Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

CHRIS SLIGHT OF KINGSTON

I think I’ve known Chris Slight for nearly 40 years now, in fact he used to drive for Pickford’s house removals and he moved Betty and I in to our first flat over the Gardening shop in Surbiton and that was nearly 37 years ago, when we got married. Chris is the ‘old school’ type pigeon fancier and has no hard and fast system, but records brilliant result every season. Back in the 1970’s we raced in the Kingston club together and today we both fly in the Esher & Dist. RPC. Chris was winning Federations back in the Kingston racing days and he is still winning Federation today. A great fancier!

The 2008 season saw Chris Slight win the Three Borders Federation three times and win ‘Pigeon of the Year’ in the Esher club and the Federation. His top pigeon was a five year old blue chequer named, ‘Fred’ and this game widowhood cock recorded: 1st club, 1st Federation Kingsdown, 1st club, 1st Federation, 2nd open SMT Combine and 4th club, 11th Federation Yelverton. The Esher club secretary, Allen Palmer, won the Three Borders Federation twice in the 2008 season and one of those birds was bred by Chris, and was a son of ‘Fred’. What a pigeon! He has won many other prizes previous to the 2008 season, racing on the widowhood and is off the old slight family, being a mixture of De Klak, Busschaert and Staf Van Reet. Chris’ other 2008 Three Borders Federation winner was the yearling Busschaert blue chequer widowhood cock, ‘Uranus’, and he won 1st club, 1st Federation, 4th open SMT Combine Poitiers. He is a son of Chris’ good dark Busschaert cock, which has recorded many firsts for the Slight loft, including 48th open L&SECC in a very hard Pau race (550 miles) and then being sent back to Bergerac (450 miles) three weeks later to record 2nd open SMT Combine.

Chris races 20 cocks on the widowhood system and stressed to me that he has no hard and fast rules or real system with his pigeon racing management, and will pair up any time in January or February. He races only hens on the system and never breaks them down, feeding a good quality widowhood mixture at all distances, long and short. The Slight pigeons are raced every week through the Federation programme and he told me his favourite races are the middle distance at about 300 miles. His loft is 40ft x 18ft ‘L’ shaped and has always had open door trapping, although he has now installed ETS traps as he started to use the system with young birds in the 2008 season. Chris told me he really enjoys the ETS as he can sit back and enjoy seeing the birds coming in from the races, and maintains the youngsters don’t get spoiled by keep getting picked to be clocked. He has a blue cock which won’t trap because it has been caught so many times and has won about ten second prizes. The widowhood hens are put in with the cocks at lunch time on marking night and allowed to run with their mates until they go in the basket for the journey to the club. He has no hard and fast rule about his system and sometimes leaves the widowhood hens with the racers until Sunday lunch time. The widowhood cocks get an open loft all day, every day and the main families kept are De Klak, Busschaert and Staf Van Reet.

Chris breeds 50 young birds every season, only retaining 35 to race and trains from Petersfield (40 miles) every week. He has never raced the darkness system, but is intending to have a crack at it in 2009 and races natural to the perch. The Slight young birds are allowed to do as they like and Chris has won some good races with youngsters sent sitting eggs, and small babies. He told me he didn’t enjoy young bird racing, but sends them through the Federation programme to the longest race for education and they also get an open loft every day. The young hens are raced well in the year of their birth, but once they are in the widowhood loft they are never raced, although Chris is toying with the idea of racing a few widowhood hens next season. Chris keeps very few stock pigeon, but has a few De Klaks from Steve Clackston of Kingston and his best retired Busschaert racers. He pairs his stock pigeons up the same time as the widowhood cock so the eggs can be floated in the race sections.

