Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present

TONY DANN OF LEATHERHEAD

One of my best friends in pigeon racing is Tony ‘Desperate' Dann. He is a very likable guy, who would do a favour for any one and wouldn't see any genuine person in trouble. ‘Desperate' is one of the best pigeon fanciers I know and has been a great worker for the sport of pigeon racing for many years. He has not been a member of a Saturday Federation club in the 2008 season, so decided to use the midweek Hamworthy club for training and have a go at the National and Classic events. The Dann loft had a good race from the NFC Angers (264 miles) event and recorded an outstanding pigeon to win 4th section E, 6th open with nearly 6,000 birds competing. The first bird on the clock, doing 1256 ypm, was his good natural Van Breemen blue hen, ‘First Lady, and she was sent sitting ten day old eggs. This game hen was lost for a while as a young bird, but has raced well from France since.

Tony enjoyed some good success with his pigeons in the 2005 season, winning 11 firsts in the Epsom R.B.L.F.C. and 4th, 7th, 8th and 17th open in the Federation. He raced a few old birds in the National and Classic events to record, 140th open N.F.C. Fougeres (old hens), and in the London & South East Classic Club won 50th open Guernsey (old hens), 66th open Bergerac, 74th open Tours and 173rd open Alencon . The most outstanding breeders for Tony in the 2005 season were a pair of Steven Van Breemen pigeons and three of their off spring won races that season, two yearlings and a young bird. This pair of stock birds were purchased from Matt Rakes, by Tony's late father Wally Dann in 2002 and decided to retain them when Wally's birds were sold off. Tony says, he is sure the Van Breeman pigeons will race well, when he can establish a team of them.

Tony recently took early retirement from work. He says much is written about the decline in the sport of pigeon racing over the last few years, with many authors of such letters stating there is an urgent need to encourage new young blood into the sport. While not disputing the fact that youngsters need to be given every encouragement, are we perhaps missing a much richer vein of new membership? He was talking about the early retired, aged 50-plus people who have brought up their families, whose mortgages are paid off, are financially secure and looking for a new interest and sport to occupy their time in retirement. He maintains that such active people could offer experience and expertise to many facets of the sport. Obviously, we would need to promote the sport to this sector in a much more professional way, but how, is the million dollar question. We should be much more imaginative. For instance, why can't we advertise in the national Sunday newspapers supplements, quoting a free phone number where information about getting started can be advised, giving out details of local pigeon clubs. Tony says that the advertising part of his idea would be funded from the B.H.W. Blackpool ‘Show of the Year' proceeds. This would mean that less money would be donated to charities in the short term, but without a healthy and expanding pigeon racing sport there will come a time when there will be no money to give to any of the worthwhile charities which currently benefit from the Blackpool Show.

The Dann loft had a good season channel racing in 2002 and recorded several premier positions including 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 8th open S.M.T. Combine Alencon, 1st club, 4th Three Borders Federation, 6th open S.M.T. Combine Nantes, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th club, 3rd, 11th, 12th and 16th Three Borders Federation, 11th, 46th and 48th open S.M.T. Combine, 18th open Amalgamation Bergerac (447 miles). Brilliant pigeon racing by my ol' mate, Tony! His Alencon Federation winner was his three year old Meulemans / Ayton Marshall mealy cock, “Copthorne Sarge”, and he was raced on the natural system. This game cock had previously won 1st club, 4th Federation, 5th open S.M.T. Combine Bergerac. His dam was purchased at the Bob Wilkinson of Crawley sale, being bred from direct Belgium Meulemans imports. Tony obtained some outstanding stock birds a few years ago from the late Ayton Marshall of the Up North Combine and these have produced many top racers for the Dann loft, including “Copthorne Sarge”, with his sire being a pigeon from the north east of England loft. In 2000, the season before the foot and mouth problem, Tony also won the Surrey Federation from Alencon with his ace blue Meulemans cock, “Copthorne Prince”. He had been an outstanding racer on the natural system, winning many prizes, including 1st club, 1st Federation, 2nd open S.M.T. Combine Alencon (2,221 birds), 1st club, 19th Federation Exeter (2,594 birds) and 1st club Blandford. He is brother to Tony's good hen, “Copthorne Princess”, winner of four inland races. Before the 2001 racing season started, Tony said, that he had his birds walking around the garden, when all of a sudden they flew away very distressed. He ran out of the house to find pigeons flying about the sky in all directions, with eight or nine birds behind the loft in a dazed state with fright. He heard a flapping sound from his next door neighbours' garden and when he looked over the fence there were feathers everywhere. He spotted a hen Sparrowhawk eating his best hen, “Copthorne Princess”, alive, threw a piece if wood at the hawk, which frightened it off and the pigeon flew away, returning to the loft two hours later with no feathers on her back and a few deep lacerations. In the 2001 season this game hen won two more races, making her prize tally four times 1st club, 12th and 15th open Federation inland.

Tony raced with his late father, Wally, from 1958 until he married in 1967, and started up on his own in 1979. Tony says that in the 1960's he looked up to the late, great Tommy Woodcock of Wimbledon, who had a lifetime of top class pigeon racing. Tony's loft was set up with birds from his and Tommy, and he won a young bird race in his first season! His first loft was 15ft. long, purchased for £25 and he says his early mistake was overfeeding. Tony's present loft is 24ft. long, with three sections built by his dad, Wally, who was a retired carpenter. For many years he raced the widowhood system with fantastic success, winning the Surrey Federation many times and being the Federation premier prize winner several times. In 1994 he raced natural to have a go at the channel races and installed the “super trap” system in his loft. The loft houses 14 racing pairs, 10 pairs of stock birds and about 30 youngsters are bred to race each season. He pairs up in February and after racing widowhood for ten years, went back to natural racing in 1994 with outstanding success. He measures out the feeding twice a day, with a light feed in the morning.

Gudder, Tony's Danish wife, is a great help with the training of the birds and feeding in the evening. She says that he takes the birds to seriously, because the couple can only take their holidays when pigeon racing is finished. To a point, Tony says this is true, but like most things, you only get out what you are prepared to put in. The old birds and youngsters are trained the same, with as many 40 mile tosses midweek as possible, during the season. The main families raced are Meulemans from Bob Wilkinson of Crawley, the Ayton Marshall's from the north east of England and the newly introduced Steven Van Breeman's from Matt Rakes. When I think back a few years, Tony's young birds were fantastic in 1994, winning six of the Esher Club's seven young bird races, including the longest race from Wadebridge, lifting the young bird average. He had a record breaking young bird in 1986, in the form of the Delwich Jet blue pied hen, “00114”, and she won the very strong Surrey Federation three times as a young bird, flying against about 3,000 birds, also winning an R.P.R.A. award. He likes nice, compact pigeons in the hand, but maintains that winning birds come in all shapes and sizes, so when introducing new stock he goes for outstanding winning bloodlines. As I've already stated, ‘Desperate', is a great worker for our sport and was chief clock setter at the Esher club for many years and chairman of the Three Borders Federation. A great lad! I can be contacted on Telephone: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT