“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

LOOKING BACK OVER THE YEARS (PART 4.)

ROD & ANGELA BERRY

of New Milton

by Keith Mott

Several years ago we had a week’s holiday with the family in Hampshire and while in the New Milton area, I thought I might take the opportunity to have a day out on my own, visit a couple of old pigeon fancier friends, who live there. The first was Rod Berry who lived in Ashford and was one of the premier fanciers in the Middlesex before moving to new Milton about ten years ago. Rod and Angela love living just over two miles from the sea at Barton and walk along the front every day. Rod says it’s brilliant with the New Forest and Bournemouth just up the road, but the pigeon racing is hard where he lives, with the birds coming over the English Channel, and ‘dog legging’ back to New Milton in most races.

Rod had taken his winning ways to Hampshire, winning countless firsts and at that time had won five times 1st Section in Classic and National races, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Solent Federation Carentan (2,500 birds) and with young birds in the 2013 season won four times 1st club, and 1st Solent Federation Exeter (2,300 birds). His best pigeon was the Janssen blue chequer widowhood cock, ‘Scare’ and he had scored from France 13 times, including 1st section BBC Vire (north east wind), 1st section CSCFC Carentan, winning over £3,000 and is the sire of winners. He was from a brilliant line of winners, with his sire, ‘Merlin’, winning: 3rd open Combine Bergerac, 1st club Tours (only bird on the day of liberation), 1st club Nantes (twice) and 1st club Exeter. ‘Scare’ had an outstanding brother, which Rod called ‘Mercedes’ and had won 1st club Exeter  as a young bird, scored many times in the Classic and National through to Bergerac (450 miles), including 15th open BBC Niort and had bred a 1st Federation winner. A fantastic line of Janssen pigeons! The best Saturday’s racing Rod had had in Hampshire was when a sister to ‘Scare’ won 1st section, 5th open BBC Lamballe, lifting a colour TV, a holiday and all pools and five minutes after clocking her, clocked another bird in the CSCFC Truro race to win 1st section. Brilliant pigeon racing!

Rod’s garden is much small than his old one in Middlesex and only keep a small team of between 15 and 20 pairs of racing pigeons, which he mostly races in Classic and National events and no stock birds. His very smart loft is ‘L’ shaped, with a 16ft section for the old birds and a 7ft section for young birds, and all clocking is on the ETS system through ‘sputnik’ traps. The loft has slatted floors and Rod tells me all his lofts have had this feature since he started up in 1968.What I thought was unusual with Rod’s set up was that the widowhood cocks had a nice aviary at the end of their section, which is the opposite to tradition with keeping the cocks closed down, but he likes them to get out in the weather and take baths. It works for him! Rod has raced on the roundabout system but tells me he can’t get on with it, so races entirely on his old favourite, widowhood. The widowhood hens are kept in an aviary at the back of the main loft and they keep really well in the open air.

The birds are paired up in the last week of January and the main family kept are Janssen from Ken Darlington and Bob Ashman. Rod likes the ‘Versele-Laga’ corns and feeds all their ‘plus’ mixtures. He races the tradition widowhood system, with the cocks being broken down on barley on the Sunday, and built up for the rest week to the Saturday race. He rarely shows the hens to the racing cocks on marking night, as he says it doesn’t matter, but the hen is always in the nest box on his return. At the start of the season the old birds rear a pair of youngsters before the hens are taken away for the widowhood and the cocks only get four training tosses before the first race. Rod says, training is not a good option because of the very bad hawk situation in the New Forest area, so they are never trained during the season and are exercised around the loft twice a day for an hour. He races a team of about twenty young birds and these are put on the ‘darkness’ system when the clocks go forward in the spring. They come off the system in the last week in May and Rod trains them north to Salisbury (25 miles), as it is easier than going west along the coast in holiday traffic. Rod maintains direction of training has no bearing on racing success, as he had six young bird races in the 2013 season and won four times 1st club and 1st Solent Federation Exeter (2,300 birds). He likes to give the young cocks as many inland races as possible and they are allowed to pair up for racing if they want to.

