Keith Mott...

Esher & District RPC Prize Presentation 2009

The highlight of the social calendar in our local racing pigeon fraternity is the Esher club’s prize presentation held at the West End Sports and Social Club every January and this year about 50 members and guests attended. The Esher club secretary, Allen Palmer and his wife, Jackie, organize and run the ‘do’ every year, and always produce a great prize presentation. This year some excellent hot fish and chips were brought in from a local shop, instead of the usual buffet and this new idea really went down well. The West End rebuilt the club house a couple of years ago and new bar area is really nice, and ideal for a pigeon club presentation. This presentation evening is very much a family social event and there was not loud disco music, just good pigeon chat and banter. Angela Stockbridge, editor of the ‘West End Village News’ has an interest in the pigeons and was asked to present the prizes to the members. This winter Angela and her friends Margaret Mazzina and Lynn Bezant judged the fancy colours class at the club’s open shows and I must say the ladies took the task very seriously and did an excellent job. As I’ve previously stated the Esher club is very much a family orientated pigeon club and runs a weekly junior section for the kids during the racing season, and top prize winners were: Jack Greenaway (Novice Trophy), Cole Slight, Katie Mearns, HRA Partners, Sasha Noble-Mott and the Ward grand daughters.

The Esher club have enjoyed another brilliant season in 2008 racing in the Three Borders Federation and winning the Federation Points Shield for the third time in four seasons. Bob and Danny Carter won the Federation three times, lifting the Individual Points Trophy and other Esher 2008 Federation winners were, club chairman Chris Slight (three times 1st Federation), club secretary Allen Palmer (twice 1st Federation) and Roy Barnett. Roy who races his birds to his loft in Kingston won the BHW ‘The George Slade Swing Clear Trophy’ for the bird making the highest velocity on the weekend of 28/29th June 2008. Well done to Roy! As you could imagine the competition in this brilliant club was red hot!

Allen Palmer said a few words to the member present and then introduced Angela Stockbridge before she presented the prize cards and trophies to the winner. At this point I would like to say how lucky we are at Esher to have Allen as our Secretary and President, and thank him for all his sterling work, not only in the 2008 season, but over many years. Thanks to Allen and his hard working wife, Jackie! Trophy winner were: John & Danny Barrett (ten trophies), Bob & Danny Carter (three trophies), Chris Slight (three trophies), Jim Rookledge & Ray Mearns (three trophies), Dave White (two trophies) and Keith & Betty Mott (one trophy).

Premier prize winners were John & Danny Barrett, who race their pigeon to their loft in Ewell and they recorded several top positions in the Federation, finishing the 2008 season third for the Individual Point Trophy. Some of the best positions won channel racing in 2008 were: 2nd Three Borders Federation, 3rd open SMT Combine, 2nd Three Borders Federation, 7th open SMT Combine and 3rd Three Borders Federation, 9th open SMT Combine. 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 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 going on to the ETS System for the 2009 season, maintaining it will help 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. Well done to John and Danny, 2008 premier prize winners in the 2008 Three Borders Federation champion club!

Second highest 2008 prize winner in the club was another Ewell loft owned by R. Carter & son. The 2008 season saw Bob Carter, his son Danny and silent partner, Ron Keeley win the ‘Individual Point Trophy’ in the Three Borders Federation, with some of their best performances of the 2008 season being: 1st, 2nd, 10th Federation (1,771 birds) West Bay, 1st, 10th Federation (722 birds), 11th open SMT Combine Messac, 1st Federation (1,687 birds) Wincanton, 2nd, 3rd, 10th Federation (1,118 birds) Portland, 4th Federation (1,034 birds), 7th open SMT Combine Fougeres, 5th, 14th Federation (1,199 birds) Kingsdown, 6th Federation (1,493 birds) Kingsdown, 10th, 12th, 13th Federation (1,079 birds) Kingsdown, 11th, 20th Federation (801 birds) Messac, 16th, 23rd  Federation (1,257 birds) Exeter. Brilliant pigeon racing!

The Carter partners race 20 cocks on the widowhood system and all the racers are mated up in December. Bob tells me the widowhood cocks exercise around the loft twice a day and during the racing season are broke down for the first half of the week on Depurative mixture, and then built up with Super Widowhood mixture in the second half of the week. Bob doesn’t show the hens on marking night and the racing cock only get their hen for a short time on their return from the race. The cock are not broke down for the longer race up to 450 miles, being fed on Super Widowhood all week and Bob likes the cocks to be holding 8 to 9 flights for these events. The Carters have about 50 young birds to race each year and have raced on the darkness system for the last two seasons, with outstanding success and great losses. Bob says, in his opinion the big losses with the babies each year is because of the Federations clashing! He trains the youngsters every day, weather permitting, up to 30 miles and races them natural to the perch, but they are allowed to pair up if they want. They race the full Federation young bird programme from 100 miles through to 180 miles. The Carter partnership race to two lofts, a 20ft x 8ft structure with a tiles apex roof for the old birds and another 20ft x 8ft shed for the young birds. The most important feature of Bob’s lofts is that they are dry and well ventilated. Congratulations to the Carters on a wonderful 2008 season!

My ol’ mucker and Esher club chairman, Chris Slight, was third highest prize winner in the 2008 season. 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.

Well that’s it for this week! It has given me great pleasure writing about our champion racers at Esher. I enjoy some of my best pigeon time at the West End Social Club with the Esher lads; it’s a great pigeon club! Any comments, give me a phone call on: 01372 463480. See yer!