“On The Road” With Keith Mott

Les Penycate of Hersham

One of the nicest guys I’ve ever met in the sport of pigeon racing is Les Penycate and to say he has enjoyed some good racing seasons in recent years would be any understatement! His occupation all his life has been in the fencer building trade and he recently retired from work, which has reflected in his outstanding performances with his pigeons. He is from a fence building family and tells me the late great Surbiton pigeon racer, Arthur Coxon, who was a first class fencer all his life, taught him the trade when he was a young lad. The highlights of recent season for Les was: 2010: 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 1st open SMT Combine St Nazaire (297 miles), 1st club, 3rd Three Borders Federation, 5th open SMT Combine Bergerac ( 450 miles), 1st club, 5th Three Borders Federation, 9th open SMT Combine Messac (255 miles). What fantastic season! The Three Borders Federation held its last old bird race of the 2012 season from Bergerac at the end of July and were included in the SMT Combine convoy, which was 500 birds strong. The Combine were transported to the race point in the south of France and after a two day hold over the birds were liberated at 06.45hrs in a west / north west wind. Les Penycate won the Federation by a ‘country mile’ with a natural Hartog blue chequer cock, sent sitting eggs. The winning blue chequer cock was one of very few birds clocked on the day of liberation in the Combine and took 12 hours 37 minutes to fly the 454 miles home to West Molesey, and won the Federation by 59ypm clear. Les is successful in races from France most seasons and a few years ago won the Three Borders Federation from Nantes (282 miles) with an unpaired Staf Van Reet yearling blue chequer hen. This game pigeon also won the Messac race in the Hersham Club and was a gift from Les' good friend, the late Rod Wynn. Her full performances in 2002 were outstanding, winning 1st club, 1st Federation, 3rd open SMT Combine Nantes (2,342 birds); 1st club, 9th Federation, 24th open SMT Combine Messac (2,205 birds). A wonderful effort by an unpaired yearling!

Les’ 2010 St Nazaire SMT Combine winner was his good yearling hen, ‘Debbie’s Girl’, who is named after his daughter and her parents are a pair of Willy Thas pigeons obtained from Mick Betts of Scawsby, near Doncaster. This game hen was lost training as a young bird in September 2009 and returned to the Penycate loft in perfect condition, in February 2010. She was paired up and sent to the first race of her life, inland, feeding a ten day old baby and two week later was entered in her second race from St Nazaire, and won 1st open SMT Combine. Incredible! Les’ yearling were in great form last season, as his 5th open Combine Bergerac winner was his yearling blue chequer pied hen, ‘Wynn’s Supremacy’. Both her parents were obtained from the late Rod Wynn of Shepperton and she was sent to the longest old bird race from Bergerac feeding a ten day old youngster. Les is a channel racing enthusiast and trained out of Worthing (50 miles) in the 2010 season, before hoping then into a 250 mile channel race, and then into Bergerac. The 9th open Combine Messac blue hen is one of the stars of the Penycate loft, having previously being clocked as a yearling, in 2009, from Tarbes (550 miles) and recording 9th open London & South East Classic Club. A wonderful performance! Les has named her ‘Messac Lady’ and told me she was bred from Hartog stock birds obtained from Phil & Maria Dunstall of Maidenhead. The 2010 season saw Les change his corn midway through to the Dutch ‘Garvo 7001 Sprint’ mixture and the bird stated to win out of turn two weeks later.

Les was born in Kingston in 1939 and his father kept pigeons before the Second World War, in partnership with his three brothers. In 1948, Les was given six youngsters by the premier East Molesey fancier, Joe Stediford, who flew an outstanding pigeon in National races at that time. Prior to owning his own birds, young Les was pigeon mad and fed the streeters in Kingston Market with bread. His father built a loft to house his six young birds and Les joined the Kingston &District Club, flying in the Surrey Federation. He soon added stock from the great Harry Branch of Mitcham to his Stediford youngsters and says that Joe taught him a lot about general pigeon management in the early days. The late, great, Freddie Ranaboldo of East Molesey was the premier fancier at that time, winning inland every week and he also won 1st open Pau NFC. Les has been in the sport for nearly 55 years and says one of his earliest achievements was in 1952 when he won from Libourne with a red chequer after 14 hours on the wing and won the London Federation by a clear 1 hour 40 minutes.