Since starting up in pigeon racing in 1968, Rod Berry of Ashford has won the Federation at every stage up to Bergerac (450 miles) on the south road and every stage up to Thurso (510 miles) on the north road. One of his best performance to date was in 1992 when his ace blue Cattrysse cock ‘Top Gun’ won 1st Section E, 3rd open NFC Pau (550 miles). He raced 17 years on the north road and won the Federation from Thurso (510 miles) twice and for one win there were only two birds home on the day of liberation in the Federation. The Berry loft turned south road in 1986 and straight away was top prize winner in the very strong Ashford Club for seven years on the trot. Rod has won the Federation many times on the south road, including the longest old bird race from Bergerac. Rod married at the age of 20 and moved into the bungalow which his father-in-law had just moved out of. His father-in-law was the late ‘ace’ fancier, Eric Matthews, and on moving out of the bungalow Eric left the lofts erected so he could break his birds to his new address. Birds kept returning to the bungalow and Rod became more and more interested in the pigeons. On deciding to start up, Rod obtained some Cattrysse pigeons from Eric's fantastic family. He joined the Ashford North Road Club and the Cattrysse started to win out of turn from the outset. Football was Rod's main interest when he moved into the bungalow, then the pigeons took over and the majority of Rod's Cattrysse pigeons were bred down from a son of De Draaier and a grandson of Figaro, both bred by the late, great Gerard Cattrysse. Some of Rod's early champions were: Champion ‘Bullet’, a grandson of De Draaier, bred by Eric Matthews in 1969 and he was put on the widowhood system as a two year old, and that's when Rod's racing career really took off. Bullet won ten times 1st club and three times 1st Federation and many other premier positions. He was only sent into Scotland once (Perth 346 miles) and won it. ‘All Alone’ was a blue hen bred by Rod in 1970 down from Figaro and she won 1st club, 1st Federation, 2nd open Combine Thurso; 1st club, 6th Federation Weatherby and other top positions. On retirement ‘All Alone’ and ‘Bullet’ were sold to a top fancier in the Midlands. Rod's 1982 Thurso winner was his great blue cock ‘Marathon Man’ and he was bred by Eric Matthews, being closely related to Eric's Champion ‘Solitaire’, winner of 1st Federation three times. Rod's ‘Marathon Man’ was a double Federation winner, recording 1st Federation Pontefract in 1981 and 1st Federation Thurso in 1982. ‘Mr Consistent’: This blue widowhood cock won countless major prizes in the club, Federation and Combine from 85 to 510 miles, including several first prizes. ‘Powder Man’, winner of a long list of premier positions including 1st club, 8th Federation (3,123 birds) Pontefract; 1st club, 25th Federation (1,888 birds) Doncaster; 1st club, 5th Federation, 9th open Combine (3,461 birds) Thurso; 1st club, 8th Federation, 11th open Combine (4,395 birds) Berwick; 1st club, 5th Federation, 22nd open Combine (3,896 birds) Morpeth. A brilliant family of pigeons!

In Ashford Rod's very smart loft in Ashford was 60ft long, ‘L’ shaped and being a first class brick layer it was brick built and he liked plenty of fresh air and the young bird section had a wire flight built on so the inmates can come out into the weather. In those days he wasn’t too bothered about young bird races, he trained them well with lots of tosses from 30 miles and never sends them across the Channel. Rod raced only widowhood, as he has since 1968, and had two sections housing 40 cocks. The widowhood sections have a wire flight behind, running the full length of the loft, and this houses the hens during the week; the cocks have a bath in there on a Sunday morning. Rod said at the time his widowhood cocks win short and long distance but are at their most dangerous at 500 miles. The star bird in years in the Berry loft before his move south to Hampshire was the blue cock ‘Top Gun’ and he was pure Cattrysse, being a grandson of ‘Blue Tic Barcelona’. This 'ace’ had three races as a yearling and took two weeks to come home every time, then went on to win four times 1st club Weymouth (103 miles) and 1st Section E, 3rd open NFC Pau  (550 miles). Top Gun was put to stock and bred winners every year. Rod's team prior to his move were made up of his old Cattrysse pigeons and Janssens brought in from Ken Darlington and Bob Ashman. Both families race well, pure and crossed. Two of Rod's top Janssen racers at that time  were: ‘The Jet’, a blue cock from Ken Darlington which won three times 1st Federation and nine times 1st club. ‘The Ashman Cock’, a blue chequer from Bob Ashman which won 1st Three Borders Federation and 1st West Middlesex Federation. Both these brilliant cocks were put to stock and bred winners. The Cattrysse were the best at the long distance and the Janssens were outstanding on sprint and middle-distance races.

