“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Looking back at London & South East Classic Club winners (Part 16.)

Paul Arnold of North Cheam.

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 London & South East Classic Club 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 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 39th 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 44th 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: 2nd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 6th open L&SECC Guernsey (OH), 2008: 3rd open L&SECC Guernsey (OH). She is one brilliant hen! The Arnold loft also recorded 12th 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 1st club, 6th Three Borders Federation (993 birds) Yelverton (179 miles) since his classic success. The Arnold loft recorded 1st, 2nd, 3rd South Downs Club, 6th, 7th, 8th Three Borders Federation on that same day. A brilliant family of Staf Van Reet racers!

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: 1st section E, 2nd open NFC Alencon, 3rd open L&SECC Alencon, 16th open L&SECC Tours, 5th open Combine Truro, 6th, 18th open L&SECC Guernsey (young bird) and 2nd, 6th 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.

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 the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons, including 1st SMT Combine Bergerac (450 miles), with him clocking his sole entry on the day and 2nd 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 1st club, 2nd Federation (twice), 3rd 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 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! 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 1st club, 1st Federation Yeovil, 3rd 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 2nd 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 2nd section, 3rd open L&SECC Bergerac (450 miles). A fantastic all round Staf Van Reet!

Paul was born in Wandsworth and being born in to 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 5th 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: 1st, 2nd, 3rd open Combine Messac (three hens), 1st open Combine Le Ferte Bernard and 1st 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 1st club. ‘The Governor’ is still alive today at 18 years old and is responsible for countless winners, including at least 80 Federation, Combine, Amalgamation and National winner’. A wonderful family of Staf Van Reet pigeons!

Paul is a self-employed plasterer and sometimes when he is very busy at work, his wife, Helen, and ten year old daughter, Charlotte, are an enormous help to him with the pigeons. He says, although they are not really interested in pigeons they will help out and do any thing 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’.

Dean Garrett of Feltham.

The London & South East Classic Club sent 2,450 birds to Guernsey in the August 2009 for the first young bird and old hens classics, and being liberated in a strong tail wind the member had a ‘banger’ of a race, with the winners recording over 1800 ypm. It was very refreshing to see one of our young fanciers win the race and was particularly nice that Dean Garrett of Feltham took the top honour, as was a very good pigeon racer and loved the sport. This up and coming ‘ace’ won the young bird classic with his Soontjen / Janssen blue chequer hen, ‘Bill’s Dream’, which was named after his late grandfather, Bill Tidbury, who was his pigeon partner for several seasons. This game hen won the classic, racing celibate to a nest pan and previously won 9th Federation Guernsey when the Tidbury & Garrett loft won the first eight positions in the club. Dean told me at the time the parents of ‘Bill’s Dream’ cost him £90, being purchased from sales at the BHW Blackpool Show and her dam, called ‘The £30 Hen’, was bred by Mr. & Mrs. Arrowsmith. When the L&SECC secretary phoned him to inform him he had won the race he was over joyed and just looked up to the sky and thanked his late grandfather for his help! Dean enjoyed a brilliant 2009 young bird racing season winning a long list of premier position, including several firsts in his club, 1st Federation and 1st open L&SECC Guernsey.

First and foremost Dean Garrett is a family man and with only limited spare time his pigeon racing is very much in second place these days. The 2016 racing season has seen him do well with his young birds racing in the very strong Spelthorne club and the Three Borders Federation. The Spelthorne club were runner up for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 161 points in 2016 and had three 1st Federation winners. Dean won 1st club Yeovil, 10th, 93rd open BICC Falaise, 42nd, 66th open BICC Alencon with old birds and his youngsters were ‘on fire’ winning, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th club, 6th, 7th, 10th, 20th, 21st, 22nd Federation Blandford (1,110 birds), 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th club,  6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11, 12th Yeovil Federation (878 birds), 1st, 2nd club, 10th, 11th Federation Exeter (651 birds), plus some premier positions in National race. In the 2016 BICC young bird Guernsey race, there was a four day hold over and Dean clocked four birds in 5 seconds to win: 45th, 46th, 47th, 50th, and 63rd open. When I spoke to Dean recently he told me, ‘a short while ago I brought in some birds from a superb pigeon flyer in Ireland named, Phillip Boal, and he races in the best competition of the Dromore club. Phillip has won the mighty NIPA several times and I would like to thank him for supplying me with these wonderful Willy Van Herks pigeons. I also bought in nine direct from Willy Van Herks and I’m now looking forward to getting back into middle distance racing, where my heart is. I recently joined the Spelthorne club and the members, who are all very dedicated pigeon racers, welcomed me with open arms. Thanks also Carol Francis, who does a great job at the club and  as secretary of the British International Championship Club’. Dean is very keen on the BICC and had two very good young bird races in 2015 with them recording: 14th, 30th, 40th open Guernsey (1), 15th, 18th, 28th, 29th, 42nd open Guernsey (2).

