THREE BORDERS FED

by Keith Mott

News Update - July 2013

Approaching the back end of the old bird racing season, members of the Three Borders Federation entered 1,237 birds into the Taunton race in mid-June. The weather was glorious for the whole weekend and the convoy was liberated at the horse racing course site on the Saturday morning at 08-30hrs in a strong west / south west wind. It turned out to be a ‘banger’ of a race, with the leading pigeons taking just over 90 minutes to fly the 125 miles to their home lofts and record velocities in the high 2200 ypm. The Esher club were back on good form, winning 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th Federation and the Kingston partnership of Chris Slight and Trevor Taylor won the top spot with game yearling. The Kingston postman, Ian West, won the Federation in this same race in 2012 and wins 2nd this year with the same pigeon. Ian of the Esher club won the 2nd Federation with his good three year old blue chequer widowhood cock, ‘Deon’ and Ian tells me is son of two of the best racers in his loft. The 2012 Taunton Federation winner is a son of ‘Ladies’ Girl’, winner of 1st open L&SECC Guernsey (OH) in 2004 and the champion sprinting cock, ‘Wayne’s Boy’, the winner of: 1st club, 1st Federation Lulworth (2384 birds), 2nd club, 5th Federation Lulworth (1269 birds), 1st club, 6th Federation Exeter (1108 birds), 2nd club, 7th Federation West Bay (1737 birds), 4th club, 17th Federation West Bay (1748 birds), 1st club, 20th Federation Lulworth (1629 birds). What brilliant line of winners.

The first ten in the Taunton Federation result were: 1) Slight & Taylor 2286: 2) Mr. & Mrs. Ian West 2272: 3) Dominic McCoy 2265: 4) Slight & Taylor 2260: 5) Paul Arnold 2255: 6) Frank & Susan Carson 2254: 7) Paul Arnold 2253: 8) A. Stoner & son 2251: 9) Mr. & Mrs. G. Evans 2250: 10) Dave ‘Topper’ Taylor & son 2249.

I think I’ve known Chris Slight for well over 40 years now, in fact he used to drive for Pickford’s house removals and he moved Betty and me in to our first flat over the Gardening shop in Surbiton and that was nearly 40 years ago, when we got married. Chris is the ‘old school’ type pigeon fancier and has no hard and fast system, but records brilliant result every season. Back in the 1970’s we raced in the Kingston club together and today we both fly in the Esher & Dist. RPC. Chris was winning Federations back in the Kingston racing days and he is still winning Federation today. A great fancier! Trevor Taylor is Chris’ nephew and they have been in the pigeon partner for a few seasons. Trevor has been in pigeons all his life and is a third generation fancier, with his grand fathers being the great old Kingston pigeon aces, Jack Taylor and Eddie Chandler.

Chris Slight and Trevor Taylor of the Esher & District RPC, won the SMT Combine from the Messac race held in June 2010. The Combine sent 1,316 birds and being liberated into a Northerly wind, the members enjoyed a good steady race. After the race I asked Trevor about the partner latest SMT Combine winner and he told me, ‘The Messac Combine winner is Black yearling hen, now named ‘Non- Returnable’ and was bred by Colin Crook and Andy Iddenden of Epsom. Every year Colin and Andy give us a couple of coloured pigeons to brighten up the loft, as they have always said our loft is too dull with the blues and blue chequers. This little annual practice has gone for about five seasons now! The Messac Combine winner, ‘Non-Returnable’, is a van Reet hen which had already showed us a lot of promise as a young bird in 2009, being in the first four birds home every week but was always beaten by loft mates and most often we would get a few birds together but she was a little shy to go through the ETS first. This season as a yearling she did exactly the same, being consistent again in the first three or four birds to the loft every week but one time winning the Esher club from Kingsdown and finishing 18th Three Borders Federation with 1,623 birds competing. We only normally send to Federation races and 2010 was our first year racing hens, and this game little black hen was coming so consistent, so we decided to send some hens to the London & South East Classic Club, and ‘Non-Returnable’ finished up recording 33rd open Falaise. We kept her racing week by week and on the Wednesday before she won the Combine she had been pairing up with another hen and laid an egg in her box. She was nearly not sent to Messac as it was Thursday night marking and it meant she would lay her second egg in the race crate on the Friday. Chris and I thought this would affect her keenest to race home, how wrong were we! We decided to name her ‘Non-Returnable’ and what a lovely man Colin Crook is!  When we phoned him to say we had won the Combine he said come over and get the dam and I must say mother and daughter are like peas in a pod, so much so, if you put them both together you couldn’t tell them apart only from the ring colour’.