Rod's wife, Angela, is a great support with the pigeons and she does a lot around the loft and garden for Rod. He likes his old birds to race through to Bergerac, but takes it easy on the yearlings, saying too many yearlings are lost every year by fanciers who push them too far. Likely looking young cocks are given a few races then stopped. In feeding the birds, quality is the main factor and most important the barley should be of the highest quality possible. He likes to see a nice rich eye but says eye sign is rubbish as some of his best racers have average eyes. In Rod's opinion late breds are only any good for stock birds but must be off the very best bloodlines. The moult is considered very important and Rod gives the bird’s pigeon tea and additives, including Hormoform, to ensure a good moult. He used to like putting his retired champion racers in the stock loft and maintains these make the best stock birds, not pigeons brought in on pedigree alone. When I asked Rod if there was anything in the sport he felt strongly about he said yes, some clubs try and put to many pigeons in race crates to save money. He is totally against this and maintains the pigeons health and wellbeing should come first. He likes early morning liberation, especially for young birds and the ETS clocking system, but tells me he always turns his ETS off after clocking about four birds. Rod Berry, a really outstanding fancier!

The late, great Eric Matthews of Ashford.

I'm going to feature a very special fancier, who I have known and respected since the 1970s, the late Eric Matthews of Ashford. He was a bricklayer by trade so it's understandable that his wonderful loft is partly built of brick. Although I'm going back a few years with this article, Eric retired from his very successful building business and after many years as one of the premier fanciers in the Middlesex area, he moved next door to his daughter, Angela, in New Milton and finished his pigeon racing days in Hampshire. His Ashford team of Cattrysse and Silver Dawn pigeons had kept him good and steady, making him one of the most consistent fanciers in Middlesex for over 40-odd years. Eric found his pigeons a great relief from the pressure of business when he was working and they took his mind off building problems when he was at home. Eric first purchased the Silver Dawn pigeons from Hughie Ambler of Southend in 1955, obtaining one pair to start. The cock was a ten year blue called the ‘Smashing Blue’, being a really handsome pigeon and he was a champion breeder and racer in his own right. He won seven times 1st prize and scored right up to Thurso, 500 miles. The 'Smashing Blue' was paired to a Silver Dawn grizzle hen and bred many winners for the Matthews loft. At that time Eric also purchased a pair of Moss pigeons from a great friend of Hughie Ambler and Mr Wilkinson of March, and Eric then gradually blended the two families together. All the Silver Dawn / Moss pigeons in the Matthews loft went back to those original two pairs. Those pigeons won inland, but really excelled at the long distance. Eric's main family were  made up of two lines of Cattrysse pigeons, one from Les Davenport and the other direct from Cattrysse Brothers, obtained some 50 years ago.

