“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT - 24-07-26

“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Three Borders Federation (Honiton Race 2).

I would like to start this week’s article by congratulating the Federation secretary, Stuart Emans, the convoyer, Dom McCoy and the Saturday race team for producing a great race from Honiton at the end of June. The race was staged in the middle of the sizzle ‘heat wave’, when we had record temperatures of over 35 degrees! The race birds were well looked after, with the number of birds in each crate being lowered and the inmates had water in front of them the whole time. Dom played it ‘smart’ and liberated the convoy nice and early, at 06.30 hrs in to a South wind situation to beat the heat. With a bit of care, what looked like a ‘dodgy’ weekend; turn out to be good for pigeon racing and the members enjoyed a good race with excellent returns.

The Richmond club’s chairman, Fred Kimpton won the race by nine yards clear and continues a great winning tradition of the Kimpton family. His winner was his good six year old dark chequer widowhood cock, ‘Double 0’ and he has won several good positions previously including: 2021: 1^st club 5^th Federation Kingsdown, 2023: 1^st club, Wincanton, 2024: 1^st club, 14^th Federation Truro and now 1^st club, 1^st Federation Honiton. What a pigeon! Fred and Kelly are on a winning roll, winning 1^st club, 11^th Federation Okehampton the week before and won the Amalgamation Special Nom (£470). This was won with their good widowhood blue cock, ‘The JPS Cock’ and he was purchased at the Spelthorne breeder buyer sale, being bred by James Parker. The Mirek and Malgorzata Burczak partnership of Isleworth had a wonderful race from Honiton, recording; 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 7^th, 17^th Federation.

The first ten in the Honiton Federation result were: 1) Fred & Kelly Kimpton 1605 1574: 2) Mr. & Mrs. Burczak 1596: 3) Mr. & Mrs. Burczak 1596: 4) Mr.& Mrs Burczak 1595: 5) Mr. & Mrs. Steve Gasson 1588: 6) R. & W. Morris 1578: 7) Mr. & Mrs. Burczak 1577: 8) Tony Baughen 1576: 9) Terry & Sue Leonard 1575: 10) Graham Evans 1575. This was race number twelve of the season and at this point the Mitcham & Merton club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 53 points, with the Ashridge club being R/U on 45 points.

Fred Kimpton has won it all since starting up on his own in 1996, kicking off by winning the Federation ‘Young Bird Average’ in 1998. He has won the Federation many times through the years and has won 1^st SMT Combine Sennen Cove (1,987 birds) in 2001 and 1^st SMT Combine Yelverton (2,364 birds) in 2003. Fred loves to race and show his birds and has won countless ‘Best in Shows’ over the years. He likes the big Spelthorne open shows every winter and has won a lot of first there, including a few from me, when I’m judging there. The Kimpton loft set up is a very smart two section 20ft ‘L’ loft and the young birds are housed in their own 10ft x 6ft loft. Fred only races 20 cocks on the widowhood system and these are paired up mid- February. They are not broken with their feeding and are only lightly trained up to 30 miles before the first race, and then in the racing season they are only exercised around the loft every evening. The main family raced are ‘Heremans’, but Fred only keeps three pairs of stock birds and he says he likes a good handling pigeon, with a good pedigree of ‘winning work’ when bringing in new stock birds. He breeds 30 youngsters to race every season to race and these go on the dark system. They are well trained up to 30 miles and then race the full young bird programme.

Fred is the son of my late friend, George Kimpton who was a brilliant pigeon man for many years, who won at the very top level in the races and show pen. Fred raced in partnership with his dad, starting in 1972 up to George’s very sad passing and then he started up on his own in 1996. George Kimpton first became a pigeon fancier at the age of 14 when he spent most of his time in his uncle's loft learning the ropes and watching the birds coming from races. George had been in pigeons for 24 years and whether it be racing or showing he is always the man to look out for.  George's first club was Richmond & District where he raced Barker pigeons and his first loft was an asbestos 8ft x 4ft shed with a piano trap. The 1983 season saw the Kimpton pigeons win many top positions racing and showing including 1^st West Middlesex Federation Blandford, 1^st West Middlesex Federation Exeter and 4^th West Middlesex Federation Weymouth. George and Fred’s very smart loft was 22ft long, made up of three sections and had open door trapping. The loft housed two pairs of stock birds, twelve pairs of racers and thirty youngsters were bred every year. All the old birds were paired up in early March and raced on the Natural system as George liked to race cocks and hens, with water racing his main interest. One of George and Fred’s main stock birds was the six year old pencil pied hen 'Janet' and she was only raced as a young bird in 1978 winning 2^nd club Blandford and 2^nd club Weymouth, before being put to stock. This great hen was the dam of four 1^st Federation winners and had won twenty nine firsts in the show pen. 'Janet' had won two firsts at West Middlesex Federation shows and B.O.S., and had scored several times at the Old Comrades and R.P.R.A. Southern Region shows. One of 'Janet's' daughters was the dark chequer pied hen '77' which won 1^st West Middlesex Federation Blandford as a young bird in 1983. George and Fred’s families of pigeons raced really well right through to 450 miles and showed really well in the winter months. One of the Kimpton’s best birds was the eight year old Jim Emmett blue hen 'Emmett One". She had won many top positions racing including 25^th section, 36^th open Nantes NFC and 76^th section, 399^th open Pau NFC in 1979 and 1^st club Exeter. 'Emmett One' was retired to stock at the end of 1981 and bred many useful birds for racing and showing. The Kimpton partnership had put up many great performances, but one that George was very proud of was when they were 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd club Bergerac (448 miles) with the only three birds recorded in the club in race time. Another great performance was in 1979 when the partners sent two birds to NFC Nantes recording 36^th, 272^nd open to win £525. Georgie was my good friend for many years and he would help anyone in trouble. The sport’s ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ and also a very good pigeon racer!

Mirek and Malgorzata Burczak of the Isleworth are in the Federation result most weeks and have won the Federation several times in recent seasons. Mirek says he loves week to week racing in the Three Borders Federation, but once the present channel racing problem is sorted out he would like to have a crack at some long distance racing from France. Mirek Burczak had pigeons when was a lad back in Poland, but never raced until Malgorzata and he set up their loft up in Isleworth in 2018. In the early days they started with a batch of youngster from Louella Pigeon World and bred babies to enter ‘one loft’ races, and won some good positions, including 5^th, 14^th and 16^th open. Mirek and Malgorzata’s smart loft is 30ft long, with five sections and the ETS clocking system. The present racing team are all bred from stock birds from Ken Wise, John Bradley and Geoff Kirkland, which they are trying to create they own family with. The 25 pairs of racers are all on the roundabout system and are paired up in March, with Federation racing in mind. The racers are put on the roundabout system after sitting their first round of eggs for about a week and during the racing season are fed on a first class ‘widowhood’ mixture, but are never broken down. They are given five training toss up to 45 miles before the first Federation race and then are only exercised around the loft for an hour twice a day during the season. They breed 50 youngsters to race every year and these get about 15 training tosses up to 45 miles before the first race. They all fly the Federation programme, with some being paired up, but most of them are race to the perch. The babies are fed on ‘Junior UK’ mixture and then go onto the old favourite, ‘Gerry Plus’ for the racing season.

That’s it for this week! Well done to Fred and Kelly Kimpton for their first Federation winner of the season! Great pigeon racing by the Richmond loft! If you win and want a write up in this space, contact me on telephone number: 07535 484584 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)