THREE BORDERS FED
2014 Young Bird Update - Part 2
by Keith Mott
Malik & Khan of the Esher club 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 the convoyer, Dave Stanway, liberated the birds at 12.00hrs in to a west / south west situation and Malik & Khan won the Federation by 9ypm clear.
The first ten in the Taunton Federation result were: 1) Malik & Khan 1857: 2) Malik & Khan 1857: 3) Terry Goodsell 1848: 4) V. Johnson 1847: 5) R. Obertelli 1846: 6) Allison & Ibrahim 1842: 7) Allison & Ibrahim 1842: 8) M. Gumble & son 1842: 9) Allison & Ibrahim 1841: 10) H. Lavender 1831.
Two weeks later the membership entered 867 birds into the last race from Yelverton and with the wind being a brisk east/north-east, Dave Stanway liberated the birds into a completely different situation. The birds had a hard push over the 180 miles home, with the winners taking over 4 hours 30 minutes to finish, but members reported good returns on the day. The Tolworth lofts of Malik & Khan were well on the pace again recording 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!
The first ten in the Yelverton Federation result were: 1) Malik & Khan 1125: 2) Bobby & Danny Carter 1118: 3) Holden & Pratt 1110: 4) Bobby & Danny Carter 1108: 5) Bobby & Danny Carter 1108: 6) M. Gumble & son 1103: 7) Bobby & Danny Carter 1103: 8) Chris Slight & Trevor Taylor 1101: 9) Holden & Pratt 1098: 10) Frank & Susan Carson 1094.
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 with a youngster a couple 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 record 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th Federation in that season. He races 16 old bird cocks on the widowhood system. The old bird racers are paired up in January to rear a pair of youngsters and are trained on their second round of eggs, before going on the widowhood. The cocks are trained twice a day for eight days from 25 miles and are only sent to sprint races. Imran only likes short racing and has no interest whatsoever in long distance pigeon racing. Whether it be the old bird or young bird widowhood system, the birds are broken down for several days each week and the hens are shown on marking night, but if it looks like being a very easy race, they might only be shown the nest bowls. The cocks get their mates for a couple of hours on their return from the race. Their loft is a 22ft brick structure, which was converted from a brick garden shed already in Imran’s garden.
Malik & Khan’s 2014 Federation performances, racing in the Esher and South Downs clubs read: (OB) 9th, 12th Federation Blandford (1,397 birds); 3rd, 4th Yeovil Federation (1,702 birds); 7th, 8th, 12th Federation Yeovil (1,291 birds); 19th Federation Honiton (1,589 birds): (YB) 22nd Federation Blandford (1,769 birds); 1st, 2nd, 22nd, 23rd, 25th Federation Taunton (1,471 birds); 9th, 13th, 14th Federation Kingsdown (1,315 birds), 1st, 15th, 16th Federation Yelverton (867 birds).
One of the partner’s best seasons was in 2006 winning: 12th, 21st Federation Blandford (1831 birds), 1st, 2nd Federation Lulworth (1) (1620 birds), 4th, 7th, 14th, and 17th Federation West Bay (1404 birds), 1st, 2nd, 23rd. Federation Lulworth (2) (2101 birds), 5th Federation Exeter (1327 birds), 2nd, 7th Federation, 6th open S.M.T. Combine Yelverton and finishing up the season by winning the Federation Individual Points Trophy. The Malik loft came off the ‘darkness’ on the 12th June that year and they paired ten young cocks to old hens and allowed them to rear a youngster each. The old hens were taken away when the youngsters were 15 days and the young cocks finished rearing the squeakers, and once they were weaned, the cocks were on widowhood. The next time the young cocks saw the hens, it was the marking night of the first young bird race from Blandford, but Imran says they didn’t come too well. The following week three of those widowhood cocks were well up in the Federation result. There you have it, racing young birds on the widowhood system. Malik & Khan, up and coming young stars in the pigeon racing world!
Slight & Taylor of the Esher club recorded their second Federation winner of the 2014 season when the Three Borders sent 1,315 young birds to Kingsdown (135 miles). Talking to Trevor after the race he told me the partners have worked their youngsters hard this season, including 25 training tosses out of Thursley. Their latest Federation winner was a blue chequer cock sent to Kingsdown feeding a big youngster and he raced every race, including the Spelthorne Yeovil open race. Dave Stanway liberated the convoy at 13.15hrs in a light north-west wind.
The first ten in the Kingsdown Federation result were: 1) Slight & Taylor 1512: 2) K. Wise 1510: 3) K. Wise 1510: 4) K. Wise 1510: 5) Slight & Taylor 1505: 6) Slight & Taylor 1504: 7) Trussler Brothers 1496: 8) Mr. & Mrs. d. May 1490: 9) Malik & Khan 1487: 10) A. Stoner & son 1486.
Back in June when I saw the Esher club’s result from the new French liberation site at Nort sur Erdre and saw that Chris Slight and Trevor Taylor 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 have 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 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.
The partners visited to the Dunstall loft in late September and Chris and Trevor purchased some late breds, which were put in the stock loft to let them settle and then paired them up the first week in January. Even though the new birds were late breds they were surprised that they went down and laid so well. Once all the young birds hatched in the stock loft the new partner, Cole, got in and played with the young birds while they were in the nest, so that by the time they came away, all the babies were relatively tame. Talking about his grandson, Chris said, ‘although Cole is 12 years old, he has a natural gift with livestock. We also keep canaries and have a couple of quails on the floor. Cole decided he would take one of the quail eggs and see if he could hatch it. Consequently one day looking through his clothes drawers the baby quail appeared and Cole hand reared him until he was old enough to go into the canaries. Cole races in the Esher junior section and does extremely well, and on some occasions at basketing night has been known to play a few tricks with the widowhood cocks who have then performed really well on the Saturday’.
That’s it for this week! Next time we are going to feature the Three Borders Federation 2014 ‘Federation Points Trophy’ winning club and the ‘Federation Individual Points Trophy’ winners. Happy birthday to my ol’ mate, Peter Taylor, who celebrated his 78th birthday this week! 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)
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