Keith Mott’s Champions of Yesteryear (Part 85)

 DEREK HUMAN OF ALTON

It may seem strange to my readers that Derek Human should be featured in ‘Champions of Yester Year’ and he won the N.F.C. Tarbes Grand National in 2007! This article was set to appear months ago and then he won the National, so we pulled the plug on it. Derek was very disappointed that it was scrapped, so we have held it for a while and here it is this week.

Derek Human and I go back many years, starting in the early 1980s when he had his wins in the Central Southern Classic Flying Club and he came to my home in Claygate to have his young bird champions photographed, and I covered his successes in the fancy press. Derek is a very likable guy, who has always got a smile on his face and along with his pigeon racing son, Adrian, is always up for a laugh. I for one was over the moon to hear the great news that he had won the greatest prize in long distance pigeon racing in the 2007 season, 1st open N.F.C. Tarbes Grand National and did it in fantastic style. His wonderful champion, ‘Any Distance’, won 1st open Tarbes (540 miles) with 3,477 birds competing and won the strong Section B. by 133 y.p.m. clear. A brilliant performance at the highest level!

I visited Derek Human’s loft in 1996 and at that time he lived in Alton. The Human family lived in a converted barn set in the wonderful Hampshire countryside and Derek had a great record in Classic and National racing, winning many premier positions, including 1st Open C.S.C.F.C. twice in the early 1980's. The 1996 season saw the Human loft win 1st & 2nd Open Nantes B.B.C. National and several other good wins channel racing. His National winner was his Davenport x Cattrysse blue hen ‘Rose’, raced on the Natural System. Derek had a bad hawk problem living in the Hampshire countryside and losed many pigeons each year to predators. His champion hen 'Rose' was picked up in the lane outside the Humans' home, being badly injured by a hawk attack. It took her two years rest to get over it, then, she came out to win 1st Open Nantes (BBC) in 1996. Previously to winning Nantes 'Rose' won 6th Open C.S.C.F.C. Bergerac and was named after his little grand ­daughter who was pigeon mad, and was constantly in the loft with him. Derek lived in Cornwall for a while, and said that with the number of birds of prey he saw there, he would never race his birds out of the West Country.

The Human pigeons were raced on both Natural and Widowhood Systems, and he trained the naturals the most. His Widowhood method was very unconventional and both sets of old bird racers were hopper fed, on a first class mixture, with channel racing in mind. Derek is a builder by trade and made his fantastic brick L-shaped loft, which had a pantile roof, with Vent­axia windows for maximunn ventilation. The 40 foot loft had a full glass front and bob wire trapping, which Derek admitted is old fashioned but suits his type of racing. He had no stock birds and the 15 pairs of old birds were paired up the second week in February if the weather is fine, and 30 young birds were reared each season. The main families housed were Davenport / Cattrysse and Vissers, and they raced with outstanding success through to 700 miles,

Derek said his biggest thrill in pigeons at that time was in 1980, when he was 1st & 2nd Open Avranches C.S.C.F.C. and he saw his winning 'Olympic 80' on the front page of the pigeon paper the following week and then won 1st Open Lambelle S.C.C.F.C. the following season. The Central Southern Classic Flying Club sent 1,170 birds to Avranches in 1980 and liberated on the proposed day at 09.00hrs in a south west wind. Derek’s good dark chequer hen, ‘Olympic 80’, recorded 1217 ypm to win first open. Her sire and dam were perchased at Alex Reed’s clearance sale in 1979 for £6 each and produced many other top racers for the Human loft including, 2nd club Nantes, 1st club Saintes and 1st club, 6th Solent Federation Avranches. The second pigeon on the clock to win 2nd open was the Danenport / Cattrysse blue white flight hen, ‘Hampshire Girl’ and she had previously won 1st club Seaton. These two great young hens won the Avranches classic really well and were both raced to the perch. The following season the classic sent 1,256 birds to Lamballe and Derek recorded a real ‘banger’, winning the race well clear with his Davenport / Cattrysse blue pied hen, ‘Double Up’. He fancied this hen, as she had been coming well in training and slipped a pair of eggs under her eight days prior to thr classic. Her nestmate was the blue pied hen, ‘Jack’s Girl’, and she recorded 3rd section, 18th open N.F.C. Lamballe as a young bird and she was raced to the perch. What a pair of youngsters! Their dam was bred by Louella Pigeon World and was purchased on a day trip to the Stud in Leicester. 

Derek's wife is a great help with the birds and his son, Adrian, who at that time lived in Bride in Cornwall, had started up in pigeon racing several years previous. Derek's birds were fed on a no bean mixture, because years ago his good friend, Les Davenport, told him beans are for horses, and peanuts were added to the diet for the longer races. The birds were kept very natural and picked up their own nesting twigs from the Humans' massive garden, and nest bowls were not used in the nest boxes.

Derek started up with pigeons at the age of 13 and his first loft was an old chicken shed. His first club was the old Alton club and won his first race from Guernsey, which he thought was a good performance because he beat the great Frank Jarvis of Selbourne. Derek has been in the sport of pigeon racing over 50 years and tells me his ambishion has always been to win the N.F.C. Grand National. Many years ago he was a great friend of the N.F.C. Pau winner, Les Davenport, and he got Derek going in pigeons with advice and six gift young birds. Those six birds are the base of the Human loft today! In those days Derek ran the N.F.C. clock station at the ‘King’s Head’ public house in Alton and he tells me the clock station had five National winners there when it was running. Derek’s son, Adrian, is an outstanding pigeon racer in his own right and has won many premier positions in the British Barcelona Club in recent seasons.        

Derek has a lot of admiration for his good friend Les Davenport, who gave a lot of good help and has given him some first class stock, which are now winning Classic and National races. Well, I would like to add my congratulations to the many that the Human family have received since winning the 2007 N.F.C. Tarbes Grand National. Well done mate, it was a fantastic performance!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT

17/12/07