“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT”

Three Border Federation (Champions of the 2022 season).

The competition in the Three Borders Federation has been strong and hard in the 2022 season, and once again the mighty Esher & Dist. RPC have come out on top, winning the ‘Federation Points’ Trophy’, with 88 points. The club has won the championship ten times in the last eighteen years and this time it was a good compaction, with the runners up being the Ashridge club the 2021 champions, on 78 points. It is common knowledge that the Esher is a very strong club, sending up to 200 birds a week and in most races, short or long, members have to more or less win the Federation to win the club. Needless to say the Esher member’s presence is very strong in the Federation results and they have won 185 racing positions, including eleven 1^st Federation winners in the 2022 season. A fantastic club performance! The Esher club must rate as one of the premier clubs in the south of England and is dripping with top quality fanciers who are hell bent on winning the Three Borders Federation every weekend. Congratulations to the Esher lads!

The Federation ‘Individual Points Trophy’ was won by a country mile by Paul Arnold of the Esher club, on 92 points and he won 73 Federation positions, topping the Federation four times and won the ‘Old Bird Average’ in the 2022 season. Paul also won the ‘Ken Besant Memorial Trophy’ for best pigeon of the year, won by GB 20 E 07567, the winner of 1^st Federation (twice), also 5^th, 8^th, 9^th, 12^th, 21^st Federation in the 2022 racing season. I recently spoke to Paul and he said, ‘This is due to Vic Emberson winning the Federation on the first two weeks of the season. I suppose you could say that he was ‘red hot Embers’ this season and the good competition really brings out the best in me! In fact it's a pleasure to race in the Esher RPC as they are all a fantastic bunch of blokes and although we are only a small club, they are some of the best flyers I’ve ever raced against. In fact between four of us we have won ten times 1^st open National, one car winner and a 1^st open International Agen winner. How many clubs can boast that mate! The Esher is impeccably run by our ever present secretary Michael Charlton and the camaraderie is excellent! An example of this is, two years ago on clock checking for the NFC Messac race that I was fortunate to win, Anthony Besant brought me up a bottle of Champagne to congratulate me, what an amazing gesture! Thank you Ant, it is one of the things I will always cherish about that day! I would like to wish our old club secretary, Allen Palmer, well as he has been unwell over this season and hope to see both him and Abby up the club racing again very soon. There you have mate, a great season and a lovely club’. I’ve been a member of the Esher RPC for 40 years and I second that Paul, it is ‘simply the best’. My best wishes to Allen Palmer, who has been unwell for a while and has been the backbone of the Esher club for many years! Congratulation to Paul on his brilliant performance!

On behalf of all the members of the Federation I would like to thank all the officers and worker for their good work in the 2022 racing season. They were just brilliant! Our hard working secretary, Bryan Poulton, tells me he has done the job for 36 years now, which is an incredible achievement. Bryan was born in Hersham, near Weybridge in Surrey, and first became interested in pigeons as a 14 year old when visiting his friend, Dave Newman, who was a pigeon fancier. He has now had his pigeons 68 years and still loves the sport. Bryan's father wasn't a fancier but was very keen on greyhounds, so with Dave's help Bryan obtained pigeons from Harry Wheatcroft of Reigate and Freddie Ranaboldo of Molesey, to start himself off in the sport. He started racing his pigeons in 1954 and says he admired the performances of Freddie Ranaboldo and Charlie Maycock, who were the premier local fanciers at that time. He had his first race with young birds in 1955, flying in the Walton RPC and recorded 3rd and 4th club. Bryan was a founder member of the Esher & District RPC and was their first secretary. The first Poulton loft was an orange box on stilts and after some help from local fanciers, including Mark Finestone, he progressed to a 20ft loft with a large bay.

Bryan says he likes the loft to have plenty of air circulation, but it must be dry and warm. The loft houses 30 natural pairs of racers, which are paired up on 14^th February. Bryan says he likes to treat them as pets and tends to over feed them. He has no stock birds, only breeding from his best racers, and has a young bird team of about 50 birds each season. His pigeons are the original Heide family bred from the Wheatcroft cock birds and the Ranaboldo hens. He thinks the original Harry Wheatcroft stock came from Rey Brothers of Scotland. In recent years, he has introduced the Dordin and Cattrysse pigeons with outstanding success. The Poulton pigeons are now his own inbred family and he says they have always tended to be better from the longer races. From the Continent, he maintains that his best performance was racing from Bergerac in two clubs on the same weekend, taking the first three positions in one club and the first two in the other, all with birds clocked on the day of liberation. He has also won the Federation many times over the years.

