Keith Mott
Writes about winning fanciers past and present
Three Borders Federation
One of the strongest clubs in the South of England is the South Downs RPC, which is based near to Epsom in Surrey and threw the many years since it was form it has had some of the premier fanciers in it’s membership. The club lost its brilliant secretary recently, when Jean Cutts sadly passed away and she put in many years of good work for the club. Jean had been secretary of the South Downs Club for over 30 years and one of the leading lofts in the Epsom, Ewell and Sutton area was that of her late husband, Ernie Cutts. Ernie and Jean flew in partnership with their daughter and in 1982 they won the SMT Combine for the second time. Their second Combine winner, from the young bird Plymouth event, was the good Busschaert blue chequer cock ‘Zorro’. This game pigeon topped the Surrey Federation and was also first Combine clock nomination, lifting the Benzing printer clock.
The Cutts’ started up in pigeons in 1970 with the Dordin bloodlines from Jan Wilcok and did very well them, then added a second strain to the loft in 1975 in the form of the Busschaerts from Tom Larkins. Ernie was a garage proprietor and a manager he had working for him was a pigeon fancier and introduced him to the sport. His first club was the Carshalton RPC and he said the outstanding performances of the late Gordon Hazeltine really impressed him in the early days. The first loft was an 18ft Kidby, which was still in use in 1982, and Ernie had won many top awards through the years including the Surrey Federation young bird average and 1st SMT Combine Avranches. Ernie’s wife, Jean, was one of the sports workers and she told me at that time the loft had won 109 prize cards in three years including thirty two times 1st club. Jean trained the birds from the Hogs Back (25 miles) and Ernie told me that she must take most of the credit for the 1982 performances as he was ill with bronchitis for most of the season. The birds were normally paired at the of February or the beginning of March and were fed on a beans, peas, maize, tare and wheat mixture. Ernie raced on the natural system and liked birds sitting 12 to 14 day old eggs for the best performances. He didn’t like deep litter because it creates a lot of dust and would not help his bronchitis problem. He use to tell people starting up in the sport, to get birds from a winning loft because bad stock takes just as much time, money and effort to keep as good stock. The late, great Jean Cutts of South Downs!
The Three Borders Federation sent 1,916 birds to its second race of the 2010 season from Wincanton and the mighty South Downs club dominated the result, taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 13th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 22nd and 24th Federation. Brilliant pigeon racing! The successful partnership of Colin Crook and Andy Iddenden lead the way by recording 1st, 2nd and 6th Federation.
The partnership of Crook & Iddenden have enjoyed several successful racing seasons in recent years, with highlights being 1st Federation West Bay, 1st, 2nd, 9th Federation Lulworth and now winning the Three Borders Federation from Wincanton. Colin and Andy are racing hens on the widowhood system and they tell me these hens are whacking the widowhood cocks every week. Colin says they have the system tuned just right and all their premier positions, including the first two Federation winners, were won with widowhood hens. The West Bay Federation winner was the Staf Van Reet mealy pied hen, ‘Lady’, and she was home to win the Federation from Lulworth, but wouldn’t trap and finished up 9th, being beaten by two loft mates. Her sister, ‘Busy Lizzy’, recorded 2nd Federation from Lulworth. The hen I really liked WHEN Colin showed her to me was, ‘Dark Lady’, another Staf Van Reet and she recorded 1st Federation Lulworth. These three great hens were all from the Paul Arnold bloodlines.
Years ago Colin Crook and Andy Iddenden, both who flew in partnership with their late fathers. The Crook’s, Colin and his dad Harold, were part the highly successful Crook, Waldron & Martin partnership, which won many premier prizes North Road racing, including 1st open Combine Thurso and 1st. Federation Berwick. Colin has raced on his own in recent seasons and has won 2nd open Federation three times. Andy Iddenden has raced in the Esher club for several years, gaining major success, racing in partnership with his late father “Bunny” Iddenden, who was a well liked and respected fancier. When ever you competed against the Iddenden’s in racing or the show pen, they were always hard to beat and their best performance was 1st, 2nd, 3rd open Federation. Because, Colin and Andy are very good friends and both having young families, so lack time for the pigeons, they formed the Crook & Iddenden partnership, and raced in the Esher and Epsom clubs. Colin and Andy started several years ago with some outstanding success, by recording 1st, 6th open London Federation (806 birds) Blandford, their first young bird event of the 2005 season. Their Federation winner was a natural Staf Van Reet blue pied hen, now named “Doreen” after Colin’s mother, and she was bred by the top Surrey fancier, Paul Arnold. “Doreen” was a second round youngster, so didn’t go on the Darkness system. She, with two other young hens were paired to a 19 year old cock, each having two hours with him every day and on the marking day for the Blandford race, all three were let in the section with the cock and left to fight over the nest bowl.