In the 1980s the loft housed so many outstanding pigeons that it is hard to know where to start, but I think we will begin with the great Cattrysse champion blue cock, ‘Solitaire’. He was a Davenport Cattrysse bred down from Les' first national winner, ‘Game Lady’, and Eric told me at the time that ‘Solitaire's’ eye was the same as the Davenport champions. Eric paired up by eyesign and tried to breed the Cattrysse champions' eyesign into his birds. ‘Solitaire’ was very nice in the hand, being medium, and his outstanding racing performances were: 1974: 1st club, 1st Federation (1,743 birds) Plymouth, 1995: 1st club, 11th Federation, 30th open SMT Combine (4,256 birds) Niort.1976: 1st club, 1st Federation, 5th open SMT Combine (4,003. birds) Bergerac. 1977: 1st club, 1st Federation (1,688 birds) Plymouth; 43rd section Nantes NFC, 4th club Laval, 1978: 2nd club, 8th Federation Plymouth and bred some outstanding racers. A true champion! The star bird of the 1979 season was the Silver Dawn / Moss blue cock ‘Spartacus’, who was above medium, long cast in the hand. He won £1,010 in two national races in 1979, recording 6th section E, 39th open (4,781 birds) Pau NFC and 326th open (10,367 birds) Nantes NFC.

I think Eric Matthews was one of the pioneers of racing pigeons from the long distance on the widowhood system, perfecting the method 50 years ago and being one of a very few fancier to be consistently outstanding over a lot of years, on the system. The birds were raced mostly on the widowhood system, with the early part of the season being flown on the natural system. The old birds were not trained at all and the young birds got about four training tosses before the first race, but all are flagged to fly one hour morning and night around the loft. The hens flew the young bird programme and the young cocks were selected after two races, so that Eric had a good number of yearling cocks to go on the widowhood. Eric designed his fantastic 50ft ‘L’ shaped loft and a few of his carpenters built the front out of red cedar. There was a nice wire flight at the rear and stock birds and the widowhood hens were housed in that. The birds were trapped through the drop holes. Eric was allergic to dust, so the loft floors were slatted to let the dust fall away. The birds were cleaned out twice a year, from under the loft and Eric called the birds out of the sky by tapping the driving stick on the path. The loft consisted of five sections: young birds, stock birds and three widowhood sections, and it had a nice com store. The birds were hopper fed with a good mixture and the widowhood pigeons were paired up in mid-February.

Many great pigeons had been bred in the Eric Matthews loft including the great 1969 bred blue cock Champion ‘Bullet’. Eric bred this cock from Cattrysse Brothers pigeons and he was raced by Eric's son-In-law, Rod Berry, with outstanding success. ‘Bullet’ won thirteen times first in the Ashford NR Club and three times first in the Thames Valley NR Federation, winning at most race points including Perth (364 miles). ‘Bullet’ was bred down from the Cattrysse champion ‘Draaier’ and was sold to a Midlands fancier for £700. Eric sais some good winners were bred down from the great ‘Bullet’. In return, son-in-law Rod bred Eric's good blue cock ‘Balloon’ and he won 1st club, 1st Federation (1,824 birds) Exeter; 2nd club, 7tth Federation (1,457 birds) Weymouth. ‘Balloon’ was bred from a brother to the great ‘Solitaire’. Another of Eric's best racers was the Silver Dawn / Moss blue cock, ‘The Roman’, and he won 1st club, 2nd Federation, 6th open BTB Combine (3,750 birds) Niort; 1st club, 4th Federation, (1,564 birds) Weymouth; 3rd club, 6th Federation (1,759 birds) Exeter; 15th Federation (1,319 birds) Avranches.

Eric started up in the sport in 1955 and said he learnt a lot from Hughie Ambler of Southend. He broke his novice status with a Sion pigeon from Bournemouth in 1956 and the first Cattrysse pigeons were introduced in 1964, with the Davenport Cattrysse in 1971. Eric maintained the best way to build a lasting family is to purchase two pairs of pigeons of the same strain, but from two different lines, for example, ‘Solitaire’ and ‘Bullet’, both Cattrysse but of different lines. Children of ‘Solitaire’ paired to children of ‘Bullet’ bred good winners. Eric said he had seen many a new fancier fail, by  make the right start and do well for a few years then bring in crosses from here, there and everywhere, instead of purchasing only one good bird. These fanciers usually experience a steady decline in performance. If a one-bird cross is not successful, it can be put right with ease, but with a lot of crosses the mission is almost impossible, with many wasted years. Novices, please note!

