“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

 ‘Thank You’ to Bryan Poulton from the Three Border Federation.

The Three Border Federation held it’s AGM at the end of January and after nearly 40 years of wonderful dedication and outstanding hard work, the secretary, Bryan Poulton has retired. He was ‘Mr. Three Borders’ over those year and will be greatly missed! It was congratulations recently to Bryan and his wife, Kath, who celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary and when I spoke to Bryan at the time, they were going off to a weekend in the New Forest with the family to celebrate. Well done you two! Bryan has been a wonderful worker for our sport for many years and has been the Three Borders Federation secretary for a brilliant 39 years! Congratulations to you both and thanks to Bryan for all your good work!

It's always great to hear of any premier worker in the sport winning a good prize with his pigeons. It's hard to excel at racing with very limited time in the loft, so I was delighted to hear that Bryan Poulton, the hard-working Secretary of the Three Borders Federation of 39 years in office had won his favourite race from Bergerac several times in past seasons. He also won 1^st Three Borders Federation in recent years from Seaton with 1,249 birds competing! It had been well documented in my old articles what a bad race the 2014 Bergerac race was, with only four birds in the Federation and eleven in the SMT Combine being recorded in race time. It was nice to see Bryan doing well at this the longest old bird race again, recording 1^st club, 3^rd Federation, 9^th SMT Combine (512 birds). One of Brian’s best races from Bergerac (450 miles) was in the 2013 season, winning 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th Shepperton club, 10^th, 15^th, 23^rd, 25^th Three Borders Federation, 13^th, 22^nd, 31^st, 33^rd SMT Combine. Great pigeon racing Bryan! The 2013 Bergerac winner was Bryan’s five year old dark pied cock, ‘70532’ and after several training races was sent to Bergerac sitting 14 day old eggs. This game cock was bred from a cross of all Bryan’s old families and his sire recorded 1^st club, 5^th Federation Bergerac in 2012 and flew it again in 2013. He is bred from the very best, with his dam being a Cattrysse / Dordin cross and winner of 1^st section E (by over an hour), 10^th open NFC Tarbes Grand National. Bryan tells me his loft houses several Bergerac winners at the present time! In the 2012 season Bryan won 5^th and 13^th in the Bergerac Federation result and winning the Shepperton club. He finds it very hard to find the time to race his birds properly these days, with the demands on his time running the Three Borders Federation and it’s great to see him have some good success. The Poulton pigeons are now his own inbred family and he says they have always tended to be better from the longer races. From the Continent, he maintains that his best performance was a few years ago racing from Bergerac in two clubs on the same weekend, taking the first three positions in one club and the first two in the other, all with birds clocked on the day of liberation.

Bryan was born in Hersham, near Weybridge in Surrey, and first became interested in pigeons as a 14 year old when visiting his friend, Dave Newman, who was a pigeon fancier. Bryan's father wasn't a fancier but was very keen on greyhounds, so with Dave's help Bryan obtained pigeons from Harry Wheatcroft of Reigate and Freddie

Ranaboldo of Molesey, to start himself off in the sport. He started racing his pigeons in 1954 and says he admired the performances of Freddie Ranaboldo and Charlie Maycock, who were the premier local fanciers at that time. He had his first race with young birds in 1955, flying in the Walton RPC and recorded 3rd and 4th club.

The first Poulton loft was an orange box on stilts and after some help from local fanciers, including Mark Finestone, he progressed to a 20ft loft with a large bay.

Bryan says he likes the loft to have plenty of air circulation, but it must be dry and warm. The loft houses 30 natural pairs of racers, which are paired up on 14^th February. Bryan says he likes to treat them as pets and tends to over feed them. He has no stock birds, only breeding from his best racers, and has a young bird team of about 50 birds each season. His pigeons are the original Heide family bred from the Wheatcroft cock birds and the Ranaboldo hens. He thinks the original Harry Wheatcroft stock came from Rey Brothers of Scotland. In recent years, he has introduced the Dordin and Cattrysse pigeons with outstanding success. The Poulton pigeons are now his own inbred family and he says they have always tended to be better from the longer races. From the Continent, he maintains that his best performance was racing from Bergerac in two clubs on the same weekend, taking the first three positions in one club and the first two in the other, all with birds clocked on the day of liberation.

All the Poulton pigeons, old and young, are raced through to the longest race and are fed a good mixture, with beans and maize. They are also given a few peanuts and condition seed and for training all the birds are treated the same. Once they beat Bryan home, he moves them on to the next point. He likes to see a good eye with a full circle but maintains that at the end of the day, the basket, not eyesign, will tell which are the quality pigeons. He likes his pigeons sitting l4-day-old eggs for the longer races and says that through the years he had admired many fanciers, including Alf Baker, Alex Fleming and Freddie Ranaboldo, but the most consistent over many years were Trussler Brothers of West Molesey, because pigeon racing was a way of life to them and they won out of turn. Bryan maintains that you must line breed to form a successful family of pigeons and then pair the best to the best. He says he worries about the moult but has never changed the food, apart from adding a little barley and linseed. He doesn't breed latebreds these days as he believes that youngsters should have race experience. He is very keen on deep litter on the loft floors, but this must be kept completely dry. On many occasions, he says, the ugly and mad pigeons prove to be the best racers, but he likes his birds to be tame and quiet. He believes the sport has been going downhill over the years and he thinks it's because the social side of any club has taken second place to fanciers wanting to win at all costs, rather than having the pleasure of taking part. The sport depends on the losers as there is only one winner each week. In the sport of pigeon racing, like most things in life, you will only get out of it, what you put in and if you put the effort in, you will be rewarded. Bryan told me that for people like him, giving a great deal of their time in the administration of the sport for the benefit of others would be better spent with the pigeons, but for the most part, they have to depend for success on the basis of 'anything to come, be glad of it' and I agree with him!

The new secretary of the Three Borders Federation is Stuart Emans of the Mitcham & Merton club and he has previously been a very good club secretary. Stuart enjoyed a brilliant 2024 season racing in the Three Borders Federation. He recorded many premier positions; including four times 1^st 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 2^nd Federation Okehampton, 3^rd Federation Wincanton, 5^th Federation Wincanton and 15^th Federation Honiton. Brilliant pigeon racing!

That’s it for this week! On the behalf of the Three Borders Federation members, thanks to Bryan Poulton for all his good over many years! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments 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)