DARYLL LUXFORD

of Horley

by Keith Mott

In 2012 the Luxford family had extensive work carried out on their Surrey home and at one point had to move out for several weeks, making pigeon racing nearly impossible for Daryll. In what little racing he manage to have, he produced some really outstanding performances, the best by winning the London & South East Classic Club ‘Merit Award’ from Tarbes (548 miles) with his good blue chequer cock, ‘Fred’. The ‘Classic’ presents any pigeon that records three positions in the first fifty of the open result in the longest old bird race a ‘Merit Award’. These beautiful diplomas have the pigeon’s photo and full race details on, ready to be framed and hung on the wall at home. These awards are very hard to win and through the years only a small number pigeons have achieved it.

‘Fred’  was bred by Gavin Mitchell in 2007. Both his parents were bred by in the Puddephatt loft, with his sire being a son of ‘Highdown Duke’, winner of 1st section, 11th open NFC Pau, 3rd section, 24th open NFC Dax, 10th section, 70th open NFC Pau and brother to ‘Louis David’ winner of 1st section, 6th open, 135th International Dax (17,500 birds). ‘Fred’s’ dam is a daughter of ‘Highdown Prince’, who was clocked twice on the day from 500 miles, winning 3rd section, 25th open NFC Pau, 2nd section, 19th open NFC Dax, 2nd section, 15th open NFC Saintes. This game widowhood cock had flown Tarbes (548 miles) four times to secure the ‘Merit Award’ and recorded: 2010: 36th open L&SECC Tarbes, 2011: 5th open L&SECC Tarbes and 2012: 29th open L&SECC Tarbes. A fantastic performance!

Daryll has a long list of premier performances won in 2012, including 1st club, 2nd South Coast Federation, 2nd open Wessex Combine (1,700 birds) Saintes, 1st club, 14th South Coast Federation, 15th Wessex Combine Tours (1,971 birds), both won with his brilliant Gaby Vandenabeele blue cock ‘JT’. With a team of only ten widowhood cocks the Luxford loft flew four channel races in the Reigate Coly winning: 1st, 2nd club, 37th South Coast Federation Fougeres, 3rd, 6th club Fougeres, 1st, 4th, 5th club, 14th South Coast Federation, 15th Wessex Combine Tours, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th club, 2nd, 4th, 15th South Coast Federation, 2nd, 14th, 73rd Wessex Combine Saintes.

I recently met up with Daryll and when I asked him about his current racing system and he told me, ‘my present set up is three lofts, with two being for my racing old birds and young birds, and an 8ft structure for the stock birds. In my opinion two most important factors are a dry loft and I put stock and young birds on deep litter and the other golden rule do not overcrowd. For the last two seasons I have raced cocks only on the widowhood system and in my loft set up I have 12 boxes per section, but only a maximum of 27 are used overall. In the 2012 season I had ten occupied with my racing cocks, with a small selection for six hens to race natural in the Old Hens’ races at the end of the season, after hey have been widow hens in the old bird season. I do not breakdown or re-pair for the longer races, and once my cocks are finished they are allowed to rear a nest, and then the hens are prepared for the Old Hens’ races. All the old cocks have a specific programme of between three and six races, if they remain fit and unharmed from predators. I’m now really interested in middle to long distance racing. My feeding is very simple, Versele Laga mixture in the morning with super widowhood in the evening. Peanuts are added as the distance increases and the youngsters get both Versele Laga mixture and super widowhood as well once they get over the channel. The cocks might see their hens before a race, but it’s rare and if so it is for a few minutes only, as I found it wound up the cocks too much. However upon returning from the race they may get fifteen minutes to two hours depending on how hard the race has been. This includes my Tarbes candidates. You have to be an aware of your birds’ habits, i.e. most of my birds are fed in a trough but I have one cock that as he comes into form, will spend the entire time chasing the others, and boy is he spiteful, so he gets fed in his box. I would like to race my hens on widowhood at the distance but time currently does not permit, as I feel they are wasted. The few hens I’ve raced in recent seasons have won: 12th, 182nd open NFC Fougeres, 96th, 98th open L&SECC Vire and 14th, 37th, 47th, 48th open L&SECC Carentan. The distance cocks at two years old go to Tarbes, yearlings ideally Bergerac 438 miles. The middle distance team, which all race up to 300 miles are made up of Gaby Vandenbeele, Van de Rhee and Janssen, and the 500 mile birds are all John Puddephatt bloodlines.’

