KEITH MOTT'S

REG MAYBEY TRIBUTE

I received a very sad telephone call from Richard Maybey today, to inform me that his father and pigeon racing partner, Reg Maybey, had passed away in hospital on the evening of 19th September. He had been in intensive care for a week and passed away peacefully. Reg had suffered bad health over the last few years, but still enjoyed his pigeon racing right up to the end. Reg and Richard raced in partnership with their wives, Jocelyn and Silvie, being very much involved in the back ground. The pigeon racing at the Berkshire loft was very much a family affair with Reg and Richard being the main partnership and another important part of the team was family member Harold Coleman, who had been helping out with the very successful pigeon management for over 20 years. My sincere condolences to the Maybey family at this very sad time.

The Maybey family live in Berkshire and were originally based in Hounslow. Reg had been in the sport over 40 years, starting up in 1971, with Richard coming into the partnership as a six year old ‘floor scraper’. Reg told me his first birds were six gift squeakers from his good friend Charlie Francis of Shepperton and the only other family member to keep pigeons at that time was Uncle Arthur who lived in Wellington Road, Hounslow. Reg’s first club was the Egham North Road RPC and he won his first race from Leicester. Early mistakes indluded over feeding. The first loft was a 16ft x 8ft structure, with 12 natural nest boxes and was purchased from a man whose divorce story appeared in the Daily Mirror and News of the World newspapers at that time! Reg told me the fanciers who were doing all the winning locally in those early days were Fred Elliot, George Worsfold and the Besant partnership of New Malden. The partners got more and more interested in the sport and bought in some Vandeveldes, Delbar and Dordin pigeons which started to win straight away. A few years later a good Krauth hen was purchased from an auction at Ascot and she turned out to be a champion at stock, producing winners every year, and then six Krauth youngsters were purchased from George Corbett to strengthen up the family. The Van Loon pigeons were introduced in 1989 when Reg’s wife, Jocelyn, purchased a pair from Clwyd Lofts at the RPRA Southern Region Show and they were called ‘the wonder couple’ as they bred many winners over the years. Reg said one of the best performances in the early days was clocking early in the morning to win 1st club, 2nd Federation, 3rd open Combine Dax (550 miles).

The Maybey partnership won at the top level every season over many years, but their loft set the Surrey / Berkshire pigeon fancy alight in the 2009 season. The partners won the Three Borders Federation four times in the 2009 season and also won the Berkshire Federation four times, and to top off a brilliant season won 1st open SMT Combine (3,174 birds) Messac. The Combine winner was the two year old widowhood blue chequer cock, called quite plainly ‘The Combine Cock’, and previous to his Messac win he recorded several premier positions including 1st club, 5th Federation Yeovil. On the first race of the 2009 season Reg and Richard put up a fantastic performance by recording 1st, 2nd, 3rd Three Borders Federation and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Berkshire Federation on the same day. The partners won 1st Federation eight times in the 2009 season. The 2009 winners of the London & South East Classic Club ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ were Reg and Richard, with their good yearling widowhood blue pied cock, ‘The Gold Cup Cock’. The partners previously won the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’ in 2007 with their good blue chequer hen, ‘The Classic Hen’. Brilliant pigeon racing! The late, great Reg Maybey, he will be greatly missed.

KEITH MOTT (September 2014)

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