Keith Mott's

London & South East Classic Club “Forum”

2008 Alencon Classic

Well the dust has now settled on the Alencon race which was flown on the very hard flying weekend in mid May and I think it’s safe to say it was a great success! We had a few problems, but enough has been said about that. I will mention that I will not be convoying for the L&SECC in the 2009 season. In past years because of winter Ferry time tables and the Friday marking we have had to take the Dover / Calais route over the English Channel to get to the Alencon liberation site in time to release on the Saturday morning. This meant a 240 mile drive through France after the Ferry crossing and the pigeons and convoyers were getting no rest, arriving at the site at about 04.00hrs. It seems the Ferry time tables stay the same all the year around these days and our normal crossing from Portsmouth to Caen can get us to the Alencon site before 09.00hrs now. On our run down to Tours we have go very near to Alencon and in 2007 I note that we were on the outskirts of Alencon well before 09.00hrs, and on reporting this to our Committee, they decided to give the Portsmouth / Caen rout a try out this season. We had a good drive down the A3 after leaving the Leatherhead marking station and arrived at the Portsmouth book office at 17.40 hrs. The convoy of 2,466 birds had a good few hours rest on the dock and we sailed at 00.30hrs, with the convoy having a restful channel crossing, and we docked in Caen at 06.30hrs. We arrived at the Alencon liberation site at 08.45hrs and the birds were watered on arrival. Although I held over, the birds were on site before 09.00hrs and if the weather had been good, they could have been watered, rested and liberated a couple of hours later. I think it was a complete success and is the rout we should use in the future for our first Classic race.

If my memory serves me correct, I’ve been to Alencon four times with the L&SECC birds and every time I return I’ve stated my unfavourable opinion about this liberation site. The site at Alencon is 220 miles from my loft in Surrey and has a good area for liberating the birds, but the car park site has no toilet facilities for the convoyers, and no water to top up the transporter tanks in the case of a holdover. What a good site this would be if it had these much needed facilities! It’s a shame we lost Le Ferte Bernard that was a brilliant liberation site! I have known the site agent, Andre Gerard, for about 12 years now and he told me he had been the agent for near 40 years, but had to pack up his own pigeons in the late 1990’s. His daughter and her family came to the site on both days to see the L&SECC liberation, and we were very impressed with her young son who is pigeon crazy. He wanted to look at every on the lorry and took loads of photographs for his album. I’ve produced a 12 minuet DVD of the Alencon trip and will be posting him a copy. My assistant for the first Classic was my ol’ mate, Brian Goodwin, and what a Stirling job he did, on this his first time in France with the pigeons. He has driven lorries for a living all his working life and is in charge of the transport section at the big Greggs bakery in Middlesex, so was well at home in the transporter driving seat. We have been friends for nearly 40 years and it was great to have him come along for the Alencon Classic. Brian will be my assistant for the longest old bird race from Tarbes in June.

On arrival at the Alencon liberation site I rang my race advisor, Steve Appleby in Guildford, at 10.00hrs and he gave me a bad weather report for the English Channel and main land England, which was set for the rest of the day, so I held over. On the Sunday morning we awoke at 05.30hrs to some thin cloud cover, blue sky and breaking sunshine. Steve gave me a good on line weather forecast, with a strong North East wind in the English Channel, so we cut the strings and liberated at 09.30hrs. The birds formed one batch and cleared the site very quickly in a northerly direction. The weather was very good on our journey back to Caen, with light cloud, blue sky and sunshine, but we did hit a couple of heavy rain showers in the Argentan area, about 25 miles north of Alencon. On our arrival back at Caen Ferry Port we found the English Channel was crystal clear, but the North East wind was strong. I anticipated a hard, but very good race! We met up with Jim and Gary Wilson, convoyers of the Solent Federation and the Kent Federation lads who had also returned to Caen after liberating in France. It’s nice to meet up with the lads at the docks to catch up on the news and compare notes on weather conditions they have experienced on their journeys from the race points.

Garry Inkley of Hillingdon won the race and recorded his second L&SECC winner, being a previous winner from Dax in 2003. Garry is fast becoming one of the premier Classic and National racers in the South of England, putting up outstanding performances every season. The latest Inkley classic winner was a game Dutch hen of the Joop Koch family and she has some good previous form, scoring well from Lamballe and Lessay.       