The Three Borders Federation winners in the 2022 season were: 1) Vic Emberson (Esher) 1^st Federation Wincanton: 2) Vic Emberson (Esher) 1^st Federation Wincanton: 3) Paul Arnold (Esher) 1^st Federation Yeovil: 4) Paul Arnold (Esher) 1^st Federation Honiton: 5) Vic Emberson (Esher) 1^st Federation Exeter: 6) Vic Emberson (Esher) 1^st Federation Blandford: 7) Holden & Pratt (Ashridge) 1^st Federation Wadebridge: 8) Paul Arnold (Esher) 1^st Federation Honiton: 9) Paul Arnold (Esher) 1^st Federation Okehampton (2^nd South East Combine): 10) Mirek & Malgorzata Burczak  (Isleworth) 1^st Federation Kingsdown: 11) Terry & Sue Leonard (Ashridge) 1^st Federation Exeter: 12) M/M Graham Evens (Isleworth) 1^st Federation Yeovil: 13) Mirek &Malgorzata Burczak (Isleworth) 1^st Federation Honiton: 14) Rafa Suchocki (Mitcham & Morden) 1^st Federation Penzance: 15) Eustace & Koby Benjamin (Richmond) 1^st Federation Wincanton: 16) Vic Emberson (Esher) 1^st Federation Wincanton: 17) Malik & Khan (Esher) 1^st Federation Blandford: 18) Terry Goodsell (Ashridge) 1^st Federation Yeovil: 19) Malik & Khan (Esher) 1^st Federation Blandford: 20) Terry Goodsell (Ashridge) 1^st Federation Blandford: 21) Terry & Sue Leonard (Ashridge) 1^st Federation Blandford.

Three Borders Federation 2022 trophy winners were: ‘Pigeon Fancier Trophy 1’ Not Presented: ‘Harry Fielding Memorial Trophy’ Not Presented: ‘Harley Challenge Trophy’ Not Presented: ‘Blackwell Rose Bowl’ Not Presented: ‘Cooper Challenge OB Trophy’ M/M Holden & Pratt: ‘Longest Old Bird Race Trophy’ Rafa Suchocki: ‘Gazette Perpetual Trophy’ Rafa Suchocki: ‘Hartley Challenge Trophy’ Terry Goodsell: ‘Cooper Challenge YB Trophy’ Not Presented: ‘Heritage Trophy’ Terry Goodsell: ‘Fred Mott Memorial Cup’ Rafa Suchocki: ‘Ken Besant Memorial Trophy’ (Best Pigeon of the Year) Paul Arnold GB 20 E 07567, the winner of 1^st, 1^st, 5^th, 8^th, 9^th, 12^th, 21^st Federation: ‘A. Knight Trophy’ Not Presented: ‘Pigeon Fancier Trophy 2’ Not Presented: ‘Sandhurst Trophy’ Paul Arnold: ‘Falkland Trophy’ Terry Goodsell: ‘F. J. Elliott Trophy’ Not Presented: ‘Federation Rose Bowl 1’ Rafa Suchocki: ‘Federation Rose Bowl 2’ (Individual Points) Paul Arnold: ‘Federation Points Shield’ (Club Points) Esher & District RPC.

Three Borders Federation 2022 averages winners were: Old Bird Average: Paul Arnold, r/u Vic Emberson: Young Bird Average: Terry Goodsell, r/u Rafa Suchocki: Combine OB & YB Average: Rafa Suchocki: Best Average Two Longest OB Races: Rafa Suchocki, r/u Paul Arnold: Best Average Longest OB & YB Races: Rafa Suchocki, r/u Eustace & Koby Benjamin: Best 2 Bird Average Longest YB Race: Terry Goodsell, r/u Rafa Suchocki.

Paul Arnold wins the Federation most seasons and it was no exception in 2021, when won 1^st Three Borders Federation from Kingsdown with 832 birds competing. Paul had a good race winning: 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th Esher club, 1^st, 2^nd, 10^th Federation. Talking to Paul after that race he told me, that he had the three pigeons come together and the first one on the ETS to win the Federation was two year old cock, which was bred from a double grandson of the Gaby Vandenabeele’s famous stock cock, ‘Rudy’. His dam is a Gaston Van Der Wouwer that Paul purchased from Derik Nicholls of the Premier Stud. Paul’s 2^nd Federation winning cock was a Staf Van Reet / Wan Der Wouwer and full brother to his Champion ‘True Faith’, winner of 1^st open NFC Messac for the Arnold loft in the 2020 season. Paul said, ‘that National winning line has been and still is very hot for me, with virtually all his brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters have scored for me. Now as they get older and have been retired to the breeding loft  they are now producing top youngsters through the next generation, so it does look rosy for me and it's so exciting when you find a special line’.

