“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT

Other interests in sport

I was recently asked by a fancier at one of the big shows I attended, did I have any other interests out the pigeon racing and showing sport. My immediate reply was, ‘I love sport in general, so much so, I would watch two fly’s race up the living room window pane’. I could not survive without Sky Sports and watch a lot of sport on the television. My best mate, Peter Taylor, comes up to my house ever Wednesday evening for our regular ‘boy’s sports’ night and we drink tea, and watch mostly Speedway, Boxing, Athletics, Rugby and Darts. My wife, Betty, introduced me to Speedway when I first met her 45 years ago and at that time she was really into the sport, having visited several European countries to watch world champion meetings. Our second date was on a Thursday evening at Wimbledon Speedway and we used to watch all the great riders, including Ole Olson, Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger and of course the ‘Dons’ wizard Ronnie Moore. It was great to see Tai Woffinden become the Speedway world champion at Torun FIM Grand Prix, Poland in October 2013 and again Melbourne, Australia in 2015. His championship wins have been a good ‘buzz’ for Peter and me, as Woffinden is the first British world champion for many years! We enjoy boxing very much and my all time favourites were Mike Tyson and Nigel Benn, as ‘win or lose, when those two guys were in the ring you always saw a great boxing match’. I have great admiration for the Smith Brothers of Liverpool, with the four lads all winning British titles. A fantastic family achievement! The eldest brother, Paul, has had two cracks at the world title and of course he is a Racing Pigeon enthusiast up there in the north west of England. I have also been very keen on Rugby since my school days and I played a lot when I was young, and when I was in my second year at school, I played for the fourth year ‘colts’. I don’t live too far away from Twickenham Stadium and have been there many times through the year and seen some great matches. I can remember, all those year ago, the school Rugby team use to have an annual outing to Twickenham to see the Oxford and Cambridge Universities match, and we all used to go by train to see some really great Rugby. When we went to see that match in the early 1960’s, Twickenham wasn’t the world class stadium it is today, the stand were big sheds painter green. What a great thrill it was when England won the rugby ‘World Cup’ in Australia. Great days’! Another of my sporting heroes is the great Eric Bristow of the darts world.

Betty and I are very family orientated and our five grandchildren sleep over at our home in Claygate most weekends and they all have their own interests. Sasha, the oldest, use to spend most of her time in the pigeon loft, Ryan playing games on his X Box, Katie likes fishing with her dad, Mark, and the youngest two, Sophia and Connie; well they just spends most of their time getting on your nerves. Not really, they are both the next generation of animal lovers! Sophia also spends a lot of her time with the pigeons and for a little girl with tiny hands, she handles them really well. Connie was saying ‘Gaby Vandenabeele’ at the age of three and knew all the birds by name in the loft, and on her regular visits to Claygate enjoyed feeding the pigeons. When she was just a toddler, she was walking down Working High Street with her mum, Caroline and on spotting some pigeons on the pavement in front of them, she said, ‘look mummy, Vandenabeeles’. LOL! Our daughter, Caroline, was always in the pigeon loft when she was a toddler, carrying pigeons around under her arm and was judging at major shows when only a young girl. Her fifteen year old daughter, Sasha, is following in her foot steps and judges at major shows with me every winter, including the Southern Counties Show Racer Open Show, RPRA Southern Region Show and the Emsworth & Havant Open Show in December 2013.  When she was younger, Sasha, spent a lot of time in the summer months sitting in my young bird section, hand feeding the inmates and makes them tame, which gives them confidence. Caroline recently moved out of her flat and into a big house with a massive garden in Weybridge and it would be great to see the kids get their own pigeon loft there eventually.

We have a ‘side-line’ hobby and for many years have enjoyed the odd day in the summer fishing on a river or lake. I’m a pigeon fancier who loves coarse fishing. I’m no expert, but have caught one or two decent fish through the years and have enjoyed the hobby very much. I enjoy the experience of sitting by a river or lake, catching fish is a bonus! My whole family likes fishing and since we have had the kids, it’s been a hobby we could do together, as a family. In recent years my grandchildren have started to take an interest and have caught fish at our local club lake.

Saturday 17th September 2011 turn out to be a very special day when our nine year old granddaughter, Katie, which kicked off at our local fishing tackle shop in Hinchley Wood. The shop had only recently opened and on that Saturday, John Wilson, the world’s number one angler and television personality was making an appearance to meet the local fishermen and mark the opening of the new shop. John Wilson was our son, Mark’s boyhood hero, as we use to watch all his ‘Go Fishing’ TV programmes in the 1980’s, so Mark thought he would take Katie along to the new shop to meet the angling supremo. They had a chat to John and then had their photo taken with him, and while in the shop, Mark, purchased two packs of dead bates with the intention of going Pike fishing in the afternoon. They invited me along, so the three of us made off to a Pike ‘hotspot’ at the drains on the River Wey at Old Woking for Katie’s first Pike fishing session. It was a nice warm sunny day and as I have said on many occasions, you can’t beat sitting by a river in the country side on a summer’s day. If you catch a fish it is a bonus. Mark’s first cast in to the river produced a 3lb ‘Jack’ Pike, even before I had even put bait on the hook! A little while later Katie had a Pike take the Roach dead bait on her rod and she struck into it, starting a tug of war. It nearly pulled her over, but she hung on for dear life to that rod handle and played it to the bank, where her dad netted it. The fight produced her first ever Pike, a 7lb cracker! A great day for our Kate!