The 2003 longest old bird race was to be flown from Pau, but because of adverse weather at the race point, the pigeons were moved and liberated at Dax (530 miles). Garry Inkley had a brilliant race, recording 1st. and 2nd. Open, with his champion duo, ‘Festival Enigma’ and ‘Rathen Echo’. If I said that Garry had a good season racing in the L&SECC in 2003, it would be an understatement. He won 1st and 2nd Open Dax, 2nd N.W. Section Bergerac, 2nd and 3rd N.W. Section Guernsey (1), 3rd N.W. Section Tours, lifting a T3 quartz clock and six trophies, including The Amtrak Cup for the L&SECC Fancier of the Year.

Garry first became interested in pigeons as a nine year old when on a summer’s day in 1967 he rescued a stray pigeon whilst playing football on the local green. With some help from his pigeon fancier grandfather, he converted a 8ft.x 6ft. garden shed into a pigeon loft and a team of Logans were set up for him, by his grandfather. Garry says, after a year of breeding his own birds and training them from 3 miles on his bike, with heavy losses, his parents had noticed that he had become obsessed with pigeons. Consequently, his father encouraged him further and applied to join the Hayes N.R.F.C. in 1968 as J. Inkley & son, in order to fly the 1969 season. Garry maintains that members of the Hayes club were a great bunch of characters, amongst who was Ken Hine, who lived opposite the Inkleys. As the Logans were lost by the seventh old bird race from 300 miles, Garry looked forward to young bird racing, where he won his first prize cards. It was at the end of 1974 that Garry was invited to become Ken Hines partner and Gary says it was then that his pigeon education began. Together with Ken and George Burgess he visited some of the best lofts in the country, including Peter Titmuss, Ron Mitchieson, Eric Cannon and Tubby Tate. As the insignificant 17 year old boy in the group, the young Garry always kept his mouth shut, but his eyes and ears open to learn anything he could from the greats of the sport. Garry’s pigeon education took a massive leap forward when on a trip to the Blackpool Show he met Bob McDonald of Fraserburgh, who was on his stand, displaying his Ko Nipius family. Garry was astounded at the quality of Bob’s pigeons and immediately ordered six youngsters for the following year. In 1980 he met his wife, Val, and pigeons started to become a close second and consequently the partnership of Hine & Inkley went its separate ways. In 1984 Garry and Val were married and moved to their present address in Hillingdon. A very close friendship had developed between Garry and Bob McDonald and the Inkley loft raced the Ko Nipius pigeons hard up to 560 miles, with much success, including 1st Bergerac (only bird on the day), 1st Marmande (only bird on the day) and twice 1st Dax (545 miles), with the same pigeon. Garry considers Bob to be a master at conditioning pigeons and developing a family. The other great influence on Garry was Eddie Newcombe, now in Malta and they became good friends, consequently many Festival eggs were brought home in a loaf of bread and reared at the Huntingdon loft. During the 1990s Garry progressed winning a car, the Federation countless times and won his second R.P.R.A. Award in 1999 in the form of the Victory Trophy. This trophy was for the best three longest races and Garry maintains it’s a proud moment when your name is on the same trophy as Alf Baker and Jim Biss. Through the years Garry has gone on and won everything in front of him at Combine, Classic and National level, with the climax being his wonderful victory in the 2008 Alencon Classic. Congratulations to Garry on his wonderful performance!

Khan Brothers of New Malden recorded 2nd open from the Alencon Classic and although they have won the L&SECC, they are a bit unlucky being 2nd open on several occasions. Amin and Shabir’s latest successful classic pigeon, a blue pied cock, was bred from their premier race ‘22’ when mated to a cock from Mark Gilbert’s Dax International winner, Champion ‘Southfield Supreme’. The brothers moved to New Malden from Kingston a couple of years ago and this great performance marks the start of a new era for the Khans at their new loft.

