“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT

Three Borders Federation (Yelverton Race)

With the end of the 2016 old bird racing season drawing closer the members of the Three Borders Federation sent 476 birds to Yelverton. A more perfect day could not have be picked for good pigeon racing than that Saturday in early June, with the convoy romping home in a light north west wind and making well over 1400 ypm. Dom McCoy liberated at 09.00hrs and the birds cleared the site brilliantly! I was very pleased to receive my weekly Federation result from our secretary, Bryan Poulton, and see my great ol’ mate; Dave ‘Topper’ Taylor of the South Downs club had won the Federation doing 1423 ypm. Dave and I have known one another since we were young lads and although we don’t see one another very often these days; we have always been good mates. I have great respect for our ‘Topper’, as a mate and great pigeon racer! He raced for many years with his wife, Jackie, and now races in partnership with his son, Ben, who is very keen and is a great worker in the Taylor pigeon set up. The week before this race the Federation was at Blandford and Vic Emberson of the Esher club won the Federation and ‘Topper’ was 2nd to him. One week later from Yelverton, Dave and Ben win the Federation and Vic Emberson is 2nd to them. LOL! Fantastic pigeon racing!

The first ten in the Yelverton Federation result were: 1) D. Taylor & son 1423: 2) Vic & Lou Emberson 1419: 3) Paul Arnold 1416: 4) Bobby & Danny Carter 1414: 5) Bobby & Danny Carter 1413: 6) Bobby & Danny Carter 1413: 7) R. Obertelli 1407: 8) E. & K. J. Benjamin 1402: 9) Derek Reid 1402: 10) Derek Reid 1401

The Taylor family have lived at their present address in Sutton for many years and the loft set up hasn’t changed very much in all that time. ‘Topper’ was famous throughout the sport for many years for his brilliant performances with his Maurice Verheye pigeons, but he tells me, although he still has some of his original Verheye pigeons, he now races several other families, including the Gaby Vandenabeele pigeons. In 2006 his good friend, Frank Carson, gave him a complete round of youngsters and most of the 33 babies were Mark & Dick Evans / Gaby Vandenabeele pigeons. Frank’s youngsters have been brilliant, producing many winners including 1st section E, 3rd open NFC, 3rd section E, 5th open NFC and ‘Topper’s’ great stock, ‘The Paddy Cock’, which is the sire of many winners for the Taylor loft. Dave and Ben race 22 cocks on the widowhood system and these are paired up at the end of January. Normally the racing cocks rear youngsters before going on the system, but Ben tells me, this year they didn’t rear any babies and have been raced dry. The partner’s race a standard widowhood system, by showing the hens on marking night and the cocks get their mates for a minimum of an hour on their return from the race. ‘Topper’ told me, ‘we don’t break the birds down these days and haven’t used depurative corn for over two years. During the racing season the birds get ‘Gerry Plus’ in the first part of the week and then go on to ‘Super Widowhood’ mixture for the second half build up to the race. Nothing has been used in tour drinkers in 2014, apart from clean water and the birds get a mid-season canker treatment. Our cocks had five training tosses at the start of the season and since racing has started they have only had their regular exercise fly’s around home’.

At the time, on hearing that Dave ‘Topper’ Taylor had won the 1988 Young Bird National from Guernsey, I was highly chuffed, but not really surprised. I flew in the very strong Kingston club in the mid-1970 with ‘Topper’ and he has always been an ‘ace’ at young bird racing. When I cast my mind back to those days when ‘Topper’ and I were both foot loose and fancy free, I can remember him winning the Surrey Federation from the inland race points and winning the Kingston’s longest old bird race from Bergerac. Dave brought his Bergerac winner around my house to have its photo taken and he named the blue chequer hen, ‘Jackie’, after his then girlfriend. Now Dave and Jackie are a long time married, with a family and live in Sutton. Jackie was very interested in the pigeons and she got them in from training, changed the drinking water three times a day and let the old birds fly out in the mornings.