When Paul Arnold was in his Covid 19 self-isolation in the early part of 2020, he never dreamt that when he was finally let loose to race his successful team of pigeons, he would win a major National Flying Club race. Paul is a class act and has been one of the premier winning fanciers of the Surrey pigeon racing fraternity for many years. After having a good race and scoring: 16^th and 27^th open from the first NFC race from Fougeres, he sent a small team of five widowhood cocks to the second race from Messac (255 miles) and hit the ‘jackpot’. Paul clocked his good four year old blue cock, ‘True Faith’, in five hours six minutes to win 1^st open National by nearly 30 ypm, with over 5,000 birds competing. Paul named his Messac National winner, ‘True Faith’, after a relative who had recently passed away and told me, that for day after the race was in a dream world, coming to terms with fact that he had won the National. ‘True Faith’ was bred from one of Paul’s Staf Van Reet cocks and a Gaston van de Wouwer hen from Derek Nichols. This champion cock recorded 1^st section E (639 birds), 1^st open (5,097 birds) NFC Messac (255 miles) and has been retired to the stock loft. On Paul’s build up to winning the NFC, he won in the Three Borders Federation: 3^rd Federation Honiton (925 birds), 13^th, 23^rd Federation Newton Abbot (846 birds), plus 1^st club Wincanton. Paul is a member of the Esher & District RPC and all the members, including me, are very proud of his great achievement in winning the National Flying Club.

The Three Borders Federation held its third Wincanton young bird race at the end of August 2020 and what a race it turned out to be! Dom McCoy, the Federation convoyer, liberated the 750 birds at 10.00hrs into a strong northerly wind and at the home end the whole of the Federation result was swallowed by three clubs. What a good race it turned out be, considering it was a head wind over the racecourse all the way home! Paul Arnold crowned his fantastic 2020 season by winning the Federation from Wincanton by 9ypm clear. Paul recorded 1^st section E (639 birds), 1^st open (5,097 birds) NFC Messac (255 miles) just a few weeks before his Federation win, with his champion blue cock, ‘True Faith’. I spoke to Paul after the Wincanton race and he said, ‘I have won the Federation many times over the years, but never in the short sprint races. John and Darren May of Chichester have been good friends of mine for many years and my wife, Helen and I enjoy visiting them when we are in Sussex. They also live in lovey part of the world, which also make it even more pleasurable! We were at the ‘May Pigeons’ lofts early in the year and in conversation I mentioned to Darren May that I have never won the Federation in a short race. A few weeks later I had a phone call from Darren, saying I’m in London today; can I pop around to you house to see you? Later that day he arrived with twenty young birds in the boot of his car and said these are a gift for you, Paul, see how you go with these in the shorter races. My Wincanton Federation winner at 97 miles was one of those gift ‘May Pigeons’ youngsters. The winner was a ‘Pit Bull’ blue cock raced naturally and was sent to Wincanton driving a hen to nest. Thanks from me to John and Darren’. Congratulations to Paul, on his fantastic 2020 season!

