On The Road with Keith Mott
STUART EMANS OF SUTTON.
Stuart Emans enjoyed a brilliant 2024 season racing in the Three Borders Federation. He recorded many premier positions; including four times 1st Federation and finished up winning the ‘Individual Points Trophy’, and is the 2024 Federation champion. Stuart is a fireman by profession and has a very busy family life, and has only a very limited time for his pigeon racing. He is smashing man and with his very limited time for his sport, to win this trophy is a great and deserving achievement! Although Stuart has won the Federation four times this year, he said his wonderful Gerald Delaney blue hen, ‘Jade 821’, has been so brilliant in the 2024 season and given him a lot of pleasure, winning 2nd Federation Okehampton, 3rd Federation Wincanton, 5th Federation Wincanton and 15th Federation Honiton. A strong contender for Federation ‘pigeon of the year’, I think! This is Stuart’s 2024 performance in the Federation: (Old Birds) 3rd, 18th, 19th, 20th Federation Wincanton, 5th, 6th Federation Wincanton, 1st, 2nd Federation Okehampton, 15th Federation Honiton, 10th Federation Wincanton, 13th, 22nd Federation Honiton, 13th, 23rd Federation Wadebridge, 1st Federation Honiton, 12th, 13th, 15th Federation Truro, (Young Birds) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th Federation Wincanton, 14th, 18th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd Federation Wincanton, 1st, 2nd. 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 25th Federation Blandford, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th Federation Honiton. Brilliant pigeon racing!
It’s amazing that only a few weeks earlier I wrote that Stuart Emans of the Mitcham & Merton club had never won the Federation from an inland race point and then he went on to win the Federation from Blandford, his fourth Three Borders inland winner of the 2024 season. Brilliant pigeon racing, Stuart! The Three Borders Federation held its fifth young bird race from Blandford on the last weekend in August and Dom McCoy, the Federation convoyer, liberated the birds at 009.00hrs, in to a strong East / North East wind situation. This was the first head wind the young birds have had to face this season and they cope with it really well, with returns being excellent. Members enjoyed a great steady race and Stuart Emans of the Mitcham & Merton club won 1st Federation Blandford, recording his fourth Federation winner of the season, previously winning from Okehampton and Honiton with his old birds, and Wincanton with a young bird. In spite of Stuart and his family being on holiday in Turkey the week before the race his youngsters really did come well, recording 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Federation. Stuart’s Blandford Federation winner was a cracking looking blue chequer pied hen named ‘Jade 199’, named after Stuart’s daughter and was raced to the perch. She was bred by Stuart’s good friend, Gary Young and is down from the ‘The Jan’ bloodlines of Leo Hermans. Prior to this season Stuart had only won the Federation from France and has come out this year and won four firsts in the Federation in inland races. Great pigeon racing mate!
Two weeks before the Blandford race Stuart Emans enjoyed a lovely summer holiday in Turkey with his family and grandchildren and that meant leaving the pigeons in the care of his good friend, Gary Young of Croydon. On his return from holiday, the birds had been locked up in the loft for nine days and Gary, as expected had kept them in good condition. Gary is very busy running his own business and racing his own birds, so Stuart is very grateful for him finding the time to take care of his birds so well. Before the Blandford race Stuart managed to get the young bird team in to the training basket for six tosses. The wind predicted for the upcoming Blandford race, which is a 90 miles fly to the Emans loft in Sutton was showing North East, so he adjusted his feeding towards the end of that week as he thought they would need a bit more energy, as this was going to be their toughest test yet. It was a big thank you to Stuart’s good friend, Gary Young of Croydon, who looked after his birds so well while he was on holiday in Turkey and also for breeding ‘Jude 199’, his Blandford Federation winner.
The Three Borders Federation were at Wincanton with the young birds on the last weekend in July and the members enjoyed a great fast race and Stuart Emans of the Mitcham & Merton club won 1st Federation Honiton, recording his third Federation winner of the season, previously winning from Okehampton and Honiton with his old birds. Stuart’s youngsters really did come well, recording 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th Federation. Prior to this season Stuart had only won the Federation from France and has come out this year and won three firsts in the Federation in inland races.