If I’m honest, I have to confess that my wife, Betty, is the ‘ace’ fisher person in the Mott family and has shown many an angler we have met on the river bank how to catch good fish on none productive days. Fishing is like pigeon racing, or any other sport come to that, you get good days and you get bad. Betty always seemed to pull something out of the bag! I can recall an evening session on our favourite stretch of the River Wey at Jacobs Wells, called the Swift, and no one was catching a thing. It was as dead as a door knocker! There were many anglers sitting on the bank for several hours, with thousands of pound worth of poles and equipment around them, and they never got a bite. Betty had her beloved Centre Pin reel set up and she trotted down small pieces of sprat, on a 2lb bottom and size 18 hook, and landed several big Chub. On another occasion, I can remember her landing a 10lb Mirror Carp on a 3lb bottom and a size 16 hook, which took her a good while to land it, but she did! She

always likes to fish away on her own in a little quiet place on the fishery and hates having fish out of the water for photos and looking at. If she had her way she wouldn’t bother with photos and would release them back, straight out of the landing net. She had been fishing long before she met me 45 years ago, as she went with her late dad, Alf North, when she was a youngster and Alf flew pigeons for many years in the old Chessington and Surbiton clubs.

My daughter, Caroline, was always a pigeon fancier and never an angler. When she was a kid, I would put a maggot on her hook for her and that would last the whole session if it stayed on. Half a dozen maggots would last her all day! She used to catch little Roach and Rudd, and at the end of the session she would only have the stretch skin of the maggot hanging on the hook. She has been interested in pigeons all her life, being introduced to them when only a little baby and as a toddler she carried them around under her arm. She was my pigeon partner when she was a young girl and won a first with her good mealy hen at the big ‘Racing Pigeon’ Capital Show in London, many years ago. Caz is a good judge of a pigeon and has judged many shows, including twice at the R.P.R.A. Southern Region Show. Mark, my son, is the complete opposite to his sister and is an angler, never a pigeon man, although he has convoyed the London & South East Classic Club birds with me a couple of times. He really enjoyed the work and the travel with the pigeon transporter.  Mark’s two god fathers are two of our oldest family friends, Terry Haley and Mick Worsfold. These two guys are two of the all-time greats of pigeon racing in the London area and our dear friends. Mark has been a very good angler from a very young age and when he was ten years of age he caught a 10lb Pike, which was nearly as long as him. His mum took him fishing, as I was working and he landed, unhooked and returned the big Pike on his own. When he was very young, he used to sit on his fishing box ledgering for Chub and hooked some beautiful fish, but lost them at the landing net. That little boy got so frustrated with that, he just sat on his big box and cried! Mark has caught some very nice fish through the years, including double figure Carp and Pike, and some big Chub, Barbel and Tench. He has been a keen angler all his life and has met many of our present day fishing champions including, Bob Nudd MBE, Tom Pickering, Jan Porter, Clive Branson and the great Ivan Marks. In May 2004 Mark went to Cancun in Mexico for a holiday and fished for game fish in the Caribbean. He fished with his friend, Chris, and three other anglers off a boat, ten miles of the coast of Mexico. They fished dead bait and lures static off the side of the boat and trawled, with the best fish of the day being a 100lb Marlin. Mark bagged up with many quality fish, including three Barracuda to 20lb, three Yellow Finned Jacks to 25lb, three Red Jacks and five big Tuna. Mark has always had a big rivalry with me over the years, comparing who catches the biggest fish, but I can’t compete with Barracuda and Yellow Finned Jacks! I’ve probably had the slightly bigger English course fish, but my best catches have been quality, but not world beaters and as I have stated previously, I enjoy sitting on the bank, catch good fish is a bonus. I have had double figured Carp and Pike, 4lb Tench and probably my best fish was my 5lb 9oz Chub caught on the River Mole. My brother, Phil, is also a very keen angler and owned a holiday caravan at New Milton, about a five miles drive from the Royalty Fishery in Christchurch, and he was always on the bank there drowning maggots, but caught some brilliant fish. In the 1980’s he caught a wonderful 3lb 11oz Roach on the Royalty and at that time wasn’t too far away from the British record. In fact the British record Roach at that time was caught just up the road on the River Stour!

Well that’s it for this week! Something a bit different again this week, I hope my readers enjoy it.

My new mobile phone number is: 07535 484584.

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)