Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

Esher & Dist. R.P.C. Prize Presentation

The Esher & Dist. RPC held it’s annual prize presentation at the Westend Social Club in January and the event is aways very informal, and very much family orientated. A good percentage of the members and their partners attended the function, which was a fish and chips evening, with the food being brought in by Jackie Palmer, wife of the club secretary, Allen. The Esher club race in the Three Borders Federation and has always maintained a strong social and family tradition. The club was runner up for the Federation Championship in 2010, having won it several times in previous seasons and it was nice to see Danny Allison of Kingston attend the presentation, and he won the Federation Individual Points Trophy in 2010. This wonderful event aways attracts outside guests and looking around the bar I noticed Ian West and Dominic & Claire McCoy were having a great time.

The Three Borders Federation convoyer, Dennis Shepherd, came along to the presentation and was invited to give out the prizes to the members, and principal prize winners were: 1) John & Danny Barrett six firsts / £258: 2) Chris Slight & Trevor Taylor five firsts / £284: 3) Bobby & Danny Carter three firsts / £132: 4) Trussler Brothers four firsts / £179: 5) Roy Barnett two firsts / £88: 6) Bob & Anthony Besant one first / £27: 7) Jim Rookledge & Ray Mearns one first / £18. The club has run a Young Fanciers section for many years, where by the kids can nominate five birds from their parents or grand parent’s race sheet each week and compete against each other in their own race. The Young Fancier have their own prize presentation and premier award winners were: Cole Slight eight firsts and £26: Bob Carter seven firsts £21: Ward Family two firsts £18: Katie Mearns three firsts £17: Sasha Mott-Nobel one first £4: Laura Snaith one first £2. Congratulation to them all!

Esher premier prize winners in 2010 and 2009 were John & Danny Barrett, who race their pigeon to their loft in Ewell and they recorded several top positions in the Federation, finishing the 2009 season winners of the Individual Point Trophy. Brilliant pigeon racing! The partners race their 16 pairs of old birds on the roundabout system and the racers exercise around the loft twice a day during the racing season to maintain their fitness. They are broke down the racers from Saturday through to Tuesday morning, being fed on Super Widowhood and Depurative mixtures, the same method as with widowhood cocks. The old birds do not fly out around home in the winter months and are locked up after the last race in September until the first round of youngsters are weaned the following season. The birds are paired up on Boxing Day each year and when the first round of youngsters are 18 days old the hens are taken away and then they are on the Roundabout, being trained well before the first Federation race. John and Danny like racing at all distances through to 450 miles and send their birds every week in the Esher club. The Roundabout hens and cocks are both sent to the same race and Danny tells me the hens raced best in the 2008 season. In the 2009 season the Barrett’s are now using three section of their loft for the Roundabout system, with the middle one being the nest box section and so minimize the time the racers see their nest sites and keep them keener. The 40ft loft is ‘L’ shaped, with grilled floors, which are cleaned out once a week and the partners are on to the ETS System for the first time in the 2009 season, maintaining it now helps out with trapping the birds. John and Danny don’t keep any stock pigeons and the main families raced are Staf Van Reet and Vandenabeele. The 40 young birds are raced on the ‘dark’ system, with them being put on about a month after weaning as it is still winter, with long dark nights and are taken off in June to start their training. Danny tells me the babies start their training at 20 miles because they tend to loose more on any tosses shorter than that and finish training with about three Winchesters (50 miles) just before the first Federation race. If the young birds are fit and well they are sent to every race, with two training tosses mid-week.

When Johnny Barrett was a young man he was a champion Boxer and started up in pigeon racing in 1968, and after a twenty year partnership with Ronnie Keeley went in partnership with his son Danny in 2000. The Barrett alliance has been very successful through the years winning the Federation numerous time and 1st open Combine a couple times. Danny says the Esher club is brilliant, being a good friendly set up with ‘red hot’ competition. Johnny Barrett has not enjoyed the best of heath in recent months, but Danny has been down at the Esher club every week and is one of the main workers on marking nights.

The 2010 season has seen the Barrett partnership enjoy another good year in the Three Borders Federation winning: (OB) 9th, 10th, 25th Federation Wincanton (1,584 birds), 7th Federation Wincanton (1,916 birds), 6th, 15th, 23rd Federation West Bay (2,163 birds), 10th Federation Wincanton (1,736 birds), 3rd, 10th Federation Fougeres (934 birds), 9th, 20th Federation West Bay (2,016 birds), 12th, 13th, 14th, 20th Federation Messac ( 931 birds), 13th Federation Exeter (1,135 birds), 6th, 22nd, 23rd Federation Wincanton, (YB) 4th, 9th, 24th Federation Wincanton (1,651 birds), 11th Federation Blandford (1,424 birds), 2nd, 10th Federation West Bay (1,292 birds). The Three Borders Federation got the 2010 racing season off to a great start when members sent 1,584 birds to Wincanton and liberated in to a light north east wind, on what turned out to be a perfect flying day. Esher & District RPC really started the new 2010 campaign in great style with two of their members taking six positions in the Federation result. The Esher club had problems with their ETS marking system on the first night and all the member had to clock their birds on traditional timing clocks, with Bob & Danny Carter recorded 1st, 2nd, 5th Federation on my borrowed T3 clock. Following close behind were the 2009 Federation Individual Point champions, John & Danny Barrett, recording 9th, 10th, 25th Federation.

Chris Slight and Trevor Taylor won the SMT Combine from the Messac race held in June. The Combine sent 1,316 birds and being liberated into a Northerly wind, the members enjoyed a good steady race. After the race I asked Trevor about the partner latest SMT Combine winner and he told me, ‘The Messac Combine winner is Black yearling hen, now named ‘Non- Returnable’ and was bred by Colin Crook and Andy Iddenden of Epsom. Every year Colin and Andy give us a couple of coloured pigeons to brighten up the loft,as they have always said our loft is too dull with the blues and blue chequers. This little annual practice has gone for about five seasons now! The Messac Combine winner, ‘Non-Returnable’, is a van Reet hen which had already showed us a lot of promise as a young bird in 2009, being in the firstfour birds home every week but was always beaten by loft mates and most often we would geta few birds together but she was a little shy to go through the ETS first. This season as ayearling she did exactly the same, being consistent again in the first three or four birds to the loft every week but one time winning the Esher club from Kingsdownand finishing 18th Three Borders Federation with 1,623 birds competing. We only normally send to Federation races and 2010 was our first year racing hens, and this game little black hen was coming so consistent, sowe decided to send some hens to the London & South East Classic Club, and ‘Non-Returnable’ finished up recording 33rd open Falaise. We kept her racing week by week and on the Wednesday before she won the Combine she had been pairing up with another hen and laid an egg in her box. She was nearly not sent to Messac as it was Thursday night marking and it meant she would lay her second egg in the race crate on the Friday. Chris and I thought this would affect her keenest to race home, how wrong were we! We decided to name her ‘Non-Returnable’ and what a lovely man Colin Crook is!  When we phoned him to say we had won the Combine he said come over and get the dam and I must say mother and daughter are like peas in a pod, so much so, if you put them both together you couldn’t tell them apart only from the ring colour’. Well done to Chris and Trevor! Thanks to Allen and Jackie Palmer for all their hard work and giving the Esher members another great night!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.