CHRISTMAS BANTER

WITH KEITH MOTT

Well it’s here again! Writing my usual one hundred Christmas cards and upsetting some people, because I send them too early, as I like to get the job out of the way. Christmas starts for me on the 24th December when all the shops are closed and most of the preparation for the celebrations should be in place, and stress and strain of Christmas shopping is behind us. There is something magical about Christmas Eve night! I think it comes from the anticipation I used to feel as a young lad. In my younger days, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, we used to get excited about getting a leather football or 12 inch vinyl record album of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Now a days the kids get mobile phones and high tech computers! Christmas is a great time for the kids; the rest of it is far too commercial these days. I have to laugh when I see the big stores putting Christmas decorations and goods on sale in September. I make it sound like I’m the worker in putting our Christmas together but my wife, Betty, is the instigator of our celebrations and has most of the hard work and stress.

So far, I’ve made it sound like I don’t like Christmas, but I love it! It is a great time for the kids and we get our pleasure from seeing them enjoying them selves. It used to be our own two children, Caroline and Mark, and I have loads of the old silent super 8 cine film of our Christmas’, starting when they were fist born nearly 30 years ago. Now a days it’s all about our grand children, Sasha, Katie, Ryan and Sophia, and now I record the celebrations on the high quality Hi 8 video. Just before last Christmas my niece, Angela and her partner Paul, presented Phil and Pauline with their first grand child, in the form of our Megan, so that’s an other little girl to film growing up. On Christmas day our house is packed with family and friends, which is just how I like it, as I think that’s how it should be, meeting up with people. Christmas day is very hard work for Betty, as we can have as many as ten or twelve for lunch and then my brother, Phil, turns up with his mob in the afternoon for tea. The place is packed, but it’s great! Living here in Claygate it is pretty rural and we have the ‘turning on’ of the Christmas lights in the village every year, and a celebrity is invited to throw the switch. Cliff Richard had his offices in Claygate and he did it one year, but last Christmas, Bernie Nolan, of the Nolan Sisters and the ‘Bill’ fame came and turned us on. Bernie was a nice approachable lady and my wife, Betty, and the grand children had their photos taken with her. After the lights are turned on we have several choirs, including the Claygate Gospel Choir, singing Christmas carols and the atmosphere is great. I don’t drink alcohol and the main thing that getting me in the seasonal spirit is Christmas carols. I love them! All over the Christmas period we have the CD player going with all the old favourites, including Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ and Wizzard’s ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’. Brilliant stuff!   

I’m a self employed carpenter by trade and the building normally closes down for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year period, and over the years this has become a traditional time for me to do pigeon articles. I had my first pigeon article appear in the British Homing World in 1972 and continued to do club write up for a few years. In the mid 1970’s Roy and Audrey Bishop invited me to start my own page, called the ‘Surrey Report’ in the Gazette, which in those days was based at Weybridge, and that’s when I really first started to get busy as a pigeon writer. The Bishops gave me my first real stab at proper pigeon journalism. It was at that time that I started to use the Christmas break to visit lofts and build a stock of articles to carry me through the racing season. Roy and Audrey now live in Plymouth and I bumped in to them at the Blackpool Show a couple of years ago, and they looked in great form. It was really nice to see them again after all those years!

They say you need to be a bit mad to be a pigeon fancier, but the crowd at Pyrford pigeon club are barking! In July 2001, we received an invitation through the post from Tony and Dol Fletcher of Old Woking and it said, ‘You are invited to Christmas dinner at Tony and Dol’s on Saturday, August 4th’. I read it and thought to my self; it must be a misprint and can’t say Christmas. The Fletchers had just had a new grand son, so it must mean Christening. I got on the phone and Dol said, ‘There is no mistake. We can’t get our friends and family together in December, so we hold our Christmas dinner party in August’. Dol cooked 30 excellent Christmas dinners and we had a brilliant party on their back lawn, in front of the pigeon loft. There were several of our pigeon fancier friends there, including Alan and Christine Lomax, the Pyrford Club secretaries. The Fletchers gave it the full the ‘Full Monty’ with carols, crackers and Christmas tree. It was a brilliant night and, as always, Betty and I were amongst the last to leave, falling out of the Fletcher’s front door at about 1am.  

We don’t seem to have the Boxing Day pigeon shows these days, the like of which we enjoyed in the 1970’s. Years ago the main show in our area was the Kingston & DHS event, which had a very special Christmas atmosphere and was a good morning out after sitting in the house all Christmas Day. There were lots of classes and it was a good excuse for the member to get together for some Christmas cheer. In the 1950’s and 1960’s some clubs held races on Christmas day, with one of the biggest being the Kilburn FC Christmas Fly. This event was flown from Newark on the north road and all the great racers of the day took part, including the great Reggie Swain. I must say I don’t neglect the pigeons over the Christmas period and still clean them out on both days, as I do every other day of the year when I’m at home.

Well that’s enough of my ol’ banter! On behalf of Betty and my self, I would like to take this opportunity to wish our friends at the British Homing World and through out the pigeon racing and showing world, a Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy New Year. Have a great time!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT

21/12/07