The partners race 20 cocks on the widowhood system and stressed to me that he has no hard and fast rules or real system with his pigeon racing management, and will pair up any time in January or February. He races only hens on the system and never breaks them down, feeding a good quality widowhood mixture at all distances, long and short. The Slight pigeons are raced every week through the Federation programme and he told me his favourite races are the middle distance at about 300 miles. His loft is 40ft x 18ft ‘L’ shaped and has always had open door trapping, although he has now installed ETS traps as he started to use the system with young birds in the 2008 season. Chris told me he really enjoys the ETS as he can sit back and enjoy seeing the birds coming in from the races, and maintains the youngsters don’t get spoiled by keep getting picked to be clocked. He has a blue cock which won’t trap because it has been caught so many times and has won about ten second prizes. The widowhood hens are put in with the cocks at lunch time on marking night and allowed to run with their mates until they go in the basket for the journey to the club. He has no hard and fast rule about his system and sometimes leaves the widowhood hens with the racers until Sunday lunch time. The widowhood cocks get an open loft all day, every day and the main families kept are De Klak, Busschaert and Staf Van Reet.

The Three Borders Federation held its longest old bird race from Bergerac (450 miles); in south west France in July of 2009 and member enjoyed a good testing race. Chris and Trevor clocked their champion blue cock, ‘Master Bates’, in a flying time of 10 hours 39 minutes too win the Three Borders Federation and 1st open SMT Combine! This was Chris’ great ambition to win the Combine, having won 2nd open many times and to win from Bergerac, the longest old bird race, has really put the icing on the cake for him. Chris told me, ‘the blue cock is a three year old De Klak / Van Loon cross and has had every Federation race on the widowhood system since he was born, never missing a race, inland and channel. ‘Master Bates’ is the worlds worst trapper and has been home to win the Federation several times, but just sits on the loft looking at me waiting to put him on the clock. The ETS has finely sorted him out, as when he come home I hide and he clocks him self in, with no problems. The 2009 season had seen him win four good Federation positions, finishing the campaign with his 1st Three Borders Federation Bergerac’. Chris and Trevor had won six firsts in the Esher club that season and were delighted to get five birds on the day of liberation from the very hard Bergerac race.

Chris and Trevor breed 50 young birds every season, only retaining 35 to race and trains from Petersfield (40 miles) every week. They race the darkness system and races natural to the perch. The Slight & Taylor young birds are allowed to do as they like and Chris has won some good races with youngsters sent sitting eggs, and small babies. He told me he didn’t enjoy young bird racing, but sends them through the Federation programme to the longest race for education and they also get an open loft every day. The young hens are raced well in the year of their birth, but once they are in the widowhood loft they are never raced, although Chris is toying with the idea of racing a few widowhood hens next season. Chris keeps very few stock pigeon, but has a few De Klaks from Steve Clackston of Kingston and his best retired Busschaert racers. He pairs his stock pigeons up the same time as the widowhood cock so the eggs can be floated in the race sections.

The 2008 season saw Chris Slight win the Three Borders Federation three times and win ‘Pigeon of the Year’ in the Esher club and the Federation. His top pigeon was a five year old blue chequer named, ‘Fred’ and this game widowhood cock recorded: 1st club, 1st Federation Kingsdown, 1st club, 1st Federation, 2nd open SMT Combine and 4th club, 11th Federation Yelverton. The Esher club secretary, Allen Palmer, won the Three Borders Federation twice in the 2008 season and one of those birds was bred by Chris, and was a son of ‘Fred’. What a pigeon! He has won many other prizes previous to the 2008 season, racing on the widowhood and is off the old Slight family, being a mixture of De Klak, Busschaert and Staf Van Reet. ‘Fred’ was put to stock for the 2009 season, but because the partners were short of racing cocks he was brought out of retirement mid-way through the season and won two more races! Chris’ other 2008 Three Borders Federation winner was the yearling Busschaert blue chequer widowhood cock, ‘Uranus’, and he won 1st club, 1st Federation, 4th open SMT Combine Poitiers. He is a son of Chris’ champion dark Busschaert cock, ‘The Old Fella’, which has recorded many firsts for the Slight loft, including 48th open L&SECC in a very hard Pau race (550 miles) and then being sent back to Bergerac (450 miles) three weeks later to record 2nd open SMT Combine.

Chris has been racing pigeon on his own since he came out of the army in 1975 and has won many 1st Federation prizes from Blandford (85 miles) through to Bergerac (450 miles), and has been 2nd open Combine nine or ten times, but has never won the Combine. In fact recently he recorded 2nd open SMT Combine twice in one season! His first pigeons were raced to his sister’s garage and he won his first race from Exeter with a mealy hen in the old Kingston club. He is now a member of the Esher & Dist. RPC and L&SECC, and tells me he prefers north road racing. His father, Lewis Slight, and his uncles were all good fanciers in his home town of Portsmouth and they were all north roaders. When Chris was a young lad, 50 years ago, a local fancier gave him a pigeon and his dad wouldn’t let him put it in his loft, so he had to keep it in an old rabbit hutch. He sent that pigeon to Lerwick (550 miles) and won the race and his dad didn’t clock in! Chris maintains the sport is too much money orientated which is spoiling it, but really likes the ETS system and says it’s the way forward.

That’s it for this week! Congratulations to Chris and Trevor on their latest Federation win, it was a great performance! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480 and my new email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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

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