David’s father was a pigeon fancier, racing in the Kingston club with outstanding success from 1963. Dave started to take an interest at the age of seven and remembered his dad’s original stock birds cost £2-50p each from a fancier in Chicklewood. He had been in the sport over 25 years when he won the Young Bird National and said at that time that he could still remember the fantastic performances being put up by the C. H. Besant & sons partnership in the strong Kingston club. His dad’s loft was 18ft. with bays and bucket traps, and says his ‘Heinz 57’ strain raced well. Dave clocked his first pigeon in for his dad in 1967, a grizzle he recalls, and won the Surrey Federation.

The Taylor’s loft in the 1980’s was a very neat affair, with ‘Sputnik’ traps and a flight for the stock birds. The loft was well ventilated and dry, with no litter on the floors, but scraped out every day. The main family housed was Maurice Verheye, with some Busschaerts and Van Wildemeersch pigeons. At that time nearly all Dave’s stock came from his friend, Peter O’Connor of Kingston, who was an outstanding fancier in his own right. Peter had several good National positions, including 17th open NFC Guernsey in 1988 and his dad, the late John O’Connor, won 1st open SMT Combine from Plymouth in the late 1970’s. The sire and dam of Dave Taylor’s National winner, ‘Whitby Girl’, were both bred by Peter O’Connor and they were a Verheye brother and sister mating. In my 45 years as a pigeon writer and photographer I have handled countless National and Combine winners, but Dave’s, ‘Whitby Girl’, was something special. Her eye, feather and balance in the hand were very outstanding and would win in the show pen. On her build up to the Guernsey National she had one race from Blandford and then into the National feeding an eight day old youngster. She won the National by 23ypm clear, with 10,416 birds taking part, lifting several trophies and £1,014. A fantastic performance! The second bird on the clock from the Guernsey National was the Verheye / Busschaert dark hen, ‘Whitby Wonder’, and she chalked up 93rd open. This game hen was really badly injured when very young and the National was her first race of her life.

The Taylor loft at that time was paired up in early March and all racing was done on the natural system. The birds were trained between 20 and 50 miles whenever ‘Topper’ thought they needed it and I remember him telling me the Verheye pigeons were good up to about 350 miles. The loft housed eight pairs of stock birds, twelve pairs of racers and about thirty babies were bred each season to race. Although Dave flew natural he fed like a widowhood racer, with depurative Saturday, Sunday, Monday and the mixture got heavier as the week progressed. He never fed beans, but a lot of maize at the end of the week. He said at the time that he liked his old birds to go to races sitting six to ten day old youngster and this nest condition was ideal for the longer distance races. ‘Topper’ never showed his pigeons and maintained that the hot and smokey conditions in most show halls are very bad for the birds. He never bred late breds and tells new starters in the sport to purchase quality and not quantity.

Dave and Jackie had won the Federation several times and were premier prize winners in the very strong Sutton & Cheam club. Some say that the Taylor’s performance from the Sartilly National in 1990 was even better than when they won 1st open NFC Guernsey with ‘Whitby Girl’ in 1988. A total of 9,341 birds were entered in the race which was liberated at 07.30hrs in a 10 mile an hour head wind from the north. Needless to say, the race turned out very hard with many fanciers returning their clocks empty. ‘Topper’ entered a well prepared team of 30 birds and got seven on the day of liberation, recording six on the clock, winning 6th, 7th, 15th, 49th, 75th and 285th open NFC Sartilly. A fantastic performance, by a brilliant young bird racer! The Taylor’s also recorded their good blue chequer white flight cock, ‘Whitby Prince’, to win 77th open NFC Nantes (11, 306 birds) and lifted £565. ‘Topper’ won over £2,000 in National Flying Club races in the 1990 season. As I’ve previously stated, I’ve known Dave a long time and he is a great guy, and a brilliant pigeon fancier!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)