A CHAT TO MATTHEW MASON BY JIM EMERTON

1 Please tell us all about your diverse and illustrious career?

My name is Matthew Mason, I am 46 years of age and I currently live in rural Lincolnshire, I was born and bred in Sheffield and have been an adopted yellow belly for the past 17 years, having followed my in-laws to this idyllic county and I am currently married with two young daughters. Presently, I am employed by BT Openreach as a senior civils manager, maintaining and providing network for the telecommunications sector. I am a big believer in voluntary work, having been a former special constable for the British Transport Police to which I served eight years policing the railway network and this I thoroughly enjoyed. As part of my duties, I covered all aspects of policing, e.g.- beat duties, football train duties, volume crime, safer railway neighbourhood safety, theft, and attending railway fatalities. As part of this role, I attended the London terrorist bombing campaign on London’s transport system on Thursday 7^th July 2005 to which I was duly honoured a Queen’s BTP Bravery Award. These harrowing moments will live on with me for the rest of my life. Alongside this, I was a serving local town counsellor to the beautiful town of Coningsby in Lincolnshire which is the home of the Royal Air Force Coningsby, namely known for the front-line air defence jets (Eurofighters). Also, this base is the home of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight with one of the surviving two Lancaster Bombers which served us well during the second world war. As part of my council duties, I attended various local meetings with highways and other council amenities to represent local parishioners and voice their concerns to do what is best for them. Whilst I was a councillor I served as mayor to the council for 2 years to which I very much enjoyed. I am also a member of the freemasons who are an organisation that do-good deeds for society. Within this organisation, I have met some very influential people who have become long-term friends.

2 Do you love pigeons and wildlife?

From a very early age, I had a keen interest towards pigeons, and I could be seen at the end of my road gazing into a local neighbour’s garden admiring his beautiful fantails flying to and from his dovecote. Later, little did I know that I would be walking through the grounds of a local hospital and that I would find a flown-out, tired racing pigeon, which I picked up, took home and made a home in an old tea chest and from here on, I realised I had a passion for these wonderful, intelligent birds. I then acquired more birds to which I started racing in my local club, Wadsley Bridge Flying Club situated in the North-West of Sheffield. I flew with my brother Anthony as Mason Brothers and had a varied number of successions racing these birds. We flew a very good bird in the year of 1991, when I was only a teenager. This pigeon had numerous wins, winning the strong federation and lots of televisions. The birds we used to fly were of Karel Hermans, Van de Weyers, Busschaerts, Leen Boers and Soottjens. These flew with great success.Living in Lincolnshire, I am in the midst of country life and can look out of my windows to see deer’s, badgers, wood pigeons, larks, finches, and many other different rare species of birds. These amaze me and I can spend many joyful hours watching them collecting nesting materials and feeding. There is no better feeling than having this on your doorstep. In 2018, I was too hasty in getting rid of a few young birds that I was gifted by some good friends, as these birds flew exceptionally well, topping and also placing second in the Lincolnshire South Road Federation on my first return to the sport since moving to Lincolnshire. I won 29 cards with 14 babies, which were flown naturally and not on the dark. I, to this day am still mad at myself for getting rid of these birds as I was advised by the NHS to no longer keep pigeons, as they told me I had pigeon fanciers lung, when in fact this was an allergy to my skin.

3 Who inspires you to race pigeons?

I am deeply inspired to follow the path of racing pigeons as I live in the very strong pigeon fraternity of the Boston North Road Clubs who still have some of the great household names, namely Russel and Denise Skinner, Brian and Angela Garnham, and Dave Brackenbury, who have all either won or acquired a top position in the North Road Championship Club. Alongside this, in the local area is the top partnership of Gary Hoyles and Paul and Ryan Platt, who have topped the midlands national flying club, this partnership is formidable at flying pigeons and continue to get me back flying pigeons in this wonderful hobby. I have given this some serious thought, having a strange allergy to pigeon dander when touching them. I am currently working with a good friend in the Northeast of England, namely, Dave Bunker Brierley who has recognised that my body is resenting this thus releasing histamine as my internal gut is all out of sync and overreacting to this dander. In relation to this, I am trailing alternative natural remedies to re-rectify my body and this is showing great progress so far and hopefully in turn for this, I will be flying again soon and enjoying the benefits of this wonderful sport.

Dave Brierley is a very intelligent character who was very poorly with a life-threatening illness and took it upon himself to research alternative medicine to correct his illness... To this day, the NHS doctors are baffled that his research and home remedies managed to save his life. Therefore I spend hours listening to his advice, especially taking a friendly bacteria dairy product, namely, kefir, to which is a cure for most allergies.

4 What are your distance aspirations in the hobby and why?

My distance aspirations within this wonderful sport are to fly with the renowned north road championship club and send my pigeons north road and hopefully time a bird from Lerwick. This race, as many know is called the graveyard race, if the weather conditions are against the birds on the day of the race. I believe that racing pigeons north road is a harder task than some of the south road races as the pigeons are predominantly flying home into this headwind and having to endure many terrain obstacles on route to the southern parts of England. Winning the King’s Cup in the NRCC is a major accolade and is something I have always dreamt of since I was a young boy. One day, I hope that this dream will become actualised.

