“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Three Borders Federation (Falaise Race).

Five races into the new season and the lads at the Spelthorne club have won the Three Borders Federation three times! The first continental race was flown from Falaise in early May and the Spelthorne members recorded: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 20th Federation. Brilliant pigeon racing! A steady race was expected, with Dom McCoy liberating at 08.00hrs in a northerly wind and on the day, the members soon had all their entries back on their perches. A fancier you must always look out for on the channel racing events, is Dave Watson and he had a brilliant race from Falaise, recording: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th Federation, with Derek Reid stopping his clean sweep by taking the 3rd position. Richard Kent of the Spelthorne club won the Federation from Blandford on the first weekend of the season and he has since brought his winner to my home in Claygate to have his photo taken, which I have included with this week’s article.

The first ten in the Falaise Federation result were: 1) Dave Watson & son 1231: 2) Dave Watson & son 1230: 3) Derek Reid 1221: 4) Dave Watson & son 1220: 5) Dave Watson & son 1220: 6) Dave Watson & son 1220: 7) Peter Sharman 1211: 8) E. & J. K. Benjamin 1159: 9) Freddie ‘Dangerous’ Ditch 1156: 10) Freddie ‘Dangerous’ Ditch 1156.

I haven’t seen Dave Watson since the 1970’s when he had a greengrocers shop near to my mum’s home in Kingston and his wife, Carol, was the secretary of the now disbanded Kingston pigeon club. The Kingston club was one the strongest outfits in the south of England in those days and Dave and Carol were very successful racing their bird in it. After all those years Dave is still winning ‘big time’ and of course Carol is now the hard working secretary of the British International Championship Club. I’ve searched through my archive of thousands of photos and found this great old black & white picture of Dave Watson in 1977 setting clocks at the Kingston club. In the back ground is my ol’ mate, Peter Taylor and his late partner, Les Snell.

Dave is mostly noted as being a good channel racing man, but in 2016 he won the shortest race with a young bird! The Three Borders Federation had 1,110 young birds at the comeback Blandford race in mid-August 2016 and the Spelthorne club had topped the Federation result for the second week on the trot. On that weekend it was the turn of Dave Watson to win and he had a ‘banger’ doing 1862 and winning the Federation by 25 ypm. A fantastic performance! Midway through the 2015 old bird racing season the Federation sent 752 birds to Fougeres in France with the SMT Combine and the convoying team produced one the best continental races of that season. The birds were liberated at 08.15hrs into a light North West wind and the Spelthorne club had a brilliant race, recording 1st, 2nd, 5th, 18th, 25th Federation, with club member, Dave Watson, winning the Federation and 1st SMT Combine (1,294 birds). Congratulations to Dave on his latest Federation win!

On a personal note!

I think its common knowledge that I started my own ‘YouTube’ channel on the Internet in March 2016. At the time of writing this article (10th May 2018) the channel has reached the magic three million views worldwide stage, in only its twenty seventh month since going live. To say, I’m blown away by its massive success in such a short time, would be an understatement! We have built up to 10,000 views on some days worldwide and it now hosts 5,204 subscribers. Brilliant! In the beginning the ‘YouTube’ channel took over my life and I couldn’t edit and get films on it quick enough! If I didn’t put footage on every day, I got complaining message from all over the world, asking me to put more on. At that time I got 320 short films on the channel and that was all my ‘Many Miles with Mott’ archive of films, so I could then have my life back to normal. My massive archive of films is the result of many years traveling around Europe visiting and filming hundreds of the very best fanciers and their lofts. I have mixed it up well on the channel, with loft visits to racing and show racer fanciers, visits to National Shows and loads of good pigeon race liberations. I have been going out from time to time recently; too visit premier lofts and shows, with the sole purpose of making new films for the YouTube channel and for new fancy press articles. We have made 50 new films in recent months and the channel now hosts 378 videos produced by myself. I’m not going away for weeks on end like I use too, to get films and articles, but will enjoy a 50 miles drive for a loft visit, or pick some up if I’m away for some reason. It was a hard slog for those first three months editing all those films, but I’m glad they are now out there on the internet giving people pressure. My son, Mark, suggested I put the films on the Internet and set the YouTube channel up for me. I don’t think he knew what he was starting! If you want a look at the channel, just go on to YouTube and put my name in (lower case) or the name of the item you want to view, and it should all come up.