The Three Borders Federation were at Honiton for their fourth race of the 2019 season and members sent 822 birds, for what turned out to be a very fast race. Paul Arnold of the Esher club had a good race recording 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 17^th Federation and our Paul had been ‘knocking on the door’ since the start of the season, previously winning: 15^th, 24^th Federation Blandford, 6^th Federation Blandford (2), 11^th Federation Yeovil. Members of the Esher & District RPC had won the Federation on the first four weeks of that season and a very special congratulation went out to Imran Malik and Atif Khan who had won the Federation on the first three weeks of the season, then on the fourth weekend won 1^st open BICC Falaise. Brilliant pigeon racing! The last time Paul Arnold had won the Three Borders Federation was in 2016 and it was from Exeter with 1,197 birds competing. At the time when I asked Paul about his latest Federation winner, he said, ‘we call him ‘Larry’, as in Larry loner, because he always flies on his own and come time to get him in is always missing! He was my fifth pigeon the week before from Honiton and was 19^th Federation. Funnily enough that week I mentioned to my wife that it would be interesting to see how he would come the following week from Exeter, because as when he was a youngster he seemed to get better the further he went. On the Thursday morning when it was time to get the cocks in from exercising, again he was missing but this time I thought the Peregrine had got him, as I had a hawk taken one of my youngsters the day before. But after an hour and forty minutes he came diving in up high from the north east, half a turn straight onto the board and in. Then on Saturday while we were waiting for the birds, five minutes before we expected them he appeared all on his own coming like a rocket bang on line, folded up, half a turn straight onto the board and in. If we'd had blinked we'd have missed him! I went up checked the ETS and as I came back down the garden said to my wife that I think Larry's just won the Fed! His breeding on his sire's side is my new family of pigeons, which are Gaston Van der Wouwers which we have spent a hell of a lot of money on, and is a grandson of ‘Rik’, a top breeding son of the amazing breeder of Gastons, ‘The Kaasboer’, who is responsible for many Provincial, National, car winners and ‘ace’ birds in Belgium. Several birds were purchased by us in 2013 direct from Van der Wouwer's sale in Belgium via Pipa. The dam is a mealy Staf Van Reet hen from my old ‘Santa Vosse’ bloodlines. I’m quite hopeful that together with my old family that these new ones are going to make an impact as my winner in the first race from Blandford was also a Wan der Wouwer’.

Paul Arnold’s present loft is a converted brick built double garage and the building was converted in the winter of 2003 by Paul and his good friend Barry Jarvis. The conversion work took a lot of planning, but says he has got it virtually right and the air flow in the loft is excellent. He has always raced on the widowhood system, but for some seasons has raced what he calls a double widowhood, racing both cocks and hens. Paul tells me returned back to conventional widowhood for the 2009 racing season. The widowhood team is normally made up with 16 cocks and 16 hens which are mated to the stock cocks. The feeding is varied, depending on the conditions and Paul mixes his own corn so can vary from one week to the next. The widowhood racers are sometime shown their mates on marking night, depending on the type of race and most of the birds are expected to race from Bergerac (450 miles). He never repairs the racers for the longer races and says he has tried it in the past and it has always been a complete disaster. Although he repaired ‘Victor’ in 2011 to win the Combine from Bergerac, but this was a one off! On their return from the race the cocks get their hens for as little as ten minutes at the start of the season, but on really hard races they may stay together over night. The old birds will be given two or three training tosses at the start of the season, if in the weeks prior they are flying well around the loft and then after a couple of inland club races they are ready for racing out of France. In the 2007 season they were exercising around the loft really badly, but came out and won: 1^st section E, 2^nd open NFC Alencon, 3^rd open L&SECC Alencon, 16^th open L&SECC Tours, 5^th open Combine Truro, 6^th, 18^th open L&SECC Guernsey (young bird) and 2^nd, 6^th open L&SECC Guernsey (old hens). Well, that’s pigeons for you! Paul told me, if they are flying well at home not much training is done through the season.

The Arnold loft houses 16 pairs of stock birds and Paul likes to line breed to his two champion base cocks, ‘Santa Vosse’ and ‘The Governor’. He normally keeps between 40 and 50 young birds each season and these are fed on Breeding Mixture for the first few weeks after weaning, and then are switched on to a lighter mixture for training and racing. He raced on the darkness in the 1990’s, but has now dropped the system, maintaining that by flying natural the babies roam for hours right up to the last races in September. With this natural method he says he can keep the training of his youngsters to a minimum and his first tosses is from 30 miles. His young birds get very few tosses, but are very soon up to the 70 miles stage, where they get four chucks before the first Federation race and he gets very few losses. Paul says he has only got one young bird section, so finds it a bit hard to motivate them with the lack of space and like to send then over the English Channel as many times as he can. If he could he would send them over to Guernsey or France every weekend, as in the main he is no longer interested in Saturday Federation racing and his main interest now being in the NFC and L&SECC young bird events. Paul likes to leave his birds together in the winter months and only parts them about four weeks before pairing up.

