I do a National race winning pigeon, but I think I’m one of the lucky ones, as I can enjoy both sides of our great sport.

Although I’m mostly known for the racing side of the sport, I have a big involvement in the Show Racers scene and have judged at all the Classic and National shows through the years, which I have really enjoyed. I have made many good and close friends in the Show Racer world over the years, through my ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tours and over the next few weeks we are going to feature some of the premier Show Racer loft in Great Britain. I hope my readers enjoy this series of articles, as I’m looking forward to writing them!

STAN WHEATLEY

OF MIDDLESBROUGH

While I was in the North East of England, judging at the N.E.H.U. Peterlee Show, I visited the top show racer loft of Mr. & Mrs. Stan Wheatley of Middlesbrough. Stan has a very smart 9ft.x 6ft. self built loft, and only keeps a very small team of 16 pigeons, including stock birds. Stan maintains it only takes one bird to win a show and his ‘motto’ is quality and not quantity. The loft is full of quality, winning at every major show, many times through the years, including B.I.S. at the R.P. Old Comrades Show (twice) and B.I.S. at the last Louella Classic Show.

The wonderful loft has two sections, closed in glass front and has a floor dressing of loft white, and play pit sand. The loft has ‘V’ perches, as Stan doesn’t like box perches, as the birds are sitting in their own droppings and are harder to clean up on show day. The birds are paired up in mid-January and Stan only breeds off five pairs. He likes Mealies and Reds, and maintains good stock birds are like gold dust, with outstanding show birds not always making good stock birds. Stan’s champion Mosaic hen, winner of B.I.S. Old Comrades Show 1991 and B.I.S. N.E.H.U. Show, had never bred her like. This great hen was the family pet and had won B.I.S. countless times at premier shows. The Mosaic hen was always paired to Stan, being very tame, and at night wouldn’t go to her perch until he had come to the loft and said good night to her.

Stan has been in the sport over 50 years and has had the Doug McClary family of pigeons for many of those years. Most of the present day team are bred around the old Mike Hale Mealy cock, ‘Caesar’, and he had bred winners at every major show for Stan and many other fanciers in the Show Racer world. ‘Caesar’ was always paired to a Red and Stan told me, ‘the darker the Red, the better’. Another ace we looked at in Stan’s loft was a wonderful Dark Chequer hen, and she had won everywhere, including B.I.S. Louella Classic and had bred many good winners.

Stan’s birds are shown unpaired and go to eight to ten shows in a season. He doesn’t like his birds to be too tame, and maintains flighty birds keep themselves more show fit. In the show pen flighty birds don’t tend to lay down and always look tight feathered and on their toes. The birds are fed on a mixture of beans, peas, and maize, with Stan’s own seed mixture, and get garlic in the water, three times a week. The birds don’t fly out, but Stan says that he wishes they did because they would stay fitter for the pen. Stan is very proud of his grandson, Steve Wheatley, who shows pigeons in his own right, with outstanding success. Stevie has won B.I.S. at the N.E.H.U. Peterlee show many times and Supreme Champion at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show in 1997. Stan won B.I.S. at the R.P. Old Comrades Show for the second time in 1997, with a four year old Dark Chequer hen and she had previously won a second at the 1996 Old Comrades. She was a full sister to the champion Dark hen that won B.I.S. at the last Louella Classic. A brilliant family of Show Racers!

JOHN LOCK

OF ABERCYNON

One of the best Show Racer lofts that I visited was that of the late John Lock, the South Wales ace, who was in partnership with some local Welsh lads, calling them selves, Lock, Little and Barry. John had been in the sport for 30 years and the show loft was sited at his Abercynon home, with the stock birds some miles away at Ron Barry’s address. The partners housed most colours in their show loft, but liked Silvers best. The loft had won countless firsts through the years, including B.I.S. R.P. Old Comrades Show, B.I.S. B.H.W. Blackpool Show, twice Champion at the Young Bird National, B.O.S. Old Comrades Show and many more championship wins. On my visit to John’s loft, he showed me his champion Silver hen, which had won many major wins, including B.I.S. Monmouth Show and firsts at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show, R.P. Old Comrades Show and the Louella Classic. This wonderful hen was bred down from original pigeons from Doug McClary of Exeter, in Devon.

The main show loft was 24ft. long and had normal box perches and widowhood style nest box fronts. The partners bred 60 young birds each year, and after grading them, a few were sold. The youngsters mainly got three major shows and four society shows in their first season. The show loft housed 20 pairs of old birds and the thing I remember the most about John’s loft, was the thick bed of clean savings all over the floor. The stock partings housed 12 pairs and when bringing in new stock the partners liked to see a good skull on the bird. The birds were fed on widowhood mixture and got a bath once a week. John always said his management was nothing special and was always kept very simple. The partner’s team was formed in 1984 with birds from Doug McClary, the Silvers from a fancier in Gwent and the Doug McClary Mealies through Dave Williams of Swansea. The late, John Lock was a wonderful show man!

Well that’s our first Show Racer special and we have loads more great loft reports to come in the next few weeks. I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!