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Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

Gosling & Jarvis of Mountnessing

 

I must start this article be saying how delighted I am at finally get a chance to write a few lines on Keith Gosling and Mick Jarvis. This Essex partnership has been one of the most consistently successful in the London & South East Classic Club in recent seasons and I must say this article is well over due! The 2010 season saw them win several trophies in the Classic including the coveted ‘Brooker Gold Cup’.

 

The partners are from good winning pigeon racing families with Keith Gosling’s uncle being a fancier and Mick Jarvis is a third generation pigeon racer, with both his father and granddad being outstanding fanciers. His dad flew in the famous Enfield partnership of Ellis & Jarvis. Mick flew in partnership with his dad from 1980 and was very keen on sports, being a County Footballer and Rugby player. Football was his passion when he was a lad and played Saturday and Sunday Football for Cheshunt F.C. and Crystal Palace Youth. Mick recalls, the top fanciers locally when he started up were John Turnell and Pat McKeown. Keith Gosling and Mick Jarvis formed their successful partnership in 1995, when Mick’s dad sadly passed away after a short illness with Cancer. With owning his own work business and having a young family at the time, the only way that Mick could continue in pigeon racing was to form a partnership and with him and Keith being good friends, the arrangement has worked out well over the years. The lofts were set up in Keith’s back garden and with the best of their original lofts, a team of young birds were bred and started to race North Road in 1995. The partners crossed their Verheye and Janssen pigeons and in their first race recorded 2nd, 3rd, 4th club. They went on to win 1st club, 14th Federation (3,332 birds) shortly after and a few weeks later recorded 1st, club, 1st Federation (2,581 birds). Keith told me, we were up and running! They raced in the Hutton FC (Essex Combine) and Hillside FC (London NR Combine) and with a very small team of birds won four first prizes in the first season and ten in their second year. Their loft set up was pretty regular, with a 24ft conventional widowhood loft with open door trapping and a 12ft young birds loft.

 

The 1997 season saw Keith and Mick buy in some more stock birds including their champion breeder, ‘The Blue Beverdam Hen’, and she was from the Dutch fancier’s best Janssen bloodlines. This wonderful hen is responsible for many winners, including six 1st Federation winners and a 1st open NFC winner, and is dam of ‘The Yearling Mealy Hen’. That season the partners decided to expand their loft set up and purchased a two new bigger lofts, a in addition to extending their original structure from 24ft to 40ft. They joined a South Road club and began to race both roads, North and South, with seven yearling hens being picked out for the south and the rest of the loft staying North Road. The 1998 racing season was fantastic for Keith and Mick, winning 24 first prizes and the seven yearling hens were amazing, winning four firsts on the South Road. A yearling mealy hen excelled winning three races and on Gosling & Jarvis’ first channel race, she recorded 14th open Combine Alencon. Mick tells me on their first young bird channel race they recorded 1st NE Section, 29th open London & South East Classic Club Guernsey and then became totally hooked on South Road racing. They have won many premier honours through the years on the South Road, the most memorable being 2001 when they recorded: 13th open BICC Bruges, 2nd BICC Beersel, 14th, 30th, 37th open L&SECC Perth (only three birds sent), 18th open BICC Herstal, 3rd open L&SECC Thurso, 63rd open BICC Herstal, 27th open L&SECC Guernsey, 184th open NCF Guernsey, 1st NFC Guernsey and 18th open L&SECC Guernsey. Keith told me the partner’s early mistake racing on the South Road was, after a great first season, they took the English Channel for granted and near got wiped out in a smash Alencon race. He says a mistake they have never made again since!

