Three Borders, Surrey & Berkshire Federations Amalgamation (Okehampton Race 3).
The third and last old bird Amalgamation race of the 2026 season, which features the Three Borders, Surrey and Berkshire Federations took place on the first weekend in July. To say this new Amalgamation has been a success would be an understatement, it has been brilliant pigeon racing! The 1,354 birds were liberated at 12.00hrs in a West wind and the members enjoyed a great race with excellent returns. Gary Young and his late father, Alan of South Croydon have been a premier pigeon racing partnership in the Surrey pigeon fraternity for many years and Gary had a brilliant race form the Okehampton (3) race, recording; 1st Surrey Federation, 1st Amalgamation (1,354 birds). Gary’s won the Amalgamation with his good widowhood blue cock, ’Sonny’ and he is off the Leo Heremans and Van Den Bulk bloodlines. His dam is a pigeon from Mark Janssens in Belgium and she is a sister to 2nd KGDB National ‘Ace Sprinter’, and is the dam of eight race winners. ‘Sonny’ has won the club four times, including another one this season and the Federation three times. Gary told me, he left the hens with the widowhood cock from Thursday night and gave the racers a nine mile training toss that evening and then left the cock with their hens. Five weeks before his Amalgamation win Gary recorded: 1st, 3rd, 11th Surrey Federation, 2nd, 4th, 19th Amalgamation Okehampton (2) (1,024 birds). Well done Gary, what a fantastic performance! His first bird on the ETS to win 2nd Amalgamation was his brilliant two year old widowhood mealy white flight cock. ‘Jack’ and he has now won five times 1st club and three times 1st Federation. What a great racer and he is a handsome looker too! He is half-brother to Gary’s good racing cock, ‘River’, who has won sixteen first, including six times 1st Federation. His dam is a direct Mark Janssen hen from Belgium and she is sister to 2nd KBDB National Sprint Ace. What a family of racing pigeons!
The first ten in the Okehampton (3) Three Borders, Surrey and Berkshire Federations Amalgamation result were: 1): Alan & Garry Young 1932: 2) P. Donovan 1931: 3) P. Donovan 1919: 4) Mr. G. Muskett 1916: 5) Jim Andrews & son 1908: 6) Jim Andrews & son 1908: 7) Mr. G. Muskett 1904: 8) Mr. G. Muskett 1899: 9) Mr. G. Muskett 1898: 10) Mr. G. Muskett 1898. Nomination Specials (£320) won by Jim, Mark & Ben Andrews.
Back in April 2023 I was very sad to hear of the passing of Alan Young, who raced with outstanding success in partnership with his son, Gary, in the Surrey Valley pigeon club. This very strong club has had many National winners in its membership over the year and Alan and Gary were one of them. The father and son partnership of Alan and Gary Young have set the Surrey pigeon fancy alight for many seasons with their fantastic young and old bird performances, which include 1st open National Flying Club, 1st open London & South East Classic Club, 1st Combine, 1st Amalgamation and winners of the famous ‘Brooker Gold Cup’. Alan was a very nice man and a brilliant pigeon racer. Gary still races their pigeons as A. & G. Young and keeps up the families great name in the sport.
Alan flew pigeons in the 1960’s, with his son, Gary, became a pigeon partner about thirty five years ago and they race in the Surrey Valley Club (Surrey Federation). Alan and Gary have been racing from the present South Croydon address for just over thirty years and they have a two section 24ft x 6ft racing loft. The partners race 20 cocks on the widowhood system and these are paired up on their return from the Blackpool Show in late January. Although firsts have been recorded in the Saturday club, Gary says, most of their best positions have been won in the National and Classic clubs, including 1st open Chale in the National Flying Club in the 2006 season. One of the premier racers at the Croydon loft for many years was ‘The Mosaic Hen’ and she has an outstanding racing record, including 1st open Federation (1,328 birds) from Lyndhurst and ‘Anto’, the winner of 1st open L&SECC Guernsey and 4th Federation Portland.
