Keith Mott

visits

Reg & Richard Maybey

Reg and Richard Maybey of Virginia Water. The loft that has set the Surrey / Berkshire pigeon fancier alight in the 2009 season was that of Reg and Richard Maybey who race in partnership with their wives, Jocelyn and Silvie. The pigeon racing at the Berkshire loft is very much a family affair with Reg and Richard being a father / son partnership and another important part of the team is family member, Harold Coleman, who has been helping out with the very successful pigeon management for over 20 years. The partners won the Three Borders Federation four times in the 2009 season and also won the Berkshire Federation, and to top off a brilliant season won 1st open SMT Combine (3,174 birds) Messac. The Combine winner was the two year old widowhood blue chequer cock, called quite plainly ‘The Combine Cock’, and previous to his Messac win he recorded several premier positions including 1st club, 5th Federation Yeovil. On the first race of the 2009 season Reg and Richard put up a fantastic performance by recording 1st, 2nd, 3rd Three Borders Federation and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Berkshire Federation on the same day. Brilliant pigeon racing! The Maybey partnership races their old birds in two teams, one on pure widowhood in the Berkshire Federation and the other on the roundabout system in the Three Borders Federation. The racers are paired the same time as the stock birds in late December and the widowhood pigeons rear at least one youngster before going on the system. The racers start training three weeks before the first Federation race and are given ten tosses up to 35 miles. Richard tells me, un-like most widowhood fanciers they continue to train for the first two weeks in the season and then they just get exercise around the loft twice a day. The roundabout racers are not broken down, getting a ‘Sports’ mixture all the time, but the widowhood cocks get depurative mixture for two days after the race as a brake down and then go the ‘Sport’ mixture for the rest of the week. Both teams see their hens on marking night for about two or three minutes and on their return get their mates for about an hour, depending how tough the race has been. The partner’s present loft is Roy Bishop’s old Kidby loft which was sited at Weybridge and it was extended five years ago, making it 65ft long and ‘L’ shaped. Reg maintains a loft must be dry and they use deep litter in the stock and young bird sections, with the old bird racers getting the floor boards scraped regularly. The Maybey partnership’s performances in the Three Borders Federation in 2009 were: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 21st Federation Wincanton (1,367 birds), 5th, 6th, 8th, 17th Federation Yeovil (1,837 birds), 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th Federation Kingsdown (1,703 birds), 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th Federation West Bay (2,027 birds), 11th Federation Fougeres (1,038 birds), 1st, 22nd Federation West Bay (1,691 birds), 1st, 8th Federation Messac (1,008 birds), 1st open SMT Combine, 3rd Federation Exeter (1,415 birds), 1st, 12th Federation Kingsdown (1,453 birds), 20th Federation Tours (825 birds), 13th Federation Portland (1,228 birds). Reg and Richard breed 100 young birds each season, 50 for racing in the Three Borders Federation and the other 50 for the Berkshire Federation. Starting at 5 miles, they are trained on a gradually build up to 40 miles and are not raced on the darkness system, but kept natural all season. When they are weaned they go on to a ‘Breed and Wean’ mixture for a while, then on to their own light mixture of young bird and depurative. The old and young birds are all raced on supplements supplied by Ken Wise of Isleworth, from Travipharma and Natural Products. The partners have enjoyed many successes through the years with their pigeons, including 2009: 1st open SMT Combine Messac, 2008: 2nd open L&SECC Bergerac and 2007: 2nd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH). Reg says, over the last few seasons they have specialised in sprint / middle distance racing, but in recent seasons have become members of the London & South East Classic Club and National Flying Club, so hope to enjoy some quality long distance racing in the near future. Their family race well up to Bergerac (450 miles) and in the last three seasons have won over 80 first prizes, including 18 times 1st Federation. Richard told me it was a great thrill to win the SMT Combine from Messac in 2009 and to achieve that allusive first after winning 2nd, 3rd and 4th open many times over the years. The Maybey family were originally based in Hounslow and Reg has been in the sport about 40 year, with Richard coming into the partnership as a six year old ‘floor scraper’. Reg recalls his first birds were six gift squeakers from his good friend, Charlie Francis of Shepperton and the only other family member to keep pigeons at that time was Uncle Arthur who lived in Wellington Road, Hounslow. Reg’s first club was the Egham North Road RPC and won his first race from Leicester. Early mistakes were over feeding. The first loft was a 16ft x 8ft structure, with 12 natural nest boxes and was purchased from a man whose divorce story appeared in the Daily Mirror and News of the World news papers at that time! Reg tells me the fanciers who were doing all the winning locally in those early days were Fred Elliot, George Worsfold and the Besant partnership of New Malden. The partners got more and more interested in the sport and bought in some Vandevelds, Delbar and Dordin pigeons which started to win straight away. A few years later a good Krauth hen was purchased from an auction at Ascot and she turned out to be a champion in the stock, producing winners every year, and then six Krauth youngsters were purchased from George Corbett to strengthen up the family. The Van Loon pigeons were introduced in 1989 when Reg’s wife, Jocelyn, purchased a pair from Clwyd Lofts at the RPRA Southern Region Show and they were called ‘the wonder couple’ as they bred many winners over the years. Reg says one of the best performances in the early days was clocking early in the morning to win 1st club, 2nd Federation, 3rd open Combine Dax (550 miles). Richard says, when they bring in new stock birds it is normally a bird that has caught their eye, but they do like a bold looking medium sized pigeon, with good feather quality and nice eye. The partners like the eye sign as one of the characteristic of the pigeon’s make up. They feed the stock birds moulting mixture, with high protein mixture and 30% Barley. Richard told me, they are very fortunate to own several pairs of stock birds that are responsible for breeding multiple winners. The main family raced now is Ludo Van Tuyn and he is a Belgium fancier who has had a lot of success with his family of pigeons racing in Thailand and Germany. Reg and Richard still have a few Van Loon, Luc Bart Geerinx, and Joop Hock and recently purchased some original Willy Thass. Reg and Richard both work in the Airfreight industry and the whole family are involved in making the team tick! Reg and Richard tend not to get involved with the politics of the sport, as they find their work stressful enough and view pigeon racing as a sport and a way to relax. They say, in their opinion the best local fancier is Fred Elliot of Thorpe, as his results and achievement in the sport over a long period of time, with a small team of birds are second to none! They also say Mark Gilbert of Windsor has been exceptional over the last few years. Richard is asthmatic and tells me the moulting time of the year is the worst for him, but never the less it is a very important time, with the birds being separated and fed on a good ‘Moulting’ mixture. Currently most of the birds in the loft are line-bred and the odd late bred is reared off the premier racers for the stock section. On looking over the information Richard has given me for this article, the thing that demonstrates the brilliance of their pigeons for me is the performance of their blue pied widowhood cock, ‘The 70906’, winner of 3rd Federation Kingsdown, 3rd Federation Wincanton, 6th Federation Lulworth, 15th Federation Exeter, 16th Federation Kingsdown and never scored higher than 3rd in the club, being beaten mostly by loft mates! Congratulation to Reg and Richard Maybey on the brilliant success in the 2009 season! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer! TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.