Keith Mott's

TRIBUTE TO BARRY MACKETT OF SURBITON

I was very sad to receive a phone call from Vivienne Mackett recently to tell me her father, Barry, had passed away on 24th January at the age of 69. In the words of Vivienne, her dad was a man’s man and was a train driver for over 50 year, only retiring about five years ago. Unbelievable as it might sound, she tells me he received an award certificate from British Rail for never taking a day off sick in his 50 years' service with them! Barry stopped racing his pigeons a few years ago, but kept a few pairs as pets right up to the end. The last time I saw Vivienne she was about six years old and now she is 36, married and is a nurse where she lives in Wales.

The phrase ‘overnight success’ was very fitting to the Barry Mackett, as he seemed to storm to the top of the local pigeon racing overnight in the mid-1970s. Barry had been racing pigeons for a number of years, winning his first race from Exmouth in 1971 with a plumb red cock obtained from the late Jack Taylor of Kingston. Not much success came Barry’s way as he was a train driver and had to work some funny hours, which didn’t agree with pigeon racing. His then wife, Pat, took an active part and got some routine into the set up, and they never looked back after that. They flew in the Surbiton FC and in 1975 they were second highest prize winners, winning four 1sts and five trophies. In 1976 they were highest prize winners with four 1sts, eleven trophies, and in 1977 they had a fantastic season, and were premier prize winner again, with nine 1sts and fourteen trophies.

The partner's self-built loft was 24ft x 8ft with an 8ft wire flight in front and it had three sections, housing 70 old birds and 50 youngsters. The birds were raced on the natural system and were paired up on 16th February every season. Barry was very ‘hot’ on feeding, being 1oz. per bird each day, of good mixture with lots of maize and no seed. He didn’t like condition seed at all, but gave the birds cod liver oil. The partners were great believers in plenty of training, which started two weeks before the first Federation race and were hit hard with lots of 20 mile tosses throughout the season. A lime dressing was used on the loft floors when cleaning out and trapping was through drop holes. The sexes were parted in November for the moulting period, as the partners didn’t like the birds parted too long.

Their main stock pigeon was a Kirkpatrick Grizzle hen and she was the dam of the Mackett loft, being responsible for many winners. I recall she was a medium, apple bodied pigeon with a fantastic eyesign! Johnny Mutter of Ham gave Barry a basket of birds to dispose of and she was in there amongst them. She took his fancy, so he asked John if he could keep her and she turned out to be the best pigeon the Macketts ever owned. On my visit to the Surbiton loft we looked at quite a few outstanding racers, including the partner’s 1977 Bergerac (450 miles) winner, a nice blue chequer hen named ‘Vivienne’, and she recorded 1976: 1st club, 13th Federation, 20th SMT Combine (5,820 birds) Plymouth, 1977: 1st club, 29th Federation, 85th SMT Combine (3,984 birds) Bergerac. In those days Bernie Chandler of the Surbiton club was a great help to Barry and Pat and he bred one of their best birds, ‘Bernie the Bolt’, which won 1st club, 3rd Federation, 5th SMT Combine Niort. That was probably one of Barry and Pat’s best loft performances, from Niort in 1977, recording 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th club, and doing well in the Federation and Combine.

The Macketts didn’t go on the eyesign theory, but kept an open mind on the subject. At that time Barry rated Brian Baghten of Nottingham and John Pepper of Beckenham as his ideal fanciers and he told novices to forget paper pedigrees, as he considered good corn and training to be the key factors to success. Barry maintained there were too many short races and at that time was glad when the Surrey Federation started the young birds at Weymouth (110 miles) for their first race.

The Annual Cancer Research Amalgamation race was the idea of Croydon fancier and RPRA London Region secretary Vic Farrant and was formed from three South Road Combines, the SMT, London & South Coast and Middle Counties. The 1987 event from Nantes saw 5,420 birds entered and the Macketts had a ‘banger’ home to record probably their best performance, 2nd open Amalgamation.

TEXT & PHOTO BY KEITH MOTT