“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Will Worley of Laleham.
I’ve been writing articles in the fancy press since 1972 and after all that time I still enjoy visiting successful lofts, and writing them up. It still gives me a ‘buzz’ to visit the successful fanciers with big smart set ups and lots of good pigeons, but having always been a small team man myself, it always gives me an extra little ‘buzz’ to visit a successful fancier who wins with only a small team of birds. The month of September saw me take the family for a holiday in the New Forest and the weekend before I went, I drove to Laleham near Staines, to visit the current Federation winning loft of Will Worley, and you can’t get a smaller set up than his. Will had had a lot of good success in recent years and that season had seen him win 1st, 2nd Spelthorne club, 1st, 3rd Three Borders Federation Yeovil (1,259 birds), 1st Spelthorne club Taunton, plus several other premier positions in one of the strongest clubs in the Federation. The premier Spelthorne racer, Derek Reid, bred Will a batch of ten young birds to race and the 1st and 3rd Federation winners were part of that job lot. The Federation winner was a handsome dark cock and Wil told me he really liked the pigeon from the first time he saw him, and the 3rd Federation winner was, ‘The 52 Hen, a blue chequer hen. These two birds were mated together and went to the Yeovil race sitting eggs in a bowl on the loft floor. The two birds came from the race together, trapped together, but were split in the Federation result by Will’s slow clocking method!
When I say that Will has a small loft set up, I mean small, with his young bird loft being a 6ft x 4ft garden shed with a ‘sputnik’ trap screwed to the door! The window of the shed had wire fitted over it for ventilation and the inmates entered the loft through a hole in the door, via the ‘sputnik’ trap. On race days the hole in the door was blocked off, so Will could de-rubber his arrivals straight out of the ‘sputnik’ and then walked the rubber to the clock which was on the window ledge inside his back ‘French’ doors in the house. If Will had any problems with the birds in the ‘sputnik’, he put a little net over them and slips the rubber off their leg. He had only had a small team of youngsters this season, which were basically the ten gift babies from Derek Reid and four of his own Jan Aarden youngsters. There was no ‘darkness’ system at this loft, with everything being raced on the natural system and Will told me if he saw two young birds pairing up he gave them a nest bowl. The young birds were fed on a good quality mixture, with condition seed for trapping and let out every morning at 06.30hrs shape for an hours exercise. They flew so well around the house, that they had very little training, only three or four tosses from Basingstoke. Will maintained the Yeovil race was set up dead right for his birds, as the liberation was at 06.30hrs and that the time his youngsters go out for their fly every morning. They came like rockets! He said the young birds need a regular routine and need to be fed and exercise the very same time every day.
On the day that I visited Will’s home in Laleham his daughter, Sally, was there doing some house work for him and she was very keen on his birds and carries out a few little jobs around the loft for him. He kept no stock birds, in fact he only owned three pairs of old bird and these were Jan Aardens from Louella Pigeon World. Will won an old bird Taunton race in the very strong Spelthorne club that season with his natural blue chequer cock, ‘The Taunton Cock’ and he was a Louella / Jan Aarden pigeon. The old birds were housed in another small garden shed which was very dark, but the inmates looked in great condition and happy in there. When I asked him when he pairs up, he said they were never split up and were paired up all the year around, and he fed all the pigeons on the same mixture, which had no beans. Will thought fanciers feed to much Barley and said that is one feed he would never use! He said the late Mick Nunn, the Spelthorne secretary, was a good friend and he had been very successful in recent seasons winning the Combine twice. The old birds got plenty of training from Basingstoke (35 miles) with inland racing in mind and sometimes he sent them training in a taxi cab. Will liked sprint racing mainly, but had had some good success with racing from France. The very successful bothers partnership of Peter and Les Worley are Will’s two nephews and they have been two of the leading Middlesex fanciers for many years.
Will had his first pigeons in the 1950’s when he raced in partnership with his father, Les, and brother, Ron, and they were successful from the outset racing on the north road. Will always had a passion for pigeon racing and eventually went to the Ashford South Road FC, where he met his great friend, Jim Terry, who was the secretary at that time. Eric Matthews, Rod Berry and Joe Parker were three of the very best pigeon racers in the South of England at that time and they were all members of the Ashford club. Will said he had some great and enjoyable years at the Ashford club, and won his first race on his own from Avranches in about 1970. He remembers that he beat the late great Eric Matthews by 2ypm that day! The pigeons he kept and raced in the early days were the ‘Silver Dawn’ strain obtained direct from Hugh Ambler, who was a great fancier at that time. The Worley loft had won several major prizes in Continental racing including 3rd open Combine twice. Will had a good blue cock called ‘The Niort Cock’ and he won a long list of premier performances including 3rd Combine Niort. This wonderful cock came through the Tony Prior of Feltham bloodlines and Will told me, Tony was a very good friend, helping him a lot with the pigeons in the early days. Will was retired from work, but used to be a lorry driver and used to take his birds to work with him for training, with his basket perched on the passenger seat beside him. He told me, win or lose, the main thing is to enjoy your pigeons!