5 Do you enjoy books and films by pigeon people?I have bought many, many books and DVD’s revolving around pigeons over the years and one book which stands out and one which I learnt much from is The Elite Written by Ernst Nebel. This book features some of the all-time greats from the Belgium region and explains feeding, breeding, and racing methods in great detail. Furthermore, a second book is The British First written and compiled by the great Kevin Hurst, again this book explains every aspect of pigeon racing from some of the UK’s top fanciers. Roads to Rome is also an inspiring book by Cameron Stansfield. This book presents varied methods on all aspects of distance racing from top renowned flyers. In addition to these magnificent books, I have recently started reading books written by one of the most respected figures in the sport, Jim Emerton, having flown a pigeon a total distance of 879 miles from Barcelona to York, this pigeon still holds the record of longest flying bird to be ever clocked from this marathon race. The books which I’m told are a wonderful read are Pigeon Man, Jim Emerton in Conversation, and Pigeon Racing. I am going to read them with great interest and hopefully follow in the footsteps of him. Latterly, Philip Hodson who read his Pigeon Racing book, timed a marathon bird from Barcelona, having only kept pigeons since 2019 from a sheer novice and on reading Jim’s book, followed his distance dreams in timing his beloved hen in 2022.

6 What personal traits does a top man in the game bring to the table?

The personal traits of a top flyer include foremost dedication all the time to these birds, sourcing pigeons, not only paper pigeons (pedigree) but to source them from an established loft who have been winning for many years against competition and who in-turn have bred winners for others. Alongside this, a fancier who is in the top of his game, needs to be on the lookout for new blood to bring in wherever needed to keep their current family fresh and ongoing so the bloodlines don’t go dormant. Lastly, a top fancier should always remember to be successful. Breeding is gold and racing is silver. If you follow these traits, success will hopefully come your way.

7 How can we improve the sport for all ,from the individual upwards?

I personally believe that we should adopt the continental style of racing with prizes for yearlings and hens in each individual race and an overall winner of the race. This would give more interest and enjoyment for the everyday fancier who are the backbone of the club. Without this type of fancier, there would be no club, and some clubs would seize to exist. Furthermore, some of the fanciers should stop thinking about their own pocket and help the less fortunate out, especially younger fanciers who are sadly few and far between in this sport. Lastly, no fancier should be stopped from joining a club if he’s in the radius as this seems to be the case of many fanciers leaving the sport due to petty jealousy.

8 Do you approve of the concept of personal integrity and fair play in sport?

I do approve of the concept of personal integrity and fair play in the sport as wherever there is financial gain, there will always be the element of dishonesty.

9 In racing is ruthlessness important and dedication?

In my opinion, I feel that ruthlessness is principal as pigeon racing is the process of elimination, especially at the longer distance because it sorts the wheat from the chaff. Alongside this, the birds you are left with are tried and tested on the road and are worth carrying through to the next year and are the foundations of your chosen goal of what you want to achieve in pigeon racing.

1O Is health key to condition?

Health is a vital part of pigeon racing, if you want to perform at the highest level. Nowadays, most fanciers are obsessed in reaching for the bottle (magic potion) using antibiotics as prevention rather than cure. Antibiotics should only be used as a last resort in my opinion and these only help to cure bacterial infections, not viruses. This is a well-known medical fact. Birds of yester year were just fed good corn and clean water and some of the viruses/illnesses weren’t known and fanciers of today have caused their own doing.

11 How will you establish a team and source your birds?

I will establish a team with the following mindset, as stated somewhere above, that gold is breeding, silver is racing. To achieve this, I will go to a renowned genuine fancier, who has been winning for some considerable time against competition who in turn breeds winners for other fanciers. I will do my research when searching for fanciers to buy birds from. The team will be established on the performance of the basket and not the pedigree and survival of the fittest. Also, the birds will be trained not just in fair weather conditions as this way, they can endure any racing condition. I believe that some fanciers seem to wrap their birds up in cotton wool.

12 Do you like the BICC as an outfit?

Yes, I believe that the BICC as an outfit is professional, but it should be considered that the flying directions are alternated week after week, (north and south) This way fanciers have the best of both worlds flying their birds.

13 Have you a long term plan?

I do have a long-term plan to breed a tried and tested family of pigeons that perform at the longer distance races and in turn breed winners not just for me, but for others. Hopefully, my ambition is not only to race north road but also to try my luck at Tarbes. This will only be possible if I have a ruthless outlook on testing my pigeons for the races ahead.

14 Please chat on any other matters?

On starting with the birds again, I am going to adopt flying them to an aviary style loft or even keep them in a rabbit hutch type loft which Keith Mott adopted in the early 2000’s which worked well with his allergy towards the birds. I would like to take the time to thank the great Jim Emerton for this opportunity in answering these questions on my beloved hobby of pigeon racing. Also, I want to thank Paul Pratt and Gary Hoyles for taking the time in helping me return to pigeon racing, these guys are a force to be reckon with having some of the best birds I have seen for some time, they have recently invested heavily in purchasing the best from Luc Vervoort and Mark Gerda Janssens which are showing great results already.