“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
The Besant Family (Part One).
Bobby and Anthony Besant of Worcester Park.
I had a lovely surprise recently when my good friend, Bob Besant, visited our home in Claygate. It’s been quite a while since we have seen one another and it was great to see him looking so fit. Needless to say, Bobby is one of the best pigeon racers God ever put on Earth and one of a very few fanciers to win 1st open International in the UK. Bobby and his son Anthony won 1st open International Agen in 2015 with their wonderful dark cock, Champion ’Noble Dream’. This brilliant cock is now eleven years old and is still filling his eggs. Bobby walked in our house today with a lovely bunch of flowers for Betty and a pigeon basket with the ‘Champ’ in. He brought ‘Noble Dream’ around to show me and he looked really magnificent for an eleven year old. A truly wonderful, once in a life time pigeon! We got the camera out and had our photo taken with the ‘Champ’, as we did in 2015, when he won the International. Bobby thanks for the visit today, it was really great see you mate!
Bobby and Anthony Besant of Worcester Park own one of the all-time premier lofts in the UK, winning 1st open NFC (twice), countless times 1st Federation through many years and now 1st open International Agen (10,510 birds) in the 2015 season. A racing record second to none, achieved over many years! Bobby and I have been friends since the 1970’s, when we both had shoulder length hair and were both ‘foot loose and fancy free’ in our flared bottom trousers and Cuban heeled boot. I have now known the Besant family for well over 50 years, and in that time I have seen them win every major award there is to win in pigeon racing. In the early days the Besant brothers, Ken, Bobby and Ron, won at club, open, Federation, Combine and National level and even in the 1970’s theirs had to be rated as one of the best lofts in the United Kingdom. When I first met Bobby and Ken in 1970, their dad, Cecil, had just passed away and the boys were about to take over the very successful C. H. Besant & sons pigeons. Although I never met Cecil, I had always admired his fantastic performances in the Surrey Federation. The boys carried this great fancier’s name on in pigeon racing history to an even higher degree.
The Besant partners had been premier prize winners in the very strong Kingston & District H.S. countless times through the years. In later years the partnership was made up of Bobby, Ken and Bobby’s son, Anthony. The loft won 1st open National Flying Club for the second time in 1999, from Bordeaux, with 3,776 birds taking part in the race. The partners’ winner, the Herbot blue cock, Champion ‘Besant’s Bishop’s Pride’, was bred by Brian Bishop of Sutton and in six consecutive races he won: 2nd club Weymouth (108 miles), 5th club Exeter (151 miles), 28th section E. (2,500 birds), 254th open N.F.C. Nantes (10,591 birds), 1st club, 1st Surrey Federation Weymouth (1,973 birds), 1st section E, 1st open N.F.C. Bordeaux (3,776 birds). This great pigeon won the National by over 45 minutes, winning £4,478, a record amount of cash for a single pigeon in one race at that time, winning an R.P.R.A. Merit Award for 250-450 miles performance, awarded the London Social Champion of London Trophy in 1991. Ken said at the time he was a once in a lifetime pigeon and was a champion at stock, with his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews all won in open and national competition.
As I have previously stated, Bobby has been a good friend of mine for many years and as I’ve written many times before, he is one of the best pigeon fanciers I’ve ever met! Bobby is a pigeon fancier of the highest order, but always knew where to draw the line where his family were concerned, always putting Angela and the kids first. Bobby is a great guy and a brilliant pigeon fancier. I was highly delighted to see him re-enter the sport at the beginning of 2008, after a fifteen years lay off and at that time I predicted he would set the sport alight and he really has! The partners have a very smart new 26ft self-designed racing loft, which has four spacious sections and ETS clocking, which Bobby enjoys very much. Bob and Anthony are just picking out their races these days and only competed in National Flying Club and British International Championship Club events. Bobby says, ‘the birds tell you if they are in good form and as we have one day pigeons we tend to set our loft up for the 450 mile National and Classic races’. One of the best racing cocks in recent years is the blue cock, ‘Classic Near Miss’ and he had a brilliant racing record, winning six premier positions in the National and Classic including: 2008: 2nd SW section, 2nd open L&SECC Guernsey (1,590 birds): 2009: 2nd SW section, 2nd open L&SECC Bergerac (1,135 birds). This champion racing cock was bred by Page Brothers of Yorkshire and is down from their ‘Gladiator’ bloodlines.
