“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Looking back at London & South East Classic Club winners (Part 12.)

Mr. & Mrs. Vince Durrant & Sons of Godalming.

Vince Durrant and his family enjoyed a wonderful season in 2010, winning several firsts in the Godalming club, 1^st, 2^nd Surrey Federation Taunton, 2^nd Surrey Federation Taunton and of course the premier win at the end of the season, 1^st open L&SECC Guernsey (1). The London & South East Classic Club sent 1,455 birds to the first young bird race from Guernsey and the Durrant’s won the Classic by 24 ypm clear with their champion little mealy hen, ‘Sue’s Girl’. She was raced to the perch and the amazing thing is that this young hen won this 160 mile classic race, doing 2014 ypm, and was bred out of the very best of Eric Cannon and Ron Dodd’s 550 mile pigeons. Her grand sire was Eric’s great blue pied cock, ‘Culmer White Flight’, winner of three premier positions in the NFC Pau Grand National, including 1^st section A, 14^th open. The Guernsey Classic was the hen’s fourth race and she was given three single up training tosses from Hayling Island the week before her Classic win.

Whenever the Durrant family compete with their pigeon they are successful and the 2017 season was particular outstanding for them, with the highlights being 1^st club, 1^st South Coast Federation, 1^st Surrey / Sussex Amalgamation Messac (250 miles), 2^nd section E, 5^th open NFC Tarbes Grand National (549 miles), 2^nd club, 7^th South Coast Federation, 8^th Surrey / Sussex Amalgamation Bordeaux (433 mile). The partner’s Messac Amalgamation winner was the two year old widowhood red pied cock, ‘Jack’s Lad’ and he was bred in the stock from a cock that came from the late Eric Pearson of Godalming. Eric passed away a couple of years ago and was a life time member of the Godalming club, winning many premier prizes, including 1^st SMT Combine and the ‘Spanish Diploma’ with the BBC. Nice to see Eric’s line still winning through ‘Jack’s Lad’! Jack Durrant tells me the Messac winner is a firm favourite at their loft in Surrey and he won the race by 20 ypm. The Durrant partners sent a small team of pigeons to the NFC Tarbes Grand National (549 miles) and recorded their super blue pied hen, ‘Vince’s Pride’ on the day of liberation. She was one of only five NFC pigeons clocked on the day and won 2^nd section E, 5^th open. A wonderful performance! She was also bred in the stock loft from a grandson of Eric Cannon’s Champion ‘Culmer Gold’ and a hen bred by Ray Hammond, which Jack purchased in the Godalming Breeder / Buyer sale. Ray’s hen won the ‘Futurity Race’ before going into the Durrant’s sock loft and on the weekend of the 2017 NFC Tarbes race another daughter off her won an inland race. To finish off a very successful 2017 old bird season Vince, Sue and son, Jack sent a team to Godalming club’s longest race from Bordeaux (433 miles), when the membership only clocked five pigeons on the day of liberation. The Durrant family clocked their good blue cock, ‘Blue Twin’, on the day, to win 2^nd club, 7^th South Coast Federation, 8^th Surrey / Sussex Amalgamation. This game cock was bred from an Alasdair Muir cock and a hen from the loft of Ray Hammond, and Jack tells me he won 1^st club Salisbury in the 2016 racing season. Pigeon racing at its best!

