Established 1979 Company Number: 11693988 VAT Registration Number: 284 0522 13 +44 (0)1606 836036 +44 (0)7871 701585 [email protected]

Rod and Angela Berry of New Milton

 

 

ROD & ANGELA BERRY

of New Milton

by Keith Mott

 

 

I recently had a week’s holiday with the family in Hampshire and while in the New Milton area I thought I might take the opportunity to have a day out on my own and visit a couple of old pigeon fancier friends who live there. The first was Rod Berry who lived in Ashford and was one of the premier fanciers in the Middlesex before moving to New Milton seven years ago. Rod and Angela love living just over two miles from the sea at Barton and walk along the front every day. Rod says it’s brilliant with the New Forest and Bournemouth just up the road, but the pigeon racing is hard where he lives, with the birds coming over the English Channel and ‘dog legging’ back to New Milton in most races.

 

 

Rod has taken his winning ways to Hampshire, winning countless firsts and has won five times 1st Section in Classic and National races, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Solent Federation Carentan (2,500 birds) and with young birds in the 2013 season won four times 1st club, and 1st Solent Federation Exeter (2,300 birds). His best pigeon is the Janssen blue chequer widowhood cock ‘Scare’ and he has scored from France 13 times, including 1st section BBC Vire (north east wind), 1st section CSCFC Carentan, winning over £3,000 and is the sire of winners. He is from a brilliant line of winners, with his sire ‘Merlin’ winning: 3rd open Combine Bergerac, 1st club Tours (only bird on the day of liberation), 1st club Nantes (twice) and 1st club Exeter. ‘Scare’ has an outstanding brother, which Rod calls ‘Mercedes’ and he has won 1st club Exeter  as a young bird, scored many times in the Classic and National through to Bergerac (450 miles), including 15th open BBC Niort and has bred a 1st Federation winner. A fantastic line of Janssen pigeons! The best Saturday’s racing Rod has had in Hampshire was when a sister to ‘Scare’ won1st section, 5th open BBC Lamballe, lifting a colour TV, a holiday and all pools and five minutes after clocking her, he clocked another bird in the CSCFC Truro race to win 1st section. Brilliant pigeon racing!

 

 

Rod’s garden is much smaller than his old one in Middlesex and he only keep a small team of between 15 and 20 pairs of racing pigeons, which he mostly races in Classic and National events and no stock birds. His very smart loft is ‘L’-shaped, with a 16ft section for the old birds and a 7ft section for young birds, and all clocking is on the ETS system through sputnik traps. The loft has slatted floors and Rod tells me all his lofts have had this feature since he started up in 1968.What I thought was unusual with Rod’s set up was that the widowhood cocks had a nice aviary at the end of their section, which is the opposite to tradition with keeping the cocks closed down, but he likes them to get out in the weather and take baths. It works for him! Rod has raced on the roundabout system but tells me he can’t get on with it, so races entirely on his old favourite, widowhood. The widowhood hens are kept in an aviary at the back of the main loft and they keep really well in the open air.

 

The birds are paired up in the last week of January and the main family kept are Janssen from Ken Darlington and Bob Ashman. Rod likes the Versele-Laga corns and feeds all their ‘plus’ mixtures. He races the traditional widowhood system, with the cocks being broken down on barley on the Sunday, and built up for the rest week to the Saturday race. He rarely shows the hens to the racing cocks on marking night, as he says it doesn’t matter, but the hen is always in the nest box on his return. At the start of the season the old birds rear a pair of youngsters before the hens are taken away for the widowhood and the cocks only get four training tosses before the first race. Rod says training is not a good option because of the very bad hawk situation in the New Forest area, so they are never trained during the season and are exercised around the loft twice a day for an hour. He races a team of about twenty young birds and these are put on the darkness system when the clocks go forward in the spring. They come off the system in the last week in May and Rod trains them north to Salisbury (25 miles), as it is easier than going west along the coast in holiday traffic. Rod maintains direction of training has no bearing on racing success, as he had six young bird races in the 2013 season and won four times 1st club and 1st Solent Federation Exeter (2,300 birds). He likes to give the young cocks as many inland races as possible and they are allowed to pair up for racing if they want to.

 