The super Paul Arnold / Staf Van Reet pigeons are winning premier prizes for many other fanciers in the UK, including several top performers in the Epsom loft of his good friends, Colin Crook & Andy Iddenden. Colin and Andy’s 2010 Yelverton SMT Combine winner was their ‘darkness’ Staf Van Reet blue chequer hen, ‘The Combine Hen’, and she was bred from stock birds obtained from Paul Arnold. Her sire is their good dark pied cock, ‘Keith’, and he is a grandson of Paul’s champion breeders, ‘Santa Vos’ and ‘The Guvnor’. She was a member of Crook & Iddenden’s 50 bird strong young bid team in 2010 and had one Federation and the two L&SECC Guernsey races on her build to her Combine win. She was never paired up and flew natural to the perch. A nice twist the story is she was lost off top of the loft when very young and returned home with an orange plastic ring on her leg, just before training started. Colin says he has never taken the ring off and she still wears it today! The Major Honey & Grandson partnership of Mitcham had a wonderful 2012 racing season, especially with the young birds and finished by winning 1^st SMT Combine Yelverton, with pigeon purchased at the Three Borders Federation Breeder / Buyer sale. The Combine winner was a Van Reet / Lindelauf bred by Paul Arnold and Paul told me the Staf Van Reet sire had won three firsts in the club and three top positions in the Federation result. The Combine winning pigeon, called ‘The Arnold Cock’, was also 3^rd Federation Newton Abbot (1,145 birds) the week before topping the SMT from Yelverton. Paul’s record for breeding winners for other lofts is brilliant!

Paul’s loft is dripping in quality and on my recent visit to his home in North Cheam we looked at several top performers, one of the best being his good blue chequer Staf Van Reet cock, ‘Champion 42’. This handsome cock is now retired after a fantastic racing career winning five times 1^st club, 1^st Federation Yeovil, 3^rd Federation Weymouth and flew the English Channel 27 times, and never had a night out. He recorded eleven positions in the first thirteen of the open Combine result and as a six year old won 2^nd Combine La Ferte Bernard, being beaten on decimal. ‘42’ has several premier prizes in the NFC and L&SECC, and in the very last race recorded 2^nd section, 3^rd open L&SECC Bergerac (450 miles). A fantastic all round Staf Van Reet!

Paul Arnold has probably one of the best lofts of all round Staf Van Reets in Europe today, winning a long list of premier positions in the Three Borders Federation in many of the recent seasons, including 1^st SMT Combine Bergerac (450 miles), with him clocking his sole entry on the day and 2^nd SMT Combine Messac. His performance from the longest old bird race Bergerac was what dreams are made of; he sent one pigeon and won the Three Borders Federation and SMT Combine by a country mile! I think I’m correct in stating that Paul’s Combine winner had the best velocity of any pigeon liberated in Bergerac that day, also beating the London & South East Classic Club and the Central South Classic Flying Club. An absolutely fantastic performance! The Bergerac Combine winner was Paul’s two year old Grizzle cock, ‘Victor’ and he is a Staf Van Reet / Roland Janssen cross, with his sire being a top performer at the Arnold loft, in the form the ‘19’ cock. This super Staf Van Reet cock has won many premier positions including: seven times 1^st club, 2^nd Federation (twice), 3^rd Federation and is a grandson of Paul’s champion breeder, ‘The Governor’. Paul had trouble motivating the Combine winner, ‘Victor’, in the first half of the 2011 season, but a week before the Tours race hen lost his hen and took up with a new mate in a different nest box. After that he never looked back, being sent to Bergerac for his Combine win driving his hen to nest. The super Paul Arnold / Staf Van Reet pigeons are winning premier prizes for many other fanciers in the UK!

The Arnold family has been very successful pigeon racers in the South London and Surrey areas for many years, with several brothers and their sons all winning in major competition. They are truly an outstanding pigeon racing family! Paul Arnold of North Cheam has been a premier pigeon racer in the Surrey area for many years and I’m amazed that we had never met until 2008, when he first came to my Claygate home to have his London & South East Classic Club winning hens photographed for an article. He is a great lad and we had a great chat about our sport, which lasted for nearly four hours. He is a very interesting fancier to talk to, as he is very knowledgeable about racing and breeding pigeon and has some very strong view about the sport. I was convoying in 2008 and just like our first L&SECC Guernsey classic flown in August of that year, the early weather reports suggested a hold over for our second Guernsey race in September, but my weather man, Steve Appleby, and I put our heads together and found a good window in the weather to produce an excellent race. On the race day morning there were light showers in the English Channel and I anticipated that with the very strong south west wind these would not bother the birds on their homeward journey. We cut the strings and liberated at 07.50 hrs and the 1,800 plus birds in the convoy cleared Guernsey instantly. Paul Arnold won the old hens classic (223 birds) with his fantastic Staf Van Reet widowhood hens and chalked up a brilliant 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th, 6^th and 39^th open. Paul sent 14 hens in brilliant condition to Guernsey and had two drop together, clocking his first bird at 10.01hrs. His Guernsey classic winner was his yearling widowhood Staf Van Reet blue chequer pied hen, ‘The 27 Hen’, and she recorded 44^th open in the first Guernsey classic in August. The hen that I was most impressed with was the beautiful red chequer Staf Van Reet ‘26’ and she has been a member of Paul’s widowhood hens team for several seasons, recording 2007: 2^nd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 6^th open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 2008: 3^rd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH). She is one brilliant hen! The Arnold loft also recorded 12^th open in the young bird Guernsey classic (1,599 birds) and Paul tells me that pigeon, a Staf Van Reet cock, has gone on and won 1^st club, 6^th Three Borders Federation (993 birds) Yelverton (179 miles) since his classic success. The Arnold loft recorded 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd South Downs Club, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th Three Borders Federation on the day. A brilliant family of Staf Van Reet racers!