Alan and Gary had three pigeon come together from the second London & South East Classic Club young bird Guernsey Classic race (2,000 birds) and produced a fantastic result by recording 1st, 2nd and 3rd open. The first pigeon too hand and to win the Classic was the blue chequer cock, ‘Anto’, and he had previously won 4th open Federation (1,495 birds) Portland. His sire was bred from the T.B.O. Partnership’s champion racer, ‘Mack-One’, winner of four times 1st Federation, when mated to, ‘Shore Bet’, also winner of four times 1st Federation. The dam of ‘Anto’ is a M. & D. Evans hen bred down from their champion ‘Hillcroft Fantasy’. This game cock was a ‘darkness’ youngster, flying his fourth race when he won the Guernsey Classic and was sent sitting seven day old eggs. In fact he was mated to the 3rd open Guernsey Classic winner, ‘Amelia’, which had previously won 3rd Federation (1,495 birds) Portland, 13th Federation (1,667 birds) Blandford. When Gary came around to my home in Claygate after the event to have his birds photographed, we had a good chat about the race and he said, the three birds were in the loft together and it was just a matter of which one came to hand first would be the Classic winner. The 2nd open blue chequer cock, ‘Danny Boy’, was bred from a Geoff Kirkland pigeon, the same one that bred the Young’s 2006 NFC Chale winner, Champion ‘Louisa’, making then half-brother, half-sister. Gary says, it was a shame he didn’t clock ‘Danny Boy’ first from Guernsey, as it would have meant the Kirkland pigeon would have bred a National winner in 2006 and a Classic winner in 2007. Mind boggling! ‘Danny Boy’ was the Young’s first bird clocked from the first Guernsey Classic two weeks previous, to record 33rd open and I think he must have be a good contender to win the ‘Wally Dann Memorial Cup’ for best young bird of the year. This young racing machine was sent to Guernsey sitting eggs and had previously won 5th Federation (1,696 birds) Blandford.
The weekend before the Guernsey Classic, Alan and Gary sent a team of 17 youngsters to the NFC Guernsey National (5,408 birds) and recorded 5th, 7th, 11th, 23rd, 99th, 176th open, lifting 2nd Gold Ring National. The partners got two pigeons together from the National and first one on the clock to record 5th open was the Belgium rung blue chequer cock ‘Willy’, and he was obtained from a fancier up country named Steve Hole. This cock was raced to the perch and previously recorded 3rd Federation (1,692 birds) Blandford.
The 2007 young bird team were set up for the London & South East Classic Club and National Flying Club races and were trained off the south coast, from Bognor and Portsmouth. Gary told me that they were trained on the Winchester line for a while with the ‘foot and mouth’ ban, but once this was lifted he turned them back to the coast. They also got additional ‘four up’ tosses from 10 miles in the evenings and came home from the Federation races in batches. The youngsters were fed on ‘Gerry Plus’ and were given regular exercise around the loft. The young birds were split in to two teams because of the ‘bird flu’ seven day rule and both performed brilliantly. The youngsters were put on the ‘darkness’ system on weaning and taken off two week earlier than usual, in early June, because Alan went on holiday. They were darkened from 5pm until 8am and the sexes were kept separated for the first three races, then they were allowed to run together for the rest of the racing season, with fantastic success. In the 2007 season training started about six weeks before the first race, with short tosses then went in big jumps down to the south coast. My good friend, Bobby Besant, had been given the partners one or two pointers with their pigeon management that season and great results came about.
The old sporting saying of, ‘when it’s your day, it really is your day’, applied very strongly to Alan and Gary Young when they sent to the 2006 N.F.C. Chale young bird race and didn’t just have one pigeon come to win 1st open, but had two come together. The first pigeon on the clock to win 1st open National was the partners little blue pied hen, Champion ‘Louisa’, and she was bred from Geoff Kirkland and Dave Hunt bloodlines. She had four club races on her build up to her National win and the L&SECC race from Yelverton, when she recorded 35th open. In my opinion, ‘Louisa’, is a perfect pigeon, small, apple bodied, wonderful feathering and eye, with a brilliant racing record to finish it off! My type of racing pigeon! The second pigeon on the clock from the Chale National was the blue chequer cock, ‘The Huntsman’, and he was a bit slow on the trap but still recorded 5th open National. This game pigeon had previously won 54th open L&SECC Exeter, a couple of weekends before.
