A TRIBUTE TO RON COX

OF GODALMING

by Keith Mott

I received a phone call today from Nicholas Heaton-Harris to inform me that his grandfather, Ron Cox had passed away. In partnership with his late wife, Chris, Ron was one the leading fanciers in the Godalming area for many years, winning 1st Federations in the shortest and longest races. Ron had a stroke on the 2nd October and passed away in Frimley Park Hospital ten days later. Betty and I were very sad to hear of the passing of Ron. He was a very likeable person and we spent many evenings together, talking about our families and of course pigeon racing. He was very successful racing his pigeons in partnership with Chris and I must say she was one of the very best woman pigeon fanciers that I have met in my years in the sport. The sport of pigeon racing has now lost one its greatest pigeon racing partnerships! Ron’s cremation will take place at Guildford Crematorium, Wednesday, 24th October at 12.30hrs.

Year after year Ron & Chris put up outstanding performances in the National Flying Club and Combine, but in 1978 they won the ultimate in Combine racing by recording 1st open from the SMT Combine old bird Vire event. Ron and Chris' combine winner was a Gunn grizzle cock, ‘Rowly Jim’, which was bred from two of the best pigeons at Rowly Lofts. The partnership were the Godalming Club champions in 1976 and 1977, with many outstanding positions in the South Coast and Surrey Federations. The main foundation of the loft was seven pigeons purchased from the late G. L. Gunn of Farnham in 1957, when the partners had just started up. These Gunn pigeons had been successful for the Cox's from the word go and had shown their best on hard days when the chips have been down. Chris said some of their best birds were bred down from these originals, including their champion red cock, winner of  41st British Section Barcelona 1965, 31st British Section Barcelona 1966, 15th British Section Barcelona 1967. Also red cheq cock, ‘146’, winner of 180th open Pau NFC and 1st Federation Nantes, plus a hen to win 63rd open Pau NFC and more recently a hen to win 11th open Nantes NFC. They had introduced several gift birds from the late Alec & Molly Martin of Worplesdon, which also raced well. They obtained four gift birds from Mr Chinnielinski of Woking and two of these birds won 1st Federation for Ron and Chris. Several Cattrysse pigeons were introduced with outstanding results. Their set-up consisted of two lofts, one 24ft x 6ft for the racers and another 21st x 9ft with flight, which housed mostly stock birds and some old favourites. The birds were trapped through drop holes and the lofts were kept spotlessly clean. 

On my last visit to the Cranleigh Loft a few years ago, the loft housed eight 1st Federation winners and 15 birds which had flown Bergerac on the day of liberation. I handled the dark chequer cock ‘Rowly Supreme’ and he was a firm favourite at the Rowly Lofts. He was a handsome apple-bodied cock and was the winner of 1st club, 16th Federation, 28th open Combine Nantes, 1st club, 1st Federation Exmouth, 2nd club, 12th Federation Rennes. ‘Supreme’ was of the Gunn strain and was the sire of ‘Rowly Jim’, the Cox’s Vire Combine winner.

Ron and Chris ran their own Butcher's shop in Cranleigh at that time and didn't find much time for training but the birds got an open loft on most days. The race birds were left to run together and were allowed natural love pairings. Over the years they raced the young birds hard and then raced them very lightly as yearlings, which wasn't the case with the loft's 1977 star ‘Rowly Princess’. She won 1st club, 1st Federation, 9th open SMT Combine Bergerac in 1977, previously having very little racing. Princess was a two year old Gunn blue hen and both her sire and dam had flown Bergerac on the day of liberation. The partners had differences over the birds and Chris called Ron 'a pigeon hoarder', as he liked to save the birds and not overtax them. The fancier they both most admired was the late Fred Seaman of Cranleigh. Ron said he kept a small team of pigeons but was always in the early times from Pau, Palamos and Bergerac in spite of Fred's illness. When I visited Ron and Chris' home the pigeons and lofts were in wonderful condition and full of real class. Ron and Chris later moved Farncombe, near Godalming and carried on racing their pigeons with outstanding success. There you have it, the late great Ron Cox of Godalming.

KEITH MOTT