The late Mick Nunn & son of Twickenham.
The Three Borders Federation has experienced some outstanding racing in the first half of its 2014 inland programme and the Honiton (2) race, flown at the back end of May was no exception. Federation convoyer, David Stanway, liberated the 1,216 birds at 08.00hrs into a north east situation and a good steady race was enjoyed by all. It was the Spelthorne club’s turn to take top honours, with the secretary, Mick Nunn winning 1st Federation, with his good cock, ‘Elisee’s Choice’. This game widowhood cock had won 1st open SMT Combine Alencon for the Twickenham loft in the 2012 season and after the Honiton race, Mick was heard to remark, that he had finished to the ETS brilliantly, the same as he did when he topped the Combine. Mick had no idea that ‘Elisee’s Choice’ had won the Federation again, as he flew off to the sunshine for a holiday, the day after the Honiton race!
Mick Nunn was born in the Gloustershire town of Tidbury and at the age of one the family moved to Mortlake in London where his parents originated from. This was the war years and Nunn family were moved out to the West Country, too return after the war had finished. Mick was an outstanding amateur boxer as a school boy. Mick had his first pigeons at the age of 14, in the garden at Alexander Road, Mortlake, but could not race then at that time as he had no money. Across the road from him lived the then secretary of the West Middlesex Federation, Lew Mendy. Mick’s dad worked with and was a good friend of the premier Barnes & Mortlake fancier, Les Elliott, and Mick was in his garden when Les won 1st London South Coast Combine all those years ago. He told me Les Elliott and Bill Watson made a big impression on him when he was young. The young Mick got married in 1959 and after having two children he moved from Barnes to Whitton, which proved the family with a garden. His wife thought the shed he was building was for the new tools they had acquired, but wasn’t very happy when Mick announced it was a new pigeon loft. His good friend, Ronnie Harmes, who was a 2nd London & South Coast Combine winner at that time was a great help in the early days and he was with Mick when he purchased his first pair of stock birds at the RP ‘Old Comrades’ Show. That pair bred Mick’s good pigeon ‘20609’ which won a lot of prizes in the very strong Richmond HS, which had 45 members at that time, including Nora Major, Harrison Brothers and Fred Brooks. Mick’s first club was the Richmond HS which was affiliated to the West Middlesex Federation and he raced to a small two section loft, with good success. His birds were Delbar and Cattrysse which originated from Fernaud Bollgerts of Belgium. Mick told me, ‘Mons Bollgerts is not as well-known as he should be in the UK and in 1968 and 1969 he donated pigeons to the RP ‘Old Comrades’ Show, including a son of ‘L’ Olympiade’. In later years Mick had a great partner in his good friend, Gary Bone, who had been an outstanding fancier in his own right for many years.
Three Borders Federation Archive Photos.
I was looking through some really old photographs the other day and as you can imagine I own thousands, but two that took my eye was couple I took at the Wadebridge liberation site in 1976. Betty and I were on holiday in Cornwall at the time and staying with our good friends and ex-London pigeon fanciers, John and Nelly Winters at their guest house in Penzance. Johnny is no long with us, but raced his birds with outstanding success in London and in Cornwall, winning the Federation and Combine. When he was in the London area he lived and raced to his wonderful Kidby loft in Staunton Road, Kingston, which was a couple of roads away from my mum and dad’s house in Durlston Road and my very first proper pigeons, Kirkpatrick and Kenyons, came from Johnny Winters. A great fancier! We travelled up the night before from Penzance to see the liberations at the Show Ground in Wadebridge and slept in the car, so as not to miss any of the action. I filmed the day on the old fashioned silent 8mm movie film and still have the footage today. On such thing as video in those days! The SMT Combine and London Federation liberated several thousand young birds that day and I have included the two photos this week, which are of the old Three Borders Federation transporter and the SMT Combine crew, including the late Reg Carlisle and Dave Blackwell.
That’s it for this week! A nice look back at the Three Borders Federation of yesteryear this week! 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)