At the time of writing this article my top film on the channel is Video 38: Ron McCarthy of Wales and this Show Racer legend’s loft visit has had a massive 519,000 views. Just brilliant! I remember received the phone call, a few years ago from my good friend, Colin Carter, to inform me that the ‘master’, Ron McCarthy, had packed up his pigeons the week previous because of one or two health problems. Ron, then 81 years old, was going to retire from the Show Racer scene a year or so previous, but was persuaded by the lads to carry on, but then decided to call it a day! His 30 bird strong Show Racer team went up to the north east of England and are now the property the Wheatley family of Middlesbrough. This really was bad news as Ron was the ‘master’ of the show pen and his wonderful record in Society and National shows must rate him as one the greatest showmen of all time in the UK! Colin told me at that time we would still see Ron about at the main National Shows as long as he can get a lift to venue and he will still enjoy the sport as a spectator. We look forward to seeing the ‘master’ again next winter!

Mr. & Mrs. Ron McCarthy of Rhymney won Best in Show at the 2009 BHW Blackpool Show for the record fifth time with a wonderful young dark chequer Show Racer cock, now named ‘Colin’s Cracker’ and he was bred by Colin Carter of Churchdown. He was bred from a cock loaned from Ron McCarthy which is also the sire of Ron’s Champion ‘Blue Boy’ winner of BIS at the BHW Blackpool Show in 2006 and the dam of ‘Colin’s Cracker’ was Colin’s good dark hen, winner of many firsts including ‘Champion Hen’ at the Edinburgh Show, plus is dam of many winners. Ron McCarthy’s good wife, June, passed away in March of 2008 and she was greatly missed at that year’s Blackpool event, as she had never missed a show and always enjoyed Ron’s success. Ron McCarthy had one of his best Blackpool Shows ever, also winning BOS, four fists and lifting ten BHW Trophies.

On one of my ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video tours of South Wales, I visited these premier Show Racer fanciers, at their loft in Gwent. In Ron’s 60 plus years in the sport, he has won many top positions, including B.I.S. Cardiff Charity Show, B.I.S. Show of the West, B.I.S. Birmingham Mail Show, B.I.S. Midlands Show several times, B.I.S. R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show several times, B.I.S. B.H.W. Blackpool Show (a record five times), Supreme Champion at Blackpool and Supreme Champion Young Bird Southern Classic Show. A fantastic loft performance in classic shows!

Ron kept about 16 pairs of Show Racers which were paired up on February 14th and bred about 40 youngsters each season. His loft was over 55 years old, starting out as a chicken shed, and was 22ft x 8ft with a flight on the front to bath the birds and keep the loft dry. Ron told me a good loft should be comfortable for the fancier and the pigeons. He had been with pigeons all his life as his father was a fancier, and his first few pairs of birds were housed in the coal house. Ron’s best bird over the last few years is his White Mealy cock winner of two firsts at the British Homing World Blackpool Show, including Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex; at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show, Best in Show; at the Royal Welsh, Best in Show and first at the Monmouth Open Show, plus many other good wins for the Rhymney loft. A once in a life time pigeon! The birds were fed on farm beans and peas, mixed with maize and a pinch of Linseed each day. Ron didn’t feed anything special for the moult, as the birds got the same corn all the year round. He liked to pair grandparents to their grandchildren to produce good Show Racers. He liked a bigger pigeon for stock, with strong head and good body. Ron tried deep litter for about six months, but his wife, June, hated it and Ron wasn’t too pleased either, he always had to clean his glasses after coming out of the loft, with the dust. He told me, he enjoyed scraping the loft out every day and most of his birds were tame. Ron McCarthy is one of the very best showmen in the sport today. A brilliant fancier!

Well done to the Spelthorne fanciers on a wonderful performance from Falaise! Well that it for another week. I can be contacted with any pigeon news and ‘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).