Daryll was an outstanding fancier in the mid 1990s recording several major positions with young birds in the L&SECC and NFC events, including twice 1st open L&SECC Guernsey, but after a few years had to retire from the sport because of person problems. He returned to pigeon racing in 2004 and took up where he left off, winning major prizes. In spite of recent health prolems Daryll enjoyed an incredible 2008 old bird racing season, with the highlights being, 1st section, 4th open NFC Alencon (7,067 birds), 9th open L&SECC Tarbes, 93rd and 115th open L&SECC Tours. The 2008 star pigeon for the Horley loft was the handsome blue cock, ‘Oakleigh Belle Bleu’, and he recorded 1st section, 4th open NFC Alencon, 115th open L&SECC Tours, 2nd East Grinstead Tours Nomination and previuosly flew Tarbes (548 miles) with L&SECC in 2007. His sire was bred by Steve Deely from his good pigeon, ‘Young Windsong’, and the dam of ‘Belle Bleu’ was a Camphuis / Sanger Janssen stock hen. Daryll tells me his 2008 Tarbes pigeon wasted a lot of time trapping on his return from the 548 miles L&SECC race, but was recorded on the day of liberation and gave his a lot of pleasure. The pigeon, ‘Oakleigh Corinna’s Courage’, was bred from John Puddephatt blodlines, through Gavin Mitchell and has several good performances to his credit, including 2008: 9th open L&SECC Tarbes (721 birds), 258th open L&SECC Alencon (2466 birds), 2007: 673rd open NFC Alencon (6807 birds). Darryll says in spite of losing time his biggest thrill was clocking ‘Oakleigh Corrina’s Courage’ at 18.51hrs on the day of liberation in 2008.

The main families kept are direct John Puddephatt from his super cocks, ‘Highdown John II’, ‘Highdown Duke’ and ‘Highdown Supreme’, for the long distance, Janssens from John Mellor and Louella Pigeon World and several other performance pigeons, including direct children of 1st open National winners. Recently he was fortunate to be offered all of Neil Williams of Ferring birds, which were only the very best of John Puddephatt bloodlines, with him being a close neighbour to John. It was an offer Daryll could not refuse and although he was very sorry that Neil has had to leave the sport, as John Puddephatt said at the time, “Neil’s loss is the Luxford loft’s gain’.

Daryll keeps a maximum of eleven pairs of stock birds and breeds about 35 youngsters for raing each season. He starts his training with several 5 mile tosses and says, ‘look at athletes, they don’t just go out and start running marathons, they build up to the long events’ and that’s how he builds his pigeons up to the races from the south of France. They get two channel races from about 150 miles, then into Tours (365 miles) before going to Tarbes (548 miles) and get the usual short training from 20 miles as needed. The young birds get over 50 training tosses up to 55 miles and race through to the NFC and L&SECC races. Daryll tried the darkness system in the 2008 season and maintains young birds need rest as much as quality exercise, and getting the balance correct is very important. His current employment is Contract and Insurance manager for East Sussex Fire Service and he is based in Eastbourne, an 85 miles trip to work every day, but he says he has never taken his birds to work for training.

When I asked Daryll who he thought was the best local fancier his reply was, ‘Without doubt, we have a very strong club locally, with some very fine fanciers, but for consistency Peter Shubbs and the Neil & Dick Steptoe partnership are both incredible flyers’.