Eric thought the reason for such heavy losses at the first few young bird races was due to the clashing of Federations. Eric's success went back many years, but told me his biggest thrill was when he clocked his old pigeon '12345' to win Thurso (513 miles). Eric said in his years in pigeons he had never had a young bird flyaway and thought it was because he put youngsters on the trap boards before they could fly. As soon as they could fly from the trap boards to the ground, he only put them out after 7am and if they don't fly around after two weeks he made them fly for about 10 minutes at first. The main thing was to bring them on slowly for the first four weeks after weaning. He said it was very important at that stage to get the youngsters used to all the noises and movement around the loft like the lawnmower, children and other pets. In selecting producers he said they must show super fitness at all times and then he bred a dozen youngsters from them over two years, then he could then be able to select or reject them as producers. He told me he had used deep litter in the very distant past, but didn't like it because of the dust. Eric liked a few latebreds for racing and breeding, but not bred later than September.

Eric's 1980 1st Combine winner was the three year old Cattrysse / Silver Dawn blue cock called ‘Oscar’, who was flown on the Matthews widowhood system. Members of the Seven Counties Combine sent 5,553 birds to their second Laval event of that season and because of adverse weather the convoy was held over to the Sunday. The Combine liberated at 7.30am in a north, northwest wind and Eric clocked ‘Oscar’ at 1.27pm, also recording four other pigeons in the Combine open result. Eric said at the time that his first two pigeons came together and it was a matter of first bird to hand which won the Combine. They recorded 1st, 2nd and 7th open Seven Counties Combine. ‘Oscar’ was a very consistent racer, winning 3rd Federation Weymouth, 10th open Combine Niort and 1st open Combine Laval. A wonderful performance!

I hope my readers have enjoyed this article on the late Eric Matthews; he was a very special man and outstanding pigeon fancier! He was still was very successfully racing pigeons in Ashford and in later years won 1st open Combine from France again. Eric finished his racing years, living next door to Rod and Angela Berry in New Milton and was successful right up to the end. The great Eric Matthews!

Matthews & Longman of Ashford.

We have featured the premier Middlesex fancier, Eric Matthew of Ashford, so in this last section  I'm going to write about his brother, Roy, who flew in the Matthews & Longman partnership of the 1970s. The partnership of Roy Matthews & Mick Longman went on for about 15 years and showed outstanding consistency flying both North and South roads. They had both been top flyers in the Thames Valley NR Federation for a number of years and in the 1978 / 9 seasons won four times first, twice second and three times third in that very strong Federation. They were devout North Road fanciers, although they had two outstanding seasons on the South, winning 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 9th open SMT Combine (5,955 birds) Angers; 1st club, 3rd TB Federation, 11th open SMT Combine (7,787 birds) Plymouth; 2nd club, 4th TB Federation, 26th open SMT Combine Angers; 1st club, 2nd TB Federation (2,132 birds) Seaton; 2nd and 4th Slough Deluxe Open Truro (two-bird limit) winning a pewter tankard for ‘Best Two-Bird Average’.

