Keith Mott Writes about winning fanciers past and present...

Three Borders Federation News

TERRY GOODSELL

I’ve known Terry Goodsell of Mitcham since the mid 1970s when he was put up brilliant performances in the Surrey Federation and SMT Combine with his widowhood cocks, and I featured him in the fancy press. He was a brilliant fancier then and he is still a brilliant fancier today, winning many 1st Federations through the years! He now races his pigeons, with his partner, Pauline, to their loft in Sutton and they have enjoyed a wonderful 2009 old bird racing season in the Three Borders Federation, winning many premier positions including 1st Federation Kingsdown (1,205 birds). The partners good blue pied widowhood cock, ‘Bibby’, won the Federation by 27 ypm clear and he is the nest mate to the ‘ace’ blue chequer pied cock, ‘The Workman’, winner of 2nd South Downs Premier FC twice, plus several hundred pounds in the 2009 season. Another premier performer in the 2009 old bird season was the blue cock, ‘The South Downs Cock’, and he won one the club’s races, also lifting several hundred pounds for Terry and Pauline.

Terry has been a pigeon club member for 45 years and his father and uncles flew as Goodsell Brothers back in the late 1920’s, and Terry tells me he still has some of their racing diplomas’ from those early days. He started keeping pigeons at the age of ten, at which time he used to help his friend to clean out his father’s pigeons and became interested. His uncle built his first loft which was 8ft. x 6ft. and his first birds were obtained from the late Alf Neal of Mitcham and some youngsters of the Sion strain from G. Lay. Terry tells me, Alf Neal gave him a lot of help to get started and Bill Shepherd’s great performances always stood out in his mind as brilliant in those early days. He had been racing ten years, being a member of the Mitcham Common Club from the start. The Goodsell lofts housed some of the Billy Shepherd of Mitcham pigeons and Terry told me that Billy had been a great help with advice since he started up.

In 1974 Terry was lucky enough to meet Louie Govarts; a Belgium fancier won lived in Luton and raced successfully in the very strong Phoenix club at that time. He knew the widowhood system of racing cocks inside out and he taught Terry how to race his birds on the system, which has kept him successful for over 40 years. Terry was one of the first fanciers to race on the widowhood in the Surrey Federation at that time and was premier prize winner for seven years on the trot and was rarely out of the first six positions in the Federation race results. These early days saw the Goodsell loft win 2nd open Combine three times and after a house move in the 1980’s, three years were spent re-building his racing team. I have heard of some bad luck since I started up in our sport, but Terry Goodsell’s 1979 racing story of twice being beaten on decimals for 1st open SMT Combine must take the cake. In fact Terry had been 2nd open Combine three times in three years as in 1977 he was 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th club, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Surrey Federation (3,060 birds), 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th open S.M.T. Combine (7,787 birds) Plymouth. The sad fact about Terry being 2nd open S.M.T. Combine twice in the 1979 season was that he was beaten twice by club mates and was thus pushed into 2nd club, 2nd Surrey Federation. He was premier prize winner in the very strong Mitcham Common Flying Club in 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1978 and had lifted the highly rated old bird points trophy three times. Terry won the Surrey Federation points trophy in 1977 when he was the Federation top prize winner and was third highest in the 1978 season, when he won the Inland Average Cup. Terry was highly rated by many premier Surrey fanciers and although he was mostly known as a sprint fancier, he chalked up 2nd open SMT Combine Bergerac (455 miles) in 1979. The long over due 1st open Combine win came in the 2002 season and this was achieved with a Janssen crossed pigeon from the Ponderosa UK Stud and Fountainhead Stud lines.

In the 1970s Terry was the pioneer of the widowhood system in the Surrey area and many premier fancier visited his garden to adopt his system, with many of them achieving devastating success. One such partnership was the Besant Brothers of New Malden and Terry rates Bobby Besant the very best ever pigeon racer in the South of England. He says methods have not changed through the years as far as the widowhood and feeding go, but he thinks people medicate far too much these days and consequently are weakening the pigeons. He maintains his current 24ft x 7ft, three section loft, he built recently at the new address at Sutton is his best yet, with the biggest improvement being his ETS system. Terry likes his new clocking system and says it’s great to just stand back and watch them drop in and clock them selves in.

As I’ve stated the Goodsell pigeons are raced on the widowhood system, which consists of a team of 20 cocks and Terry says he liked to keep the widowhood cocks warm in the loft. The birds are paired up after the BHW Blackpool Show in January and the families raced are mainly Soontjens and Janssen of Arendonk, with the Janssens being obtained from the Ponderosa Stud in Holland and Fountainhead Stud. He maintains the Janssen are good right through the programme to 455 miles, although the Soontjens are very good up to 250 miles. Terry is a very keen on gardening and the lofts and garden are a real credit to him. As far as his pigeon loft is concerned he is very keen to have warmth, a good dry floor, together with good ventilation, with no draughts in his lofts. He told me over feeding was the biggest mistake a fancier can make and was totally against fat pigeons at any time of the year. He says, many fanciers make the mistake of over exciting their birds and feed them too much hemp. Terry feeds the birds according to the temperature in the loft, using a good racing mixture, but with more carbohydrate when it was colder. The old birds are trained before the season started, up to 50 miles as often as possible, then it is regular exercise around the loft when racing starts. The 50 young birds are trained twice a day, a 20 mile toss in the morning and a five mile single up in the evening. Terry liked to see a nice rich eye, but his families are mostly ‘pearl’ or ‘gravel’ eyed and says some fanciers would call them anaemic eyed.

Terry maintains that fanciers should be dedicated to their pigeons 52 weeks a year and not just in the racing season. He doesn’t like deep litter as it affected his breathing, but said it’s a good idea if kept dry. Terry scrapes the widowhood loft out every day and is a believer in the old adage that prevention is better than cure. The birds are given preventatives against coccidiosis, worms and canker, but in moderation. The birds are kept 100% healthy at all times and are paired together in such a way to keep the family intact. He reckons selection should be severe at all times and the basket takes care of the rest. Terry mentioned one little trick with his widowhood system, which is throw in a handful of nesting straw about an hour before basketing to go for race marking, which he said, keys the birds up without over exciting them. He thinks there are many little tricks with racing widowhood, but the main one is not to let them get bored. Terry likes the young birds to be as tame as possible and spends a lot of time in the loft last thing at night, getting to know the birds and their temperament, which helps him to select his future widowers.

Betty and I really enjoyed Terry and Pauline’s recent visit, when they came to Claygate to have their current premier pigeons photographed for this article. They are two very nice people! Terry was very impressed with our new stock birds, especially the Keith Arnold / Staf Van Reets and after viewing the new DVD said his widowhood system was very much the same as Keith’s highly successful UK Championship winning system. Pauline is a very good judge of a pigeon and she picked out our two new direct Brian Denney youngsters, a daughter of Champion ‘Tuff Nut’ and a daughter of Champion ‘Dark Charm’. Terry told me, ‘sometimes I get a bit disappointed that through the years a lot of fanciers have been very successful with my advice on the widowhood system and gift birds from my loft, but many of them never mention the fact’. There you have it Terry and Pauline of Sutton!  After all these years of outstanding success, Terry must rate as one of the all time great in the London area! I really enjoyed doing this one, Terry has been a great worker for the sport and deserves all the praise he is given! Any comments to me on telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT...