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“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT - 11-07-24

“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Three Borders Federation (Honiton Race 3).

It got off to a wet start at Honiton when the Three Borders Federation was at the race point in mid-June. But with a bit of patience and good advice from the race advisor, Paul Arnold, the Federation convoyer, Dom McCoy liberated the birds in perfect racing conditions at 10.00hrs in a strong West / South West wind. The 125 miles race turned out to be a ‘banger’, with the earliest birds in the Federation making over 2300 ypm! For the second week on the trot the very strong Isleworth club won the Federation, recoding their third win of the season. Steve Oliver won the Federation with his wonderful two year old blue hen, ‘Carys’ and she has five first clubs to her credit, with this being her first Federation win, but has previously won 2nd Federation twice. She won the Lambert Flying Club from Exeter the week previous, with 188 birds competing. What a brilliant hen, bred by Steve’s good friend, Lee Beaumont! Steve also had another bird behind his Federation winner to take 4th Federation. The Oliver loft have some good winners bred by Lee Beaumont, with their good red chequer cock, ‘Ethan’, winner of several top positions including 1st Federation twice and six firsts in the club,  also being bred by the Beaumont loft. Steve is a cousin to Dom and Billy McCoy and back in the day his father, George Oliver, raced pigeon in partnership with Dom’s dad, Tom McCoy and they were very successful racing in the London area. Stuart Emans won the Federation from Okehampton a couple of weeks earlier with his good widowhood blue cock. ‘Harry 048’ and it was interesting to see this great cock was in there again, winning 1st Mitcham & Merton club, 13th Federation from this Honiton race. Great pigeon racing!

The first ten in the Honiton (3) Federation result were: 1) G. Oliver & son 2323: 2) Terry Goodsell 2310: 3) Ken Wise 2305: 4) G. Oliver & son 2284: 5) Ken Wise 2284: 6) Terry Goodsell 2281: 7) Terry Goodsell 2281: 8) Terry Goodsell 2281: 9) Terry Goodsell 2281: 10) Terry Goodsell 2280. This was race number eight of the season and at this point the Ashridge club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 32 points, with the Mitcham & Merton club being R/U on 27 points.

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Steve Oliver currently has two lofts, the original loft is at his mother’s home, with the flying name of ‘G. Oliver & Son’. This was his nan and grandad’s house, Iris and George, and is where his mother lives now, and the loft has changed but within the same garden. Steve believes ventilation and the correct airflow is the most important in loft design, but with no drafts. The number two loft is at his home address in Staines upon Thames and he fly’s under the name of ‘Oliver & Grandson’. This loft is around 24ft x 10ft, and open Aluminium box traps on all. When I asked Steve Oliver about his old bird racing system he told me, ‘I race roundabout at both my lofts, because I love racing my hens, to be honest I prefer racing hens. At loft number 1 I have six cocks and six hens to race old birds. I feed mainly Super Star plus, adding a mixture of Barley/Diet/Gerry as and when is required dependent on wind, distance etc. I do a mixture on a Friday; working currently is around eight to ten minutes with their partners, just in the box, on return from the race. It varies however, I do like to reward them for a good few hours especially if I know they have come well. I enjoy training, and go most days, weather permitting. With the thanks to Daniel Seedwell and Pete, my current old birds at this loft race the full sprint programme with no weeks off, this includes up to around 250 miles inland. In the past when sending to the longer races, I enjoyed eight to ten day old babies worked. I had a hen ( recently retired ) called ‘The Bulled Hen’ as Mark Bulled gifted me this wonderful bird, that I clocked three years running on the day from Bordeaux  455miles, scoring her best 2nd Section 7th National. She loved this nest condition, so would utilise this again or twelve day old eggs for yearlings going this year for me’.

Steve has 16 pair of stock now at one address, all sprint based other than one pair, they all get paired in December allowing him to wean January. The sixteen pairs of stock are Dirk Van den Bulk, Pitbull lines etc and they are fed very simple really, with best all-round Barley and moulting when required. His stock birds are all new this year, the majority are yearling based themselves so untried. He has always raced natural with his babies, except for this season he has around 140 babies over the two lofts on the ‘Darkness’ system. Steve told me, ’my first-time racing this system, so fingers crossed’. Steve currently has around 12 racers at both lofts each season. With the old birds he starts training around 20 miles, then after a few of these and the birds getting from A to B in the correct time he goes straight to Andover and then keeps them there all season, He is taking the same approach with his youngsters, but the babies this year are on the ‘Darkness’, so he  has never done this before and  looking forward to it. He  has always just raced babies back to the perch, as usually May bred natural youngsters wont pair, so they will be trained hard and sent every week. This season Steve will be using much more motivation for the babies, but keeping the same training and feeding programme. He generally feed a mix of ‘Superstar Gerry’ and his young birds this season will race the full programme and hopefully this includes the Nationals. Steve doesn’t  believe in late breeds and  had twenty this season that he kept over the winter and has only five left, this includes over 30 training tosses. He maintains the moult is very important and good one is what the birds need for the next season, He separates his stock birds fairly early, around April or May time, they are fed the right corn and plenty of regular baths in the Aviary. He  like to use the Blue Bath Salts from Cest.

