“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Looking back at London & South East Classic Club winners (Part 13.)
Khan Brothers of New Malden.
I convoyed the London & South East Classic Club and Central Southern Classic Flying Club birds to Tarbes in 2010 and the ‘main event’ was a hard race that year, with mostly light head winds and very high temperatures in France all over that weekend in June. Having said that I liberated in a very light south wind and on route home though France the wind seemed to me to be veering between south east and north east. On our way back to Caen we stopped off at Nantes for a ‘taco’ break and the heat was very intense, but when we stopped for the night at Fougeres that evening, the temperature had dropped right down, and the wind had gone around to west / south west. Hard racing seems to be the norm that season, inland and continental, with the wind mostly having an easterly element in it and it had produced some really stinging races in the first half of the 2010 season. In the week build up to the ‘main event’ everyone was anticipating a hard race with the head winds promised by the weather men, but in my opinion the intense heat in France on the liberation day was the factor that slowed the birds down. But hard race doesn’t mean bad race! I had several mobile phone calls with the two classic secretaries, Clare Norman and Terri Hoskin, while on the road home and while there were no day pigeons, they were very happy with second day verifications. In spite of it being a hard race, I think it is safe to say, it was a very good race!
On my return from France it was good to receive the list of brilliant performance put up by the members on such a testing race! None as good as hearing that Amin and Shabir Khan of New Malden had won the L&SECC from Tarbes, recording their third Classic win! Their winner was a very special blue hen, that had won the L&SECC ‘Merit Award’ for winning three position in the first 50 open in the longest old bird classic and she has done it in great style by winning 1st open Tarbes (563 miles). This champion hen named ‘The L Ring Hen’ and had won a list of premier prizes in the National and Classic including: 1st open L&SECC Tarbes, 4th open L&SECC Alencon, 6th open L&SECC Tarbes, 7th open L&SECC Pau and 14th open NFC Bordeaux. A fantastic hen! She was sent to Tarbes sitting ten day old eggs and had one inland training race with the Federation and a Tours race on her build up to her classic win. She was bred from the very best being out of ‘Twenty Two’, the brother’s 1st open L&SECC Bordeaux winner, which also won the section in the Classic Guernsey race as a young bird and is the dam of Federation and Classic winners. Her sire is a direct cock from Marcel Sangers from his champion pair, ‘Saun Licht’ and ‘Xantia’.
The London & South East Classic Club held its last old bird race of the 2009 season from Bergerac, in south west France and member enjoyed a good testing race. The entry was 1,136 birds and the leading pigeons coped well with the eleven hour fly home. Winners of 1st open from the Bergerac classic were Khan Brothers and the 2009 season had produced some good results for these New Malden lads, including 1st Three Borders Federation (1,703 birds) from Kingsdown. The partner’s Federation winner was their good two year old Janssen blue widowhood hen, ‘35’, and she flew the NFC Saintes race as a yearling in 2008. This wonderful hen was their first pigeon on the clock from the Bergerac classic to record Khan Brother’s second L&SECC win! With a brisk south wind in the Three Borders Federation Kingsdown (135 miles) race the brothers race enjoyed a ‘banger’ of a race, with ‘35’ making nearly a mile a minute and then from the Bergerac classic (455 miles) she made 1229ypm on a really testing day. A wonderful versatile hen! Khan Brothers won the Federation and no one was more surprised that the brothers themselves, as the team was only sent for a training fly in preparation for forth coming National and Classic races. Amin and Shabir got five birds on the day from the Bergerac classic, from a team of ten pigeons sent and clocked three to record 1st, 4th and 45th open, lifting over £1,300. Khan Brothers recorded 2nd open London & South East Classic Club from the Alencon Classic race in 2008 and although they have won the Classic three times, they are a bit unlucky being 2nd open on several occasions.
Wasey & Lloyd of New Addington.
Ron Wasey of New Addington is without a doubt one of the best pigeon fanciers I’ve met, winning many premier positions in combine, classic and national over many years. He had only sent to Pau four times in his pigeon career, the first time winning 1st open NFC Pau, the second time winning 4th open NFC Pau, the third time he didn’t clock in and the fourth time in the 2002 season, when he chalked up 1st open London & South East Classic Club from Pau. Brilliant pigeon racing!
The 2002 season saw Wasey & Lloyd win the very hard Pau race, in the London & South East Classic Club, with their good blue pied cock, ‘Bambi’. This was a great thrill for my wife, Betty, and myself, as Ronnie has been a good family friend of ours for about 25 years and he is a brilliant pigeon fancier and a true gentleman. Ron said at the time that his champion cock had always been called ‘Bambi’ since he was a young bird in 2000, because he was a small pigeon, but had a big heart! He was bred down from Peter Titmus bloodlines and was sent to the Pau classic sitting 14 day old eggs, and on handling him the day of clocking, I noticed he was casting his second flight. Ron drove many miles to purchase these Peter Titmus stock birds and paid over £200 for them at the late Colin Brough dispersal sale. This game little pigeon flew only Guernsey as a young bid and took 15 days to come home from the Perth classic in the 2001 season. His build up to his Pau classic win in 2002 was lots of training tosses off the south coast and two races from La Ferte Bernard and Tours with the London & South East Classic Club.