Les mates his 20 pairs of old birds on February 25th and breeds a good racing team of about 50 young birds each season. He races on the natural system, exercising the birds around the loft twice a day, hopper feeding the old birds. He splits his birds into two teams, with the inland racers being trained from the west and the Channel birds being tossed in single-ups off the south coast. He likes to give his birds natural extras, including Epsom salts once a fortnight, garlic once a week, cod liver oil on the corn and honey in the water on race days. He is very keen on Channel racing and is a member of the National Flying Club and very strong Spelthorne RPC.

The main families kept are Van Riel, Barker and Janssen, with the recent introduction of Staf Van Reet. Les maintains that over the years the Van Riel pigeons have been brilliant for him, right through to Pau (556 miles). He says that he loves day birds from the long-distance races. In 1986 the Pau National was a very hard race and he recorded 19th, 35th and 315th open with Van Riel pigeons. He likes his pigeons, old and young, to go to the longest race points and says that he feeds Versele-Laga because it's good, sound corn. His young birds have about 12 training tosses up to Winchester (50 miles) before going into the first Federation race. For the long distance races he has found the best nest condition for his racers to be in is a cock sent with a 14-day-old youngster, his hen having just laid and he favours hens sent sitting over due eggs or feeding a small youngster. He considers Khan Brothers of Kingston to be the best local fanciers, as they are on a wave of success racing in the Nationals and Classics at this time. The lads are showing fantastic consistency. He maintains that long distance pigeon racing is a waiting game, with some strains reacting quicker than others, but he says that normally long distance pigeons take three years to mature and be able to do the job.

Les Penycate likes a bit of young bird racing and says that from his experience, fly aways are due to overcrowding. He gives his baby’s one third of their feed before they are let out of the loft, which he maintains calms them down. He gives the birds extra

Wheat and linseed during the moulting period and likes to breed a few latebreds each season, but says it is very important to train them in the year of their birth, or they are useless. He has never used deep litter in his loft but likes a sprinkling of sharp sand and lime on the floors after cleaning out. He likes a good type of pigeon and when bringing in new stock birds, looks for balance in the hand, with good feather and wing. Well done to Les on his brilliant recent racing seasons!

Arthur Payne ‘Success on a push bike!’.

The late, great Arthur Payne of Kinston was still racing his pigeon with outstanding success at 80 years of age and had never driven a motor car, doing all his pigeon work on his push bike, including taking the birds to the local club on marking night. His little team of racers only had one Guildford (20 miles) training toss before the first race and was only out of the Three Borders Federation result a couple of times in the 2006 old birds season. Arthur didn’t send to the last two S.M.T. Combine races, but still finished up third in the Federation Individual Points Trophy at the end of old birds. His 2006 old bird performance in the Federation was: 23rd Federation (1,563 birds) Wincanton: 4th Federation (1,805 birds) Wincanton (2): 2nd, 17th Federation (1,737 birds) West Bay: 20th, 21st Federation (1,775 birds) Kingsdown: 23rd Federation (1,212 birds), 45th open S.M.T. Combine Yelverton: 8th Federation (1,223 birds), 48th open S.M.T. Combine Wadebridge: 5th, 23rd Federation (1,557 birds) Exeter: 8th, 23rd Federation (1,081 birds), 9th, 39th open S.M.T. Combine Truro: 6th, 7th, 12th,17th Federation (1,376 birds) Portland: 3rd, 8th, 20th Federation (788 birds) West Bay (2): 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th Federation (1,068 birds) Lulworth. Brilliant success on a push bike!