Steve says his most thrilling time of his pigeon time was watching his granddad clock his ‘Pau Hen’ from Pau at just after 6am the next day. When he first took on channel flying, just the memories of being together and watching her drop and he would give up most things to have that moment again. Steve loves the Channel racing, but lost interest in the channel since Covid.  However this season he has sent to three French races and enjoyed it massively! He sent the same three birds 280miles in consecutive weeks and clocking all three, to win provisionally 4th section E National Flying Club , 9th section D British Barcelona Club and 12th section C British International CC. When I asked him about his best pigeon he said, ‘I would say, my best pigeon owned to date is “The Bulled Hen” from my friend Mark Bulled and she scored in so many National races, countless to be honest. Some her best prizes including: 2nd section, 7th National Bordeaux, to add to eleven times 1st and six times 2nds. A pigeon to follow her I would say is the red pied cock, ‘Ethan’ bred by Lee Beaumont. He is such a great pigeon, winner six 1st and multiple 2nd prizes along with 1st Berkshire Federation twice. Then there is the “Gilbert Cock” from Mark Gilbert, winner of ten 1st, multiple 2nd positions, winner of over £3000, and winner of the breeder buyer. The current ‘ace’ racer for my loft is the  blue hen, ‘Carys’ and she was bred by Lee Beaumont. She won the Three Borders Federation from Honiton. This wonderful hen has won five firsts and three times second beaten by loft mates. She has scored many times in the Three Borders, Berkshire and BB&O Federations’.

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Steve Oliver was originally from Hammersmith, and moved to Feltham when he was around nine or ten years old, his mother decided to move when his nan and grandad decided to move location. His grandad George Oliver was the pigeon fancier in the family directly, along with his cousins, Billy and Dominic McCoy, so there is a few of them. Luckily two of Steve’s best mates also keep pigeons and are both a great help to him and that’s Dean Garrett and Daniel Seedwell. He was around eleven years of age, when he started helping his grandad George in the garden with odds and sod jobs, as he was a Carpenter, with that Steve started helping with the birds and kind of got addicted, each day he started doing more and more with his birds before he promoted himself to ‘Loft Manager’. Steve is a keen sportsman and was a very keen Football player in his youth, representing the Borough, County and offered many clubs including playing for Brentford at a young age.

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Steve has been in the sport now for 28 years, had a small break when he was around 18 years old and his current partner, Steph, led me a stray for a few years! His first strain of pigeons were Veryhe pigeons from his grandad,  Jarvis pigeons for the longer racer and also had a mixture of Staff van Reet birds, which performed well. Before he started directly on his own and raced with his grandad, they had multiple wins up to Combine level so raced very well. Steve very first club he raced at on his own was the Feltham North Road club and this was situated at one of Steve’s current clubs at Bedfont football club. His first loft was that of R Ravenhill, a friend of his grandads gifted it to him, it was around 16ft x 8ft with many alterations, but the young Steve loved it. Steve told me he made many mistakes in the early days. He was terrible with feeding, including overfeeding and at times underfeeding. He had no motivation techniques and used to just loft fly and send to races, and not providing the correct minerals etc. Steve never really had stock when he was younger, all his birds were from hid grandad and close friends, Bill Tidbury, Alan and Janina Jenkins, and many more. His first winner was a Mealy cock, GB94H19384, a gift bird from Alan and Janina winning in the north road Federation in the old Thames Valley, also winning 8th Federation. Steve’s grandad was always the fancier he looked up to, as he did many things and had his own way of doing things, never by the book. Steve was lucky to have so many premier racing men locally when he was younger. He was in the same club as, Les Kidd, Derek Reid, Ted Chapman, Rod Berry, Jack Newell, to name a few, but the likes of  the late Jack Newell and Derek Reid where the ones that inspired him. He used to love the longer racers and these guys used to take him to all the marking days. Derek Read is a very good friend to this day, as they race in the same club which they both still so enjoy Fridays and Saturdays up the club.

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When I asked Steve about his occupation he told me, ‘I am a joiner by trade, but the last nine years I’ve been a supervisor line manager approx. 20 builders from All Trades’. He says his mum has always taken an interest in the pigeons, along with her partner Pete and they are always on for a helping hand when it is needed. Steve’s daughter, Carys really enjoys the pigeons, but son Ethan and partner Steph, no chance! Steve says he is always vocal, usually to have a wind up.  The sport in his eyes has defiantly progressed in terms of technology and what we can now do, and the pigeons are now faster than years ago. The jobs that these people do from being Secretary, to race controlling and conveying is tuff and pigeon fanciers always most certainly have opinions, not always right but we have them. He would like to be race controller in the future, something he has always had a passion for, and says credit to all those that currently do it and do it well. Steve’s advice to people starting up in the sport would be to gather as much information as possible regarding racing pigeons. Approach a local fancier that’s racing well and ask to help for a season, this includes all aspects of pigeons, learn how to keep the loft and keeping healthy pigeons. A bit like a year’s apprenticeship, following this then look to branch off under Guidance. Most fanciers would love the help. Steve has never been interested in the eye sign theory. He shows his racers and enjoys the winter months up the club with the lads. He told me, he always gets involved, as they have some expert showmen in the Spelthorne club like Darren Watson and he comes in to his own during the winter. I asked Steve who he thought was the best local fancier and he said, ‘must be Mark Gilbert, cannot move away from what he has won! The Barcelona race last season was the greatest performance known in my eyes and not sure it will ever be done again. Away from Mark Gilbert and it is Mark Bulled for me, just an all-round expert with pigeons and has been for as long as I have been in the sport’.

That’s it for this week! Well done to Steve Oliver on his first Federation win of the season! If you win and want a write up in this space, 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)