Keith Mott

Southern Counties Show Racer Society

I recently had the pleasure of judging at the Southern Counties Show Racer Open Show, held at Gravesend in Kent and the turn out was excellent, with over 340 birds being entered. This was the third time I have judged this event in the last four winters and other judged were my brother, Phil, Gordon Marsh, Brian Goodwin, with John Ottley and Mike Horner on the West of England Tumblers. It was nice to meet up with John Ottley again, as we were both convoying at Bergerac on the same weekend in 2010. John and his side kick, Trevor Pennell, were convoying the Kent Combine and had a good race. Great lads these two, cooking a breakfast for the convoyers of all four organizations at Bergerac that weekend! John Ottley and I have met up several times on the road in past seasons and he is from Folkestone in Kent, and has been the convoyer of the Kent Cosmopolitan Federation for the last ten years. He has been in the sport 45 years and keeps, and shows mainly Chinese Owls and Oriental Frills. He has been very successful showing his birds abroad and in 2005 won European Champion with a Chinese Owl. Another familiar face I saw in the show hall was that of David Parsons, who I first met last November when he and his good friend, Malcolm Buttler, were judging at the RPRA Southern Region Show. David is a very busy judge in the winter months and tells me he has judged at the Midlands Show Racer Society event three years on the trot. The Parsons racing loft is very successful winning twelve first in the 2009 season, plus 12th open in the RPRA One Loft Race and in 2010 recorded 16th and 46th in the same RPRA race.

The Societies hard working Show Secretary, Colin Reynolds, won Best in Show with a handsome Show Racer blue cock, which was bred down from a long line of premier winners. Colin is a good friend of the Show Racer ‘ace’ Colin Carter and the BIS cock was bred down on one side from a gift blue from the Carter loft. Colin tells me he has a good winning family of blues, which believe it or not, originally started from a pair of blue chequers! He has been Show Secretary for the last five seasons and says he like the standard colours of blue chequer, blue, red chequer and mealy best, although he has several Mosaics in the loft. Colin keeps 20 pairs of Show Racers in his four section ‘L’ Shaped loft and pairs them up after the BHW Blackpool Show in January. The birds are fed on a high protein mixture, which includes Beans and Maple Peas. He has been keeping Show Racers since 2004, when the SCSRS was formed and says the Societies chairman, Jim Trim, was a big help in getting him going. The Reynolds loft has won Best in Show many times through the years, including BIS at the Thame Show in 2010. Colin started in the sport as a ten year old lad, when he got his stock birds by catching ‘roadies’ in old farm buildings near his home in Morpeth, in the North East of England. He has now been in the sport 59 years and obtained his first racing pigeons in the 1950’s from Clarke Brothers who had won the Combine in long distance races. Colin moved to Gillingham in Kent, in 1971 and enjoyed racing long distance, with the Les Stevens / Fabry pigeons for many years. He raced very successfully with 16 natural pairs, but went completely over to Show Racer in 2004. Congratulations to Colin on a wonderful performance.

Frank and Patsy May of Gravesend won Best Racer with a wonderful blue hen and she has won 3rd club Le Mans, plus two other BIS prizes at open shows. This pigeon really stood out standing in his pen when you walked in the hall and was a worthy win of Best Racing Pigeon in Show. The partners have a 16ft x 5ft loft and race their 20 widowhood cocks and hens on the North Road. The main family kept is the Soontjens and like sprint racing up to 300 miles. The birds are mated up at the end of January and only rear one nest of youngsters before going on the widowhood system.  The May’s team of 45 young birds are allowed to pair up if they want and get three 40 mile training tosses during the racing season. Frank tells me he mixes his own corn and never breaks the racers down. He has been in the sport 35 years and has won the Federation many times, the best win being 1st Federation Doncaster by 15 minuets. Well done mate!

The hall at the Gravesend Rugby Club is ideal for holding shows and the SCSRS use the venue for all their Society and Open shows. The birds always look ‘mint’ when penned in the hall and this year’s array of 124 West of England Tumblers looked especially outstanding. The SCSRS secretary, Dave Savage, with partner S. Tyson won most of the classes, but Best West of England Tumbler was won by Terry Phillips. His super black hen had previously won BIS at the London & Essex open show and BIS at the South Coast show. A brilliant hen!

