Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

B.H.W. Blackpool Show 2009 

The 2009 BHW Blackpool Show was one of the best ever, but for the ‘Rat Pack’ it had its ups and downs! Peter Taylor, Tony Dann, Brian Batchelor and I travelled up to Blackpool on the Friday and made our usual mid-day break at the first motorway services past the M6 Toll, where we sometimes meet up with a few of the pigeon lads. Every year when I come home from the British Homing World Blackpool Show, I always comment that the crowds on the Saturday morning at the Winter Gardens are getting bigger every year, but the mass of fancier in attendance about an hour after opening on the first day last weekend was by far the biggest I’ve ever seen there. The place was heaving and the atmosphere was electric! As soon as we arrived in the Winter Gardens on the Saturday morning I was asked to do an interview and photo shoot for the Guardian news paper, which will be in their Saturday colour supplement in a couple of weeks time. The reporter, Hannah Bloth, was very nice and was very interested in our sport, and marvelled at the in the pigeons in the pens. The great Blackpool thrill for me was seeing my Eric Cannon blue hen sold for £440 at the Charity Auction in the Opera House on the Saturday morning. Betty and I have donate a Cannon pigeon off our Number One stock pair to this wonderful auction most years and the massive interest shown in these birds is a great compliment to the genius of our late great friend, Eric Cannon of Wormley.

 Mr. & Mrs. Ron McCarthy of Rhymney won Best in Show for the record fifth time with a wonderful young dark chequer Show Racer cock, now named ‘Colin’s Cracker’ and he was bred by Colin Carter of Churchdown. He was bred from a cock loaned from Ron McCarthy which is also the sire of Ron’s Champion ‘Blue Boy’ winner of BIS at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2006 and the dam of ‘Colin’s Cracker’ was Colin’s good dark hen, winner of many firsts including ‘Champion Hen’ at the Edinburgh Show, plus is dam of many winners. Ron McCarthy’s good wife, June, passed away in March of 2008 and she was greatly missed at this year’s Blackpool event, as she had never missed a show and always enjoyed Ron’s success. Ron McCarthy had one of his best Blackpool Shows ever, also winning BOS, four fists and lifting ten BHW Trophies.

On one of my ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tours of South Wales, I visited the premier Show Racer fanciers, Mr. & Mrs. Ron McCarthy of Gwent. In Ron’s 50 years in the sport, he has won many top positions, including B.I.S. Cardiff Charity Show, B.I.S. Show of the West, B.I.S. Birmingham Mail Show, B.I.S. Midlands Show several times, B.I.S. R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show several times, B.I.S. B.H.W. Blackpool Show (a record five times), Supreme Champion at Blackpool and Supreme Champion Young Bird Southern Classic Show. A fantastic loft performance in classic shows!

Ron keeps about 16 pairs of Show Racers which are paired up on February 14th. and breeds about 40 youngsters each season. His loft is over 45 years old, starting out as a chicken shed, and is 22ft.x 8ft. with a flight on the front to bath the birds and keep the loft dry. Ron says a good loft should be comfortable for the fancier and the pigeons. He has been with pigeons all his life as his father was a fancier, and his first few pairs of birds were housed in the coal house. Ron’s best bird over the last few years is his White Mealy cock winner of two firsts at the British Homing World Blackpool Show, including Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex; at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show, Best in Show; at the Royal Welsh, Best in Show and first at the Monmouth Open Show, plus many other good wins for the Rhymney loft. A once in a life time pigeon! The birds are fed on farm beans and peas, mixed with maize and a pinch of Linseed each day. Ron doesn’t feed anything special for the moult, as the birds get the same corn all the year round. He likes to pair grandparents to their grandchildren to produce good Show Racers. He likes a bigger pigeon for stock, with strong head and good body. Ron tried deep litter for about six months, but his wife hated it and Ron wasn’t too pleased either, he always had to clean his glasses after coming out of the loft, with the dust. He told me, he enjoys scraping the loft out every day and most of his birds are tame. Ron McCarthy is one of the very best showmen in the sport today!

At the Blackpool Show, Norman Perry of Port Talbot won ‘Supreme Champion’ and when I met up with him in the Winter Gardens on Saturday morning; he told me he was very proud that he had won. I first met Norman several seasons ago, when I was judging at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show and he won Best in Show with a Mosaic Chequer hen, bred from pigeons obtained from his good friend, Ron McCarthy of Rhymney. Norman has since gone on and won B.I.S. at the Southern Region Show (twice), B.O.S. R.P. Old Comrades Show and the top honours of Supreme Champion and B.I.S. at the B.H.W. Blackpool Show in 2005. Norman has been in the sport since he left school and has kept Show Racers for about eight years, being a north road racer before that. He changed over codes, to showing pigeons because his job as a postman didn’t allow him the time to race his birds properly. He was very keen on the long distance racing and won Lerwick twice. He pairs his 25 pairs of show birds the weekend after the B.H.W. Blackpool Show and keeps mainly the very successful Ron McCarthy bloodlines. He has nine pairs of stock birds and breeds about 50 babies each season, retaining half these for the show pen. Norman’s set up is made up of three lofts, with flights and the birds are fed on a Young Bird mixture. His club is the Monmouth Show Society and he enters only club events and three National shows each season. A fancier with a big future in the Show Racer world!

