Keith Mott

Writes about winning fanciers past and present

L&SECC Falaise Classic 2010

The London & South East Classic Club started the 2010 season with it’s new transporter and had it full for the first race, which was programmed to be held from Alencon, but because of an industrial dispute on the Channel ferries the race had to be diverted to Falaise at the last minute. Well the dust has now settled on the Falaise race which was flown on the good flying weekend in mid May and I think it’s safe to say it was a great success! We had a few problems with the ferry crossing, but enough has been said about that.

Garry Inkley of Hillingdon won the race and recorded his third L&SECC winner, being a previous winner from Dax in 2003 and Alencon in 2008. 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 blue cock and he was the first of two pigeons clocked on the ETS in four seconds from Falaise. This yearling widowhood cock is a bit special and has already recorded several premier positions including: 2009: 20th open High Littleton Tours Open (292 miles) lifting £700, plus several top prizes in the Federation.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 2010 Falaise Classic. Congratulations to Garry on his wonderful performance!

Tarbes here we come!

This weekend will see me convoy the L&SECC and CSCFC pigeon for the longest old bird race from Tarbes and as you pick up your pigeon paper today, my driver, Mike Clarke and I will be banging down the motorways towards the South of France.I made my first trip convoying to the South of France in the mid-1990’s, when Doug Went and I took the L&SECC birds to Pau for the longest old bird race. I came back and wrote how bad it was at the Pau Camping Municipal and even with back up photographs and video, no one seemed to take any notice or be bothered. The 2007 season saw me visit Pau with the L&SECC pigeons for the sixth time and as I’ve pointed out, I think its common knowledge that I don’t like the site. I had a good feeling about the Tarbes site, with the excellent results achieved by the National Flying Club out of there in recent seasons and Geoff Allan, the NFC convoyer, had always said he likes the site very much. We, the London & South East Classic Club committee, gave Tarbes a try in the 2008 season on my recommendation that the Pau site was a very poor liberation site and it proved to be a good move, as it was one of the best sites in France that I’ve visited. The liberation site is the very big car park of Geant Casino Super Market in Laldbere, Tarbes and it is quiet there, being mostly empty as it is the over flow parking at the rear of the complex. The liberation area is vast, with a few light stanches in it, but they are not to close to the transporters and do not impede the safe release of the pigeons. The site has the supermarket, toilets for the convoyers, a limited water supply and no shower facilities. One of the best sites in France, I think! Tarbes is a lot closer to the Pyrenees Mountains than Pau and with the wonderful clear condition, the snow covered peaks made a brilliant back drop to the liberation site. Our liberation at 05.00hrs on the Saturday morning was a bit magical with the sun on the Pyrenees behind the liberation site!Just to get us in the mood for this weekend’s main event, let have a little review of the first two L&SECC winner from Tarbes! Two very happy fanciers after the 2008 Tarbes classic were Darran and Des McFadden of Godalming who won 1st open with their champion blue chequer pied hen, ‘Razor’s Girl’. The 2008 season had been a dream come true for the Surrey partnership, previously winning twice 1st open SMT Combine from Fougeres and Messac and then the L&SECC Blue Riband event from Tarbes. Darran told me the 2008 campaign started off a bit shaky, with Sparrowhawks attacking his pigeons every day around the loft and his wife, Jo, having to have spinal surgery, and restricting his time spent with the birds down to a bear minimum. He says it was a very worrying time with Jo’s problems and he had to train his Tarbes pigeons off the south coast at 04.00hrs to fit it in. I’m happy to report that Jo recovered very nicely and Darran had the old bird racing season of a life time!Darran’s Tarbes classic winner, ‘Razor’s Girl, was a nice two year old pied hen, bred by the Albury long distance ace, Ray Hammond, and is a direct daughter of Ray’s 2005 L&SECC Pau winner, ‘Simply the Best’. Ray Hammond is one of the ‘all time greats’ of long distance racing in the Surrey area, having put up many outstanding performances over many years and has won the longest old bird race in the London & South East Classic Club three times, including 1st. open Pau (550 miles) in 2005. His Pau Classic winner was the dark cock, ‘Simply the Best’, and he is a firm favourite at the Albury loft, and now resides in the stock loft. The 2005 Pau Classic was a very hard race and he won it well, being only the fourth race of his life. ‘Simply the Best’ was a latebred youngster in 2003 and had no racing as a young bird or yearling. I handled this great pigeon recently and I must say he was a perfect long distance type, being long cast in the hand, with very good silky feathering. A wonderful pigeon!

His daughter, ‘Razor’s Girl’, is a nice apple bodied hen and when I handled her three days after her Tarbes win she was a quarter up on her first flight, being sent feeding her first every youngster, which was two days old. Her breeding is 100% long distance, with her dam flying Pau as a yearling and her grand sire won Bergerac twice in the Dorking club. The 2008 Tarbes winner was paired up in April and after sitting eggs for five days, flew out with the widowhood hens every day. She was given the first two BICC races of the season from Falaise (135 miles) and then was left alone for four weeks, when she was repaired and sent to the Tarbes classic feeding a two day old youngster on the Tuesday marking day. What a great story!

The London & South East Classic Club held it’s long old bird classic at the back end of June 2009, when members sent 570 birds to Tarbes in the south of France and after a one day hold over the convoy was liberated at 06.00hrs in a west / north west wind. There were no pigeons recorded on the day of liberation and the race turned out to be very hard, so hard in fact some members never clocked in and have never seen a feather home since. A very testing 550 mile classic!When I saw Mark Bulled’s name at the top of the provisional result on the Sunday evening I was highly delighted, in fact it made my weekend! Mark is a very nice lad from Harlow, who has been setting them alight with his pigeons in recent seasons and of course he is the son of one of our greatest London NR Combine champions, the late, great Cecil Bulled. If his dad was here now he would be very proud of Mark’s fantastic performance, winning 1st and 8th open L&SECC Tarbes (588 miles) and lifting nearly £1,000 on what turned out to be one of the hardest races in recent years. With no birds on the day in the classic, Mark clocked his winning four year old blue chequer hen at 05.16hrs on the Sunday morning and on our reckoning she had to be well over the English Channel and probably in the London area on the Saturday night to be recorded at that time on the second day. This champion hen, now named ‘Sergeant Cecil’, was sent to Tarbes feeding a three day old baby and is bred from the very best of the Cecil Bulled London NR Combine winning family, being a grand daughter of ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Day Return’, two London NR Combine Thurso ‘Hall of Fame’ pigeons. Mark tells me her pedigree can be traced right back to the legendary Champion ‘Owl’, winner of 1st open London NR Combine Thurso (only bird on the day in the combine). A wonderful family of pigeons! ‘Sergeant Cecil’ has always been raced on the natural system and has always been some thing special in classic races, previously winning: 19th open L&SECC Bergerac, 48th open L&SECC Tours, 52nd open L&SECC Tarbes and now 1st open L&SECC Tarbes in the 2009 season. Mark sent a team of eight birds to the Tarbes classic and his second bird on the clock to record 8th open was his little sparrow sized blue hen, ‘Little Miss Tarbes’.Well reading those two fantastic Tarbes Classic winners storied must wet the long distance appetite of you lads who have sent this weekend. All the very best of luck to the member of the L&SECC and CSCFC on this very special weekend!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.