Keith Mott
L&SECC Alencon Classic - May 2012
The London and South East Classic's opening race of the 2011 season was flown from Alencon in mid-May and as always the marking of a big birdage was a major operation for the workers at the four marking stations. We marked 640 birds at Leatherhead and every one was flat out working from 07.30hrs until our convoyers, Rube and Ian, picked up the 64 full crates at lunch time. Rube told me on marking day that he thinks that the new marking station at Tilbury is an excellent venue and a great new addition to the L&SECC marking set up. It’s great to see the Tilbury I/C, Alan Jackson provisionally 7th open in the Alencon result. Well done mate! The 1,340 birds were liberated in perfect racing conditions on the Saturday and I must add that the weather on day and in deed the whole weekend was brilliant, but with the strong North East wind the classic had a very hard race. The Classic marking days are always very hard work, but the buzz of the hustle and bustle is most enjoyable. Thanks to our workers at all the marking stations for all their good work!
On marking day John Edwards of Caddington came to Leatherhead with his Alencon birds and it gave me the opportunity to congratulate him on his recent appointment as President of the National Flying Club. He mucked in with me for a while and marked a few birds on the Bricon ETS, and I suppose it must have looked a bit strange with both of the Presidents of the Classic and National working at the same desk! Looking at the Alencon provisional result the Edwards loft recorded 16th open. John and I go back a lot of years, as I visited his loft near Luton in 1998 when he won the L&SECC Guernsey Young Bird Classic.
John won the Guernsey Classic with a blue Janssen hen racing to overdue eggs and she was on her third flight for the race. On her build-up for her Classic win she had every race including the Pontorson National and took 4th open Federation from Exeter. When I visited John's Bedfordshire home he had only just moved in and his 90ft Petron loft was only half erected, so he'd been racing his young birds to an old stable in his massive back garden. He said at the time that he had his best ever young bird season racing to that old stable, winning several firsts in the very strong local club and many Federation prizes. The stable was dry and very dark and he said that his young birds were on the darkness system, only throwing their third flights in the month of September. John had found out he had pigeon fancier's lung and nearly gave up the sport, but was helped out by his good friend, Cliff Ginger, a retired local fancier. He said at that time that Cliff was priceless and was the main worker around the loft. John has been in the sport for over 50 years, starting as an 8 year old. As a lad he won 1st, 2nd and 4th Nantes in the strong Dunstable Club on a really bad day, recording 2nd open Federation. The 1997 season saw him win 1st section Angers in the L&SECC Yearling Derby. He races his old birds on the widowhood and natural systems, as he likes all racing, long and short distance. The 16 widowhood cocks are paired up in January with the stock birds, and the naturals are all put together in March. The main family kept are Janssen, but John has had some really outstanding birds from friends, including Peter Wells of Dunstable. Congratulations to John on his appointment as National Flying Club President!
The ‘master’, Mark Gilbert of Windsor, won 1st open in the Alencon Classic and had several other birds close up behind on his ETS. What a brilliant performance by Mark Gilbert, recording his fourth L&SECC winner in great style. Mark’s latest winner, a yearling dark chequer hen is raced on the widowhood system and is a grand daughter of his 2004 International winner. Last season as a young bird she scored in the NFC young bird National and was the first bird on the ETS from the young bird Tours race. This L&SECC win really was outstanding, beating 1,340 birds by over 50 ypm. Congratulation to Mark on a wonderful performance!
Mark recorded his previous Classic winner last season when he won, 1st open Old Hens and 3rd open Young Birds from the Vire Classic! Mark is becoming a legend in the in the Classic and National racing pigeon world and wasn’t available for comment after the race, but what a brilliant 2011 season he is enjoying, probably one of his best ever. In the last few years Mark Gilbert has won just about every major accolade at National level and of course his biggest triumph was winning the Dax International in 2004. He has been a leading force in the L&SECC for many years, winning 1st open three times, including the longest old bird race from Bergerac in 2006. It was one of the hardest Bergerac races of all time and the Gilbert loft won it in great style recording 1st and 2nd open on a velocity just touching 900 ypm. In 2004 the L&SECC sent 1366 birds to Guernsey for the final young bird race of the season and Mark won it with his good darkness Soontjen blue chequer hen, ‘Abigail’. Mark won the L&SECC Guernsey Classic in 2004 and recorded a brilliant season’s double, having won the NFC Pau / Saintes Grand National in the July. ‘Abigail’ had flown the English Channel three times that season, recording 3rd open UBI Combine Guernsey, well up in the NFC Falaise result and 1st open L&SECC Guernsey. A brilliant hen! She was raced on Mark’s semi-widowhood system and on handling her the day after her Classic win I noticed she had cast her third flight. ‘Abigail’ was bred from two Soontjen stock birds and her dam had bred several Federation winners.
Mr. & Mrs. Streatfield of Snodland were provisionally 2nd open, 1st SE section and it was nice to see one of our Kent members at the top of the result! The partners enjoyed a great race, sending 30 birds and getting 21 home on the day. The first bird on the ETS was a two year old Staf Van Reet blue widowhood cock and this was only his fourth race of the season, and he has previously flown the Channel with the L&SECC as a yearling. In the 2011 L&SECC Alencon race Mr. & Mrs. Streatfield won 8th open, 1st SE section. Congratulation to this out standing Kent loft, winning the section two years on the trot! Mr. & Mrs. Bill Cowper & son of Higham recorded 3rd open. Bill and I go back a lot of years, as with his wife, Barbara, and son, Michael, he was the L&SECC I/C at the Gravesend marking station for many seasons. The Cowper family are great workers for our sport. Bill’s winning pigeon from Alencon was a yearling blue cock raced on the widowhood system. His breeding is Florervoort, being bred down from ‘Fieneke’ winner of 21 first prizes and sold for £64,000. The Cowper’s sent twenty pigeons to Alencon and got six on the day. Well done to Bill!
Looking around the marking hall at Leatherhead I saw an outstanding fancier, I had seen for many years, in the form of George Morris & son of East Acton. George and I also go back a lot of years, as I visited his loft with the ‘Many Miles with Mott’ video unit in the mid-1990’s and first met him about 35 years ago.
In the 1998 season, George enjoyed great success, winning many major positions including 7th Open Pau (NFC) and 1st Open SE Combine Bergerac in the space of six days. A fantastic performance! The 1999 season saw him continue his outstanding success, with 9th Open Combine Rennes, 14th Open Combine Nantes, 34th Open Combine Rennes, 1st, 2nd club, 1st, 3rd West Middlesex Federation, 1st, 4th Open SE Combine Bergerac. These performances are what dreams are made of and George told me at the time, the wonderful loft performances over the two seasons were unbelievable. The two pigeons clocked from Bergerac in 1999 were a brother and sister nest pair, with the Combine winner being a two year old widowhood cock, trained only as a young bird and raced as a yearling only inland. In 1999 he had five inland races and two Channel races from Rennes (245 miles), then into Bergerac to win the Combine, taking just over 13 hours to fly the 460 miles. His sister, George's Champion blue chequer, won 4th Open Combine in 1999, also 1st Open Combine Bergerac in 1998. What a nest pair! She was sent to Bergerac in 1999 sitting 10 day old eggs and flew 133/4 hours to record 4th Open Combine.
George started racing at the age of 11, when he was in partnership with his father and they were outstanding in the long distance north road races. He turned south road in 1990 and has won at every stage through France, including winning the longest old bird race from Bergerac most years. George has a small loft with big performances and in the last thirteen seasons on the north road, he has won Thurso eleven times. A fantastic loft performance! He says he likes week-to-week club racing, but is most successful at the long distance events, keeping a few widowhood cocks for the spring club races and the bulk of the loft being on natural for the races from France. The Morris set-up is two small lofts in an L-shape by the railway tracks of East Acton tube station and all trapping is through open doors. The natural racers have 15 widowhood style nest boxes and the small team of widowers have 12 nest boxes. His 36 young birds race on the natural system to their own section all the way through to 200 miles and are trained at least twice a week.
On my loft visit a while ago, George showed me his champion blue chequer white flight hen, winner of 1st Open SE Combine Bergerac (460 miles) in 1998. She was sent to the longest old bird race sitting 12-day-old eggs, flying 111/4hours, to win the combine and three weeks prior to this, she won 3rd club Poitiers. She is a grand daughter of his champion racer and breeding cock, 'The Thurso Cock', her dam being a pigeon from George White of Kent. George started his own family of long-distance pigeons in the mid-1970s with a Havenith pigeon from Stan Towers and a bird from his friend Gerry Dellany, both outstanding fanciers. From time to time he brings in an outstanding pigeon to cross with his own family, which he says, more often than not, brings out a top-class performer.
He pairs up his widowhood racers in January and the natural birds in mid- March and because of his work commitments finds it very hard to do much training. The little training he gives the team is from the south coast and he uses the short inland races to get the birds fit. His build up for the long distance events is two inland races, one 350 mile Channel race, and then he sends them to the main event sitting about 12 day old eggs. He says every pigeon likes a different nest condition when sent to the distance but he hasn't had much luck with birds feeding youngsters. He showed me his fantastic mosaic cock, which in 1998 flew 560 miles from Pau in 151/2 hours, recording 7th Open NFC. He was sent sitting 12 day old eggs and is also a grandson of 'The Thurso Cock'. This mosaic cock is no stranger to winning and previously recorded 1st club Bergerac, 131/2hours on the wing and 159th Open Saintes NFC. A great George Morris pigeon! This cock was injured in the 1999 season and put in the stock loft. George only keeps a small team of pigeons and has put up some great performances through the years.
I haven’t seen George Morris for a lot of years and it was nice to see him at the Leatherhead marking station for Alencon, where I put his birds through the Bricon scanner. George was provisionally 4th open Alencon and his first bird, which was a gay pied widowhood cock, recorded 2nd club Wincanton this season and is grand son of his 7th open NFC Pau winner. Well done George!
All the Alencon results in this article are only provisional and based on early times received from the member’s phone in verifications on the day. Will the L&SECC members please note that the new Classic Internet Website is now live and the address is www.lsecc.com The next race is from Tours on 26th May (Thursday marking) and there will be another Bricon ETS system nomination at £2 per bird (un-limited).
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.