“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Three Borders Federation (Honiton Race 2).
The Three Borders Federation were at Honiton in late May and members sent 939 birds, for what turned out to be a good fast race, being liberated at 08.15hrs in a light west / north west wind. A guy who has been ‘knocking at the door’ and has pulled a good race out of the bag inland racing every week so far this season is Terry Leonard of the Ashridge club! Terry won the Federation from the Honiton race, recording 1st, 3rd, 5th Federation and has previously won this season: 9th, 10th, 19th, 22nd Federation Blandford, 14th, 23rd, 24th, 25th Federation Blandford (2), 14th, 24th, 25th Federation Yeovil, 3rd, 11th Federation Kingsdown, 15th, 17th Federation Yelverton, 5th, 11th, 22nd Federation Exeter. Terry Goodsell also of the Ashridge club is back in his winning ways by winning Federation from Exeter the week previous and he then took 16 positions in the Honiton (2) Federation result. Brilliant pigeon racing!
The first ten in the Honiton (2) Federation result were: 1) Terry & Sue Leonard 1666: 2) Terry Goodsell 1663: 3) Terry & Sue Leonard 1661: 4) R. Tingley & son 1660: 5) Terry & Sue Leonard 1659: 6) Terry Goodsell 1658: 7) Terry Goodsell 1658: 8) Terry Goodsell 1658: 9) Terry Goodsell 1658: 10) Terry Goodsell 1658. This was race number eight of the season and at this point the Esher club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 71 points, with the Ashridge club being R/U on 69 points.
I first met Terry Leonard a few years ago when he came to my home in Claygate to have several of his Federation winners photographed and ever since he has continued to do well in the Federation and Combine results. Flying in the strong Ashridge club, members of the Three Borders Federation he had put some good performances in the 2016 racing season, with the highlights being: 1st club Honiton, 2nd club, 20th Federation, 26th SMT Combine Falaise (1,591 birds), 1st club Blandford, 1st club, 10th Federation Yeovil (769 birds), 1st club, 3rd Federation Yeovil (878 birds), 4th, 5th, 6th club, 19th, 21st, 22nd Federation Exeter (651 birds).
Terry Leonard started up in pigeons at the age of twenty in 1978 and previous to that, was good friends at school with, Dave and Mick, the pigeon racing White Brothers of Epsom. After they had all left school Dave White moved into the house opposite Terry and after a few visits to Dave’s pigeon loft he caught the pigeon racing ‘bug’. Terry’s father had local pigeon racer Mick Heasman working with him and he presented some late bred youngsters to the young Terry too start him off in the sport. His first club was the Epsom Downs FC and his first loft was a 10ft x 6ft two section structure lashed up out of a load of wooden pallets that he had purchased for £10. They also straighten out the nails from the pallets and used then again! Terry and his dad built the loft, but he says, they were not carpenters and the shed reflected the fact! He also obtained birds from local Epsom fanciers including Dave and Micky White, Johnny Reynolds and Andy Norman, which started to win races from the outset. His early mistake was over feeding, but some of Terry’s early successes racing in the Epsom club were: 1st & 2nd club Blandford, 2nd club Vire and 1st club Bergerac. The fanciers who first impressed him with their performance was Bobby and Ken Besant of New Malden, who at that time were winning the Federation out of turn and in later years the late Ewell ‘ace’, Doug Walker. Doug was the first fancier to race on the widowhood system in the Epsom club and notched up countless winners in the early 1980’s. Terry race well with his ‘Heinz 57’ birds for several seasons and got more serious when Andy Norman bred him some pedigree Pol Bostyn stock birds. Andy put him in contact with Cliff Dobson of Idle Bradford and he had some of the first direct Bostyn pigeons in the UK, and Terry won well with them.
