Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

Jan Hugo of South Africa

With my name and contact details being so wide spread through the pigeon racing world, I must get at least three or four phone calls every day from fancier from all over, seeking information on stray racing pigeons, other fanciers contact details or from foreign fancier in the UK on holiday and just wanting to meet up with some fanciers for some pigeon banter. In mid-May I had one such phone call from a young lady living in Thames Ditton, who had pigeon racing relative, Jan Hugo, over from South Africa on holiday and wondered if they could meet up with me and maybe come around home to see the birds. The Esher club were marking for the SMT Combine Falaise race on the Thursday night, so we arranged to meet up at the Westend Lane marking station and ‘break the ice’. It was previously arranged that I would be making the 110 miles drive up to Leamington Spa on the Friday, to drop some birds off to Keith Arnold, so I invited Jan to come along and see some British sprint champions. He enjoyed his visit to Warwickshire and Keith made him very welcome, showing him all his best Staf Van Reets. The following day Jan joined me in my garden in Claygate and we had some good pigeon banter, while waiting for the birds to arrive home from Falaise. We had a good hour in my loft looking at my Brian Denney and Eric Cannon long distance pigeons, which he was very interested in, being a long distance enthusiast him self. He said he was very impressed with the racing set up in the UK and was pleased to see Keith Arnold’s sprint widowhood system and my long distance nature set up. Jan was a really nice guy and I really in enjoyed our couple of days together!

Jan Hugo lives in a little town called Kimberley, Northern Cape, which is situated in central South Africa and he tells me the terrain in the area is very flat and dry. It gets very hot in that part of the world, sometimes touching 40 degrees, so all the pigeons are raced in the winter months. The height of the summer is at Christmas and the weather stays hot until the end of February, with them never getting snow, and it rains in the summer months, but temperatures stay hot. I asked Jan if he had wide animals living in his locality and says there is a Lion farm about 40km from his home, and there is only an electric fence separating the big cat from the general public.

Jan started up in the sport in 1968 and lived in Barkley West for 51 years, where his first pigeon racing club was situated. In recent years he moved to Kimberley, which has four pigeon clubs and these are affiliated to a Federation which has a ten club membership. The organization owns its own transporter, which holds about 110 thirty five bird baskets and they have 20 races between June and October. The old birds and young birds have races, from the south to the north, on the same day at the same race point, but are liberated separately with the old birds being released one hour after the babies. They don’t use wood chips, peat or sand as a floor dressing in the race crates, they cut a square of carpet into the crate floor and this is cleaned off weekly. There is no National or Classic clubs in South Africa, just weekly Federation racing. Jan thinks the Sun City one loft race is great, but because of the time of the year it is held; it suits the imported pigeons better that the South African birds because of the moult. Sun City is about 400 miles away from where Jan lives in Northern Cape. Jan tells me 80% of the fanciers in South Africa are now using ETS and he has enjoyed the clocking system for several seasons. One of the main problems with racing pigeons in a hot dry climate is that most times the birds don’t find a drink once they leave the transporter until they arrive home at the loft. The birds are racing over semi-desert and water holes are far and few between. The racing starts at 100 miles and finishes at the longest race point, Cape Town, which is 600 miles. Jan likes the longer races in general, but never sends to Cape Town, as the birds have several mountain ranges to cross and he thinks it is to big a task for the pigeons. The young birds are raced through to 700km (450 miles), which I was amazed at, but Jan was quick to tell me that they are raced over dead flat country and it is easier than it sounds.

Jan races 20 pairs on the celibate system where the birds are separated after breeding and raced to the perch. The racers are allowed to mix during the week as they are given an open loft until midday when they are fed in the loft and parted again. The local fanciers have their own small transport which every one uses for general training and this goes to 70 miles on a Monday and 50 miles on a Wednesday. Jan houses his birds a 20ft loft, with several sections and feeds a mixture of maize, sun flower seeds, maples, wheat and a little barley. He maintains he is not a great fan of medicating his pigeons, but like in the UK, the birds in South Africa have to have the PMV jab once a year. A lot of the fanciers in South Africa race imported pigeon families from Europe and Jan races a couple of the Belgium families, including the Cattrysse pigeons.

Three Borders Federation Up Date

The Federation’s season is moving along nicely and I need to up date the racing news as we go into June. After Colin Crook and Andy Iddenden’s fantastic performance from Yeovil when they recorded 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th Federation, they came out the following weekend and won 1st, 2nd, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th Federation Kingsdown (1,966 birds). They brilliant yearling Staf Van Reet widowhood cock won the Federation two week on the trot and from Kingsdown beat his loft mate on the ETS by only a second. Brilliant pigeon racing! As I previously reported Reg and Richard Maybey won the Federation from Newton Abbot and since then the Virginia Water loft has won 1st section E in the NFC Fougeres race. Reg has not enjoyed the best of heath in recent months and it is great his birds are keeping his spirits up with some good success. The Worcester Park ace, Johnny May, moved out to live in Spain a few years ago and in recent months, because of health problems has moved back to the UK. I must say it is great to see him back in the sport! His two grandchildren are racing pigeons in their own right, with Johnny steering them in the right direction and they won the Federation in the first French race from Falaise, with 1,174 birds competing. Paul Arnold of North Cheam is continuing his good form this season and the Staf Van Reet man recorded 2nd Federation from Falaise. The S. & P. Gasson partnership of Wimbledon have figured high in the Three Borders Federation results several time in recent seasons and their latest success was in April, when they won 1st Federation Wincanton (2,105 birds). Well done to you all!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.