“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
Three Borders Federation (Wadebridge Race).
One of my favourite places in the world is the south west of England and the Three Borders Federation convoyer, Dom McCoy had the great pleasure of taking the birds down to Wadebridge for the Federation’s race in late June. Over the years, Betty and I have had many wonderful holidays in Cornwall and backing 1976 we had one and stayed at Johnny and Nelly Winter’s guest house in Penzance.
The late Johnny Winters was a great friend of mine and was a top pigeon racer in the Kingston area, and moved down to Cornwall in the early 1970’s. He was the local Kingston pigeon corn chandler back in the day and living local to him, I use to help him unload the lorry and put the bags of corn in his garage on many occasions. Johnny still raced his pigeons with great success in Cornwall and won the Cornish Combine. The guest house was opposite the train station in Penzance and Johnny was the pigeon liberator and when race birds came in from all over the pigeon world on the trains, he liberated them on the station platform. On the Saturday of our 1976 holiday the SMT Combine, including the Three Borders Federation were racing from Wadebridge, so Keith had a great idea, Betty and I would sleep in the car on the Wadebridge liberation site and film the liberation next day. My brother, Phil was at home doing the pigeons and I remember that Betty saw her grizzle cock, ‘The Captain’ in the crate and she pointed to show him the way home! In my nine years as a convoyer for the Classics, all my work was taking the birds to France and Guernsey and nothing inland. I think it was in 2003 we couldn’t go to France because of the ‘bird flu’ problem and I had the great pleasure of taking the London & South East Classic birds to Sennen Cove, which is one of my favourite places in Cornwall. I must add we were fogged in at the cliff top liberation site and I had my longest hold over ever, liberating the Classic on the Tuesday morning. Great memories!
Dom McCoy liberated the Three Borders Federation birds and produced a good steady race when he liberated at 07.45hrs in to a West / North West wind situation. Many members remarked after the event that they had enjoyed a great steady race, with good returns on the day. Frank and Sue Carson of the Ashridge club, recorded their third Federation winner of the 2024 season, clocking in 3 hours 31 minutes at 211 miles. The husband and partnership had a brilliant race from Wadebridge, winning 1st, 8th, 11th, 21st, 22nd Federation and recording their third Federation winner this year. 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 asked John about his race and he said, ‘our close friend, Gary Young, purchased twelve young birds off Terry Haley of Watford in 2023and we split them, Gary had six and we had the other six. I didn’t know Terry personally, but knew he was a very good flyer, with good pigeons. The Federation winner is a yearling widowhood blue cock, which we have named ‘Terry’ after the breeder the ‘Watford Wizard’, Terry Haley. I don’t have pedigree for him, but he is super in the hand and has raced really well all season. The birds enjoyed the bit of extra distance from Wadebridge and came in really well’. My old mate Terry Haley isn’t a pedigree man and is only interested in winning pigeons and not the bits of paper. I rang him up after the race to give him the good news of the Carson family’s success and he told me that the sire of ‘Terry’ is a year old blue cock, and had won: 1st club Grantham, 2nd club Retford and 6th club Darlington in the 2024 racing season. The grand sire of ‘Terry’ is one of Terry’s best racers at the present time and this blue cock has won many firsts in the club and 2nd section NRCC Lerwick (585 miles) and 3rd section NRCC Thurso (492 miles). Great pigeon racing by all!
The first ten in the Wadebridge Federation result were: 1) Frank & Sue Carson 1764: 2) Terry Goodsell 1763: 3) Terry Goodsell 1763: 4) Terry Goodsell 1763: 5) Mirek & Malgorzeta Burczak1762: 6) Mirek & Malgorzeta Burczak 1762: 7) Mirek & Malgorzeta Burczak 1761: 8) Frank & Sue Carson 1754: 9) Vic & Lou Emberson 1743: 10) Paul Arnold 1737. This was race number nine of the season and at this point the Ashridge club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 37 points, with the Mitcham & Merton club being R/U on 29 points.
Frank and Sue’ Carson’s 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’. Frank and Sue 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 Mirek and Malgorzeta Burczak partnership of the Isleworth club are enjoying a good 2024 racing season, recording several premier position this year, the latest being 5th, 6th, 7th from Wadebridge. The Three Borders Federation sent to Yeovil for the third young birds race last season and it was the Isleworth club’s day again, with club members, Mirek and Malgorzata Burczak winning 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Federation and recording their third Federation winner of the 2023 season. The Federation were at Okehampton for the last old bird race of the 2023 season and the partnership who appears in the Federation results on a regular basis , Mirek and Malgorzata Burczak and they won 1st, 13th, 14th, 18th, 23rd, 24th Federation Okehampton, recording their second Federation winner of the season. The husband and wife partnership had a brilliant race from Bodmin earlier in the season, recording 1st, 2nd, 16th Federation, with the first two birds being on the same yardage. Well done to Mirek and Malgorzata! It was the Isleworth club’s day then, with another club member, Graham Evans recording 2nd Federation after winning 1st Federation from Yeovil two weeks previously.
Mirek and Malgorzata Burczak enjoyed brilliant season racing in the Isleworth club and Three Borders Federation in 2022. The weather had been very kind to pigeon racing in that season and it allowed the Three Border Federation convoying crew to produce some great racing for the members. It was no exception for the second to last old bird race from Honiton. The Federation convoyer, Dom McCoy produced a cracking race when he liberated at 07.00hrs in to a South, South West wind. Four week prior to this Honiton race the Isleworth partnership of Mirek and Malgorzata Burczak recorded their very first Federation winner from Kingsdown with their super blue hen ‘Blu’. Two weeks later she came up and won 2nd Federation Yeovil, and then she was the first bird on the ETS again to win 1st Federation Honiton. What a fantastic hen, winning 1st Federation twice and a 2nd Federation in four weeks! Mirek and Malgorzata clocked three birds in six seconds from Honiton to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd Federation and then another seven birds to take 7th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 24th Federation. The husband and wife partnership race in the strong Isleworth club and although only recorded their first Federation winner that season, they feature on a regular basis in the Three Borders results. Their wonderful ‘Blu’ is a two year old Gaby Vandenabeele roundabout hen and she was bred from Ken Wise stock birds. Mirek told me, he was over the moon with his recent performances, as that was only his fourth season racing pigeons and was delighted to win the Federation twice. Great pigeon racing, well done Mirek and Malgorzata!
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)