Gary Young keeps ten pairs of stock birds, which are housed in a 7ft x 5ft loft, with aviary and are mated the same time as the racers so the eggs can be floated. During the breeding season a wood shavings and sand litter is used on the stock loft floor These birds are fed a first class ‘breeding’ mixture and a lot of the stock birds have come from Gary’s good friend, Dave Hunt of Dagenham, in the east end of London. Gary told me at the time told, Dave has been a very good friend, giving them some first class stock birds and excellent advice. One of the main stock birds at that time was the blue pied cock, Champion ‘Mack One’, which was bred and raced by the T.B.O. Partnership and he had sired several good winners, but Gary says his grandchildren were outstanding. This wonderful cock was champion young bird of Europe in 1999 and won 1st open Bosmolen Gold Ring Classic, 1st open Amalgamation (by 30 ypm), four times 1st Federation and was undefeated at Federation level. What pigeon to have in your stock loft! Other bloodlines at the Croydon loft are Geoff Kirkland and M. & D. Evans. Gary breeds 70 young birds for racing each season and he says he likes to go training with them at 4am, and sometimes they go down the road twice a day. Gary really enjoys young bird racing and starts training about five weeks before the first race, working them up to Petersfield (45 miles). During the racing season the babies get a couple of 12 mile tosses each week and the hens race the programme, with a few cock being stopped after a few races and saved for the widowhood system. The young cocks and hens are kept in separate sections during the racing season and run together on the marking day. When picking out new stock birds, Gary says he is only interested in good winning bloodlines and not type. He maintains that if a fancier lives in a club radius and is of good character, he should not be refused entry in a club, regardless if he is a good racer or not. Gary likes to show their birds in the winter months, but only at club level and not at National events. Well done to Gary and his late father, Alan on their great results over many years!
The other two Federation winners from Okehampton were: Jim Andrews & Son (Three Borders Federation) and Steve Oliver (Berkshire Federation). Jim Andrews has been an outstanding pigeon racer for over 71 year and at 92 years of age, he still has a great interest in the sport and sits and waits for the birds to return on race days. It is incredibly, that when Jim started up, the entire local pigeon racers ran with their race rubbers to one clock in the street and now the birds are clocking themselves in on the ETS. How things have changed in Jim’s 71 years in the sport! Jim’s son Mark runs the partners pigeon loft now, with Jim’s grandson, Ben, who is the loft manager. Mark told me, Ben is the pigeon racing brains and the ‘main man’ with their successful loft management.
Steve Oliver has enjoyed a brilliant 2024 racing season, winning many premier positions, including 1st Three Borders Federation and 1st Berkshire Federation. Steve won the Three Borders Federation with his wonderful two year old blue hen, ‘Carys’ and she has five first clubs to her credit, with this being her first Federation win, but has previously won 2nd Federation twice. She won the Lambert Flying Club from Exeter the week previous, with 188 birds competing. What a brilliant hen, bred by Steve’s good friend, Lee Beaumont. A couple of weeks into young bird racing Steve recorded 1st Spelthorne club (400 birds). 1st Berkshire Federation with 1,014 bird’s competing from Kingsdown (130 miles). He won this race by a ‘country mile’ with his wonderful Heremans Ceusters blue hen, ‘Iris’ and she won racing to the perch. Steve named her after his late grandmother, Iris, because she put up this wonderful performance on the anniversary of this lovely ladies’ passing. ‘Iris’ was bred by Steve friend, Gary Jacobs, who is a 1st open National winner. Great pigeon racing!
That’s it for this week! Well done to the Gary Young for his wonderful Amalgamation win! Great pigeon racing by the South Croydon loft! If you win and want a write up in this space, contact me on telephone number: 07535 484584 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