Chris has been racing pigeon on his own since he came out of the army in 1975 and has won many 1st Federation prizes from Blandford (85 miles) through to Bergerac (450 miles), and has been 2nd open Combine nine or ten times, but has never won the Combine. In fact recently he recorded 2nd open SMT Combine twice in one season! His first pigeons were raced to his sister’s garage and he won his first race from Exeter with a mealy hen in the old Kingston club. He is now a member of the Esher & Dist. RPC and L&SECC, and tells me he prefers north road racing. His father, Lewis Slight, and his uncles were all good fanciers in his home town of Portsmouth and they were all north roaders. When Chris was a young lad, 50 years ago, a local fancier gave him a pigeon and his dad wouldn’t let him put it in his loft, so he had to keep it in an old rabbit hutch. He sent that pigeon to Lerwick (550 miles) and won the race and his dad didn’t clock in! Chris maintains the sport is too much money orientated which is soiling it, but really likes the ETS system and says it’s the way forward.

TONY DANN OF LEATHERHEAD   

Another Esher fancier who has enjoyed a brilliant 2008 season is my ol’ mate Tony ‘Desperate' Dann. He has not been a member of a Saturday Federation club in the 2008 season, so decided to use the midweek Hamworthy club for training and have a go at the National and Classic events. The Dann loft had a good race from the NFC Angers (264 miles) event and recorded an outstanding pigeon to win 4th section E, 6th open with nearly 6,000 birds competing. The first bird on the clock, doing 1256 ypm, was his good natural Van Breemen blue hen, ‘First Lady, and she was sent sitting ten day old eggs. This game hen was lost for a while as a young bird, but has raced well from France since. The most outstanding breeders for Tony in recent season are a pair of Steven Van Breemen pigeons and three of their off spring have won races in recent season, two yearlings and a young bird. This pair of stock birds were purchased from Matt Rakes, by Tony's late father Wally Dann in 2002 and decided to retain them when Wally's birds were sold off. Tony says, he is sure the Van Breeman pigeons will race well, when he can establish a team of them.

Tony raced with his late father, Wally, from 1958 until he married in 1967, and started up on his own in 1979. Tony says that in the 1960's he looked up to the late, great Tommy Woodcock of Wimbledon, who had a lifetime of top class pigeon racing. Tony's loft was set up with birds from his and Tommy, and he won a young bird race in his first season! His first loft was 15ft. long, purchased for £25 and he says his early mistake was overfeeding. Tony's present loft is 24ft. long, with three sections built by his dad, Wally, who was a retired carpenter. For many years he raced the widowhood system with fantastic success, winning the Surrey Federation many times and being the Federation premier prize winner several times. He had a record breaking young bird in 1986, in the form of the Delwich Jet blue pied hen, “00114”, and she won the very strong Surrey Federation three times as a young bird, flying against about 3,000 birds, also winning an R.P.R.A. award. As I've already stated many time on this page, ‘Desperate', is a great worker for our sport and was chief clock setter at the Esher club for many years and chairman of the Three Borders Federation. A great lad!

B.B.C. back in Claygate 

I had a phone call from B.B.C. Radio last week asking if they could come and record me with the pigeons at my loft in Claygate. Several phone conversations with Jason Caffrey of the B.B.C. World Service followed and an arrangement was made that he would catch the train down from Waterloo and I would pick him up at Claygate Station. This is the eighth time I’ve been on the radio and I’m getting very slick with experience, living up to my nick name, ‘One Take Keith’. Jason was a nice, down to earth sort of guy and he told me he is currently working on news and current affairs at the World Service. He has been in radio since 2002 and the current project is for B.B.C. Radio 4. He asked all the usual pigeon questions and I made a big issue about our on going Peregrine Falcon and Sparrowhawk problem, which killing our sport.  

The Esher & Dist RPC won the Three Borders Federation ‘Points Championship Trophy’ in the 2008 season, for the third time in four seasons and club members Bob and Danny Carter won the ‘Individual Points Championship Trophy’. I will be covering the stars of the Esher club, including Bob and Danny in the next few weeks! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!