The highly successful 2017 season was a carry on from the wonderful 2016 racing season that Vince, Sue and Jack enjoyed, which highlighted with them winning 1^st club, 1^st South Coast Federation Fougeres. I visited their very smart loft in Godalming with my ‘YouTube’ film unit in the winter of 2016 and enjoyed a few hours looking at their current team of winners. The top pigeon in 2016 was the handsome three year old blue chequer pied cock, ‘The 31 Cock’ and he was bred out of the M. & D. Evans / Gaby Vandenabeele bloodlines of Champion ‘Shadow’. He was raced on the widowhood system and recorded: 1^st South Coast Federation Fougeres and 131^st open NFC Saintes in the 2016 racing season. Other birds we looked at on my visit were: ‘The Tarbes Hen’ winner of 2016: 380^th open NFC Tarbes, 2015: 35^th open NFC Tarbes, 2014: 208^th open NFC Tarbes and this game hen is bred down from the very best of Eric Cannon bloodlines. ‘The 41 Hen’, this blue hen was bred in 2010 and came to the loft with the partners 1^st open L&SECC Guernsey winner, ‘Sue’s Girl’, but sat out and recorded 254^th open. Since that bad trap she has won a long list of positions in the NFC and BICC including: 54^th open BICC Alencon, 149^th open BICC Tours, 155^th Open BICC Le Mans and 1^st Godalming club Exeter. ‘The Unlucky Cock’, this blue widowhood cock is the winner of 1^st club Exeter and three times 2^nd club to loft mates in the 2016 racing season.

I have known Vince Durrant for nearly 40 years, with us being first introduced by our late great friend, Eric Cannon of Wormley, in the early 1980’s and Vince was winning big things with his pigeons then and is still winning with them today. These days Vince has three partners in the form of his wife, Sue, and sons, Jack and Sam, who are very instrumental in the lofts outstanding success in recent years. Vince and Sue have two sons; both are interested in the pigeons, Jack is a keen footballer and works in the meat industry, and Sam who was recently resident at University in Portsmouth. Vince tells me that pigeon racing has become very much a family sport, with everybody taking a great interest and involvement. The Durrant family enjoy all aspects of the sport, whether it is sprint or long distance racing and are always looking forward to the next race. Jack is a major part of the pigeon partnership and his specific interest is in National, Classic and long distance racing in general. Jack tells me that some of their best performances in recent seasons have been: 2009: 1^st open BICC (old hens), 2010: 1^st open L&SECC Guernsey (young bird), 3^rd open SMT Combine Wadebridge (beaten on a decimal), 42^nd open Tarbes (540 miles) and taking the first eight positions in a race in the very strong Godalming RPC using a conventional timing clock, and not ETS. The Durrant loft has won the SMT Combine twice and the Federation many times through the years.

Ken & Lyn Wise of Isleworth. 

The London & South East Classic's first young bird race from Vire had an entry of 620 Young birds and 379 Old Hens, which were liberated at 08.30hrs into a no wind situation. A fairly good start to our 2012 young bird Classic season with the winners making 1400 ypm, but returns were a bit patchy. What a weekend! As I have always stated, all you can do as a pigeon convoyer, is produce the best race possible with the conditions you are presented with on the given weekend. The weather conditions were perfect, but were very hot on the Saturday of the Vire Classic and I think this contributed to the patchy returns on the day.

Ken & Lyn Wise of Isleworth won the Vire young bird Classic and recording their third L&SECC winner in two seasons. Ken hadn’t raced many pigeons that season due to a few personal issues and his van engine blowing up. He had been without transport for a couple of months and could not train his birds, but he came back with a ‘bang’. What a brilliant performance by Lee and Joe Jackson of Bromley, winning 1^st open Old Hens Classic. Two top class fancier with brilliant pigeons! This father and son partnership have a brilliant racing record over many years, winning premier positions in National and Classic racing. Ken Wise’s third L&SECC winner was a blue chequer cock paired up and driving to nest, and having his first race that year. The dam of this cock was a Mark & Dick Evans / Gaby Vandenabeele hen which had won 2^nd section and 2^nd ‘Gold Ring’ from the L&SECC Guernsey Young Bird Classic in the 2010 season. The Classic winner’s sire bred from the famous Mark & Dick Evans breeding pair ‘Jester’ & ‘Carrie’ and was a grandson of Champion ‘Shadow’. I was delighted to see my good friends, Ken and Lyn Wise, win the London & South East Classic Club for the third time in two seasons. A really brilliant performance!

Ken’s loft in Isleworth is sited in the shadows of Twickenham Rugby Union Stadium. He has been in pigeon racing all his life, coming from a premier Middlesex pigeon family and Ken tells me his late father, Vic Wise, still raced successfully after moving to Wales a few years ago. Ken raced with his dad as A. Wise & Son when he was a lad and their best performance was 11^th open NFC Nantes (11,444 birds) in 1982, but his pigeon story really started in 1988 when he purchased some Hermans from Mr & Mrs Basil Beebe of Horncastle and bred a family of sprint pigeons. The loft's record is outstanding and since obtaining Hermans from Basil Beebe and Bill Ward, of Ward Brothers from South Elmsall, he has won over 50 x 1sts in sprint racing from 1991 to 1996, lifting many trophies and averages in club and Federation. In 1994 Ken decided to have a go at Channel racing and, on obtaining stock from the very best long distance lofts, has never looked back. In the early days he was also very successful in the London & South East Classic Club, winning 2^nd, 6^th and 7^th open Alencon, 19^th open La Ferte Bernard, 21^st open Nantes, 26^th open Bordeaux, 12^th open Guernsey, 32^nd open Bordeaux and 27^th open Nantes. In the National Flying Club he recorded: 50^th open NFC Nantes (11,412 birds), 15^th open NFC Vire (old hens), 50^th open NFC Sartilly (10,072 birds), 82^nd open NFC Sartilly, amongst many other premier positions. The Wise loft has won many times 1^st Federation through the years and won the ‘Points Shield’ in the Three Borders Federation in 2016.

Ken has a very smart loft set at his home in Isleworth and was built by local carpenter, Mick Sutherland, to Ken’s own spec about fifteen years ago. He says the days of a closed in loft have long gone for him, as he now suffers with the dreaded pigeon fancier’s lung and now has to have an open loft, backed up by regular use of a loft coat and mask. The 32ft structure has a full length corridor, three sections for his 32 widowhood cocks, two sections for his young birds, grilled floors and self-cleaning nest boxes to keep down the dust. The loft has open door trapping, but now that Ken is fully on the ETS system, a wire door is used on race days, so the birds walk through a trap and across the pads at floor level. Ken’s 32 widowhood cocks are paired up at Christmas and rear one nest of babies before being split from their mates sitting six to eight days on their second round of eggs. They are then on the system being flown out around the loft for one hour every day and are trained two weeks before the first Federation race. They are never trained during the racing season and are raced, including the yearlings, through to Bergerac (458 miles). The cocks are never broken down, being fed twice a day on a first class widowhood mixture and the hens are never shown to the racers on marking nights, just get the nest bowl turned over. The cocks are allowed to go in the nest boxes during the week and perch on the turned over bowl. The time which the cocks get their hens for on their return from the race depends on how hard the fly is and normally this can be for a long time, as Ken is only really interested in racing from France. Although he likes Federation racing with his young birds, the old birds are mostly lined up for the National and Classic event, and repairs his widowhood cocks for the longer races. Ken breeds 100 young birds for racing and they go on the ‘darkness’ system from weaning until the 21^st June each season and says his birds are not in total black out when on the system, but maintains the loft is light enough to read a newspaper. The babies are trained ever day as soon as they begin to run and are still on the ‘dark’. Training is intense for the youngsters, but once they start to race, training is kept to three regular 30 mile tosses per week and they race the full young bird programme, as Ken thinks they need races to educate them for later life.

The late Ron Ball of Northchurch.

Members of the L&SECC sent a nice tidy convoy of 2,145 birds to the last young bird race of the 2002 season from Guernsey and enjoyed one of the largest pay outs of the Classic’s young bird races. It seemed like we had just started the 2002 season and I found myself going to Guernsey for my eleventh time and convoying classic young birds for the last race of the season. From the outset, this event was always going to be a hard push for the youngsters, with the strong north east wind forecast for the whole weekend. However, I’m happy to say that our members enjoyed a good hard race. I think National and Classic racing should be about testing pigeons and this event was classic racing at its best. A good finish to a great season for the London & South East Classic Club! 