The main thing I really enjoy about our great show in Blackpool is meeting up with people, the staff of the B.H.W. and R.P.R.A., old and new friends from the racing side of the sport and the lads of the Show Racer world. I met up with two great friends in the form of Brian and Thelma Denny of Strensall and they were at the Blackpool Show Charity Auction, held in the Opera House. It’s always great to see these two lovely people and Brian had donated a pigeon to the sale, and raised a fantastic £1,200 for the charity. Well done to Brian and Thelma! The pigeon was direct of his champion dark pied cock ‘Dark Charm’.

The 2007 National Flying Club Tarbes Grand National race saw Brian Denney clock nine birds on the winning day, to record 1st,4th,6th,9th,20th,22nd,24th,25th,32nd Section K, 5th,17th,27th,31st,109th,116th,130th,134th,205th open (3,477 birds), flying 748 miles to his loft in York. The Denney’s N.F.C. section winner was the handsome two year old dark pied cock, ‘Dark Charm’ and he was raced on the widowhood system. A wonderful performance by Brian, who is one of the greatest long distance fanciers this country has ever produced! The first three birds on the clock from Tarbes were full brother, racing on Brian own widowhood system and were bred direct off the champion stock pair, ‘Maxi’ and ‘Dark Jan’.

It’s was a double congratulation in 2008 to Brian and Thelma Denney! Firstly, Brian put up another fantastic performance in the 2008 NFC Tarbes Grand National and clocked his blue widowhood cock, ‘Brian’s Blue’, on the day of liberation, flying 748 miles, and recording 1st sect. K, 61st open (4045 birds). This champion pigeon was clocked just after 20.00 hrs on the day and I believe, is the furthest flying pigeon clocked on the day ever in a NFC race. A wonderful performance! Secondly, congratulation to Brian and Thelma Denney who celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on 26th July 2008. ‘Mr. Long Distance’ and Thelma were at school together at Yeddington in Yorkshire and started going out together in 1954.

I also met up with my good friends Keith and Sue Arnold of Leamington Spa and they had won the award for 2nd UK Outstanding Short Distance Racing RPRA in the 2008 season, after being 1st UK RPRA Champions in 2006 and 2007. A fantastic achievement! Keith Arnold is in the accountancy profession and I must say, you need to be an accountant to count all the 1st Federation prizes he has won in recent seasons! Keith who lives in Whitnash, near Leamington Spa enjoyed yet another wonderful old bird racing season in 2008 with his brilliant team of 18 Staf Van Reet widowhood cocks winning every thing in front of them. As Keith told me, ‘they were on fire this season’ and the results proved it, with his birds winning the Federation in nearly every race they were entered in. The 2008 old bird results were: 1st, 4th, 10th, 16th Federation (1683 birds) Taunton, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 13th Federation (1560 birds) Exeter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th Federation (980 birds) Newton Abbot, 1st, 7th, 17th Federation (951 birds) Bath, 1st Federation (1223 birds) Taunton, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Federation (1198 birds) Exeter, 1st, 4th, 12th,20th Federation (1085 birds) Newton Abbot, 1st, 3rd, 9th, 19th Federation (906 birds) Newton Abbot, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Federation (1086 birds) Newton Abbot, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Federation (803 birds) Newton Abbot, 1st, 2nd Federation (940 birds) plus twelve firsts in the local club. Brilliant pigeon flying by any ones standards! Top pigeon at the Warwickshire loft in 2008 was the three year old Staf Van Reet widowhood cock ‘58’ and he won: 1st Federation (980 birds) Newton Abbot, 1st Federation (951 birds) Bath, 1st Federation (1223 birds) Taunton, 1st Federation (1198 birds) Exeter, 1st Federation (906 birds) Newton Abbot and 4th Federation (1085 birds) Newton Abbot. What a pigeon! Keith bred both the sire and dam of the ‘58’ cock and his sire won several premier Federation prizes including 1st Federation Truro, and was bred from the Mardon lines of ‘Ranger’ and ‘Radar’. The dam of ‘58’ is again of the Mardon bloodlines of ‘Ranger’ and ‘Rally’. The 2008 season also saw the Arnold’s race young birds only twice and win 1st Federation in both races!

The 2008 Blackpool Show finished for the ‘Rat Pack’ at 5 o’clock on the Saturday evening in the Scribes room at the Winter Gardens when my ol’ mate Tony Dann was taken badly ill with massive pains in his back. It happened in seconds, one minute he was talk to the lads, the next minute he was in unbearable pain and looked terrible! We managed to get him in a taxi and back to the Hotel Sheraton, where we were staying on the Queens Promenade and by the time we arrived there he looked much worse. After a couple of hours messing about, we persuaded him to see a doctor and took him by taxi to the Medical Centre in Blackpool and they sent him straight off to the Victoria Hospital by ambulance. I had several appointments at the Winter Gardens on the Sunday morning, which had to be cancelled, so we could visit Tony who had to stay in the Blackpool hospital for tests on the Monday morning. We went straight home from the hospital and that was the end of our Blackpool Show weekend! We made hotel arrangements for Tony’s wife, Gudda, and she arrived in Blackpool on the Sunday evening. She rang me today (Tuesday) to say he has Kidney stones and is now fit enough to travel, and is having the problem sort out at home. I’m pleased to hear that good news!

Many thanks to Helen and Nettie for all their hard work in Scribes room, it was great! Thanks also to Andrew and Lisa Marney of Fairseat Corns in Kent, who expanded about the Unikon ETS, which I had no idea about. I have to meet and talk to a lot of fanciers at the Blackpool show every year and come home very tired, but that Sunday, the ‘Rat Pack’ and I came home totally ‘knackered’, and a bit sad. Roll on next January and let’s get back to Blackpool!