KEITH MOTT

“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Three Borders Federation (Young Bird Round Up).

I haven’t written anything on the Federation’s 2015 young bird racing as yet, because it has been dominated by the Esher & District RPC partnership of Malik & Khan and I was waiting for them to finish their onslaught on the results before I put pen to paper. I keep writing that these young lads are up and coming stars in our sport, but after their recent performances it is safe to say they are now at the very top of the ratings. What can I say about the Malik & Khan partnership, their brilliant 2015 performances would fill most of this article, but the highlights are; many premier position won in old bird racing including: 1st, 2nd, 6th, 10th, 15th, 16th Federation Yeovil (1,444 birds) with their first four birds on the ETS being four game yearlings, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 9th Federation, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 11th SMT Combine Vire (1,355 birds). In the first five Federation young bird race Malik & Khan won four firsts including: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th 13th, 25th Federation  Blandford (1) (1,116 birds), 1st, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Federation  Blandford (2) (1,802 birds), 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th Federation Blandford (3) (1,615 birds), 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th Federation Kingsdown (1,469 birds), plus top positions in the National Flying Club and British International Championship Club. Well done to the lads, that is fantastic pigeon racing by any ones standards!

In the Blandford (1) race Chris Slight & Trevor Taylor of the Esher club won 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 12th, 13th, 24th, 18th, 19th, 22nn Federation. There was one other young bird race flown and the first ten in the Yeovil Federation (1,606 birds) result were: 1) Mr. & Mrs David May 1714: 2) Richard Kent 1693: 3) Bob & Danny Carter 1690: 4) Bob & Danny Carter 1687: 5) Bob & Danny Carter 1687: 6) D. & A. Lebby Brothers 1686: 7) M. Gumble & son 1684: 8) M. Gumble & son 1683: 9) C. Dilig 1680: 10) S. Gasson & son 1678. At this stage of the season Malik & Khan lead for the ‘Individual Point Trophy’ in the Federation with 94 points and Bob & Danny Carter are second with 43 points. It is very much closer for the ‘Federation Points Trophy with Esher leading with 174 points and Mitcham & Merton a close second on 170 points.

Malik & Khan only joined the Esher club in the 2012 season and these young lads have been outstanding in the Federation for several years, including winning the SMT Combine for the first time with a youngster several years ago. Imran Malik started racing pigeons in the 2004 season with a team of young birds purchased from Louella Pigeon World and in the 2005 season Janssens were introduced from Imran’s uncles, Khan Brothers of Kingston.  The 2005 young bird season saw him smash his novice status and recorded 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th Federation in that season. Malik & Khan finished the 2014 racing season in great style by winning 1st, 2nd Federation from Taunton and then two weeks later they won 1st Federation from the last and longest young bird race from Yelverton. These lads are really outstanding young bird specialists, winning the Federation every season with their babies. The Federation sent 1,471 birds to Taunton and Malik & Khan won the Federation by 9ypm clear. Two weeks later the membership entered 867 birds in to the last race from Yelverton and with the wind being a brisk east / north east, the birds had a hard push over the 180 miles home, with the winners taking over 4 hours 30 minutes to finish. The Tolworth lofts of Malik & Khan were well on the pace again, recorded 1st Federation for the second time in two weeks and this time winning 1st SMT Combine (1,516 birds). A really great performance, with the lads winning a fast short race and then the longest young bird race, which was hard and slow!

Chris Slight and Trevor Taylor have enjoyed another great racing season in 2015, but I think 2014 was one of their best to date. Bearing in mind that the Esher club had won the Three Borders Federation six times before the end of old bird racing in 2014, when I saw the club’s result from the new French liberation site at Nort sur Erdre and saw that Chris and Trevor had won the club by 50 ypm clear, I suspected they had won the Federation. When the dust settled, the Kingston partnership had won the Federation and 1st SMT Combine! Chris and Trevor’s third 1st Combine winner was a yearling blue widowhood cock bred from Leo van Rijn stock birds that were obtained from Phil & Maria Dunstall of Taplow. The lads had taken in a third partner for the 2014 season in the form of Chris’ 12 year old grandson, Cole and he has named the Nort sur Erdre Combine winner ‘Charlie’. The parents of the Combine winner bred two young bird winners for Chris and Trevor last season, with the ‘Charlie’ recording 1st club, 4th Federation Wincanton (1,652 birds) and his nest mate, ‘25030’ winning 2nd club, 2nd Federation Blandford (1,050 birds) . Another full brother to this cock was gifted to Steve Streek, who races in the very strong Godalming club and was there to win the club, but sat out for three minutes and ended up 8th club. So it looks like Slight & Taylor have a promising pair of Leo van Rijn stock birds.

Well, that’s our article for this week! I recently had chat with Dom McCoy and he tells me the Three Borders Federation will be racing from France next season and they are looking at some sites a bit further that Messac. Great news! 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)