Terry now races in partnership with his wife, Sue, to their loft in Carshalton and when he was interested in sprint racing, he was very successful racing the Paul Arnold / Staf Van Reets pigeons. One of his best sprinters was the Staf Van Reet mealy cock, ‘Taunton Boy’ and he was bred from stock obtained from Paul Arnold and Vic Emberson. This brilliant cock won 1st Federation Taunton, 1st Federation Portland, 1st Federation Taunton and was 2nd Federation Taunton, being beaten by his nest mate when they dropped on the loft together. Brilliant pigeons! The current loft is an ‘L’ shaped Kidby style structure and is very well ventilated with chimneys in the roof. Terry races his cocks on the widowhood system, and these are housed in two sections with a glass frontage. These sections are very spacious, and he tells me he never keeps more than eight cocks in each parting. He has 30 young birds to race each season and these live in a nice 6ft x 6ft section. Terry tells me he stole his wife’s 8ft x 6ft garden shed to house his 12 pairs of stock birds and now her new replacement shed has also been taken over for extra young bird accommodation. What sort of man is he! Deep litter is used in the young bird compartments and Terry tells me, since he started using the litter, he has not had young bird sickness. He thinks the main factors behind good health in the pigeons are a well ventilated and bone-dry loft.
He races the widowhood system and says he has tried various feeding systems, breaking down, not breaking down, but now feeds a light mixture at the beginning of the week and a high carbohydrate strong mixture for the last couple of days before the race. He doesn’t show the hens to the racing cocks on marking night but is a great believer in leaving the hens with their mates on their return from the race, sometimes several hours. The cocks are trained well before racing, but never after it has started, only exercising around the loft for an hour twice a day. They stay on the widowhood right through the season, but Terry says he will try re-pairing for the longest race at some time and see if this improves the results. He told me resting pigeons after a hard fly is very important, as sometimes they look OK, but are they alright inside? The loft has won many premier positions in the Federation, Combine and Classic through the years including 2000: London Federation young bird average, 2007: 10th open L&SECC Tours, 2008: 7th open L&SECC Guernsey (2), 2010: 1st SMT Combine Fougeres (215 miles), plus many times 1st Federation.
The Leonard loft’s three top racers were: ‘Fougeres Express’ a two-year-old widowhood blue chequer cock and he won 1st Woodside FC, 1st Surrey Federation, 1st SMT Combine Fougeres, lifting the ‘Eric Matthews Trophy’. This game cock was a Romani Janssen / Kees Bosua cross and his sire won 1st Federation twice. The Combine winner was bred down from a wonderful line of winners, with his mother winning the Federation as a young bird and his grand sire winning seven times 1st club, three times 1st Surrey Federation and 1st SMT Combine. A brilliant family of winners! ‘Mr. Consistent’ another two-year-old blue chequer Romani Janssen / Kees Bosua widowhood cock and he had won a list of premier prizes in the Federation and L&SECC. ‘The Blue Boy’ a nine-year-old blue cock bred from the Paul Arnold bloodlines and is a grand son of Paul’s champion Staf Van Reet stock cock, ‘The Guvnor’. This great old widowhood cock won several top prizes including 1st Surrey Federation Portland and 2nd Surrey Federation Messac.
The two main families kept at the Leonard’s loft these days are Kees Bosua and Romani Fitzhugh Janssen, which have raced well pure and crossed. The stock birds are paired up in December and the first round of eggs are floated under the widowhood cocks. Terry visited Kees Bosua’s loft with some friends who were purchasing stock birds in 2005 and all the Leonard birds are bred from those purchases. Terry currently races about 40 young birds every season and is a great believer in schooling them well, by giving them many 30 miles plus training tosses before their first race. He puts his young birds on the ‘darkness’ system, giving them nine hours day light, every day and they are taken off on the 21st June. He races them to the perch, and they are allowed to pair up to motivate them for racing. The youngsters are raced through the programme to the longest race, Wadebridge (214 miles).
That our article for this week. Well done to Terry Leonard, he deserves his 1st Federation after several weeks of ‘knocking on the door’. I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ 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).