“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Three Borders Federation (Holmsley Race 1).
The Three Borders Federation had 615 young birds away at Holmsley for the first young bird race of the season and this is a new race point, with the birds flying approximately 80 miles to the home lofts. Dom McCoy, the Federation convoyer, produced a cracking race when he liberated at 08.00hrs in to a North West wind. The Mitcham & Merton club took the first seven positions on the Federation result and the club president, Eric Fry won the race. Eric deserves everything he wins with his pigeon racing; he is a gentleman and a great worker for our sport. He is a small team fancier and sent nine youngsters to the first race, recording 1st and 16th Federation. This is Eric’s second Federation winner of this season, previously winning from Weymouth with his good mealy cock, ‘Crowborough Boy’ and he is the sire of the Holmsley Federation winner. What a fantastic pigeon, to win the Federation and breed a Federation winner in the same season! The Holmsley winner is a young mealy cock, now named ‘Son of Crowborough Boy’ and he was sent paired up, with a bowl in his perch, but not sitting eggs. Eric told me, his first two pigeons home from Holmsley trapped badly and the birds returned very patchy and split up, but enjoyed a good race. Eric’s Weymouth Federation winner was his good mealy cock, ‘Crowborough Boy’ and he was raced on Eric’s own celibate system. He purchased a kit of youngsters off Stuart Davenport of Wales in 2024, which produced three top winners for the Fry loft, including ‘Crowborough Boy’. Well done mate!
The first ten in the Holmsley Federation result were: 1) Eric Fry 1555: 2) M. Stetsiuk 1545: 3) Jim Andrews & Son 1545: 4) Jim Andrews & Son 1541: 5) Jim Andrews & son 1538: 6) F. Filipov 1537: 7) F. Filipov 1535: 8) Terry & Sue Leonard 1533: 9) Jim Andrews & Son 1525: 10) Mr & Mrs Steve Gasson 1501. This was race number fourteen of the season and at this point the Mitcham & Merton club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 63 points, with the Ashridge club being runner up on 53 points.
Mitcham & Merton member, M. Stetsiuk was just behind Eric to take 2nd Federation and the incredible 92 year old, Jim Andrews took 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 11th, 24th, 25th 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. Jim has won it all in his time in the sport and the 2026 racing season has seen him win many premier positions in the Federation, including: 1st Federation Honiton and 1st, 2nd Federation, 5th, 6th Amalgamation Okehampton (1,354 birds). 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. The partners have a really smart loft set up, made up of two 20ft lofts with ETS clocking. They race 18 pairs on the roundabout system and race the cocks and hens with great success. I asked Ben what families of pigeons they raced and he said, ‘we have several families, but that is not important to us, we just enjoy racing good pigeons. We have a lot of blues and blue chequers in our loft and like Federation inland racing best’. They put their 40 young birds on the ‘darkness’ system ever year and they race the Federation Programme. Mark and Ben are strictly racing men and never show their birds. The 2022 season was a highlight for their loft and saw them win 21 first in the clubs and 1st Surrey Federation twice! The Andrews partnership has won 1st Three Borders Federation from Truro and Honiton (twice) in recent seasons and 1st Federation Okehampton. Well done to Mark and Ben! Great pigeon racing!
As I previously stated a man who deserves evert success is the Mitcham & Merton club president, Eric Fry, who is enjoying a great 2026 racing season in the Three Borders Federation winning: 1st Federation Weymouth, 10th, 14th Federation Wincanton, 3rd, 21st Federation Kingsdown, 5th Federation Weymouth, 24th Federation Wincanton, 11th, 19th Federation Blandford, 16th Federation Honiton, 1st, 16th Federation Holmsley. Great pigeon racing!
Eric stared racing pigeons with young birds in 1964, in partnership with his late brother, Reg. They raced in the old Clapham Junction club and in their first season, they won four of the seven young bird races in the club. Eric’s father was the late ‘Jock’ Fry who raced pigeons in the 1950’s and Reg previously raced in partnership with his father at that time. The lads first loft was home made out of old second hand doors and they enjoyed great success racing to it! Eric and Reg had a blue chequer cock which won five firsts in the club, plus 1st Federation (twice) and that great pigeon bred a cock that won ten firsts, plus 1st Federation. Brilliant pigeon racing! Eric started racing in the Mitcham & Merton club in 1989 and says he has enjoyed some wonderful weekly racing, against some great pigeon racers in those 36 years!
Eric Fry has won the Federation many times over the years and has enjoyed a wonderful old bird season racing in the Three Borders Federation in 2025. He doesn’t keep stock birds and races several families of birds, the main ones being, Stuart Davenport and Kirk Bullen bloodlines. Eric’s best pigeon is a blue chequer cock named, ‘Speedy’ and he has won four times 1st club, plus 1st Federation and his best two racing hens in the 2025 season were from the Stuart Davenport bloodlines. The Fry loft is 20ft long and is open fronted with ‘sputnik’ trapping. The old and young birds are fed the same, on Eric’s own mixture, which he makes up himself with premier corn brands. Eric races old bird hens and cocks on the celibate system and tells me two of his best racers in 2025 have been hens. The cocks are shown their hens on marking night and then the racers are left together until the morning after the race, when they are separated again. His 15 pairs of birds are paired up in January and after rearing a round of youngsters they separated ready to start racing. They get very little training, but are exercised around the loft for an hour every day. His 24 young birds race the full Federation programme on the natural system and are trained as much as possible up to 35 miles. Eric races his birds every week and enjoys competing from all distances, through to 450 miles! Congratulations to Eric Fry on his great Federation success this season, it has been great pigeon racing!
William Nicholls of Mitcham.
William Nicholls made a good 1981 racing season great when he won 1st SMT Combine Le Mans with a wonderful 3,842 birds competing. His winner was his good Sion / Sheppard blue chequer cock, ‘Sez U’ and he had previously won many firsts racing inland.
William has always been interest in pigeons before starting racing in 1975 with young birds. On starting he joined the Streatham SRFC and obtained some Sion stock birds from Less Stagg of Sunbury. William told me, Bill Eldridge introduced him to the Streatham club, otherwise he learnt about pigeon racing through reading books and keeping his eyes and ears open. Since starting up in 1975 he had won: thirty two firsts, twenty seconds, twenty four thirds in the very strong Streatham and Mitcham clubs. In 1981 his racing team was made up with the Les Stagg Sion pigeons and Busschaerts direct from Belgium and from Ron Hallam.
The Nicholls pigeons were raced on natural, but William had a go at widowhood in his own way, without a lot of trouble. He said it was a nice sight to see the widowhood cocks trap on race day. The birds were fed on a first class mixture and were paired up in February. His racing loft was a converted furniture lorry, which still stood on its tyres and wheels, and he had a Kidby loft in which he kept his 20 pairs of stock birds. William kept his 20 pairs of racer and his 80 youngsters in the furniture lorry. He maintained the most important factor in good loft design was good airflow and he said, that good training was most important too, with his old birds getting a 40 miles toss three times a week and the youngsters getting a 30 miler five times a week.
He line bred and liked a half-brother / half-sister mating, but was against having late breds, having found them to be useless. William was dead against deep litter, saying it was unhealthy and preferring the scraper. He had no interest in the eyesign theory and was only interest in winning bloodline in the stock loft. At that time William thought his team were set up about right, with the Sions winning from Blandford (80 miles) through to Bergerac (450 miles) and the Busschaerts doing the sprinting.
That’s it for this week! Well done to the Eric Fry for his second Federation winner of the season! Great pigeon racing by the Mitcham & Merton members! 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)
