Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past & present

JOHN & DARREN MAY

OF WORCESTER PARK

I was very sad to hear the bad news that one our best Surrey champions, John May of Worcester Park, will be packing up the sport at the end of this season. John has been retired from work several years now and has spoken to me on a couple occasions about moving out to Spain, where he owns a property. I, for one hope he carries on, being one of our premier racers in the Surrey area, but if he retires from pigeon racing he will go out on a high note, enjoying a brilliant 2007 old bird season. The loft recorded several top positions in the Federation, plus had some outstanding success in National and Classic races, including 5th. open N.F.C. Alencon (6,079 birds), 7th. open L.& S.E.C.C. (1,718 birds) Tours and 16th. open L.& S.E.C.C. (1,800 birds) Alencon. The ‘star’ pigeon of the season was the partners 2004 London & South East Classic Club Le Ferte Bernard winner ‘John’s Pride’, who this season won 7th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Tours, 16th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Alencon and 294th. open N.F.C. Nantes. A brilliant performance! The handsome blue pied cock can only be described as a ‘Champion’ in the truest sense of the word, winning:1st. open L.& S.E.C.C. Le Ferte Bernard, 7th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Tours, 14th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Bergerac, 16th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Alencon, 18th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Tours, 52nd. open L.& S.E.C.C. Tours, 94th. open B.I.C.C. Exeter, 294th. open N.F.C. Alencon, 1st. club, 7th. Federation Wincanton, 3rd. club, 14th. Federation Portland (beaten by two loft mates), plus several other positions in the club and Federation. A racing record of the very highest order!

The premier Worcester Park partnership of John and Darren May own one of the best lofts of racing pigeons in the south of England and have won it all, including 1st. open B.I.C.C. Perpignan in 1994 and 1st . open B.I.C.C. Bihorel national in the 2000 season. I have visited the Surrey lofts on several occasions and I must say, I have never failed to be impressed. My last visit was in 2004, on the Monday morning after the L.& S.E.C.C. Le Ferte Bernard event and on my arrival John was in the garden exercising the young bird team. John and his son, Darren, had won the classic race on the Saturday and recorded their second L .& S.E.C.C. winner, previously winning from Alencon in the 2000 season. The partners Le Ferte Bernard winning pigeon was a yearling Van Reet / Janssen blue white flight widowhood cock and was bred down from John’s Champion ‘Cheeky’, with his sire being a London Federation winner from Alencon. The Mays had named their latest Classic winner, ‘John’s Pride’. On his build up to his Classic win, this game cock had three races, two inland and one channel, and as a young bird was the partners’ first pigeon by six minutes from the L.& S.E.C.C. Guernsey race, but flew around the loft for over an hour!

The racers are paired up in January, but are not bred from, being put on the widowhood system after sitting near time on their first round of eggs. The cocks are trained from 30 miles for two weeks before racing and the first three inland Federation races are used for training tosses, with National and Classic racing in mind. When I visited the May's loft in 2004, the partners were trying out a few hens on the roundabout system and John told me that the racers are not broken down on the day of the race, being fed on a first class widowhood mixture. The cocks are shown to the hens on marking night and allowed to go down in the bowls with them before going in to the basket. The hens are left with the cocks for about one hour on their return from the race. John says the maize content in the mixture is increased to 50% for the long distance races and his widowhood system has won from 80 miles, right through to 618 miles. The May's are only interested in channel racing and their loft has won 1st. open British International Championship Club (twice), 1st. open L.& S.E.C.C. (twice), 2nd. open National Flying Club (twice) and 1st open Combine three times. A brilliant racing record! 

John and Darren's wonderful 50ft. racing loft has a tiled roof and grilled floors and the inmates are trapped through open doors and ‘super' traps. A new loft was erected about four years ago on the other side of the garden and used for racing, but John wasn't happy with the results to the new structure so the racers went back into the old loft and produced brilliant results! The new loft is now kitted out with wire flights and houses the 55 pairs of stock birds. Johnny May has always obtained the very best pigeons for his stock loft and I must say he appears to have one of the best stock teams in the U.K. Whenever he purchases pigeons, he always has to have direct children of the champions and at the time of my visit, the Worcester Park breeding loft had many stock birds direct from the Janssen and Van Loon lofts in Belgium. The breeders are paired up in late December and are fed on a general breeding mixture. 

John says that about 100 young birds are bred for racing every year and a special team is set aside to race in the National Flying Club young bird race. All the youngsters are put on the darkness system two weeks after weaning and they are trained hard off the south coast. They are split into two teams, with mainly the young hens going to the young bird National and the cocks flying the Federation programme. The young cocks are never over raced as they are needed for the future widowhood team. 

Johnny May has been in the sport of pigeon racing since he was 10 years old and he took over his fancier brother's birds when he packed up the hobby. He started racing as a lad and won the big Earlsfield Open race from Bournemouth in his first season. John raced for many years in partnership with the late Joe Grant, as Grant & May, and they won the Federation many times and in some seasons recorded over 40 times 1sts. One of John's greatest ever pigeons is his Champion “Cheeky”, a Verheye blue chequer cock bred by Louis Massarella, and he won 23 times 1sts. (10 firsts as a yearling) and seven times 1st. Federation. He won several Open races, including 1st. Kingston £1,000 Open and 1st. Fulham £1,000 Open. This once in a life time pigeon has had several champion racers bred down from him. John tells me Champion “Cheeky” is still kicking about and in 2007 is 22 years of age. A wonderful loft of pigeons! 

That’s it for this week! I can be contacted with any on telephone number: 01372 463480.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT