Keith Mott's
L&SECC News Up Date - February 2011
The Classic committee held its February meet at the North Leatherhead Community Centre recently and with a very big agenda the proceedings carried on till nearly 22.00hrs. The committee is a very dedicated bunch of fancier, who give up a lot of their time and some travel many miles from Essex, Hertfordshire and Sussex to attend the monthly meetings. The main item to come from the meeting was the dates for the 2011 race programme and they are: 7th May - Alencon (code 5001): 28th May - Tours (code 5044): 24th June - Tarbes (code 5055): 15th July - Bergerac (code 5005): 20th August - Carentan Young Bird / Old Hens (code 5092): 10th September - Carentan Young Bird / Old Hens (code 5092). We elected our new convoyer for the forthcoming season and I’m delighted to announce that Rube Johnson of Chertsey got the job. He has over 40 years experience of convoying racing pigeons inland and on the Continent, and was the convoyer of the Three Borders Federation and SMT Combine for many years. Ian Mead who has been our assistant convoyer for the last two seasons will be ‘riding shotgun’ for Rube this season. Welcome to both these gentlemen! It was also mentioned at the meeting what a wonderful sponsor Bamfords / Top Flight has been to our Classic Club, supplying our corn over many years. I would like to thank Bamfords for their lasting support, it is much appreciated.
I’m very happy to announce that the Classic’s Breeder / Buyer Race is making a come back in the 2011 season and will be flown for from the first Carentan Young Bird race in August 2011. The two auction sales will be held on:
Sunday - 3rd April 2011: North Leatherhead Community Association, Kingston Road, Leatherhead, Surrey. Penning is from 11.00hrs to 12.00hrs.
Sunday - 10th April 2011: Horsham RPC, YMCA Football Ground, Goring Mead, Horsham, Sussex. Penning is from 11.00hrs to 12.00hrs.
The first young bird race will be the Breeder / Buyer event and prize money raised from the sales will be flown for from that race. Members will be limited to donating a maximum of two birds per sale, with the first bird going into the general auction and the second bird going into the general auction after the member being given the offer of buying back his second bird for £30. In the event of no youngsters in the pen, the secretary must be supplied with ring numbers on the day of the sale. No pedigree will be supplied on the day of the sale, only the Strain of the youngster. The proceeds of the sale will be paid out in prizes to the first ten Breeder / Buyer pigeons in the open result, less 10% to the clubs fixed asset fund. Breeder / Buyer prizes will be divided in to 50% to the donor and 50% to the purchaser.
The London and South East Classic Club ‘GOLD RINGS’ are now available from Keith Mott (01372 453480) or Terri Hoskin (01494 786026). Rings will be sold at £5.00 per ring plus £1.00 post and packing, with a maximum of ten rings per member, and the proceeds will be paid out over the first twelve gold ring pigeons timed, less 10% to the clubs fixed asset fund. The rings are the ETS ‘Combi’ type and the ‘GOLD RING’ race is to be the second Carentan, which will be flown in September.
I personally think the Classic’s Breeder / Buyer is something that has been missed by the membership for a number of years and I’m delighted to see its return. The two sales will be a great day out for the members and hopefully will generate some good prizes for the first young bird Carentan race on 20th August. With the Breeder / Buyer and the annual ‘Gold Ring’ scheme on the September young bird Carentan race, we have something really great to look forward too this season!
The L&SECC 2010 trophy winners were: Garry Inkley – Moore Shield, First Classic Cup, Clydesdale Cup, Duffield Cup: Fred Ager – Colombovac Cup: Wilton & Orton – Classic Yearling Derby Trophy, Spillers Top Flight Trophy: Khan Brothers – Margaret Brooker Award, J. Painter Cup, The Premier Cup, The Racing Pigeon Trophy, The Interlink Express Trophy: W. & J. Cheeseman – Gerry Byrne Trophy, Ron Firman Cup: Mr. & Mrs. Durrant & Son – A. Harris Shield, Young Bird Classic Club, The Stock Nutrition Trophy: D. Heywood & Son – Millennium Cup: Bellchambers Brothers – Young Bird of the Year, Old Hens Trophy, Wally Dann Memorial Trophy, The Racing Pigeon Cup: Gosling & Jarvis – The Brooker Gold Cup, The Amtrak Cup (Fancier of the year, best average of the six main races), Old Bird Average: R. Poole – Roy Lindfield Memorial Cup: Ken Wise – Powells of Coolham Cup.
I photograph a lot of winning pigeons for articles every year and because of my limited time, I have regular ‘photo’ days, when I invite a few fanciers to my home in Claygate and get a nice few birds in the box all on the same day. We recently had a ‘photo’ day at home when I photographed 21 birds, including four 2010 L&SECC winners, one NFC winner, two BICC winners and several top National and Federation performers. These days are always hectic, but good fun, with pigeon baskets stacked in our hall way and fancier drinking tea in the front room and garden. It was nice to see some old friends, Vince & Sue Durrant and Dave & Gary Heywood and to meet some new faces in the form of Adam Wilton and Fred Ager. The 2010 Tours Yearling Derby winner, Adam Wilton, brought his father, Rob, with him on the day and he had won 1st open L&SECC Tours in 2007. Rob brought three brilliant young hens along to have their photos taken and their had won 3rd open NFC Carentan, 6th open NFC St. Malo, 10th open NFC St. Malo in the 2010 season. Wonderful results!