The Crook & Iddenden partnership have about 60 young birds every season, putting the 40 first rounders on the Darkness system and leave the 20 second rounders natural. The youngsters are put on the Darkness on weaning, being closed down from 5pm until 8am every day, and are taken off the system on the longest day in mid-June. The young bird team get lots of training tosses up to 35 miles before the first Federation race then get two tosses a week once the season starts and all race the full racing programme. They are raced to the perch, but if they want to pair up they are allowed too and nest bowls are put into the section.
Andy and Colin have 63ft of loft, with the 12 pairs of stock birds housed in a 10ft. section with a fight and the rest of the loft being for the racers. Trapping is on the ETS system and the whole structure is cleaned out every day. The old birds are raced on the widowhood cocks and celibate hens systems and the whole loft is paired up on Boxing Day, so the first round of eggs from the stock birds can be floated under the racers. The widowhood cocks start the year by rearing a pair of youngsters and their mates are taken away while sitting the second round of eggs. They are repaired five weeks before the first Federation race, then are given about six 20 mile training tosses and are put on the widowhood system two weeks before racing begins. The racers are fed on a first class widowhood mixture and are not broken down, not even for the short sprint races. The lads like to show the hens for a long time on marking night, could be as long as an hour, with the cock bird on the bowl and his mate outside the box. They are never allowed to tread. On their return from the race the cocks get their hens for two or three hours, depending how hard the race has been. Colin and Andy enjoy all Federation racing from 80 miles through to 450 miles, but have a go at the odd Classic race from time to time. Andy told me the cocks stay on the widowhood system all the time and are never repaired for the longer races. The main families kept are Staf Van Reet, which have been very successful.
South Downs member, Danny Allison, recorded 3rd and 4th Federation from Wincanton and carried on his great success of the 2009 season. The Three Borders Federation sent 1,409 birds to the last and longest young bird race of the 2009 season from Yelverton, and with the convoy being liberated at 09.00hrs in a very stiff East / North East wind, made the winners performance even more outstanding. Danny finished a good season by recording 2nd Federation, 2nd open SMT Combine (3189 birds) with his Trussler blue hen, ‘Young Connie’, and she was sent sitting ten day old eggs. Danny had enjoyed a brilliant young bird season and he told me, during the 2009 racing season this game hen was the only bird to be home first twice, that’s how good his babies were coming on race days. The South Downs Premier Flying Club had a young bird race from Exeter (118 birds) and the rule in the club is one prize per loft. Danny won the race doing a velocity of 1630.7 and ‘Young Connie’ came with the winner recoding 1630.6 and didn’t take a prize, but did lift £180 pool money. Danny being a fancier who never rests on his laurels got his great little hen ready for the testing High Littleton Tours National race at the end of the season. There was 1,114 birds competing from Tours and ‘Young Connie’ flew the 281 miles back home to Kingston, too record 77th open. A brilliant young hen!
With us both being Kingston lads, Danny Allison and I must go back well over 30 years to the late 1970’s when we both raced in the Kingston & District HS, which was at that time one of the strongest clubs in the mighty Surrey Federation. Danny was born in to the pigeon racing sport with dad being a fancier and they flew in partnership for many years. They were very successful and when his dad came out of the sport, Danny took over the pigeons at a very young age. He has always raced on the natural system and has won many premier positions in the Federation and Combine through the years; the best being 1st open SMT Combine Bergerac (450 miles). In recent years he has been in partnership with Dennis Sheppard and Martin Penfold, both premier fancier in the Surrey area, but three years ago he decided to go it alone again and approached Trussler Brothers of West Molesey for some stock birds. Dick and Brian gave him 15 widowhood cocks with their mates and this generous gift by the brother is the base of Danny’s very successful team today. Danny told me that he is very grateful to Trussler Brothers, who have also given him other good stock pigeons and never charged him a penny! He calls them the ‘Godfathers’ of pigeon racing and says they are two brilliant blokes. Danny also told me they have been so generous with gift pigeons and advice, he owes much of his good success to them! I have know Dick and Brian since I started up in the sport, 40 years ago, and they were one of best lofts in the south of England then and they are still one of the best today.
Well that’s it for this week. Watch this space for a report on Terry Goodsell’s brilliant performances in recent weeks. If you have any comment please give me a ring on 01372 463480.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT