“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Looking back at London & South East Classic Club winners (Part 15.)

Mr. & Mrs. Ray Patton of Bishops Stortford. 

The first time I went to the Guernsey liberation site, back in the mid 1990’s, Doug Went and I took, what was then a record young bird entry of 1,550 birds. The liberation site is car park next to a large sports field, a five minute drive from the ferry terminal and was one of the best sites I visited. The Guernsey H.S. club house was just up the street from the liberation site and this 100ft. x 40ft. building is owned by the pigeon club. The club, founded in 1898, is the biggest in the Channel Islands, with over 50 members and owns a rose bowl worth over £2,000. The club races North Road with the longest old bird race Fraserburgh (580 miles) and hold an annual Young Bird Combine race from Dorchester with Jersey. The late, great Cyril Lowe, who was a founder member, started up the ownership of the HQ for the members, which is now worth a great deal of money. The members race for prize cards and a wonderful array of trophies.

There was several thousands of young birds on Guernsey that Saturday, with the Solent Federation and Central Southern Classic Flying Club being there. Guernsey had a blanket of mist over it for nearly three weeks prior to the L&SECC race and pigeon racing off the Island had been near impossible. On our arrival in Guernsey at 06.00hrs on the Saturday, the Island was fogged out, but the forecast said the Saturday would be the best day of the weekend, with the break coming lunch time. Sure enough the mist lifted and the sun came out at mid-day, we cut the strings, liberating at 12,25hrs in a strong south west wind. The convoy cleared the race point really well and within an hour it was a blue sky, sunshine and a crystal clear English Channel. At the home end the youngsters tumbled in and some members had all their birds home on the day.

Mr. & Mrs. Ray Patton of Bishops Stortford won the race, flying 208 miles, with a blue Van Loon hen feeding a seven day old youngster. This was the hen’s second race of her life, having her first two weeks previous and recording 1^st club, 1^st West Section Thames N.E. Counties F.C. from Littlehampton. Prior to winning the Guernsey Classic, she was given lots of training tosses from Epping and Redhill. Ray kept only a few young birds in a small glass fronted young bird loft and said he liked them to pair up as this has produced his best results. In 1996 he won the Golden Ring and this was won with a young cock feeding a youngster.

Ray had been in the sport since 1995 and had won many firsts in sprint / middle distance races. His wife, Denise, was his pigeon partner and he said at the time that he would be lost without her help, as she did the training and lots of the work around the loft. The Patton’s raced 50 old birds on both Natural and Widowhood, and the whole loft was fed on a quality widowhood mixture. Eight cocks were raced in the inland races on the widowhood system and Ray said several of those birds are Federation toppers. The old birds got three training tosses before the first race and then were flown out around the loft twice a day, with no more training. The main family kept were Janssen, which are outstanding up to 400 miles.

Jenkyn, Barrott & Rolfe of Chertsey.

The Hare Hill partnership of Jenkyn, Barrott & Rolfe produce outstanding performances in the Three Borders Federation every season, but their tally of prizes in the 2005 season was a bit special. They won 1^st Federation Exeter, 1^st, 2^nd, Federation Exeter, 9^th Federation Messac, 8^th Federation Bergerac and 1^st Federation Wadebridge, lifting the Federation ‘Longest Young Bird Race Cup’.

Dean won the London & South East Classic Club from the young bird Guernsey race in 2000. He is one of the 'nice guys' of pigeon racing and I always enjoy a chat with him. He is an outspoken lad and has a good, honest, fun approach to racing his pigeons. His lofts are sited on farmland in Chertsey and, being a very busy plumber, he loves the quiet of the isolated lofts at weekends during the summer months. He says having the lofts out in the fields is great in the summer, but not very nice in winter, when he has to carry freezing water in the back of his van. He says he had been trying to win the Classic for several years and to win the Guernsey race was a dream come true. He normally breeds 100 youngsters each year but, because of heavy work commitments at that time, gave most of them away that season, keeping only 12 to race. The young birds are not normally trained past Hook on the M3 motorway, which is about 25 miles to the Chertsey loft, but Dean had been working in Winchester (50 miles) so his youngsters had six tosses from there just prior to the Guernsey Classic race. He sent five young birds to Guernsey for their first race and got five back. The Jenkyn youngsters are raced to the perch on the darkness system and Dean says his Guernsey team was in perfect feather condition for the race. The winning pigeon was a handsome Van Loon blue chequer cock which originates from stock obtained from Terry Hudson of Bracknell, in Berkshire.

Dean is from a pigeon racing family, flying for many years with his late brother, Bernard, and had been in the sport for over 20 years. At that time his 85 year old father was an outstanding fancier, racing a few Staf Van Reet pigeons. He had won several firsts in the 2000 season, including 2^nd Club, 2^nd Federation Bergerac. Dean and Bernard won the Combine from Nantes doing 944ypm, with a good cock which had previously won the Federation inland. Dean races the Van Reet and Van Loon pigeons on the widowhood system and is mostly interested in inland racing. The birds are paired up in mid-January and the cocks are put on the system after rearing a pair of youngsters and sitting eight days on their second round of eggs. The cocks are never broken down and are exercised morning and evening around the loft. The birds are not let out of the loft in the winter months. The loft set-up is 70ft long, with open door and sputnik trapping and the stock team has a nice wire flight to take a bath in. Whilst at Dean's loft, he showed me a few of his best birds, including his famous Van Loon blue chequer cock, 'Off The Shovel', which has had a wonderful racing career, winning many firsts, including three times 1^st open Federation. Dean told me at the time, this was a once-in-a-lifetime pigeon, never wasting a second on his return from a race, which had bred 1^st Federation winners.