Class winners were: Adult Blue Cock: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M. Horner 3) M/M Mackintosh: Adult Blue Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) M/M Mackintosh: 2010 Blue Cock: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) C. Reynolds 3) J. Harrod: 2010 Blue Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) C. Reynolds 3) M/M Mackintosh: A.A. Blue Chequer Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Harrod 3) M/M Mackintosh: Adult Blue Chequer Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) M. Horner 3) L. Bullard: 2010 Blue Chequer Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Bullard: Adult Red Cock: 1) C. Reynolds 2) C. Reynolds 3) J. Harrod: Adult Red Hen: 1) M. Horner 2) C. Reynolds 3) J. Harrod: 2010 Red Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Reynolds: 2010 Red Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) M. Horner 3) J. Harrod: Adult Mealy Cock: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M. Horner 3) M/M Mackintosh: Adult Mealy Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) M. Horner: 2010 Mealy Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Bullard: Adult Opals Cock: 1) M. Horner 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) M. Horner: Adult Opals Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) M. Horner 3) C. Reynolds: 2010 Opals Cock: 1) J. Harrod 2) C. Reynolds 3) L. Bullard: 2010 Opals Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Bullard: Adult Colours Cocks: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) M/M Mackintosh: Adult Colours Hen: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M. Horner 3) J. Harrod: 2010 Colours Cock: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) J. Harrod 3) C. Bullard: 2010 Colours Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) J. Harrod: Adult Cock TW: 1) C. Reynolds 2) J. Harrod 3) J. Harrod: Adult Hen TW: 1) M. Horner 2) C. Bullard 3) L. Bullard: 2010 Cock TW: 1) L. Bullard 2) C. Reynolds 3) C. Bullard: 2010 Hen TW: 1) C. Reynolds 2) M. Horner 3) L. Bullard: Adult Racing Cock: 1) M/M Mackintosh 2) A. Sparks 3) M/M May: Adult Racing Hen: 1) M/M May 2) M/M Mackintosh 3) J. Trim: 2010 Racing Cock: 1) A. Sparks 2) A. Sparks 3) C, Bullard: 2010 Racing Hen: 1) J. Harrod 2) J. Trim 3) C. Bullard. West of England class winners were: No.1. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.2. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.3. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.4. T. Phillips: No.5. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.6. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.7. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.8. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.9. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.10. T. Phillips: No.11. D. Savage & S. Tyson: No.12. D. Baker: No.13. T. Phillips: No.14. H. Balchin: No.15. B. Richie: No.16. B. Richie. The specials were judged by John Harrod, Ian Johnson and Ray Fisher. Best in Show – Colin Reynolds: Best Show Racer – Colin Reynolds: Best Racer – Frank & Patsy May: Best West of England – Terry Phillips. The open show was sponsored by Malibu Grains of Wingham and A. Morley of Fairseat Nursery.

Mick Graham of Richmond

I’ve known Micky Graham for most of my time in the pigeon racing sport, which must now span nearly 40 years, and he is soon going to have a special surprise celebration for his 70th birthday in March. He lived and raced his pigeons with great success at his home in Ham, near Richmond for most of his life, before moving down to Whitstable in Kent about twelve years ago. He has been married to his wife Dolly for 50 years and she has organized a special surprise party for him at the British Legion Club, Herne Bay on Saturday 26th March. Dolly tells me the club over looks the seas and is kicking off the party at three o’clock in the afternoon, so the party goers can enjoy the brilliant views along the Kent coast line. Dolly has asked me to put this little notice on my page this week, hoping that some of the ol’ Richmond pigeon crowd might like to come along to meet up with Mick again and make it even more special. This party is a surprise and Surrey friends and fanciers can get details from, Terry: 0208 948 0510, Paul: 0208 948 1377 and Denise: 01227 375431. Dolly is really hoping some of the Surrey pigeon lads will come down to Herne Bay in March and make Mick’s birthday extra special!

Well that’s it for this week! I would like to finish by thanking Jim Trim for inviting us to judge at the open show, we all really enjoyed it very much, it was a great day out!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.