Arthur Payne started the 2006 season, in the same fashion as he finished the 2004 and 2005 seasons winning pigeon races! The star bird of the 2006 season once again was Arthur’s Champion ‘Kenny’ and he won several premier positions that year, including: 2nd Federation West Bay, 3rd Federation West Bay, 8th Federation Wadebridge, bringing his win tally up to seven times 1st club.  Arthur chalked up 1st club, 6th Three Borders Federation, from the first race of the 2005 season, from Lulworth with his brilliant Jan Huybregts blue chequer cock, ‘Kenny’, and this great pigeon has lots of previous good form, winning in 2004: 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 4th open S.M.T. Combine Poitiers, 1st club, 9th Three Borders Federation, 11th open S.M.T. Combine Fougeres. A brilliant performance! Arthur named the handsome blue chequer, ‘Kenny’, after his breeder, the late Ken Besant of New Malden, who produced him from stock birds obtained from John Keywood of Hersham. Other top performers of the 2006 season were, ‘Mark 1.’, ‘Mark 2.’ and ‘The 25’, all Janssen cocks bred by Arthur and Bobby’s friend Mark Kidby.

Back in the 1970’s I flew in the very strong Kingston club (Surrey Federation) with Arthur and he was always one fancier to look out for, especially in the channel events. This great fancier was 80 years of age when I wrote this article and he told me that after racing in the Kingston club for over 50 years he was very sad to see this great club stop functioning at the end of the 2003 season. In 2004 it was Arthur’s first season racing in the Surbiton Flying Club and won ten races that year, taking the first three positions several times. He enjoyed a brilliant season in the Three Borders Federation, recording 10th open Exeter (1,292 birds), 8th open Lulworth (2,384 birds), 9th open Fougeres (1,137 birds), 8th open West Bay (2,105 birds), 3rd open Exeter (1,584 birds), 1st open Poitiers (823 birds), 10th open Lulworth (1,629 birds), 18th open Kingsdown (1,140 birds). A brilliant loft performance! Arthur’s son-in-law is Bobby Besant of the old double National Flying Club winning partnership of C. H. Besant & sons of New Malden and now winner of 1st open International Agen in partnership with his son, Anthony, enjoyed his Saturday afternoons at that time at Arthur’s loft, helping him clocking in.

Arthur’s set up consisted of two small lofts, which were scraped out regularly and they were very open, as he was a fancier who liked plenty of fresh air for the inmates. He said at the time that had always been a scraper man and had never used deep litter on the loft floors. The old birds were raced on a type of roundabout system, with 25 pairs of racers being paired up in February. Never having driven a car, Arthur just rode a bike, so his hens were trained on the local pigeon transporter twice a week. The cocks were not trained, but exercised round the loft every day. The racers were fed a good widowhood mixture, being broken down in the early part of the season and were given extra maize as the races got longer. Just like the normal widowhood system, the hens were shown to the cocks on marking night and they raced every week in the Federation. Arthur told me that ‘Kenny’, his first winner of the 2005 season, had flown in 25 races over the two seasons. The Payne loft housed several families of pigeons, including Janssens from Mark Kidby, Huybregts from John Keywood, Winkles and newly introduced Eric Cannon long distance family. The main stock cock was a Winckel called ‘Peanut’ and a lot of his winning bloodlines were in the loft until the end. This wonderful old cock was Arthur’s favourite and used to come into the back kitchen, and eat peanuts off the table. ‘Peanut’ was never raced from France, but won many inland races for the Payne loft. He was a good racer, but a better breeder, and had bred no end of winners for Arthur. A grandson of ‘Peanut’ won two races in the 2004 season. Two of the top racers in the loft on my visit were: ‘The Image’ and ‘Queenie’, direct children of the old blue cock and Arthur said at the time, ‘The Image’ was the image of his father, and had won races every season. ‘Peanut’ was bred by C. H. Besant & sons and strayed in to Arthur’s loft as a young bird, but liked the Payne loft so much, he kept coming back and was gifted to him. A wonderful old pigeon!

Well that’s it for this week! I hope my readers have enjoyed a re-visit and look at Les Penycate and Arthur Payne’s great winners! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT

(www.keithmott.com)