Ron is a retired teacher and raced with outstanding success for many years with his wife, Brenda, but after leaving the sport for several years, has returned in recent seasons flying in partnership with Terry Lloyd. The 1981 King’s Cup race had a record entry of over 6,000 birds and Ron won the race with his wonderful blue hen, champion ‘Nightlight Nancy’, who incidentally only passed away at 22 years of age. This was his first attempt at Pau, 553 miles and the hen was sitting on 14 day old eggs, being liberated at 06.00hrs, and was clocked at 18.45hrs on the day. Previous to winning the Pau national, ‘Nancy’, who was bred from birds off H. J. Humphrey of Tottenham and Roy Drake of Catford, won several premier positions including: 1980: 2nd club, 2nd Federation, 5th open Combine Dax. Ron always geared the whole loft to be sitting about 12 day old eggs for the Pau National and proved to be most successful.
Ron began the 1982 season with the impossible task of following and living up to the fantastic seasons that had gone before. His brilliant performances had put Ronnie in the top handful of elite fanciers in Great Britain. Highlights of seasons previous to 1982 were: 1979: 3rd section E. 4th open NFC Guernsey, 1st, 2nd and 3rd open Croydon Federation Dax, 530 miles, only two birds on the day of liberation in the Federation, 1981: 1st open NFC Pau, winning the King’s Cup and R.P.R.A. London Region Award, 3rd open London & South Coast Combine Dax, the same day as winning the Pau National. The loft has recorded many other 1st Federations wins in these years, both inland and from France.
The Wasey’s started the 1982 season by winning 1st club, 2nd open Croydon Federation, 2nd open London & South Coast Combine La Mans, with their good Hopwood mealy hen cock, ‘Daphne’s Delight’, then went on to win the supreme trophy in the National Flying Club, ‘The Langstone Gold Cup’, for best average in the three national races. Ron’s national season started at Nantes and his first bird on the clock to record 27th section E. 68th open (12,444 birds) was his good Dordin mealy cock, ‘Elain’s Eric’, which was inbred to Ron’s champion stock hen, ‘The Hopwood Hen’. ‘Elain’s Eric’ was also second bird on the Pau National clock that season to record 87th section E. 460th open Pau. Previously as a young bird he had won in 1980: 1st club, 1st open Federation Blandford, 1st club, 3rd open Federation Blandford, 1st club, 4th open Federation Exeter and 1st club, 21st open Federation Blandford. A fantastic pigeon! Then came the Pau Grand National and many rate Ron’s performance as even better than when he won 1st open in 1981, as the weather and wind did not favour his birds. In the 1982 event, he clocked his great hen, ‘Landymores’s Lulu’, to record 1st section E, 4th open NFC Pau. This great hen won the ‘F.G. Wilson Trophy’ for best average by the same pigeon at Nantes and Pau nationals in the 1982 season. ‘Lulu’ was a full sister to Champion ‘Nightlight Nancy’, the 1981 Pau national winner and ‘Lulu’ had previously won many premier prizes including: 1st club, 7th Federation Blandford, 3rd club, 3rd Federation, 6th open London & South Coast Combine Dax (beaten by two loft mates), 2nd club, 7th Federation, 10th. open Combine Tours and also in 1982: 101st section E. 281st open NFC Nantes. The last race of the N.F.C. programme in 1982 was the young bird Guernsey and Ron was 36th section E. 74th open with his Hetru / Dordin cock ‘Cornelius’, thus securing ‘The Langstone Gold Cup’. This game cock only had two races as a youngster winning 3rd club Wadebridge, 74th open NFC Guernsey and was a grandson of Bolitho brother’s ‘Crackerjack’. The only black spot on Ron’s 1982 pigeon year was the death of his champion Dordin stock hen, ‘The Hopwood Hen’. She must rate as one of the top breeding Dordins in the world, being dam of most of the Mr. & Mrs. Wasey loft at that time. She was bred by Ron’s good friends in Yorkshire, John and Daphne Hopwood, from the Jim Biss Dordins, down from ‘Spahi’, ‘Romulus’ and ‘Scout’. ‘The Hopwood Hen’ was a true champion breeding hen, producing amongst others, 4th open NFC Guernsey, 70th open NFC Pau, 68th open NFC Nantes, 1st open Croydon Federation Guernsey and 1st open Croydon Federation Blandford.
In the seasons after ‘Nightlight Nancy’ won the Pau National, she bred many outstanding racers in combine and national events. ‘Nancy’ and ‘Lulu’ had an outstanding blue pied brother called ‘Sole Survivor’ and he won 1st club, 1st open Federation, 4th open Combine (4,007 birds) Nantes, 1st club, 1st open Federation, 4th open Combine (7,501 birds) Le Mans and 1st club, 2nd open Federation, 9th open Combine (6,490 birds) Tours. Ron says he had several good winners the same way bred to his national winner and a blue, full sister he gifted to John Barratt, won 1st open London Federation (by 20 minutes) and 3rd open London Federation in races from France.
