Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

L&SECC Alencon Race 2009 

Well it’s great to get the new classic racing season off to a great start! The 2009 campaign started in mid May with the Alencon race, which marked the start for the club’s new secretary, Steve Nicholson, and new convoyer, Fred Healy. Both these gentlemen are very experienced pigeon fanciers and both have carried out their jobs at Federation level. On the Sunday morning before the Alencon classic, the three of us had a run out around the M25 Motorway in Steve’s car to have a look at the marking stations and show Fred my system of basket drop off and pick up. As I said to the lads on the day, after a couple of races Fred will have his own system. Good luck to him in his new job!

The Alencon race attracted over 2,500 birds, which were liberated at 09.35hrs in a strong south west wind and most of the early pigeons were recorded on the east side of the country. Packer & Clarke of Grays recorded their third L&SECC winner from Alencon and to see Derick Packer at the top of the classic result sheet again is brilliant, as he is one of the really worker in our club, being I/C and clock setter at the South Ockendon marking station. This station is our second biggest, sometimes processing over 500 birds and he has run it since it started up about six years ago. Derick has been on the classic committee for many years and has a hell of a journey from Essex to Leatherhead to attend meetings in the winter months. Derick and Brian’s latest classic winner was their good four year old blue chequer hen, ‘Michaela’, and she is bred from the Jan Aarden and Gerry Clements / Busschaert bloodlines. This game round about hen is no stranger to winning, previously recording 2007: 4th open L&SECC Alencon, 2008: 32nd open L&SECC Bergerac and now in 2009 1st open L&SECC Alencon. ‘Michaela’, named after Brian’s daughter, has only had about six races in her life and in the 2007 Alencon classic, the first race of her life, she came with her nest mate, which was clocked first to win 2nd open and she won 4th open. Derick recently visited my home in Claygate to get ‘Michaela’ photographed and he told me that he and Brian Clarke are half brothers, having the same mother, which is a fact never knew and I have known these two Essex lads a lot of years. The brothers like to race their birds long and short distance, and had two day pigeons from the 2008 L&SECC Tarbes (just under 600 miles) race, to record 12th and 26th open with two Demeyere pigeons. Derick and Brian’s other two wins in the L&SECC were with young birds, recording in 1995: 1st, 2nd, 3rd open Guernsey (1,381 birds) and 1996: 1st open Sartilly (1,218 birds). The pigeons raced in the mid 1990’s were Gerry Clements / Busschaerts and the day they took the first three in the L&SECC from Guernsey they also won the first eleven positions in the local open race. Brian says when it’s your day, it’s your day and when the birds are on form there is no stopping them!

Derick races the pigeons at his home in Grays and the loft 50ft x 8ft, with five sections, tiles roof and all clocking is on ETS. The very big breeding set up is in Brian’s two acre garden at his home, 35 miles away, in Braintree and these premises has loose dogs running around 24 hours a day. Brian has two big stock lofts with massive aviaries, which are so big the inmates have to be caught in the dark at night and he tells me the 30 pairs of stock birds really keep well because they can fly around in the fresh air in the flights. The partners maintain the aviaries are the most important fact in keeping stock birds in good health and their flights at Braintree are so big it is almost as good as flying the inmates out. Derick told me, because Brian dose all the breeding he doesn’t have to worry about pairing up to early and the main families kept are Jan Aarden, Marcel Demeyere and the Gerry Clements / Busschaerts. Packer & Clarke made several trips to the continent for pigeon visits with their friends, Ian Crammond and John Tyerman, and they purchased the last of the Marcel Demeyers pigeons and shared them with Ian Crammond. Derick Packer has been a great friend of Gerry Clements of Manchester for over 30 years and says he is the best pigeon fancier he has ever met! He says he is a terrific man and a terrific fancier, winning classics in the morning and winning combines in the afternoon with his fantastic Busschaert pigeons. Derick said there children used to play together all those years ago and when he first knew Gerry his lofts were on an allotment and he was so dedicated, he used to take water for the pigeons in buckets. Brian said, the partners have spent a small fortune on stock birds through the years, but always purchase direct children of champions and are not interested in off spring to far removed.

The 30 pairs of race birds are paired up on 1st March and rear a youngster for one week before being split, so as not to take too much out of them. The partners don’t fly in a Saturday Federation club, so the racers get training tosses off the south coast and exercise around the loft really well, with the racing hens some times running off for over two hours at a time. Derick lives in a bungalow and the birds never land on the roof, so he has total control over them, and they fly really well twice a day. On their round about system they race the cocks and hens in the same race, never having problems with trapping, and they never break down, feeding a first class widowhood mixture. Packer & Clarke like the long distance races and tell me their ambition is to win the NFC Tarbes National.

Years ago the partners concentrated a lot of effort on young birds racing, but these days don’t take it serious and consider it to be racing for the boys. The 70 young birds get lots of good training down to Portsmouth (70 miles) and then go straight into the Classic or National races, with no Saturday Federation build up racing. Derick says he isn’t really bothered if his young birds are raced in their first year, as long as they are trained well and many of his best pigeons have come on this way, including ‘Michaela’ who had her first race from Alencon as a two year old.

Derick has been in the sport for 51 years, starting at the age of 17 when he first met his wife, Rita. She was a pigeon fancier when he met her, flying in partnership with her father, Ed Meads, and in those days Derick had a motorbike and started training his birds, while courting young Rita. Eventually Derick got a car and they all used to go out training the pigeons together and Ed liked a drink, so the training took all day because the training session turned into a pub crawl, as he wanted to stop at every pub they pasted. They became good friends and eventually raced together as Meads & Packer on the North Road for a few years and Derick won his first race in 1958. Brian started racing when he was 14 years old and the Packer & Clarke partnership was formed in 1991. Derick has lived at his present address 38 years, with his father in-law, Ed Meads, looking it over from the pigeon racing angel before moving in and in those early days he liked sprint racing, and took the first ten positions in the local club races many times.

Derick says he would like to see more young people come in the sport of racing pigeons and says he thinks the ETS is great and defiantly the way forward. He is not to keen on the anti-ETS brigade as it is progress, but maintains every one will be using it in a few years time. Derick told me over the years he has looked up to his friend, Gerry Clements, and he has told him lots little twists in pigeon management which have won races. One of the nicest people he has met in his years in the sport is Ian Crammond of Fontwell and says he has spent many happy hours looking at premier pigeon lofts in Holland and Belgium with him over the years.

Well that’s our article for this week! Congratulations to Derick and Brian on their third L&SECC win! I can be contacted for any pigeon comments on Telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!