“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT

‘You Tube’ still going mad!

At the time of writing this article my You Tube channel is going mad and has had 300,000 views in the just over three month it has been opened. It took over my life and I couldn’t edit and get films on it quick enough! If I don’t put footage on every day, I got complaining message from all over the world, asking me to put more on. It is a shame they don’t pay for the films, it would pay for my divorce! At this time I have 320 short films on the channel and that is all my ‘Many Miles with Mott’ archive on, so I can now have my life back to normal. My massive archive of films is the result of many years traveling around Europe visiting and filming hundreds of the very best fanciers and their lofts. I have mixed it up well on the channel, with loft visits to racing and show racer fanciers, visits to National Shows and loads of good pigeon race liberations. I will be going out from time to time; too visit premier lofts and shows, with the sole purpose of making new films for the You Tube channel and for new fancy press articles. I’m not going away for weeks on end like I use too, to get films and articles, but will enjoy a 50 miles drive for a loft visit, or pick some up if I’m away for some reason. It has been a hard slog for three months editing all those films, but I’m glad they are now out there on the internet giving people pressure. If you want a look, just go on to You Tube and put my name in, and it should all come up.

On a personal note!

After his recent article, Prince Omar rang me from Dubai and we had a visit at that time from Miklos Bankuti, a pigeon racer from Hungary. We have countless visits to our pigeon loft in Claygate every year from premier fanciers from all over the world. The long distance 'ace', Miklos Bankuti of Hungary visited with his son, Balint, and son in law, Tamas Peter. They come from Karancslapusto, a small village near the Slovakian border and are coming back for some youngsters next year. A smashing loft visit! I had two phone calls from a fancier in New York, who was after some youngsters and he races next door to the ex- boxing world champion, Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson! In New York their lofts are on the roof tops, like those in Malta, and ‘Iron’ Mike’s loft is on the roof next door in the Bronx. He told me Mike is looking at my website and YouTube channel all the time, which blew me away. The great Mike Tyson, one of my sporting heroes! Another sporting hero, Gerry Francis, phoned me recently for a pigeon chat and in the conversation he told me his two sons played in a rock band named, ‘Lost Lucky Lady’. I looked at some of the stuff on You Tube and was very impressed. The singer, who I believe is one of Gerry’s boys, was brilliant! Their track ‘Alone’ is really good. Good luck to those lads, I understand the buzz they are getting from playing good music. Gerry is still coaching football at the top level in the UK and is finding it harder and harder to racing his pigeons.

I think it is common knowledge that because of my massive commitment in the sport of pigeon racing and showing, and the lack of time, I’m packing up the racing side with my birds. I will be keeping most of my birds to play with and going 100% in to the breeding side. Another deciding factor for my decision to finish with the racing side of the sport, is there if virtually no racing over 250 miles in my area now and to continue racing the long distance it would mean a 50 miles round trip every weekend for race marking and clock checking. I can’t believe the 2016 racing season is nearly finished already and the Esher club has its last race in a couple of weeks. I shall be resigning from the club at the end of the season, but staying in the NFC to get my rings each year. I feel better now I’ve finally made up my mind to pack up racing and I think I will enjoy my pigeons better now! As I previously said, I’m not in love with racing pigeons any more, but I still love pigeons and everything else I do in the sport. I’m booked up to judge four big National Shows next winter already!

Paul Stone of West Drayton

I had a phone call from Paul Stone asking me if I could photograph his latest two champions! This was getting to be a regular annual occurrence, as he did the same in the year before after winning the Greater Distance Club from Barcelona that season. He had gone a step further and recorded 1st open Greater Distance Club Palamos (683 miles), with his champion dark chequer hen, ‘Trio’, being the only bird in race time. Paul also won 2nd open Greater Distance Club Barcelona (707 miles), with his scotch blue chequer cock, ‘Jock’, being one of only two birds recorded in race time and he was bred by Andy Ritchie of Scotland.

The season prior saw him record 14th open BICC, 1st Greater Distance Club Barcelona (707 miles) with his good Shepherd dark hen ‘Barbie’ and she was sent on the roundabout system. Paul had named his great hen ‘Barbie’ because when she came from Barcelona he had just lit the Bar BQ and says he was lucky to get her into the loft as the garden was filled with smoke! This game little hen had been a very consistent racer and only had two races that season from Lulworth and Alencon, before her Barcelona win. She was bred from a half-brother, half-sister mating and her grand sire won several good prizes, including 30th open NFC Pau.

Paul Stone was born in St Giles, Buckinghamshire and none of his family were interested in pigeons. The late Eric Missey of Hayes first introduced him to the sport and gave him his first pigeons. Paul remembers his first winner was a blue cock which won his first young bird in the Hayes NRFC. More or less since he started up in the sport in 1969, Paul has been a long distance enthusiast and tells me he has never really been interested in sprint racing. He started up in earnests with old George Burgess’ white and grizzle family, which was successful from the outset, winning races at club and Federation level. After a few seasons he obtained his first long distance pigeons from Jimmy Shepherd of Chichester and this is the family he races successfully today. Paul told me Jimmy Shepherd’s dark chequers are basically bred down from the old Norman Southwell bloodlines and are brilliant at the long distance on hard days. In the early years he flew north road and put up some good performances from Lerwick (600 miles) with the NRCC, and won 1st Federation Thurso (505 miles) and 1st section NRCC Berwick young bird nation. Paul tells me he won 1st open BICC Barcelona in 1997, 1st Greater Distance Club San Sebastian in 2001 and to win Palamos with the BBC is his biggest ambition today. His biggest thrill in his many years in the sport was when he won 1st open BICC Barcelona with the only birds in the UK on the winning day and winning

an RPRA London Region Award.

Paul races nine pairs on the roundabout system and has a smart 36ft Blake’s loft, which has six sections, drop hole trapping, and an aviary for the stock birds. He thinks deep litter is OK if it is kept dry and has used it in past seasons, but finds it messy when exiting the loft. The Stone pigeons are fed on ‘Irish’ mixture all the year around and are given regular training tosses off the south coast throughout the racing season. He says that is the art of successful pigeon racing, knowing how to feed and train the birds. The race birds are paired up at the end of February and are not broke down as he gives them as much training off the south coast as possible. He shows the cocks to the hens on marking night and they are left together for about 30 minutes on their return from the race. The local club and short BICC races are used for training for the NFC Tarbes, BBC Palamos and BICC Barcelona races, which are his favourite events.

He houses 15 pairs of Jimmy Shepherd stock birds and says he has too many breeders, but are mostly retired good racers and children of his best racers. The whole loft, racing and stock birds, are paired up at the end of February and only breeds about 18 youngsters to race each year. The babies are trained well along the south coast and sometimes are only give one race, just to educate them, as Paul is not interested in young bird races and wants them for long distance racing, later in their life. He has sent his youngsters over to France in their first year, but says he doesn’t anymore because the losses are too great and it doesn’t prove anything. When he bring in a new stock bird he likes to handle it and hates to obtain birds ‘blind’, with his main preferences being good type and winning lines. He maintains that you have to like a pigeon or they don’t seem to do well for you and has found racing latebreds is a complete waste of time, although they make good stock birds. Paul has sent the odd yearling to 550 miles, but this is not normal practice, with them normally going through to Nantes (300 miles) to educate them and into Pau as two year olds.

He is not great fan of the ETS and says he would like to see the NFC go back to its old programme of two old bird races, Nantes and Pau, and one young bird race. When I asked him who was the best fancier in his area, he replied Gary Inkley, who is outstanding from 80 miles through to 550 miles every season. Paul never shows his birds, although he thinks they are a good type and would do well, he says after doing his job as a skip driver all day he can’t be bothered to take his birds out to shows on cold winter nights. He has bred several outstanding racers for other fancier, including 2nd open BBC Palamos and the sire of 1st open BICC Barcelona for John Nicholson, pigeons to breed Federation winners for Noel Mounce and 1st club, 3rd Federation, 5th Combine Bourges (580 miles) for Ken Dodd of Durham. Paul likes to see a nice coloured eye on a pigeon but says he is not a believer in the eye sign theory and never treats his birds for worms, canker or any other disease.

There you have it, the Paul Stone story, and the Palamos and Barcelona specialist!

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 & PHOTO BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)