CLIVE TURNER

1st Open London & South East Classic Club Alencon 2011

by Keith Mott

During the winter months I went to ‘night school’ to learn the workings of the Unikon ETS, with the view to filling the void in our marking team at Leatherhead and the Alencon race was my ‘maiden voyage’. I must say it was hard work, but working next to my ol’ mate, Kenny Wise, who marks the Bricon birds, it was very enjoyable. The build up to the event wasn’t without a few problems, the main one being getting an email a few days before marking, telling us that the ETS signal was going to be turned off every day for ten days, between 07.00hrs and mid-night. The Alencon marking fell right in this period, but there was no panic as the Classic’s ETS expert, Derick Packer, advised us on the matter and the marking went without a hitch.

The Classic got the new season off to a great start in early May, when the members entered 1,811 birds in the Alencon race. For several days before the race, according to the early weather reports, it looked like it was going to be a good race and it proved to be so, with Rube Johnson liberating the convoy at 09.15hrs in to a light South East wind. The Classic’s transport manager, Clive Turner of Capel, won the race by a ‘country mile’ and also took 4th open just for good measure! It was very pleasing to see Clive win this Classic as he is a great worker for our club, maintaining and garaging the L&SESS transporter at his yard near Dorking. He is a busy man and was very hard to pin down for a loft visit, but I finally managed to visit his home set in the wonderful Surrey countryside at Capel, with the view to doing this article.

The Turner pigeon set up consists of three very smart lofts, with a back drop of the beautiful Surrey countryside, and Clive races 30 cocks on widowhood, with the back up of 12 pairs on the roundabout system. He likes all racing, but prefers regular Saturday Federation racing and says he doesn’t race every week as he has 13 grand children and he likes to spend time with them in the summer months. The racers are paired at the end of January and are fed on a good widowhood mixture. Clive tells me he breaks the racing cock down during the season, but for a shorter period on the Continental events and has always practiced this method, even when he raced natural many years ago. Generally the cocks don’t see their hens on marking night, but get their mates on their return home, with the duration depending on how hard the race has been. The racers are trained prior to the first race, but never during the season and are exercised around the loft for an hour twice a day, and raced regularly to keep them fit.

The first pigeon we looked at on my visit to Clive’s loft was his 4th open Alencon winner and she was a yearling blue hen, raced on the roundabout system. This game hen had previously won race cards in the Horsham club as a young bird and was bred down from Clive’s old Busschaert and Janssen family. Her grand sire won Bergerac twice and her grand dam had a wonderful eye sign, winning many firsts in open eye sign shows. After looking at several premier racers, Clive handed me his 2011 L&SECC Alencon winner, ‘The Alencon Cock’. This handsome three year old Staf Van Reet blue pied was raced on the widowhood system and has been one of Clive most consistent racers in recent seasons, winning 15th Federation Lulworth as a young bird, 6th Federation Yelverton and 6th Federation Tours as a yearling, 3rd Federation Kingsdown at two years of age and this season won 1st club Newton Abbot before winning the L&SECC Alencon by 32 ypm clear. Clive tells me he is bred in the purple from a long line of good winners and his great grand dam was Tony Mardon’s champion breeding hen, ‘Rose’. A brilliant widowhood cock!

Clive has been a great pigeon racer for many years and has been highest money winner in the very strong Horsham club several times over the years. He tells me he is a pigeon lover really, but doesn’t keep the widowhooders for the sprint races only, the whole old bird team race through to 450 miles. When I asked Clive what family of birds he kept he said, years ago they started off as the Busschaerts, which are the base family, but now he could call them ‘Turners’ as he has crossed in over many years and has now created his own family of pigeons which excel from 80 miles through to 450 miles. He says some of his original birds were purchased in Guildford market for £2 each! He has won many premier positions over the years, including 1st Section in the National Flying Club and 9th open L&SECC Pau (550 miles). The stock team is made with eight pairs of mostly good retired racers and these are paired up the same time as the racers so their eggs can be floated in the race loft. When I asked Clive what he looked for when selecting new stock birds, he said, ‘I can’t really explain, but when you get a bird in the hand, some tells you if it is right or not’. Clive races about 60 babies each season to the perch and only gives them minimal racing for education purposes only, but likes to train them well down to the south coast. He doesn’t use the ‘dark’ system with his babies, but races them natural to the perch and if they want to pair up during the racing season he allows them to do so for motivation.

Clive has had pigeons most of his life, but packed them up once many years ago, when he had a young family and was very busy farming for a living. He explained to me why he raced as D. Turner! When his son David was a lad he had a ‘five minute wonder’, obtaining a loft and some pigeons from a friend and when he got fed up with them, Clive took them over, but has never changed the ownership name. Clive had a period of his life living in Hounslow in the late 1960s and raced in the Hounslow Mile and a Quarter Club in the company of greats like Freddie Meal, Hicks Brothers, Mr. Spratley and the great partnership of Claremont & Meads, who was the secretary at that time. Clive has given me a photo, which I’ve included with the article, taken at the club’s prize presentation in the late 1960s and he is the fancier second from the left.

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Clive and I have spent a fair amount of time in recent months trying to get the Classic’s transporter curtains ventilated, which has proved to be no easy task. We finally found a company who specialize in that type of work, but they have informed us that the existing curtains are not in good enough condition to carry out the work, so we have contracted them to make two new ventilated curtains. I’m delighted to inform the membership that the new curtains are now fitted on the transporter, ready for the Tarbes Classic. I would like to thank Clive Turner and his grandson for all their good work in fitting the curtains. The Classic secretary, Terri Hoskin has been informed by the RPRA that the Carentan liberation site is now not available on the weekend of our first young bird race, because they are holding a three day music festival on the Cattle Market car park. This late switch has caused Terri a lot of extra work and the first young bird and old hens Classic in August will now be flown from Vire. Well that’s it for this week! Congratulations to Clive on his great Classic win from Alencon; it was a much deserved victory!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.