Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

Jim & Shirley Carpenter of St. Austell

The month of November 2010 saw Peter Taylor and my self make the 240 mile drive down to Bodmin in Cornwall to judge the South West Show Racer Societies annual Duchy Open Show. Although Peter and I were a long way from home, it was good to see all the old familiar faces we see every year around the Show Racer scene, but one surprise at Luxulyan Village Hall was seeing Surrey exile, Jimmy Carpenter. He used to live in Chessington and raced his pigeons successfully in my local Esher club, and has now retired, and lives with his wife, Shirley, in St. Austell. He looks really well!

Looking back over all those years, I remember Jimmy was a hard working painter and decorator and his family were his life, but enjoyed some good success with his pigeons. The SMT Combine sent 3,364 birds to Nantes in 1982 and the clear winner were Jim and Shirley Carpenter, who were racing in the Surbiton Flying Club at that time. Their winner, which lifted ‘The Checkers Cup’ in the Combine, was their good two year old red chequer hen, ‘Guinevere’ and she was bred from Hansenne and Cattrysse gift birds from his friend Ted Goodger of Staines. At that time Jimmy told me he had spent over seven years building up his loft of pigeons which had excelled from 1980 onwards. His loft was based on pigeons obtained from his father, Dick Brooker of Claygate, Ted Goodger of Staines and H. Ledbury of Wiltshire. The Goodger pigeons were Hansenne and Cattrysse, and the Ledbury pigeons were good honest birds blended by this great fancier over 50 years in the fancy. Jim recorded several outstanding positions from the longest old bird race, but in 1980 he recoded his best by winning 3rd SMT Combine Bergerac, the Combine’s Blue Riband event. Jim and Shirley’s Bergerac winner was a five year old blue cock named ‘Miggi’, which was bred from pigeons obtained from Jim’s dad and H. Ledbury.

Jimmy has now been in the sport 50 years, racing in partnership with his father for the first 15 years and has enjoyed many years of racing success with his wife, Shirley, up to the present day. Jim thought that in the early days his main mistakes were over feeding and over training. He says, Shirley has played a big part in the pigeon management over the years, giving them the open loft and changing the water three times a day, and generally looking after the lofts. When I spoke to him in Cornwall last winter, he told me his pigeons were being attacked by Peregrine Falcons and Sparrow Hawks most days, but I remember his Chessington loft in the 1980’s was plagued with cats and for that reason the lofts were in a wire compound to give the birds peace and quiet. He had two self built lofts, which were well ventilated and in the winter had Polythene screens placed over the windows to keep out the bad weather. The landing boards were all waist height and the birds were trapped through bob wires. All the birds were raced on the natural system as he liked to race cocks and hens Over the English Channel, sitting eight to ten days on eggs. Jimmy liked to give his birds an open loft as often as possible and fed a good class mixture of grains, mixed by himself, as he liked the birds to have a good variety. The lofts were cleaned out every day in the summer, but in the winter months they used a straw litter which was cleaned out once a week.

The 1980 season was one of the best for the Carpenters and one of the star pigeons was the Ledbury blue chequer cock, ‘Merlin’, and he chalked up many good positions including 1st club, 5th Surrey Federation Exeter. At that time the loft won many major trophies, two of the best probably being the Continental Average and Old Bird Average in the Surbiton Flying Club. Jim was a small team fancier, keeping only twelve pairs of racers, three pairs of stock birds and bred himself 24 youngsters to race each season. Being a natural racing man, Jimmy, paired up the nearest weekend to February 14th and told me all his management was one big effort to keep the birds contented and happy as this is what produced outstanding results. He raced his old birds through to 500 miles and yearlings to 300 miles, but if a yearling did not show some good form it would go all the way to 500 miles. In the 1980’s there was no ‘darkness’ system, but were all raced naturally, and if Jim’s were in good feather condition they would race the whole Federation programme. All the Carpenter pigeons were trained in a straight line, with the youngster being trained up to 30 miles before their first race. He didn’t loose many youngsters off the loft top as he ran and exercised them together with his old birds. He maintained the moulting period was a very important time of the pigeon year, with the birds being fed a really high protein mixture, plus linseed and the birds were never put in the show pen in the winter months. He use to breed late breds, but found them to be a waist of time, saying he probably handled them wrong with a lack of training. Jimmy told me that the main factor behind success with racing pigeons is patients, hard work and letting the basket be the judge!

I would like to wish Jim and Shirley all the very best, living down there in Cornwall. It’s a wonderful place to be! I can be contacted with any pigeon banter on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.