Daryll tells me he likes to pair good performance pigeons together and pairs John Puddephatt’s together to maintain the winning long distance family. He is developing a good sprint family of Vandenabeele / Janssens and says his best sprint pair bred ‘Oakleigh Belle Bleu’, the 4th open NFC Alencon cock. Daryll likes to breed close and will pair brother and sister together as long as they are from a rock solid family of good performers, and likes the odd late bred for stock. He thinks winter is the rest time for the pigeons, but years ago he liked to show his birds and has won BIS at the local events. His birds may only be let out of the loft for exercise two or three times during the winter period of October to December. He believes pigeon racing has progressed over the years, which has made fanciers keener and more professional with their feeding and racing methods, and maintains all clubs should have an open radius. Daryll loves Classic and National racing, but says they should have two races from the long distance every season and should have a look at joining the International. He maintains that club racing should be completely overhauled and every non trouble making fancier should be accepted into any club.

Daryll is 50 years of age and the only other Luxford family member in the pigeon fancy was his uncle, Peter Robb, who gave him his first birds on starting up in 1990. In the early days birds and advice were obtained from Mike Armitage of Ash, Nigel Lewellyn of Southampton and Doug Gender of Storrington. His first club was the Horley North Road and his first major prize was 3rd Federation Peterborough. The 1995 season saw Daryll Luxford have his third season on the trot with outstanding performances in the Classic young bird races. In the Young Bird National from Sartilly in 1995 the Luxford loft recorded 4th, 17th & 48th Sect, 40th, 144th & 314th Open, 1st & 6th Surrey Championship Club. At club level the babies recorded three times 1st Club, five times 2nd Club and 1st Continental Club from Poole. Daryll didn't fly many old bird races in the 1995 season but did chalk up 49th & 62nd Sect, 349th & 524th Open, 4th & 6th Surrey Championship Club from the Pau (550 miles) National. In 1994 Daryll won London & South East Classic Club's young bird Classic from Guernsey for the second year running. The partners' 1994 winner was a March-hatched blue chequer hen named 'Lobelia' which only had two races as a youngster. She was first bird on the clock from Lyndhurst (66 miles) to record 12th Club, then into the Classic Guernsey (154 miles). This game hen recorded 1st Open, 1st SW Sect, lifting £825 prize and pool money and £75 vouchers from Stock Nutrition. Sire of 'Lobelia' flew the Channel 12 times in three seasons including the Pau National in 1994. The dam was bred by Doug Genders of Storrington and was one of Daryll's favourite pigeons. Daryll won 4th Section, 40th Open Sartilly (NFC), 1st Surrey Championship Club in 1995 with his blue chequer pied cock '12', he was a full brother to 'Lobelia' the 1994 Classic winner. '12' was only lightly raced in 1995 and also won 3rd Club Poole, beaten by two loftmates. Highlight of the 1993 season was when their blue pied cock 'Rufio' won 1st Open, 1st SW Sect L&SECCGuernsey (1,465 birds). This game blue pied cock was the only pigeon in the convoy to record over 1400 ypm and his nestmate, also a blue pied cock, called 'Peter Pan', won 1st Club Lyndhurst and 2nd Club Lyndhurst in 1993. A fantastic performance by this nest pair which only had three races each as young birds in 1993.

The main loft in the 1990s was 15ft x 8ft with three sections, corridors and sputnik trapping. The second loft was 15ft x 6ft and housed the young bird team. Daryll maintained back then that warmth and ventilation were very important factors in good loft design. He kept 16 pairs of natural racers and bred about 50 youngsters each season. He paired up all the old birds in late January and the racers reared only one round, then they were trained from 50 miles up to the first race. He didn’t like the race team feeding youngsters and racing. At that time he believed the Widowhood system was the way forward for inland racing although his loft was geared for Channel races, as he maintained an experienced hen would always give that little extra over 500 miles. On restarting in the sport in 2004, Daryll obtained six stock birds from Keith Wilkins, which were Van Bruane, Kirkpatrick and Kellen and eventually purchased the John Puddephatt long distance bloodlines direct and from Gavin Mitchell, as mentioned earlier.

Daryll has always been keen on sport and played hockey at the highest level for Sussex and England, and competed around the world with the British Army. As a 15 year old he had the 5th fastest time in Europe at the 3,000!

There you have it, the Daryll Luxford story! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480.

Text & photos by Keith Mott (www.keithmott.com)

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