 

Gosling & Jarvis’ present set up in Essex is two widowhood lofts, both 36ft long, one 12ft widowhood loft for racing hens and an 18ft young bird loft. The lofts have got tiles roofs for good ventilation and Mick says you can not smell the pigeons because the structures are so well ventilated. Deep litter has never been used in the lofts as the partners consider it would be detrimental to the inmate’s health and think it courses respiratory problems. The partners now use ETS and all trapping is through bob holes off landing boards. Keith and Mick race 54 old cocks and 12 hens on the widowhood system and these are paired up in mid-January. The cocks rear a youngster and after a period of separation are repaired for three weeks training before the first old bird race. With a few exceptions, the racing cocks see their hens on marking night and once racing starts the birds are never trained again. On their return from the race they get the hen for no set time, just what they think is suitable with the condition on the day of the race. The widowhood hens are raced the same as the cocks, but during the week are locked in their boxes and only let out for exercise. The only real difference is the hens are trained during the week and are always single tossed. The race team is never broken down and the feed is very consistent, just the amount increased or decreased when the lads think it is necessary. The main corn fed is ‘Widowhood VL Mixture’, with added maize and peanuts. The old birds are never repaired for the longer distance races and the partners maintain they have achieved their best results on the widowhood system in these events over the years.

The twenty pairs of stock birds are paired up the same time as the race birds in January and their first round of eggs are floated under the widowhood racers. Then they rear their second round of eggs and only a very few pairs rear a third round. They are fed on ‘Liege Mixture VL’ and when buying in new stock to try the partners look for good winning bloodlines, and not type. The main families kept are Jim Biss, Ron Ball / Van Wanroys / Muller Aarden, V. D. Merowe and Koopman. Then main breeders in Keith and Mick’s stock loft are: ‘The Blue Beverdam Hen’ and ‘Janssen Cock 41’, sire of nine 1st Federation winners and Champion ‘Brown Ring’. Premier racers in the Gosling & Jarvis loft in recent seasons are: Champion ‘Brown Ring’ – 1st club (three times), 1st Federation (twice), 1st open NFC Guernsey, 11th open L&SECC Guernsey, 46th open BICC Bihorel and 33rd open L&SECC Guernsey: ‘The Yearling Mealy Hen’- daughter of ‘The Blue Beverdam Hen’ – 1st club (three times), 1st Federation, 5th open BICC Bihorel, 14th open L&SECC Alencon and 23rd open L&SECC Alencon: ‘The 69’ – 5th open BICC Bourges, 22nd open BICC Bihorel and 44th open NFC Vire. All these top racers have bred many winners including premier open positions in the National and Classics, plus 1st Federation. Keith told me, ‘eyesign is interesting, but we don’t use the method in our breeding programme, we always mate our best racing performers to our best racing performers. We line breed our premier birds and have found all our best racers have become our best breeders. Another factor that is strong with our birds in the stock loft is the cocks fight you off when you try to feed them and our hens are very tame, and get very rank and jealous’. The partners maintain the moult is a very important time of the year and the racers and stock birds are separated as soon as they have finished their jobs. During this period they are fed on a high protein mixture and plenty of seed.        

 

 

The partners breed between 100 and 120 young birds each season and the first and second rounds are put on the ‘darkness’ system, with odd few third rounders left natural. They are trained very hard prior to racing, including two training chucks a day, with no exercise. Once racing starts they are trained three times a week and exercised around the loft daily. They are never fed any special young bird mixtures, being fed the same racing corn as the old birds and are trained and raced to the perch, but are allowed to pair up during the racing if they want too. The young hens are given ever race possible, as only 12 of them can go over to the old bird race team, because of the widowhood system. The young cocks are raced more lightly.

 

Gosling & Jarvis told me when I met up with the two lads, ‘We enjoy all racing, not so much sprint racing, but Continental racing at all levels and try to compete when ever we send. We don’t consider that we have enough experienced pigeons to compete in International racing, but one day we would like to have a bash at that type of event. Our family of pigeons perform well at all distances up to 600 miles and our most thrilling and probably our best performance to date was from the 2007 London & South East Classic Club Pau race. We sent four birds to Pau, flying nearly 600 miles, and clocked two on the day to record 2nd and 11th open’. Brilliant pigeon racing!

 

I hope my readers have enjoyed reading about Keith Gosling and Mick Jarvis this week; they are two of our best fanciers in the London & South East Classic Club. I can be contacted with any pigeon banter on telephone number: 01372 463480.

 

TEXT BY KEITH MOTT.