A few seasons ago Dean told  me that he and his partner, Cheryl, were expecting their first baby and this wonderful event would mean he would have to cut back on his pigeon racing hobby for a couple of years, but he was quite happy about that. Dean also mentioned at that time that his step daughter, Chloe, was his ‘side kick’ with the training of the birds and she enjoyed the involvement. Dean has enjoyed another brilliant racing season that year, winning with old birds: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Federation Wincanton, 4th Federation Kingsdown, 5th, 8th Federation Kingsdown, 4th, 23rd Federation Yelverton, 8th, 9th Federation Wincanton, 8th Federation Wincanton, 28th Combine Falaise, 8th, 9th Federation Kingsdown, 4th, 5th Federation Wincanton, 2nd Federation, 6th Combine Le Mans, 8th Federation, 8th, 12th Combine Exeter, 2nd, 8th Federation Exeter and the young birds were on fire winning: 1st Federation Kingsdown (by 5 minutes), 13th, 14th, 15th Federation Exeter, 7th, 12th Federation Exeter, 9th Federation Wincanton, 5th, 6th open L&SECC Guernsey (1) and top open positions in the NFC Carentan race. Absolutely brilliant pigeon racing!

That season saw Dean send only between four and ten widowhood cocks most weeks and these were never trained during the season, only exercised around the loft twice a day. He started the season with 35 young birds, which were put on the darkness system and trained twice a day weather permitting. He is up and out training at 04.00hrs and maintains you can’t give young birds to much training! Dean is a great fan of Versele Laga corn and all the birds were fed on it in that season. The star of the Tidbury & Garrett loft that season was a young Lambrect red cock, which recorded a staggering: 1st Federation Kingsdown, 5th open L&SECC Guernsey and 132nd open NFC Carentan (provisional). The great young cock was sent racing sitting eggs and was bred from a pair of stock birds that had bred three 1st Federation winners. Another great success story in the that season was Dean’s fantastic yearling De Meyer mealy cock, ‘Dean’s Dream’, who won the Federation as a young bird and has then recorded 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 22nd and 23rd Federation being raced on the widowhood system. As Dean said at that time, ‘absolute class’.

Dean was born in Feltham, Middlesex (same as me) in 1981 and his late grandfather, Bill Tidbury, was a pigeon fancier, starting up when he left the armed forces. Bill fort in Burma, finally being taken prisoner of war and Dean says he was his best friend as well as my granddad and still misses him very much. When Dean was a youngster he was a keen boxer, walking in the footsteps of his grandfather and his cousin, Eric Boon, who were both good sports men in the boxing ring. Eric was famous for knocking out Arthur Danaher in the 15th round of their bout and had many top encounters all over the UK. Dean started racing pigeons in partnership with Bill in 1995 and he trained the youngsters, single up, from Cranford Park on his grand dad’s old GPO ‘postman’ bike. Dean was only 14 years of age and says he loved taking those north road babies for those short tosses on that bike, which paid off as they won several good positions in the club. In the early days the partners had some good success with their mixture of gift pigeons, which were mainly from George Oliver and he raced Cattrysse, Kirkpatrick and Fear Brothers pigeons. When Bill passed away in 2000, Dean got rid of everything, loft, clock, pigeons, the lot and hit the night club scene, and enjoyed the normal teenager pursuits of drinking and woman. After he had got that out of his system, he re-joined the sport in 2004 with several gift late breds from Allen and Janina Jenkins. Dean told me the Jenkins’ gave him a lot of help in the early days and these two wonderful people now live on the Isle of Barrow, off the coast of Scotland, but still in his thoughts. His first real season back was in 2005, when won several good prizes with young birds and was always at sales looking for good stock birds, which were mainly Janssen. He went to a sale at the ‘Lion Brewery’ PH in Ash and purchased two pairs of Eddie Wright / Janssens very cheaply, and they produced his good cock called, ‘99’, which won several premier positions including 1st club, 2nd Federation, 2nd Combine Fougeres. Another good pigeon was the Marcelis red cock, which was purchased for £11 from Mr. Davenport and he won Dean’s first race for him, recording 1st club, 3rd Federation, 26th Combine St. Nazaire. Some outstanding pigeons have been obtained from several local fanciers including, Rod Berry, Clive Yates and the L&SECC winning partnership of Jenkyn, Barrott & Rolfe. His club was the Bedfont SR Club and told me it was a great club, welcoming him with lots of help and a gift pigeon clock. Dean tells me the best local fancier is the great Jack Newell of Feltham, who is a legend, winning everything in his life time in the sport, including 1st open NCF Pau.

