Keith Mott writes...

BOBBY WALTON

OF OLDBURY

This week 'ON THE ROAD' is going back to the Midlands and to kick off we are visiting the brilliant Channel racing lofts of Bobby Walton of Oldbury. This nice, mild mannered gentleman is an ace, at the art of racing pigeons from the long distance and is only interested in National racing with the National Flying Club. He has won countless premier positions in Channel National events and says one of his best performances which comes to mind was in 1970 when he recorded the only bird on the day from La Reole (555 miles), the first time this was done in the history of the Black Country Social Circle.

Bobby has been in the sport for over 35 years and his first contact with pigeons was at his uncle's loft when uncle presented him with his first birds, a pair of tumblers. When I visited Bobby's loft, he showed us his champion blue white flight hen which had won, in 1995, as a yearling - 2nd Section, 5th Open Nantes N.F.C. (10,000);1996: 5th Section, 21st Open Nantes (362 miles) NFC; 1997 - 1st. section 10th. open Saintes  N.F.C, lifting over £3,000. This game hen is a Wildemeersch crossed with Bobby's old family and was raced on the widowhood system. She was paired up as normal and, after she reared her youngsters, she was separated to be put back with her cock just before the main race which, in her case, was the Nantes National.

Bobby races basic widowhood with 50 cocks and six hens and feeds a heavy mixture, only breaking down on a Saturday. He has tried breaking down and not breaking down and says he doesn't like it when the birds don't exercise around the loft when fully broken down. Sometimes they don't race for three weeks, so he breaks down for only one day. He maintains that the Belgian mixtures are not heavy enough and he always beefs up the corn for the long distance events. He has three teams of 12 cocks for Federation racing and these are paired up on January 12th and the 14 widowhood Channel cocks are put together on January 24th. The six hens are paired up in March with the long-distance races in mind and to certain races these widowhood pigeons are quite often re-paired and sent sitting eggs. One of Bobby's top inland racers was a handsome Wildemeersch dark chequer pied cock and he has won six times 1st Club, also 1st Open Federation, lifting £2,000. He has won every year for the Walton loft and was 2nd in the Vanrobaeys Open as a young bird. Bobby had three cocks the same-way bred as this game pigeon and they had won 16 times 1st Club, three times 1st Open Federation between them. Another of Bobby's champion racers was a blue Vermotte cock bred by his good friend Les Dunn and is an RPRA award-winning pigeon. Raced on the widowhood system, he had won 2nd Section, 2nd Open Nantes M.N.F.C, beaten by a decimal; 7th Section, 9th Open Angouleme M.N.F.C; 1stOpen Federation Rennes and had won from inland racepoints. Bobby said this cock was not only a brilliant racer, but had also bred some good racers.

Bobby has two sections for the 24 stock birds in his smart loft and these birds enjoy a nice big wire flight at the rear of their quarters. The stock birds are paired up in December and he uses deep litter in the stock sections to keep the inmates clean and fresh. The Alton race team is basically made up of three families - Wildemeersch,Van den Bosche for sprint and middle-distance racing, and his old Channel family for the long-distance events. When Bobby brings in breeders they must conform to his type and, above all, be from good winning bloodlines.

The loft has three sections to house the 80 young birds and only half of these are put on the darkness, as Bobby is not happy with the long-term effect on the youngsters on this system. He uses deep litter in the young bird sections and he races most of the team to the perch, pairing a few young cocks to old hens. He feeds a Vanrobaeys junior mixture and trains every day from 20 miles, with 80-mile two-ups just before the Young Bird National. He doesn't save young cocks for widowhood and says all his best pigeons raced well as youngsters.

Bobby races the normal basic widowhood system, with the racers going on the system after rearing their first round of youngsters. He says it is important that the yearlings are shown their mates on marking night and the whole team gets the hens for about an hour on their return home from the race. On the long-distance racers, Bobby likes to see a long wing with the end four flights being thin and he is very interested in his family eyesign when it comes to breeders.

ARNIE & SYLVIA TONKS

OF WEDNESBURY  

A few years ago I had the great pleasure of visiting the fantastic Midlands loft of Arnie & Sylvia Tonks. Arnie has had pigeons since he was eight years of age and likes racing from all distances every Saturday, but says he gets his biggest thrills from the long distance events. He has a wonderful record flying with the Midlands National Flying Club, winning 1st Open Angouleme, 4th Open Nantes (twice), 4th Open Angouleme, 6th Open Angouleme and says his longest old bird race is from Bergerac (544 miles).