The late Ron Ball of Northchurch won the race, flying 180 miles, and recorded four of his seven entries on the day, lifting a nice £1,390. He told me that his young birds had been coming well all season, but not trapping well and the weekend prior to the classic he won 5^th open NFC Guernsey (7,190 birds), winning another £2,000. Brilliant pigeon flying! Ron has a team of 60 youngsters every season, putting half on the darkness system and the other half are kept natural. The natural birds are wanted for future years and are trained well, but only given two races. The darkness youngsters are weaned into a basket for seven days, being fed on maple peas in the same pots they had in their nest boxes and are put on the darkness system straight away. The youngsters get as much training as Ron can give them and are fed twice a day on a good mixture, with plenty of maize. Ron’s Guernsey Classic winner was a handsome blue Staf Van Reet darkness cock, now named, ‘Ring of Gold’, because he won the first prize in the Gold Ring of £1,000. He was sent to Guernsey driving to nest and feeding an eighteen day old baby. His parents were obtained from Ian Stafford in the North East of England and Dean Pallatt. ‘Ring of Gold’ had three races on his build up to his classic win, which was interrupted at the beginning of the season when the loft contracted young bird sickness.

The base of Ron’s loft is Busschaert and he brings in outstanding pigeons of a family to cross with them. He says he is not interested in strains of pigeons, just good winning bloodlines! The loft is raced on the widowhood, with 24 cocks and 12 hens on the system, and these birds are raced through to Pau (561 miles) without being paired up. Ron’s previous performances in the National Flying Club have been outstanding, including 3^rd open NFC Pau (£2,500), 4^th open NFC Nantes, 4^th open NFC.  Saintes, 3^rd open NFC Vire (old hens) and 4^th open NFC Herstal. Ron says he is only interested in National and Classic races and his whole system is geared to these events. His lofts measure 80ft, including stock flights, and he has six sections set aside for the widowhood racers. The loft is paired up in stages starting at Christmas and finishing in March. The birds are fed two sorts of widowhood mixture, only being broken down on the day of the race. Ron has 12 pairs of stock birds and when a new one is introduced, it must be from top winning pigeons.

Lewis Welsh of Burgess Hill. 

The August of 2001 saw the L&SECC send 1,910 young birds to the first of two Guernsey Classics. For the first time the club held an old hens race to be liberated with the youngsters. When we arrived on Guernsey it was raining and with no view to an improvement to the weather that day, I decided to holdover. The weather conditions developed perfectly on the Sunday, so I liberated at 12.00hrs in a strong south west wind and anticipated a good fast race. The convoy cleared the island instantly and with the tail wind the youngsters tumbled in, with some fanciers getting all their entries in a short space of time.

The winning pigeon was clocked at 14.07hrs at the Burgess Hill loft of Lewis Welsh, who only started racing pigeons that season, with young birds. When I visited Lewis’ loft he had five races in the Horsham club, prior to winning the Classic, and he had won all five of them. A brilliant performance! His Guernsey Classic winner, which is now called, ‘First Bay’, was a handsome Snowball / Shepperd blue pied cock and the classic was his first race of his life. He was a darkness youngster and was raced to the perch. Lewis raced 22 youngsters during the season and all were on the darkness for nearly three months, being taken off six weeks before the first Federation race. They were fed twice a day on Lewis’ own mixture and living near the south coast, he trained twice a week from somewhere like Bognor, in the west. He race west to east with the Horsham club and told me, he really enjoyed them few months, when starting up in the sport.

Lewis told me at that time that came from near Newcastle in the North East of England, and maintains he had always been interested in pigeons, but had not had his own back garden, until then. He said he owed his success to his good friend, Stefan Malenczak of Portslade, who had set him up with pigeons and ’know how’. Lewis worked his birds to Stefan’s methods and maintained that he is his mentor. The main families kept were Janssen, Herman and the highly successful Snowball / Shepperds and the Welsh old birds were raced on the widowhood system. His smart loft was 20ft long and had sputnik and open door trapping.