The partners said that their most disappointing experience was when turning their birds from north to south and they lost their champion Cattrysse cock ‘Banker’ at Wadebridge. Champion ‘Banker’, a blue chequer cock, was a great-grandson of the Cattrysse Brothers Barcelona National winner ‘Figaro’ and the partners won out of turn with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren off him. During his racing career, ‘Banker’ won many positions in the first six, including 1st club, 5th Federation, 5th open North Thames Combine (3,393 birds) Fraserburgh; 2nd club, 2nd Federation (2,200 birds) Wetherby; 1st club, 1st Federation (2,100 birds) Doncaster; 1st club, 1st Federation, 4th open North Thames Combine (4,500 birds) Berwick; 1st club, 17th Federation Thurso. ‘Banker’ was a champion in the truest sense. The partners were really north road fanciers and said they didn't like the south road very much. The two main families kept were Cattrysse and Busschaerts, with some Alex Fleming of Esher pigeons being outstanding for Matthews & Longman at the end of their partnership. The partners rated the late Alex Fleming of Claygate as the greatest of the local fanciers, as he had been consistently at the top for over 50 years. Alex won 1st open SMT Combine Plymouth in 1979 with a Busschaert cock called ‘Mick’, named after Mick Longman, which was a gift egg from Matthews & Longman. Roy's & Mick's Busschaerts were all bred down from ten birds purchased in 1974, seven direct from M. Busschaert and three from Tom Larkins. The partners somewhat regretted that they sold these ten pigeons at the London auction for £1,000, as the offspring won out of turn after the sale. The Cattrysse pigeons were mainly down from pigeons imported direct from Cattrysse Brothers, by Roy some 35 years earlier. Roy Matthews was in the sport for about 25 years, starting up after finding a stray bird in the road and on starting up he was in partnership with his brother Eric Matthews. Roy & Eric had a successful building business in Ashford and Mick Longman was an electrical contractor. Mick had pigeons since he was ten years of age, and he was in partnership with his father when he started up racing pigeons. The first birds Roy Matthews had on starting up were Silver Dawns from Hughie Ambler of Southend.

I visited the Ashford lofts of Matthews & Longman in February 1980. They were situated at Roy's home with the exception of a small stock loft which was at Mick Longman's Langley home. The first pigeon I handled was the 'ace' blue chequer pied Busschaert cock ‘Bandit’, and he was bred from the original Busschaert stock birds. He handled long cast, above medium, with a wonderful eye and his dam was the highest priced pigeon at the London auction being sold for £260, which was a very good price in the 1970s. This cock had a sleepy look and was very relaxed in the hand, and Mick said all their best pigeons are like this, as mad birds were not entertained. The ‘Bandit’ won racing: 1st club, 1st Federation (3,329 birds) Pontefract; 1st club, 8th Federation (3,401 birds) Doncaster; 2nd club, 6th Federation (3,053 birds) Pontefract; 3rd club, 8th Federation (3,205 birds) Catterick. All the Busschaert pigeons in the Matthews & Longman lofts were bred down from ‘De 45’, ‘De 85’ and ‘Rapido’. Another outstanding Busschaert pigeon that I looked at was the blue chequer cock ‘Bill’ and he had won racing: 1st club, 1st Federation (2,694 birds) Pontefract; 2nd club, 2nd Federation (2,732 birds) Nottingham.

The partners had a wonderful 50ft L-shaped racing loft build of brick and red cedar wood. The sections were four widowhood, one natural, two young birds, a corn store and a flight for the widowhood hens at the rear of the racing loft. The partners used 26 widowhood cocks for the short races and 20 pairs on the natural system for the longer events. Pairing up of the birds started in mid-February, with a section being paired every week so as they had birds at different stages of condition when racing arrived and about 50 youngsters were bred each season. The birds were trapped through drop holes and deep litter was used in the stock lofts, which they found was very good using 'natural' granules in preference to sand. Roy & Mick liked line-breeding and said the best pairing is half-brother, half-sister mating. They liked high protein and fed a good mixture of beans, peas, with a little maize and fed linseed and wheat when the birds were moulting. The birds were given 'multivitamin' once a week and were given glucose on their return from the races. The old birds were given two short training tosses before racing, when no training was given as they were flagged for an hour in the morning and evening. The youngsters got 10 to 15 tosses before racing; then four tosses per week for the first few weeks of racing. The partners had clear-cut ideas on what was wrong with the sport and said there should be a law passed to clear all street pigeons. They didn't agree with averages and maintained that a points system should be used instead of averages. When selecting producers they looked for similarity to the best of the strain and said their best producers had not always been their best racers. They liked a few latebreds and these were put to stock until they were two years old, when they were put on the road. The birds were treated for worms and canker before pairing up, and for nesting material they used a mixture of straw and tobacco stalks.

Well that’s it for this week! I hope my readers have enjoyed this look back at three Ashford area champions of yester year. We will be looking at some more very soon. To view some old video footage of some of these fanciers and their birds go on to my YouTube channel. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters 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)