He races his old birds on the roundabout, natural and widowhood systems, maintaining that the best system for the long distance is hens on the roundabout. Arnie pairs his six widowhood cocks, roundabout pairs and stock birds in January, with the natural Channel team being put together in March. He mixes his own com and increases the pea content for the Channel races. He never breaks down as all the old birds are trained every day, if the weather is right, and the widowhood cocks are shown their hens on marking night. On our loft visit, Arnie & Sylvia showed us several of their top racers, one of which was the blue chequer Busschaert roundabout hen 'Three T's' who won many premier prizes, including 1st Section, 4th Open Nantes M.N.F.C; 3rd Section, 4th Open Saintes M.N.F.C; 7th Section, 14th Open Saintes M.N.F.C, lifting £2,800. Another nice hen was 'The National Hen' and she had wonderful feathering and eyesign. This natural blue chequer Busschaert had won £2,600 in National racing and 3rd Section, 3rd Open La Ferte Bernard M.N.F.C; 7th Section, 13th Open Nantes M.N.F.C and 24th Section, 57th Open St Malo.

Just before our visit to Arnie's & Sylvia's home, they had a new loft built by Steve Blakeley and this wonderful 50ft L-shaped structure had a tiled roof, eight sections and open-door trapping into a corridor, I was very interested in how Arnie flew three different systems with his old birds and how he exercised them every day. He told me he was up at 3.30 every morning and took all the old birds training but they didn't fly out around the loft much because of overhead cables in the vicinity.

When training Arnie likes to let them go in 5 to 10 minute intervals and says his favourite nest condition for the natural racers is hens sitting overdue eggs. He races only hens on the roundabout system and the six widowhood cocks are kept only for sprint inland racing. One of Arnie's premier racers in the natural section is a handsome blue chequer pied cock and he won 12th Open Bergerac (544 miles) M.N.F.C.

Arnie said his wife, Sylvia, is a great worker for the pigeon partnership and should take full credit for all their outstanding success. Their eight pairs of stock birds are kept in mint condition, being housed in a nice big section with a wire flight so they can get out into the weather. Arnie raced the Cattrysse pigeons for many years and went over to all Busschaerts in 1980. He has never looked back, having had outstanding success with them every year. One of the top pigeons in the stock pairings is a handsome Busschaert blue chequer cock and he has bred many of the premier birds in the racing team. On the road he won 43rd. open Bergerac (544 miles) M.N.F.C, with only 54 birds home by the second day and his dam won 6th Open Angouleme M.N.F.C. The Tonks's loft races about 60 young birds each year and these are put straight onto the darkness as soon as they are weaned. Arnie maintains this system doesn't hurt the birds as his yearlings have always raced really well. The youngsters get a 38-mile training toss twice a day and are raced to the perch but are allowed to pair up if they wish.

KEN BRIGGS

OF SMETHWICK

We stay in the Midlands for our next loft visit and this one is the 1997 Vanrobaeys Gold Ring Classic winning loft of Ken Briggs. Ken tells me that the rings for the Vanrobaeys Classic cocks are £10 each, with a 20 ring limit, and the 1997 event was flown on Bank Holiday Monday from Weymouth Ken says he purchased 20 rings for the Vanrobaeys Classic and sent 19 to the race not bad going!

He won the race with his champion red chequer Kellens / Wildemeersch hen, 'Red Robaey's Queen', and she was a darkness youngster raced to the perch. She had only five races from Wincanton and Swainswick on her build-up to her Classic win and lifted £4,000 in prize money and £880 in pools. A fantastic performance! Ken says his wonderful hen is now in the stock loft. Another premier pigeon that Ken showed me on my visit to his loft was the blue chequer Wildemeersch hen that won the Section in the Saintes/Pau NFC race and she was sent feeding a 16-day-oldyoungster. Here's a nice twist - that youngster went on to win 1st Club and top position in the Federation from Nantes. Great stuff!

Ken has been in the sport since 1980 and says he caught the pigeon bug when he had to look after some birds for his brother-in-law. The Briggs loft has put up many outstanding performances through the years, one of the best being 1st Section Saintes/Pau in the National Flying Club. Ken races both cocks and hens on his own widowhood / roundabout system and the racers are paired up when he returns from the BHW Blackpool Show in January. The pairs rear one youngster and the hens are taken away before they lay the second round of eggs, leaving the cock bird to finish the rearing, then they are on the system. The racers get short training tosses twice a day to prepare them for the first race, when the cocks and hens are shown on basketing to go to the marking station. Both go to the same race, but in different clubs, with outstanding success. Ken doesn't break the pigeons down, but feeds a light mixture early in the week, adding more and more maize as the race gets closer. The large widowhood section has 24 nest boxes.

The main families kept are Kellens and Wildemeersch and some of these were obtained direct. Ken breeds 80 young birds each season and half are put on the darkness system. They are trained very hard and race the full young bird programme. They are fed on young bird mixture, with maize being added through the week. Their  for speed, as the local competition is very hot. Congratulations to Ken and his nice family on their wonderful success in the Gold Ring Classic. A great performance!

Three of the very best from the Midlands in this week’s article! I can be contacted on telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!