Like Ron, Terry Lloyd was an ex-Battersea boy and had been friends since their mid-teens. Terry had a very successful small building firm, but had cut down his workload, because of some health problems. He loved horse racing and regularly attends meetings at Kempton Park, Epsom, Sandown Park and Ascot. Terry did not take an active part with the pigeons, but loved watching them dive in with wings folded like darts, as they race in. Ronnie said it is only because of Terry’s financial backing that he was able to race, as he paid half the cost of everything including the petrol for training. He took an avid interest in the breeding side of the pigeons and often spends a few hours during the close season discussing the breeding plans for the following year.
Ron raced only the natural system and paired up in mid-March, with the long distance national and classic races in mind. He was a great believer in working the racers hard and they got a lot of training off the south coast, on their build up to the main events, and fed ‘Irish’ mixture, obtained from our ol’ friend, the late Wally Dann of Cobham. The main families kept were Eric Cannon, Brian Denney, Tom Gilbertson and the highly successful Peter Titmus pigeons. The main racing loft had grilled floors, drop hole trapping and it’s biggest feature was Ron’s closed in nest boxes, which he liked, to give the inmates peace and quiet. He always told me, that he had not special type of pigeon he likes best, he was only interested in good winning long distance pigeons, no matter what they look like. The massive stock loft and flight housed only a few selective pairs, mostly of the Eric Cannon lines. He had a team of about 30 young birds each year and these were raced on the natural system, to the perch. The youngsters were not let out of the loft until their eyes have changed colour and they had dropped flights, but were put out on top of the loft in a wire cage every day from weaning. Ron maintained he has used this method with his youngsters many years and had very few losses. He had no Saturday Federation club and gave his birds short channel races on their build up to the main national and classic events.
John & Mark Adcock of Croydon.
The members of the London & South East Classic Club sent 632 birds to its Blue Riband Classic from San Sebastian, Spain in the 2004 racing season. This was the event that everyone had been waiting for all season, the longest old bird classic, and that weekend at the end of June, saw some wonderful performances put up by our quality membership. It was a weekend of thrills and spills, with the convoy being held over for two days and then having a hard push home in a strong westerly wind. The convoyer, Phil Fishlock, had to hold the pigeons over, with adverse weather conditions at the race point, but finally liberated at 06.00hrs in no wind on the Sunday with bright sun on the baskets. I think there is an ongoing problem with the long distance race points near the Pyrenees Mountains, constant holdover, with the race point being fogged out and the line of flight being perfect. This was the case with the San Sebastian Classic on the Friday, a perfect day and a fogged out liberation site. It's very frustrating. The race was hard and four game pigeons were clocked on the day of liberation. The brilliant Croydon partnership of John & Mark Adcock won the race clocking their widowhood blue chequer cock at 19.50hrs flying 560 miles and Mark told me at the time that his latest champion had more or less raced the programme on his build up to his Classic win. He had scored on the five weekends leading up to the San Sebastian Classic, including 2nd Surrey Federation (beaten by a loft mate) and as a yearling in 2003, won 50th open L&SECC Bergerac. This wonderful cock was bred from the very best at the Croydon loft, with his dam being 'The P Ring', the partners' number one Janssen stock hen when mated to a Busschaert cock which has won the Federation three times. A brilliant loft of pigeons!
The late John Adcock and, his son Mark raced 36 cocks on widowhood and liked racing every Saturday, sprint or long distance, with the same team. Mark said the cocks start racing in the first Open races at the end of March and race every weekend through to Bordeaux with the odd special cock being raced every two weeks from France. The loft housed 36 widowhood cocks which were paired up with the stock birds on January 14th and the first round eggs from the breeding loft were floated under the race team. John & Mark raced a basic widowhood system, with the racers rearing a pair of youngsters and the day they were weaned, the females were taken away, and the cocks were on the system. The cocks were not trained after the first race of the season and were then exercised around the loft for an hour, twice a day. They were fed a first class widowhood mixture and were broken down on Saturday and Sunday during the racing season. The main family kept were Janssen, with the odd Busschaert and through the years the Adcock loft had won the Federation countless times. The partners enjoyed a wonderful 2004 season, having won prior to their San Sebastian Classic win, 3rd Open L&SECC Tours (beaten be a decimal) and 1st Open SMT Combine Poitiers. This was the partnership's second L&SECC win, having recorded 1st Open Bordeaux in 2002 and had won the Combine a staggering six times. The late John Adcock started racing in the old Croydon club in 1945 and won the first Channel race as an 18 year old. He was a convoyer for ten years and told me he really enjoyed the job, but maintains he didn’t like races over 400 miles and said Pau was too far. John told me he thought the main problem with modern day racing was far too many small clubs and in the Croydon area there should only be one big club.
That’s our article for this week! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments 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).