Paul was born in Wandsworth and being born into a really big pigeon racing family became interested in the sport at a very young age. When he was a youngster in the 1970’s he raced with his father and brother in the Mitcham club, but was a very keen footballer and played most Saturdays and Sundays through the season. In the 1970’s Terry Goodsell dominated the Mitcham club and the young Paul always wanted to emulate him, and finally did in the 1990’s, winning everything at Federation and Combine level. After a break from the sport Paul returned in the late 1980’s and raced with his brother, Gordon, for a short time, before going it alone with a few late breds in 1989. Paul’s first club, which is the same one he races in today, is the South Downs in Epsom and his first loft was a brick structure at the bottom of the garden. His brother started him up with a nice kit of Louella / Verheyes and Paul won his very first race from Blandford with a thirteen week old blue chequer pied hen, which also recorded 5^th Federation (4,500 birds). He maintains the Verheyes were good pigeons and they won a lot of races, but when he introduced the Staf Van Reet pigeon it was obvious that they were not in the same class. Since Paul says, ‘over the years I have found there are many fads and fallacies involved with pigeon racing, but I’ve always done my own thing, sometimes it’s been right and sometimes wrong, but I’ve always learnt from it’. Paul has raced on his own for over 20 years and has won it all! He has won the Federation many times through the years and lifted many Federation average trophies, including the London Federation O.B. Inland Average in 2006. His fantastic Staf Van Reet pigeons have excelled in Combine Channel race over the years and have won: 1^st, 2^nd, 3rd open Combine Messac (three hens), 1^st open Combine Le Ferte Bernard and 1^st open Combine Sennen Cove. When I asked Paul about his family of pigeon he said, ‘I’ve had the Staf Van Reets for about 19 years now and they really are fantastic pigeons to race, and as I’ve always stated they are so good they make me look good. They are outstanding in any weather and any wind, but are especially good in head winds and, on hard days. I’ve tried many other families of pigeons against them in the past few years and none have come close to their excellent performances. I have been very lucky to own several ‘once in a life time pigeons’, but the two supreme pigeons are the base of my loft, in the form of the two Staf Van Reet Champions ‘Santa Vosse’ and ‘The Governor’. Champion ‘Santa Vosse’ is responsible for literally hundreds of winners all over the world, including many multiple winners of 15 up to 18 times 1^st club. ‘The Governor’  is responsible for countless winners, including at least 80 Federation, Combine, Amalgamation and National winner’. A wonderful family of Staf Van Reet pigeons!

Paul was a self-employed plasterer and sometimes when he is very busy at work, his wife, Helen, and his then ten year old daughter, Charlotte, were an enormous help to him with the pigeons. He says, although they are not really interested in pigeons they will help out and do anything around the loft. He would be lost without them! Every year Paul gets many phone calls from fancier who are winning with his pigeons, in spite of not being a seller of many birds. It gives him a great sense of pride to produce so many winning pigeons for other fanciers, especially when he has only a small set up and keeps only a few birds. Paul loves middle distance channel racing up to 450 miles with the Classic and National and maintains he is no longer really interested in club racing. He told me his biggest thrill was in the early 1990’s when he realised how good his Staf Van Reet pigeons were and they were taking the first six positions in the club, and peppering the Federation result. When I asked Paul if he held any offices in the sport his reply was, ‘No none! Although I have held offices in the past, I am not the least bit interested in the politics of the sport and just want to enjoy my sport in my back garden’.

That’s my lot for this week! Well done to the Esher club members and to Paul Arnold of Esher on their wonderful success in the 2022 season! If you win and want a write up in this space, contact me 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)