The late, Fred Johnson of Brighton.

Another winner of the London & South-East Classic Club from the young bird Guernsey was the late Fred Johnson, who won with a young bird record entry of 2,143 birds. Fred said at the time, he had been in pigeons for as long as he can remember and also had two uncles who were fanciers, which meant that he spent a lot of his childhood at their lofts watching their birds. Fred won his first race from Le Mans but maintains that he had won many firsts in club racing through the years, although his Guernsey Classic win was his best performance to date. He liked to race weekly in his club, the Brighton & District, but said he would have liked to get into long-distance racing. For over 20 years he had been the hard-working Secretary of the local club, which raced south road through to Bergerac.

Fred's Classic winner was a Van Winckel / Janssen blue hen and she was a real class act, having previously won a 1^st and 2^nd Club as young bird inland racing. Fred named her 'Annie' after his late mother and she was sent to Guernsey calling to nest with an odd old cock bird which was housed in the young bird section. The main families raced were Smits-Van Winckel and Janssen and Fred said they were both good families up to 8 or 9 hours on the wing. He raced the widowhood system, starting the season with 20 cocks, and fed a barley breakdown from Saturday until Tuesday. The cocks were not trained very much, mostly from the west, as the loft was on the south coast, but race right through to Bergerac (400 miles).

Fred's main racing loft was 18ft with three sections, sputnik traps and used a straw litter on the floors. His wonderful old loft was very close to the sea front and looked a blaze of colour on my visit, with nice plant boxes all round it. He reared 34 youngsters for racing each year and raced his own version of the darkness system, with outstanding results. The young birds were not trained very much, but were kept match fit with good exercise around the loft. I must say it was nice to see Fred Johnson, one of the sport's workers, at the top of the Classic result sheet.

Tom Cummings of Brighton.

I'm not personally a great fan of young bird racing from across the English Channel, as racing from France is very hard for the youngsters and fanciers pay a very high price, with heavy losses. Several classic clubs race their young birds from Guernsey each season and in my opinion, this race is a great education for the birds for Channel racing in later life. It is not the easiest place to race from, as without warning mist and rain can cover the island in just a few minutes, but, on a good day, it is second to none for racing young birds across the Channel.

For many seasons the London & South East Classic Club raced their young birds from Guernsey and Tom Cummings of Hove near Brighton won the race in 1998, against over 2,000 birds. Tom's winner, a dark chequer cock, was bred from the very best North East of England bloodlines, in the form of a Janssen cock from Brian Slatter and a Busschaert hen from Neil Laidlaw. This game cock was flown to the perch and on his build-up to the Guernsey Classic had several club races and two training tosses from Havant. He was big in the hand, with nice silky feathering and when I saw him I noticed he had a full wing just after the race, coming well up on his eighth flight. Tom had started the season with 26 young birds and said he was not really a lover of young bird racing. He normally stopped the youngsters after three races, but trained them well down the coast to Portsmouth. The Cummings' loft was sited at Hove, which is on the south coast, so the young birds had to be trained west and then dog-legged south across the Channel to Guernsey. He raced his youngsters natural, being left mixed in the loft with the old birds.

Tom started in the sport in 1951, but after some years out of racing started again in 1997. He liked long-distance racing and had won the Spanish Diploma with the British Barcelona Club taking 4^th, 14^th and 7^th open Palamos (630 miles). He flew only a few pairs on natural and paired up in mid-March. He fed all his birds on ‘Concorde’ widowhood mixture, adding maple peas for the distance events, and he gave the birds lots of training from 20 miles. The families raced were Janssens, from Brian Slater and Busschaerts, from Neil Laidlaw, which he had crossed with outstanding results. Tom's very neat self-built loft was 14ft long, with two sections, and all the inmates were trapped into sputniks. He kept no stock birds and when bringing in new stock had his own special type.

John Edwards of Luton.

John Edwards is a great worker for the sport, serving on the NFC committee for many years and did stint as president of the NFC in recent seasons. John won the London & South East Classic Club young bird Guernsey race with a blue Janssen hen racing to overdue eggs. She was on her third flight for the Guernsey Classic. On her build-up for the race she had every race including the NFC Pontorson National and took 4^th open Federation from Exeter. When I visited John's Bedfordshire home he had only just moved in and his 90ft Petron loft was only half-erected, so he'd been racing his young birds to an old stable in his massive back garden. He said at the time that he had his best ever young bird season racing to that old stable, winning several firsts in the very strong local club and many Federation prizes. The stable was dry and very dark and he says that his young birds were on a ‘natural’ darkness system, only throwing their third flights in the month of September.

John found out he had pigeon fancier's lung and nearly gave up the sport, but was helped out by his good friend, Cliff Ginger, a retired local fancier. He said, ‘Cliff is priceless and is the main worker around the loft’. John had been in the sport for 40 years, starting as an 8 year old and as a lad he won 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th Nantes in the strong Dunstable Club on a really bad day, recording 2^nd open Federation. The 1997 season saw him win 1^st section Angers in the L&SECC Yearling Derby. He raced his old birds on the widowhood and natural systems, as he liked all racing, long and short distance. The 16 widowhood cocks were paired up in January with the stock birds, and the naturals were all put together in March. The main family kept were Janssen, but John had had some really outstanding birds from friends, including Peter Wells of Dunstable.

That’s our article for this week! The outstanding racing performances of members of the great London & South East Classic Club. I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘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).