Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past & present

The Champions of Yester Year (Part 21)

TONY HARTLEY

OF EPSOM

It was second time lucky for Tony Hartley when he won 1st London and South Coast Combine Rennes in 1978, as he had done a similar feat before although it was not recorded as such. A few years back Tony flew in the London Coly and their birds were convoyed with the L. & S.C. Combine, and despite the birds having a simultaneous liberation the Coly did not fly in the Combine. Tony sent a late bred Gits red chequer cock sitting 14 day old eggs to Bergerac, recorded it on the day and won the Coly vel.1162 y.p.m. The Combine winner which was recorded on the south coast at Worthing recorded a velocity of 1159 y.p.m.. The great race controller in the sky smiled on Tony in 1978 and made it second time lucky!

I visited the Epsom home of Tony and his wife, Ruth, who is very interested in the pigeons, in the February and he was thinking of painting the lofts ready for pairing up. The main racing loft was a three section 16ft Beacon loft, with drop hole trapping and all the nest boxes removed in the winter months. Tony said he thought deep litter was a good idea, but found it too dusty, so Ruth scraped out three times a week. He maintained that a dry and well ventilated loft was a must for any degree of success. The self built stock loft was also 16ft with three sections, with a nice roomy flight in the front. The stock birds were housed one pair to a section and the three pairs were paired up on February 14. The eighteen pairs of racers were paired up on March 15th. and about 30 youngsters were bred each year.

On my visit we inspected the racers first, and one of the stars of the loft was the two year old red chequer hen 'Red Star'. She was a good feathered pigeon, being medium to long cast in the hand. Tony says he doesn't like big pigeons and 'Red Star' is his ideal type for the distance. Her pedigree was made up of many good distance pigeons. She recorded 10th Sect, 10th Open Rennes B.B.C., 233 miles, as a young bird and flew Bergerac, 455 miles, in 1978 as a yearling. Tony's pigeons were more or less his own family, based on birds obtained from W. F. Price of Burford Bridge and other good 500 mile fanciers, including Mr. & Mrs. Eric Cannon of Wormley and most recently Emrys Jones of Sully. Next to hand was the three year old dark chequer pied hen, 'More to Come', of pure W. F. Price bloodlines. She wasn't a particularly good looking pigeon, but was Tony's ideal type when it came to handling and she flew the very hard 1978 Dax race, previously winning 2nd Club, 79th S.M.T. Combine Niort.

Tony has always been in the sport and started as his father's loft manager, having the job of cleaning out and changing the water every day. Tony said his father was a fanatic and the loft had to be spotless, with no corn left on the floor. He says most of what he knows was taught to him by his father who put up some great performances from the longer races. Tony started up on his own in 1957, when he purchased his own house. His start was with birds obtained from Mr. Greenslade of Ewell and Mr. Collins of Canvey Island. Tony's first loft was a converted chicken coop and he was successful from the word go. He only raced the Channel, using the odd inland race for training, the old birds also get three tosses a week, although there was no set system. The young birds got one or two inland races to show them the ropes, then they went across the Channel to Avranches or the B.B.C. Rennes event. Tony's performances from the Channel events were outstanding and the longer they got, the better they got. He had owned many great pigeons including his 1960 bred red chequer hen, winner of 1st Bordeaux twice, flying Bordeaux four times and Barcelona once and his 1974 bred blue chequer pied hen 'Tenacity' winner of 1st club, 6th Surrey Federation, 11th S.M.T. Combine Bergerac 1976. Tony rated Eric Cannon of Wormley as the top fancier and said his performances in the N.F.C. races speak for themselves.

The 1978 L. & S.C. Combine Rennes winner was a pure Price two year old blue chequer cock named, 'Tony Boy', which handled above medium and was a deep type pigeon. The London & South Coast Combine was probably one of the strongest combines in the south of England and Tony's win was in excellent style with 6,462 birds taking part. After inspecting this champion we moved on to the stock loft, where I handled his sire 'The Price Cock'. This cock was a six year old dark chequer, bred by W. F. Price and was Tony's best stock cock being the sire of many good Channel winners including 'Ruth', a blue chequer hen, winner of 2nd club, 1st yearling Bergerac, 'Scruff Bag' a dark chequer white flight cock winner of 2nd club, 4th South Coast Federation, 23rd L. & S.C. Combine Rennes, and of course 'Tony Boy' the Rennes Combine winner. While in the stock loft I handled 'Tony Boy's’ dam, a four year old Price blue chequer, here Tony brought to my notice that she had a withered fourth flight on each wing, which she moults the same every year. Because of this defect Tony had only bred from her once and that was when she bred 'Tony Boy', needless to say she was back in the stock loft that year with `The Price Cock', apart from her withered flights this hen was a perfect stock hen, being roomy with an apple body and fantastic eyesign.

Another good pigeon for the Hartley loft in 1978 was Tony's plum cock, 'The Rock', which won 2nd club Vire, 3rd club Rennes and 2nd club Niort in 1978. Tony said he kept an open mind on eyesign and he flew on the natural system because for the long races, he thinks sitting eggs is the best condition. He tried to have the birds sitting eggs, but on four occasions he has won 450 mile races with birds feeding one to three day old babies. The birds were fed on beans, with a little wheat; Tony mixed his own condition seed, to which he adds cod liver and wheat germ oil.

As always this visit was much enjoyed. I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT