“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Three Borders Federation (Honiton Race 2).
The Three Borders Federation were at Honiton for the sixth old bird race of the 2024 season and the convoyer, Dom McCoy produced a good steady race when he liberated at 07.00hrs in to a North wind situation. Many members remarked after the event that they had enjoyed a great steady race, with good returns on the day. A partnership who appears in the Federation results on a regular basis is, Frank and Sue Carson of the Ashridge club. The husband and partnership had a brilliant race from Honiton, winning 1st, 2nd, 21st Federation and recording their second Federation winner of the 2024 season. Frank and Sue’s son, John is a first class pigeon fancier in his own and is helping out at the Carson loft this season. I had a chat with John after their Honiton Federation win and he said, ‘we are delighted our yearling Grizzle cock’s performance from Honiton and winning the Federation. He had a bad training toss as a young bird, flying himself into the ground and was collected a mile away from home and consequently was unraced as a young bird. We gave him a chance and he has come out and repaid us by winning the Federation! Weirdly we won the Federation eleven years to the day, taking 1st and 2nd (1,149 birds) from the same race point. Really weird! The yearling have raced superb for us this year and from the Honiton race the two widowhood cocks came together at 09.38, and there was only one second between them on the ETS. We are keen supporters of Chelsea Football Club and have named our Honiton Federation winner, ‘JT’ after the great Chelsea footballer, John Terry. The grizzle cock’s ring number is 26 and John Terry wore the 26 Chelsea shirt! ‘JT’ is a grandson of our wonderful breeding hen, ‘New Lady’, who is a daughter of ‘Niuwe Olympiade’. Ever thing we cross with ‘New Lady’ works, she is the best breeding hen we have ever owned. The dam of ‘JT’ was bred at ‘May Pigeons’ by my good friend Darren May from his ‘Pitbull’ bloodlines. The 2nd Federation Honiton winner was our dark chequer widowhood cock; ‘Alfie’ and he bred from our Leo Hermans stock birds’. Frank and Sue Carson are enjoying a brilliant 2024 racing season and have won so far: 1st Federation Wincanton, 10th, 11th, 12th Federation Wincanton, 5th, 6th, 10th Federation Yeovil, 2nd Federation Honiton, 1st, 2nd, 21st Federation Honiton. Well done to Frank, Sue and John!
The first ten in the Honiton (2) Federation result were: 1) Frank & Sue Carson 1465: 2) Frank & Sue Carson 1465: 3) Terry Goodsell 1463: 4) Terry Goodsell 1463: 5) Jim Andrews & son 1461: 6) Vic & Lou Emberson 1453: 7) Vic & Lou Emberson 1453: 8) Vic & Lou Emberson 1452: 9) Vic & Lou Emberson 1452: 10) Terry Goodsell 1442. This was race number six of the season and at this point the Ashridge club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 25 points, with the Mitcham & Merton club being R/U on 22 points.
It’s always a great pleasure to visit Frank and Sue’s garden in Sutton, as the partners have two very smart lofts, the main one being 40ft long and this houses the widowhood racing cocks, young birds and the eight pairs of stock birds, which also live in a nice spacious flight. The stock birds are paired up the same time as the race birds in January and their eggs are floated in the race section. The breeders are fed on Frank’s own premier breeding mixture, which is three top quality mixtures knocked up together. The big main loft has slatted floors, heaters for winter breeding and the trapping is designed for ETS clocking. Their small loft houses the widowhood hens and is a store for their corn and baskets. The partnership breed about 50 babies to race each season on the ‘darkness’ system. The partners like young bird racing and the babies are trained well and race the Federation programme. The widowhood system is very basic and Frank tells me he exercises the cocks around the loft for one hour only every day and feeds twice a day on Mabdor widowhood mixture and a light mixture on their return from a race. The widowhood hens are kept in boxes and are shown to the racing cocks on marking night. The widowhood cocks get the hens for an hour on their return home from the race and no training is given once racing starts. His main interest is Saturday Federation sprint racing, but competes in races up to 450 miles, having won at all points up to Bergerac (450 miles) and is very careful with his feeding, breaking the cocks down in the first part of the week. Frank told me, ‘our pigeons are raced on the conventional widowhood system, with the cocks being kept on grills in their nest boxes’.
It is very interesting to see Stuart Emans’ great yearling blue hen, ‘Jade 821’ is in at 15th in the Honiton Federation result this week. This great Gerald Delaney roundabout hen has set the results on fire so far this season, winning: 1st club, 3rd Three Borders Federation Wincanton, 1st club, 5th Three Borders Federation Wincanton, 2nd club, 2nd Three Borders Federation Okehampton (beaten by a loft mate on the ETS) and now 3rd club, 15th Three Borders Federation Honiton. Just brilliant! A strong contender for Federation ‘pigeon of the year’, I think! Well done to Terry Goodsell and Vic Emberson, who were both up there again in the Federation result again this week from Honiton. Watch out for Jim Andrews, he is 5th Federation this week and is creeping higher and higher ever week! Jim is 90 years old and his son Mark runs the partners pigeon loft now, with Jim’s grandson, Ben, who is the loft manager. Mark told me, Ben is the pigeon racing brains and the ‘main man’ with their successful loft management. The partners have a really smart loft set up, made up of two 20ft lofts with ETS clocking. They race 18 pairs on the roundabout system and race the cocks and hens with great success.
The Keith Mott YouTube Channel
If you enjoy looking at pigeon and band films, why don’t you visit the ‘Keith Mott YouTube Channel’? I have been taking photos and shooting film all my life and have visited most of premier pigeon establishments in the UK and Europe in my now over 50 years writing in the Fancy Press. I have over 500 films on the channel which has attracted nearly 7.5 million views worldwide (May 2024) and over 16,350 subscribers in a very short time. The top film with 690 thousand views is Video 38, featuring the late great Ron McCarthy of Rhymney. The channel features many premier racing and show racer loft visits all over Europe, my nine years as a ‘Classic’ pigeon convoyer taking the birds to France and the countless National and Society shows I have judged at over the years. There are also sixteen band films on there from the good old days when I was a young man and played drums in several top rock bands, which are very special to me! All the films are tagged, so if you fancy a look, just log in and enter the item you want to see in the box, push the button and you are away! Thanks for your interest!
That’s our article for this week. Well done to the Carson family of the Ashridge club on a great result! If you win and want an article in this space, please contact me on telephone number: 07535 484584 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)