Ian and Carol James of Pulborough 

Ian & Carol won the last London & South East Classic Club race of the 1999 season and had a brilliant day recording 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th open Guernsey lifting over £2,000. Back in June of 1999 when I visited the James' loft as they had won 2^nd open Pau L&SECC little did I know that would be going back in the September to look at their young bird Guernsey winner. I had great pleasure making the return journey to Pu1borough as Ian & Carol were very nice people and great workers in the sport.

Their winning pigeon was a Barker / Puddephatt blue chequer hen sent to Guernsey sitting on chipping eggs. Her sire was bred by John Puddephatt of Littlehampton from his 2^nd open Pau NFC winning lines. This game hen had a lot of training and two Lymington races prior to her Classic win. Ian & Carol's forth pigeon on the clock from the Guernsey Classic was a gold ring and jackpot entry that took most of the money. The James’ had raced pigeons for nearly 30 years and after many years flying the widowhood system with outstanding success, they had changed system and raced 20 pairs on the natural, always with Channel racing in mind. The partners had been outstanding north road flyers, winning everything in their path, but now they are racing only south road with the same phenomenal success. They paired up in February and used the club sprint races for training to get the birds ready for the long distance. As they lived so close to the south coast, all their training was from the west and the young birds had to fly the programme. The partners' 1999 2^nd open Pau L&SECC winner, a three year old natural dark chequer hen, was sent to Pau sitting 14 day old eggs, in what was only the second race of her life. Until then she was always paired to widowhood cocks. She was of the Barker bloodlines. Her dam won many firsts on the north road, including flying Thurso (550 miles) on the day as a yearling.

On our visit Ian & Carol made us most welcome and Carol showed me photographs of the many wonderful cakes that she had decorated. A very talented lady, she was also

a great worker for the partnership and for the local pigeon club, doing training, feeding and clocking for Ian, and cooking for the club's dinners and dances.

John McGee of Worthing.

John McGee won the 1990 Pau Grand National with a Janssen blue hen on the widowhood system and in 1998 he won 1^st open London & South East Classic Club from Alencon with another blue widowhood hen bred down from the same lines. The 1990 season was one of his best, winning 1^st open Pau National, 33 times 1^st club and several times 1^st Federation. A brilliant season! John had recorded some outstanding performance in the NFC in recent seasons including: 1^st section A, 67^th open Pau, 19^th section A, 84^th open Sennen Cove, 4^th section A, 89^th open San Sebastian, 2^nd section A, 102^nd open Guernsey, 7^th section A, 102^nd open San Sebastian and 8^th section A, 216^th open Guernsey.

John started up in the sport in 1975 and has enjoyed outstanding success every season, racing from all distances. The McGee loft had won the Federation countless times through the years and John said he enjoyed any race, from 60 through to 600 miles. He raced mainly cocks and hens on the roundabout system, with a few cocks on the widowhood, all of which were paired up in mid-February. The sexes were trained separately, but were often sent to the same race, with no real problem with trapping if the cocks and hens arrive home together. John had two smart racing lofts and both were closed in for the roundabout system. The old birds loft had a pan tile roof, three sections, and the old birds were trapped in a corridor and through open doors. The young birds loft had sputnik traps and the inmates were raced on the light system. His wonderful team of youngsters were on the light 20 hours every day and followed John around the garden, like a flock of sheep, looking for their peanuts. John’s pigeons were 90% Janssen, with a few Jan Aarden and were bred down from Belgium Gold Wing champion bloodlines. He had the ‘Houdini’ bloodlines and said his best racers including his Pau National winner were from these lines. His 16 pairs of stock birds were housed in a nice big stock loft, with a wire flight. One of John’s stock birds, which I looked at on my visit to his Worthing lofts, was a handsome blue chequer cock, a retired champion racer which had won twenty times first on the road and he was half-brother to the Pau National winner. His full brother was the sire of the 1998 London & South East Classic Club Alencon winner. A wonderful family of pigeons! John McGee now lives in France with his family and is the proprietor of the famous ‘Barcelona Challenge’ lofts.

That’s our ‘ON THE ROAD’ for this week! I can be contacted with any pigeon news 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).