My story really starts in the early evening of Friday 26th June 2015, when another good friend of mine, Mike Shepherd, phoned me to tell me that Bob and Anthony Besant had probably won 1st open in the Agen International, flown that day. I can’t say how delighted I was getting that wonderful news! My phone never stopped ringing all evening after that, as the news spread around the local pigeon fancy that the International winner was in Surrey. It was about bout 9 o’clock when the calls slowed up that I found a message on my answer phone from Anthony, saying, ‘dad asked me to give you a phone call to tell you that we have won 1st open International from Agen today’. I rang Bobby straight back as he got his second bird home from Agen, but as he was clocking the bird, he managed to say, ‘Yes mate we have won the International today and congratulations it is a son of your hen ‘Half Crown’. It was a great buzz to hear those words on my phone that night; I had bred the dam of a 1st open International winner with 10,500 birds competing! I was so pleased for Bobby and Anthony; it was the crowning glory on a great pigeon racing career spanning over fifty years! We did briefly talk again on the phone that evening, but Bobby was on ‘cloud nine’ celebrating at home with his family. After the dust had settle, Betty and I spent a nice Tuesday afternoon with Bob and Angela in their Worcester Park back garden, drinking tea and having some wonderful ‘banter’ about the Agen race that had taken place weekend before. It is not common knowledge that Bobby is a very good gardener and his lawn and borders looked brilliant. He told me when it comes to the gardening, Angela is director and he is the ‘work horse’. Bob and Angela have two sons and their lives these days very much revolve around their lovely grandchildren, which we can relate to, as we have five grandchildren ourselves. Angela is from a pigeon racing family herself, with her late father being the Kingston ‘ace’ channel flyer, Arthur Payne. I remember, Arthur was always the one to look for when we were racing from France in the old Kingston club all those years ago and he did a lot of his pigeon training on his push bike. In later years, Bobby helped Arthur out with his pigeons and he had a brilliant blue cock name, ‘Kenny’, which had a long list of positions in the Federation and he was bred by Bob’s late brother, Kenny Besant, who was another great pigeon racer in his own right. I must say Betty and I really enjoyed that Tuesday afternoon in Bob and Angela’s company.
The Besant’s named their Agen International winner ‘Noble Dream’ and their wonderful champion was a two year dark cock, raced on the widowhood system. Bobby told me he thought it was a decent time when he came in from Agen and ‘Noble Dream’ did his usual party trick of landing in next doors tree before coming in to the loft to be clocked. He has won several premier positions before his Agen (499 miles) International win, including 3rd Three Borders Federation, 4th SMT Combine (699 birds) Nort sur Erdre (278 miles) as a yearling in the 2014 season. I handled him on my visit to the Besant’s home after the race and he handled very like a true champion, being medium, with very good silky feathering, and looking at him in his nest box, he had a big character and presences in the loft. What a great buzz it was to see and handle Bobby and Anthony’s great champion!
For a bit of interest this is the breeding details of Champion ‘Noble Dream’. His sire, ‘Tuff Gory’, was bred by Ian and Georgina French of Evesham. ‘Tuff Glory’ is bred from a son of Brian Denney’s Champion ‘Tuff Nut’ and a daughter of Paul Kendal’s Champion ‘Morning Glory’ mating, which are two of the best pigeons that have ever raced in the NFC Pau Grand National. What a pair of stock pigeons! The dam of Champion ‘Noble Dream’ was the dark pied hen, ‘Half Crown’ and she was bred by Keith and Betty Mott of Claygate. She was one of three sisters that I gifted to Bobby and Anthony in 2009 and I donated a full brother to the BHW Blackpool Show Charity auction in 2010, which raised for £740 for charity. The sire of ‘Half Crown’ was my champion stock cock, ‘Sasha’s Boy’ and he was bred by Brian Denney. He was bred for the stock loft from Brian’s champion stock pair, ‘Maxi’ and ‘Dark Jan’ and is a full brother to ‘Dark Charm’ winner of 1st sect K, 5th open NFC Tarbes (750 miles) 2007, ‘John’ winner of 4th sect K, 17th open NFC Tarbes 2007, ‘Dark Dancer’ winner of 6th sect K, 27th open NFC Tarbes 2007, 2nd section K, 4th open NFC Tarbes (748 miles), 1st section K, 48th open NFC Fougeres (394 miles) and half-brother to ‘The Chequer Cock’ winner of 9th sect K, 31st open NFC Tarbes 2007 and 2nd sect K. NFC Bordeaux 2006. The dam of ‘Half Crown’ was my champion hen, ‘Foxwarren Complete’, who was a great 550 mile racer and has now proved to be a champion breeder. ‘Foxwarren Complete’ was bred from Eric Cannon and Brian Denney bloodlines and was the winner of 2003: 32nd open L&SECC Dax (530 miles), 2nd East Grinstead CC Dax, 2004: 29th open L&SECC San Sebastian (560 miles), 2005: 116th open L&SECC Pau (552 miles), 2007: 109th open L&SECC Pau. A real class hen!
Bob and Anthony have a very smart new 26ft self-designed racing loft, which has four spacious sections and ETS clocking, which Bobby enjoys very much. He says the main factor in good loft design is dryness, good ventilation and plenty of light. Deep litter has been used and Bobby maintains that if it is kept dry there are no problems, but it can be a bit dusty. The old birds were raced on the roundabout system in the 2009 season, because with new families the partners had to find out how good the hens were. The system is very simple, with the cocks and hens being keep separate during the week and allowed to run together before going in to the basket for marking. The racers are paired up just after the BHW Blackpool Show in January and after rearing their youngsters are given training off the south coast, before going on regular exercise around the loft. Bobby has been a Postman for 35 years and because of his work has only a limited time with pigeons, so only lets them out for one hour fly each day, but would prefer two one hour stints. The feeding is basic widowhood, but the Besant partners do use a breakdown mixture when needed and are not shy of training during the season if it was necessary. Bobby says, ‘the birds tell you if they are in good form and as we have one day pigeons we tend to set our loft up for the 450 mile National and Classic races’. During the moult period the birds are given as much variation in the feeding as possible, with plenty of quality seeds.
Bobby and Anthony win premier prizes in National races every season, but won the Federation recently. The Three Borders Federation were at Okehampton for their last old bird race of the season and members sent 660 birds, for what turned out to be a fast fly home, being liberated at 06.30hrs into a westerly wind situation. Personally, it was very nice to see my two good mates, Bob and Anthony Besant of the Esher club with the Federation on this, the longest old bird race of the season. I spoke to Anthony after the race and he said, ‘we mostly concentrate on National racing these days, but we have really enjoyed our first Federation win for a few years. Most important it is to say thank you to Adrian Leach Brothers for sending us down six lovely youngsters last year, with two remaining after six or seven old bird races. Both have scored and one, ‘Toey’, so called because she had to have a toe nail removed, scoring 1st, 3rd and 7th club, as well as 1st Three Borders Federation Okehampton (169 miles). There was no special preparation, just good pigeons, being sent in the club every week. Thank you to Adrian’. It is great to see the name Besant at the top of the Three Borders Federation result! Well done to Bobby and Anthony!
Well there you have it, Bob and Anthony Besant’s wonderful Champion ‘Noble Dream’, winner of 1st open International Agen (499 miles) in the 2015 season! I really enjoyed this one! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)