He’s some information on Rod from my archive of past articles: Since starting up in pigeon racing in 1968, Rod Berry of Ashford has won the Federation at every stage up to Bergerac (450 miles) on the south road and every stage up to Thurso (510 miles) on the north road. One of his best performance to date was in 1992 when his ace blue Cattrysse cock ‘Top Gun’ won 1st Section E, 3rd open NFC Pau (550 miles). He raced 17 years on the north road and won the Federation from Thurso (510 miles) twice and for one win there were only two birds home on the day of liberation in the Federation. The Berry loft turned south road in 1986 and straight away was top prize winner in the very strong Ashford Club for seven years on the trot. Rod has won the Federation many times on the south road, including the longest old bird race from Bergerac. Rod married at the age of 20 and moved into the bungalow which his father-in-law had just moved out of. His father-in-law was the late ace fancier, Eric Matthews, and on moving out of the bungalow Eric left the lofts erected so he could break his birds to his new address. Birds kept returning to the bungalow and Rod became more and more interested in the pigeons. On deciding to start up, Rod obtained some Cattrysse pigeons from Eric's fantastic family. He joined the Ashford North Road Club and the Cattrysse started to win out of turn from the outset. Football was Rod's main interest when he moved into the bungalow, then the pigeons took over and the majority of Rod's Cattrysse pigeons were bred down from a son of De Draaier and a grandson of Figaro, both bred by the late, great Gerard Cattrysse. Some of Rod's early champions were: Champion ‘Bullet’, a grandson of De Draaier, bred by Eric Matthews in 1969 and he was put on the widowhood system as a two year old, and that's when Rod's racing career really took off. Bullet won ten times 1st club and three times 1st Federation and many other premier positions. He was only sent into Scotland once (Perth 346 miles) and won it. ‘All Alone’ was a blue hen bred by Rod in 1970 down from Figaro and she won 1st club, 1st Federation, 2nd open Combine Thurso; 1st club, 6th Federation Weatherby and other top positions. On retirement ‘All Alone’ and ‘Bullet’ were sold to a top fancier in the Midlands. Rod's 1982 Thurso winner was his great blue cock ‘Marathon Man’ and he was bred by Eric Matthews, being closely related to Eric's Champion ‘Solitaire’, winner of 1st Federation three times. Rod's ‘Marathon Man’ was a double Federation winner, recording 1st Federation Pontefract in 1981 and 1st Federation Thurso in 1982. ‘Mr Consistent’: This blue widowhood cock won countless major prizes in the club, Federation and Combine from 85 to 510 miles, including several first prizes. ‘Powder Man’, winner of a long list of premier positions including 1st club, 8th Federation (3,123 birds) Pontefract; 1st club, 25th Federation (1,888 birds) Doncaster; 1st club, 5th Federation, 9th open Combine (3,461 birds) Thurso; 1st club, 8th Federation, 11th open Combine (4,395 birds) Berwick; 1st club, 5th Federation, 22nd open Combine (3,896 birds) Morpeth. A brilliant family of pigeons!

Rod's very smart loft in Ashford was 60ft long, ‘L’-shaped and being a first class brick layer it was brick built and he liked plenty of fresh air and the young bird section had a wire flight built on so the inmates could come out into the weather. In those days he wasn’t too bothered about young bird races, he trained them well with lots of tosses from 30 miles and never sent them across the Channel. Rod raced only widowhood, as he had since 1968, and had two sections housing 40 cocks. The widowhood sections had a wire flight behind, running the full length of the loft, and this housed the hens during the week; the cocks had a bath in there on a Sunday morning. Rod said at the time his widowhood cocks won short and long distance but were at their most dangerous at 500 miles.

 

The star bird in the Berry loft before his move south to Hampshire was the blue cock ‘Top Gun’ and he was pure Cattrysse, being a grandson of ‘Blue Tic Barcelona’. This 'ace’ had three races as a yearling and took two weeks to come home every time, then went on to win four times 1st club Weymouth (103 miles) and 1st Section E, 3rd open NFC Pau  (550 miles). Top Gun was put to stock and bred winners every year. Rod's team prior to his move were made up of his old Cattrysse pigeons and Janssens brought in from Ken Darlington and Bob Ashman. Both families raced well, pure and crossed. Two of Rod's top Janssen racers at that time  were: ‘The Jet’, a blue cock from Ken Darlington which won three times 1st Federation and nine times 1st club; ‘The Ashman Cock’, a blue chequer from Bob Ashman which won 1st Three Borders Federation and 1st West Middlesex Federation. Both these brilliant cocks were put to stock and bred winners. The Cattrysse were the best at the long distance and the Janssens were outstanding on sprint and middle-distance races.

 

Rod's wife, Angela, is a great support with the pigeons and she does a lot around the loft and garden for Rod. He likes his old birds to race through to Bergerac, but takes it easy on the yearlings, saying too many yearlings are lost every year by fanciers who push them too far. Likely looking young cocks are given a few races then stopped. In feeding the birds, quality is the main factor and most important, the barley should be of the highest quality possible. He likes to see a nice rich eye but says eye-sign is rubbish as some of his best racers have average eyes. In Rod's opinion late breds are only any good for stock birds but must be off the very best bloodlines. The moult is considered very important and Rod gives the birds pigeon tea and additives, including Hormoform, to ensure a good moult. He used to like putting his retired champion racers in the stock loft and maintains these make the best stock birds, not pigeons brought in on pedigree alone. When I asked Rod if there was anything in the sport he felt strongly about he said yes, some clubs try and put to many pigeons in race crates to save money. He is totally against this and maintains the pigeons’ health and well-being should come first. He likes early morning liberation, especially for young birds and the ETS clocking system, but tells me he always turns his ETS off after clocking about four birds. Rod Berry, a really outstanding fancier!

 

Well that’s out article for this week and I must say I really enjoyed meeting up with Rod and Angela after all those years! My second pigeon loft visit in Hampshire was to my ol’ mate and long distance ‘Ace’, Les Kidd also of New Milton. I’m looking forward to putting Les’ wonderful pigeon story on paper in a few weeks’ time! I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 453480 or my new email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keith mott.com)