The main families now raced are Cooremans, Lambrects and De Meyers obtained from Jason Hulse and Kevin Head. Dean’s loft set up is a 21ft race loft with an 18 widowhood cock section and two hens sections, plus two 12ft lofts, one for his young birds and the other which contains 16 nest boxes for the stock birds. He thinks the main things needed in a loft is good ventilation, good light and above all must be dry. Dean loves young bird racing and breeds a good strong team of 60 babies every season to compete well in both Federation and Classic racing. The Tidbury & Garrett young birds are put on the ‘darkness’ system and Dean is a firm believer that young pigeons need to be trained, and he gives them a 32 mile tosses twice a day once they start to race. He maintains to be successful with the babies they have to be trained, trained and trained again, and fed correctly for the weather conditions and wind direction the next weekend. He lets the youngsters do as they want and has won with them pairing up, sitting eggs and even feeding a youngster, but maintain the only way to be successful in the National and Classic races is to be on the ‘darkness’ system. Premier young bird racers for the Tidbury & Garrett loft in recent seasons are: ‘Dean’s Dream’, bred by Kevin Head and winner of 1st club, 1st Federation Kingsdown, 8th Federation Wincanton: ‘Cheryl’ winner of 1st club, 5th Federation Yelverton: ‘Big Man’, Dean favourite youngster and winner of 1st club, 2nd Federation Wincanton, 16th Federation Kingsdown: ‘Bill’s Dream’ winner of 1st SW section, 1st open London & South East Classic Club Guernsey, 9th Federation Guernsey.

Dean races his old birds on the widowhood system, which suits his work as a brick layer and slabber, but he thinks the system of only racing cocks is a waste of good racing hens. He pairs up in early January and the racers rear a youngster before being separated for the widowhood and are later repaired for the training period, which is about six short tosses. The widowers are not trained during the racing season, but are exercised around the loft for an hour twice every day and the cocks are required to race the programme. The loft has won many premier positions in the first six in the club and Federation through the years and Dean prefers sprint / middle distance racing up to 400 miles, but in the future hopes to have a go at some long distance events. Recent racing seasons competing in the Federation have been very successful winning, 2006: twice 1st club, 2007: four times 1st club, 2008: nine times 1st club, fourteen times 2nd club. His ambition, after wining several seconds and thirds in recent seasons, was to win the Federation and he finally achieved it in the 2009 season from Kingsdown, with his game mealy cock, ‘Dean’s Dream’. He was delighted to win the Federation, having won 2nd Federation on the two weekends before, then came out and won 1st open L&SECC the week after. Great pigeon racing!

He tells me he has no idea about the ‘eye sign’ method, but likes to see a nice bright eye on a pigeon and he thinks the eye tells the whole story, with the bird’s general condition being seen in the eye. Dean says the local fancier who is setting them alight in the premier races this season is Mark Gilbert, who has had brilliant success. He maintains the moult is a very important time of the year and says a bad moult this year will almost certainly mean bad race results next season. In October the birds should enjoy some good relaxation and be given plenty of seed, oils and regular baths. He is not a fan of late bred youngsters for stock of racing, but lets the widowhood cock breed a round of youngsters at the end of the season, which he gives away to his friends. There you have it, the brilliant success story of Dean Garrett of Feltham!

There you have it for this week! I can be contact with any pigeon news on telephone number: 01372 463480. My new email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)