I was raised in Kingston-upon-Thames and my parents house was a about a mile from the London & South East Classic Club winning loft Amin and Shabir Khan. The brothers have won premier positions in all the National and Classic clubs including the British International Championship Club and the National Flying Club. I convoyed the London & South East Classic Club pigeons to Bordeaux in 1999 and after the morning mist had lifted I liberated the 959 birds at 07.35hrs, with sunshine on the baskets. Eleven game pigeons were recorded on the day of liberation, with Amin and Shabir Khan clocking their first arrival just before 20.00hrs. Khan Brothers won 1st open L&SECC from Bordeaux in 1999 and their winner, a two year old Janssen Meuleman blue hen, was a real class act, having won major positions previously, including 1st Section, 3rd Open L&SECC Guernsey as a young bird. The hen just called, ‘22’, is a grand daughter of Herman Beverdam’s, ‘Real Deal’, and her dam is from Mike Fitzhugh of Redcar. Amin told me she was chipping off on the day of marking for the Bordeaux Classic and the lads waited for the egg to hatch before taking her off to the Sutton marking station.

Thirty years ago, when the Khan Brothers were schoolboys and I kept pigeons with my brother, Phil, at my parent’s address, they used to come around the back gate to see our birds. Amin has kept pigeons for about fifteen years and Shabir joined the partnership ten years ago when Amin could not cope with the pigeons because of his shift work. The partners have a very smart 20ft. loft, with two sections for natural racers and one for the young birds and all trapping is through open doors in to a corridor. The natural pairs are fed on beans and maize, and the training build up for the long distance events is about seven tosses from 45 miles, off the south coast, one club race from Nantes, then in to the main events. Amin and Shabir have enjoyed some quality success in recent seasons, including 2nd and 5th Open NFC Young Bird National (7,000 birds), 1st Section, 3rd Open L&SECC Guernsey, 2nd open L&SECC La Ferte Bernard, 1st and 2nd Open SMT Combine Alencon and now 1st Open L.& S.E.C.C. Bordeaux.

While I was visiting their Kingston loft, the Khan Brothers, showed me their 1998 SMT Combine Alencon winner, a Janssen blue chequer cock sent on a chipping egg. His dam was a seven times winner for the lads. The main family kept is Janssen and when they bring in a stock bird, it must be from a champion racer, or off the parents of a champion racer. They keep eight pairs of stock birds and breed about 40 youngsters each season, which are raced on the natural system. The young birds are allowed to pair up for racing and their 2nd Open NFC Young Bird National winner was sent feeding a five day old youngster. The Khan Brothers like to send their candidates for the premier National and Classic races feeding a small youngster or chipping eggs and have achieved some brilliant success with this method of motivation.

Fred Elliott of Thorpe enjoyed a brilliant race from the Alencon Classic and recorded 3rd open. Fred has been one of the premier pigeon racers in the south of England for many year, with the highlight of his brilliant racing career being in 1994 when he won 1st. open N.F.C. Nantes. His National winner was his Busschaert windhood cock, Champion ‘Euro Lad’ and when I say champion, this cock was a champion in the truest sence of the word. His sire was Fred’s dark pied cock, ‘Euro Bird’, winner of 1st. open S.M.T. Combine Rennes. Champion ‘Euro Lad’s’ full racing performance was: 1994: 1st. Section, 1st. open N.F.C. Nantes (11,400 birds) plus the car, 1993: 1st. Section, 7th. open N.F.C. Nantes (12,027 birds), 1st. Three Borders Federation Le Mans, 19th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Le Mans (1,885 birds), 9th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Tours (1,090 birds). A fantastic pigeon!  

Fred Elliott has been in pigeon racing for 60 years and his consistent outstanding performances through those years must rate him one of the all time greats of our sport. The 1987 season saw the Elliott loft win 1st SMT Combine from Rennes with his ‘ace’ dark pied Busschaert Widowhood cock, Champion 'Euro Bird', which was bred by Fred's good fiiend Mervyn Patt of North Devon. He also won 1st. Three Borders Federation from Weymouth for the Elliott loft. This great cock had won several firsts inland and on the Channel and was the sire of winners including 1st. open National and 1st. open Federation. Fred has been 1st Federation countless times through the years, including five times 1st Three Borders Federation in 1988. The loft won the Three Borders Federation Two Longest Old Bird races from Niort (351 miles) and Bergerac (455 miles), chalking up 1st Surrey, Three Borders, South Coast Inter Federations (2,458 birds) from Begerac.