Stuart Emans won 1st Federation twice this season with young birds and we are going to talk about his youngsters and how he manages them first. His young bird loft 12ft x 3ft, an aviary on the front and all trapping is for the ETS System. When he weans his youngsters at three weeks old, they go straight on the ‘darkness’ system. They are exercised around the loft once a day and called back in with a whistle, which has been used every time they are fed. Feeding consists of a breeding mixture with a little Barley added and are fed a small amounts until they start to leave the Barley. The young bird team are kept on the breeding mixture until they come off the ‘Darkness’ on the 21st June. When they come off the ‘darkness’ they are fed on high Carbohydrate mixture, with Barley added and are fed as much as like until they leave the Barley. Stuart starts training the babies as soon as they start to rang from the loft. This is while they are on the ‘Darkness’ system. His first training toss is from five miles and the youngsters are kept at this point until they come straight out of the training basket, race home and go into the loft trap. They then move up to 14 miles and then finally 27 miles. Before the first race the young birds have been in the training basket on average around 30 times. All young birds are flown to the perch and not separated as Stuart doesn’t have the time with work commitments.
When I asked Stuart about his young bird Wincanton Federation winner he said, ‘Wincanton is 99 miles from my loft in Sutton and I sent 25 birds for their first race. On the morning of the race I received the phone call from the club secretary to say the birds were liberated at 7.30am. Sitting in the garden with ‘droppers’ and whistle at the ready a batch of around 20 pigeons could be seen coming on line from the race point and four birds pulled out and hit my loft. My first pigeon to hit the ETS pad with the flying time of 1hour 52 minutes was our good hen, ‘Fiona 263’, which is named after my lovely wife. She was one of a batch of pigeons bred by Gary Young for us from his wonderful Federation winning family. She was closely followed in by a blue cock gifted to me by my good friend, Tony Dye. It was a very satisfying start to the young bird season, winning the first ten positions in the club and the first four in the Federation. Well done to all the winners and all on the Federation result sheet’.
Stuart Emans lives in Sutton and for his profession he is a fireman. Stuart said his wonderful Gerald Delaney blue hen, ‘Jade 821’, has been so brilliant in the 2024 season and given him a lot of pleasure, winning 2nd Federation Okehampton, 3rd Federation Wincanton, 5th Federation Wincanton and 15th Federation Honiton. A strong contender for Federation ‘pigeon of the year’, I think Stuart! He started up in the pigeon racing sport in 2008 and has won the Federation several time through the years, the highlight was winning 1st Three Borders Federation, 2nd Combine Bergerac and winning the Federation ‘Channel Averages’. Because of family and work commitments he had to pack up his pigeons for five year and restarted up in 2023 with young birds from his good friends Gary Young and Gerald Delaney. The 2024 season has seen Stuart race those yearlings with outstanding success. He pairs up in in February and races his fourteen cocks and seven hens on the roundabout system. His smart 24ft loft is set up for ETS trapping and is made up of a section for the old cocks, another for the young birds and the roundabout hens are housed in an aviary. He is not interested in fancy pedigrees or eye sign when selecting breeding pigeons and maintains the basket is the only way to find out if a pigeon is any good or not. Stuart gives his birds about ten training tosses up to 27 miles before the first race and then they get two exercise sessions every day around the loft once racing starts. All the races are fed on Stuart’s own widowhood mixture, which he makes up himself and the racers are never broke down.
The Three Borders Federation were at Okehampton and Stuart Emans of the Mitcham & Merton club, had been ‘knocking on the door’ to win the Federation all season, recording previously 3rd Federation Wincanton and 5th, 6th Federation Wincanton. Well ‘bingo’ he hit the jackpot and topped the Okehampton Federation result, winning 1st, 2nd Federation. I spoke to Stuart after the race and he said, ‘the two birds came together and finished well. In every race this season a hen has been first bird home, but from the Okehampton race a cock was the first on the ETS, followed by a hen. The Federation winner was my good Raymond Ceulemans yearling roundabout blue cock, ‘Harry 048’ and has every race this year, being bred by my good friend Gary Young. My 2nd Federation winner was ‘Jade 821’, who has been my most consistent racer so far this year. She is a Gerald Delaney yearling roundabout blue hen and has recorded: 1st club, 3rd Three Borders Federation Wincanton, 1st club, 5th Three Borders Federation Wincanton and now 2nd club, 2nd Three Borders Federation Okehampton this season. These two great racers are named after my children, who are very interested in the pigeons’. A month later the Three Borders Federation held its Honiton race and Stuart won 1st Federation, recording his second Federation winner of the season. Stuart’s Honiton Federation winner was his good yearling widowhood blue chequer cock, ‘Beau 022’, named after his oldest grandson. The sire was bred Gary Young and originated from Gert Heylen of Belgium. The dam of ‘Beau 022’ is a Tom Shaw Verheye and his mother is the dam of nine 1st Federation winners. ‘Beau 022’ had a brilliant 2024 season winning, 1st club, 1st Federation Honiton, 1st club, 10th Federation Wincanton and 2nd club, 23rd Federation Wadebridge. Well done to Stuart!
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)