Fred started up in pigeons at the age of 10, in partnership with his elder brother, Bert, and they called themselves Elliott Bros. The two brothers kept their partnership going all those years until Fred moved to Thorpe about 30 years ago. Bert, sadly died several years ago, but was an outstanding fancier in his own right. Fred said, Bert and he were the opposites in pigeon management, with Bert saving his pigeons for pre-set races and Fred racing his through the card week after week. The partner's first birds were the Gush strain from the late L. Crow of New Haw and the Moss strain from the late John Furness of Woking, a life-time friend of Freds. When he casted his mind back Fred said he can remember L. Crow win 1st & 2nd Section Penzance National just after the war. One of the brother's best birds in those days was Gush red chequer cock which won several races, in the Old Woking RPC (Surrey Federation). Another good pigeon was a black pied hen called 'Solo' because she was from an egg which Fred won in a card game! The Elliott's main mistake in those early days was over feeding, also the loft was self-built, with a doweled front and bob wires. Fred says he thinks the bob wires were a mistake as they were too heavy in the bird's back and made them slow on the trap.

For many seasons Fred had raced both Natural and Widowhood but in 1989 he went over fully on the Widowhood system, as he said the Widowhood cocks are five minutes better than the Natural. The loft is 18ft x 5ft, with two Widowhood and a young bird section. The 1989 season saw 13 cocks raced on Widowhood. Fred maintains that dryness is most important in good loft design. Fred is a scraper man, but has tried out different loft litters over the years. The Elliott loft won the Three Borders Fed from Bergerac with a Widowhood cock in 1988 and Fred said his cocks' race the programme. The cocks feed gets heavier as the distance gets longer and they are not trained or raced midweek during the season. The cocks are trained up to the first race and the inland races are used to prepare the birds for the Channel events. Fred said pigeon racing is observation and you feed to what you see they need. Correct feeding is the key to success with racing pigeons.

Fred pairs up on Boxing Day and the hens are taken away with the youngsters at about 18 days old. The hens then finish off the squeakers in the young bird section. The birds are hopper fed when the youngsters are in the nest and Fred said an early morning feed is very important. The birds are re-paired after about 14 days and the cocks are trained while sitting the second round of eggs. The cocks are put on Widowhood after sitting ten days and are not trained any more after this. The cocks are let out one hour in the early morning and an hour at night. Fred says they don't fly around home very well early in the week, but improve as the week progresses and by Thursday and Friday fly around well. Most of Fred's team are Busschaerts from Mervyn Patt and Oliver Gittings both from North Devon. Fred was a self-employed plumber and only had limited time for his birds, so he said the Widowhood was the best system for him. He weans the young birds early and hopper feeds peas to begin with, but maintains that the most important thing is to get the youngsters out and flying as soon as you can.

Fred likes any distance when it comes to racing and said he is trying every week. He says he is a great believer in culling pigeons and can't understand why some fanciers keep pigeons in their lofts that have never scored on the road. Every pigeon in the Elliott loft has to earn its perch and once they get too old to race they have to go. Fred keeps the very minimum in numbers, but all the birds that are retained each season for racing are sound and have previous form. When it comes to young bird training Fred gives them hell, and almost tries to loose them, but his method produces better pigeons. The youngsters are generally trained to line, but are also tossed from the east and west in an effort to teach them if they are taken off line in races. Fred is interested in eyesign and judged many eyesign classes every season. If you have a family of pigeons and you know your family, eyesign is a shortcut to the good pigeons.

The 4th open Alencon Classic position went to Berkshire and the loft of Mark Gilbert of Winkfield. In the last few years Mark Gilbert has won just about every major accolade at National level and of course his biggest triumph was winning the Dax International in 2004. He has been a leading force in the L&SECC for many years, winning 1st open twice, including the longest old bird race from Bergerac in 2006. It was one of the hardest Bergerac races of all time and the Gilbert loft won it in great style recording 1st and 2nd open on a velocity just touching 900 ypm. In 2004 the L&SECC sent 1366 birds to Guernsey for the final young bird race of the season and Mark won it with his good darkness Soontjen blue chequer hen, ‘Abigail’. Mark won the L&SECC Guernsey Classic in 2004 and recorded a brilliant season’s double, having won the NFC Pau / Saintes Grand National in the July. ‘Abigail’ had flown the English Channel three times that season, recording 3rd open UBI Combine Guernsey, well up in the NFC Falaise result and 1st open L&SECC Guernsey. A brilliant hen! She was raced on Mark’s semi-widowhood system and on handling her the day after her Classic win I noticed she had cast her third flight. ‘Abigail’ was bred from two Soontjen stock birds and her dam had bred several Federation winners. 

I have known Mark Gilbert for quite a few years now and his fantastic success with his pigeons has never changed him, he is still the nice modest bloke he’s always been! He’s from a brilliant pigeon racing family, his father being Geoff Gilbert of Windsor, who won 1st open L&SECC Pau a few years ago. Geoff won Pau with his brilliant widowhood dark chequer cock, “The Narrow Cock” and this pigeon was a champion in the truest sense of the word, having won countless prizes in the National and Classic events, including 10th open N.F.C. Pau (on the day of liberation), 139th open N.F.C. Pau, 40th open L&SECC Bordeaux and so no. A fantastic pigeon! At the age of 11 Mark thought he would like to get involved with the pigeons, so began to pester his father who at that time was flying in partnership with Terry Keys of West Drayton. Geoff told Mark to look after the stock birds and he got the biggest telling off of his life when mixed up all the eggs in the stock loft! The Gilberts flew for many years in a partnership with John Haines of Slough and they won numerous premier prizes including 1st open S.M.T. Combine. Mark says that his dad is his best friend and must take a lot of the loft’s recent National and International success as he is really his partner and works in Mark’s Winkfield loft every day. In fact, he told me he couldn’t race his pigeons properly without his dad’s help!

The 2004 Dax International was held in July and most fanciers thought the British success in the 2003 event was a “one off” and was unlikely to be repeated. But this wasn’t the case in the 2004 race, with two British fanciers storming home to win 1st and 2nd open Dax International again. The brilliant West Country ace, Brian Sheppard, came close to it a double of International winners, when he clocked his widowhood cock on the day, to record 2nd open International. Fantastic pigeon flying by Brian, but it was someone else’s turn to win the International that year and the winning pigeon was clocked at the Berkshire loft of Mark and Geoff Gilbert. Mark Gilbert’s International winner was his champion blue Van Elsacker widowhood cock, “Southfield Supreme”, clocked at 18.01hrs on the day of liberation, flying 514 miles from Dax. Mark told me the Van Elsacker pigeons are a middle distance family, with the sire of “Southfield Supreme” being bred by the Belgium fancier and his dam being bred by Geoff and Catherine Cooper. This game cock is raced on a basic widowhood system, getting two 20 mile training tosses before the first race and four channel races on his build up to the Dax International, including the Nantes National. Champion “Southfield Supreme” has plenty of previous good racing form, winning; 2003: 4th open L&SECC Tours, 21st open BICC Falaise; 2004: 16th open L&SECC La Ferte Bernard and a blue pied sister to him has won 15 times 1st club and several premier positions in the N.F.C. races.

That lad from Godalming is at the top of the result sheet again! Darran McFadden and his dad, Des, had a great race from the Alencon Classic and recorded 5th open. The partners were the Godalming club’s premier prize winners in 2007, winning a wonderful list of position in the Surrey Federation and SMT Combine, including twice 1st Surrey Federation. In my opinion, Darran and Des’ best performance of the 2007 season was winning the L&SECC Diploma of Merit with their good white hen, ‘Cameron’s Snow Queen’, when she was clocked on the day to complete her trio of positions in the first 50 open, 19th, 39th and 29th open. This wonderful pigeon is bred from the ‘Stan the Man’ Kirkpatrick bloodlines obtained from the Louella Stud and she has a list of other outstanding positions including, 1st club Lulworth, 1st club Exeter, 2nd club Nantes, 2nd club West Bay, 3rd club Messac, 168th open BICC La Ferte Bernard, 204th open BICC Falaise and 278th open BICC Falaise. A great hen! ‘Cameron’s Snow Queen’ is mated to the McFadden’s good Eric Cannon blue chequer cock, ‘56851’, and he has a very impressive racing record too, winning 268th open NFC Guernsey (YB), 1st club Exmouth, 1st club Poole, 37th open BICC La Ferte Bernard, flew Bergerac (450 miles) twice on the day of liberation and was clocked on the day from Pau in 2007 to record 58th open L&SECC. This game cock is a grand son of Mick Tuck’s ‘Pau Star’, winner of 9th open NFC Pau (on the day of liberation) and is closely related to ‘Tucky’s Delight’ and ‘Tucky’s Choice’ both day pigeons from the NFC Pau National.

Well that’s it for this week! The L&SECC has made a great start to the 2008 season! Any comments to me on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT