ON THE ROAD WITH KEITH MOTT...

KEN WISE OF ISLEWORTH

I would think Ken Wise would be the first to admit that his 2009 season has not been the best, racing his old birds mainly in National and Classic races, he has won several good positions, but not up to his usual very high standard. He worked very hard training his young birds from Portsmouth and Southampton, both 50 mile plus tosses and they turned his season around, winning some brilliant positions at the back end of the season. Ken sent two big teams to the NFC Fougeres (219 miles) Young Bird National and London & South East Classic Club Guernsey (168 miles) race, both staged on the same Saturday in September. The L&SECC sent 2,157 young birds and Ken’s ETS system was working over time and recorded: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th SW Section, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 20th, 22nd, 31st, 32nd, 37th, 38th, 40th, 42nd, 58th, 59th, 69th, 74th, 84th, 87th, 88th open, 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 11th Gold Ring (£1,100). First bird clocked to record 1st SW Section, 4th open was Ken’s good Gaby Vandenabeele blue hen, ‘De 09’; she was bred by his good friend Ray Horton of Morpeth in Northumberland. This game little hen hit the ETS like a rocket being sent to the Classic sitting eggs. Ken’s second pigeon home to win 5th open was a blue hen flying her first race and she is a full sister to the Wise’s 2008 hen that won the RPRA London Region Award for Best Young Bird (south road). The NFC Fougeres race was a steadier event and the Isleworth loft recorded a rake of premier positions including: 6th Section E, 7th, 17th, 43rd, 62nd, 89th, and 94th open. First bird home from the National was another Gaby Vandenabeele pigeon, this time a blue cock sent feeding a big baby. Fantastic pigeon flying by any ones standards! Ken wasn’t satisfied with this and decided to send a team of 35 birds to the High Littleton FC Tours Young Bird National the following weekend. This event was a major success, with excellent returns, but it was also a hard race with the 1,108 youngsters having to fly the 290 miles race course home in a northerly wind. The Wises ETS was red hot again and recorded 5th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 29th, 61st and 92nd open. The first bird home from Tours was Ken’s blue hen, ‘De 10’, and she is nest mate to ‘De 09’, the 4th open L&SECC Guernsey hen, both being bred by Ray Horton. These Gaby Vandenabeele pigeons are certainly winning plenty of the premier prizes. Well done Kenny, a brilliant end to the 2009 season!

Ken’s 100 young birds go on the ‘darkness’ system from weaning until the 21st June each season and says his birds are not in total black out when on the system, but maintains the loft is light enough to read a news paper. The babies are trained ever day as soon as they begin to run and are still on the ‘dark’. Training is intense for the youngsters, but once they start to race, training is kept to three regular 30 mile tosses per week and they race the full young bird programme, as Ken thinks they need races to educate them for later life. His young bird feeding system has been the same for years and told me they get no more than 1 ¼  ounces each per day, ¼  of depurative in the morning and 1 ounce of young bird no maize mixture in the evening, with the mixture being changed to widowhood once racing starts. Ken has won five RPRA Awards in all, two being won in the 2008 season and has put up a string of major performances over a lot of years. In the last three seasons he has won the young bird average in the Three Borders Federation twice and been runner-up once, and 2008 season saw him win the average, plus 1st Federation twice. He set new records in the Three Border Federation in 2008 and in one young bird Yeovil race won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd open with 1,644 birds competing. Brilliant pigeon racing! The Federation winner was Ken’s handsome Willy Thas blue chequer cock, ‘DE 049’ and he was raced to the perch.

Ken has a very smart loft set up at his home in Isleworth and he says the days of a closed in loft have long gone for him, as he now suffers with the dreaded pigeon fancier’s lung and now has to have an open loft, backed up by regular use of a loft coat and mask. The 32ft structure has a full length corridor, three sections for his 32 widowhood cocks, and two sections for his young birds, grilled floors and self cleaning nest boxes to keep down the dust. The loft has open door trapping, but now that Ken is fully on the ETS system, a wire door is used on race days, so the birds walk though a trap and across the pads at floor level. The 30 pairs of stock birds are housed in a separate structure, which is made with two nice spacious lofts with a 12ft aviary in between. The loft is fitted out with the German style up and over nest boxes, with trays for easy cleaning and grilled floors to keep the dreaded dust to a minimum. The main families kept are the Willy Thas and Busschaerts from Gerry Clements, Gaby Vandenabeele from M. & D. Evans, Ray Horton and Dave Hawkins, and the old family form Ken’s good friends, Ries and Gerard Schalkwijk of Holland. One of Ken’s best stock birds is the blue hen, ‘DE 238 Stock Hen’, and she was a gift bird from his good friends, Ries and Gerard Schalkwijk of Holland, and she has bred winners with different cocks every season for the Isleworth loft. He gives full credit to his friend, Gerry Clements of Manchester, who he says is his mentor. Gerry is a brilliant widowhood racing fancier, winning 1st open Combine, 1st open North West Classic and 1st open MNFC twice, and has always given Ken the very best pigeons and advice. Ken told me he recorded 7th open L&SECC Tours and 17th open NFC Fougeres on the same weekend with Gerry Clements’ Busschaerts.

The late George Wall of Paddington (London)

I recently had a very interesting and fascinating letter from John Jones of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, who is trying to research the life and times of his pigeon racing great grand father, George Wall of Paddington. John wrote to me because I was very involved with the London Columbarian Society and was Chairman in the early 1980’s. The late George Wall was a President of the Coly, but it was well before my time, even before I was born! In my time, my ol’ friend, the late Dick Brooker of Claygate was the President, Nora Major was our secretary and we marked the birds for Wednesday racing from Weymouth in Nora’s big garage at her home in Putney. Nora, who is also no longer with us, was a brilliant secretary and pigeon racer, winning many premier positions, including 1st Combine Bergerac. I was told that the London Coly was originally formed in the late 1800’s for Wednesday racing for shop keepers and fanciers who had to work and could not race on a Saturday afternoon. Through the years the Coly had many premier fancier in its membership including the late, great Alf Baker of Woodgreen. When it was finally disbanded it was well over one hundred years old and one of the oldest clubs in the pigeon racing fraternity. I don’t known what has became of the Society’s wonderful trophies; I think they were presented to major organizations to be competed for annually, but the main one, ‘The Brooker Gold Cup’, I do know is the property of the London & South East Classic Club and completed for from Tours every season.

John sent me some paper work containing some of the information he had found out about the late George Wall, which included an advert he placed in the ‘Squills’ year book of 1912. At that time he had been racing pigeon very successfully for 54 years and had won most of the premier trophies of the day including the ‘Dewar £10 Challenge Shield’ and the ‘£5 Coronation Cup’. He was a founder member of the Paddington & Bayswater club and the advert said he had flown and won in the keenest of competition on all routes including: South Road through to Bordeaux, North Road through to Perth and West Road all stages through to Listowel (Ireland). In 1911 he had wins from several race points including Granville, La Roche and held all the records in the Paddington & Bayswater club from Haverfordwest and Listowel. Just fascinating reading! Here is John Jones’ findings:

Dear Keith,

                   I write to thank you very much for calling me this morning about my research into the pigeon fancying life of my great grand father, George and as promised I have enclosed some data which gives some back ground details of his involvement in the sport. George was born in Shoreditch in 1845, but moved to Paddington in his twenties to concentrate on his scrap metal business. During my search I found that he was at one time President of the London Columbarian Society and digging around to see if anything is still known about this society, such as how big was it, where did it meet and when was it disbanded. On looking on the Internet I was particularly excited to find the article, written by Ron Wasey, about your own successes and your past connections with the London Coly. I discovered too the society was very old and that the membership included King George V and Charles Darwin.

                  Naturally I keen to learn all I can about George and the history of the London Coly in order to see that this is not lost in our family. Incidentally, I had the pleasure of attending the Game Fair, where I visited the RPRA stand and they gave me a copy of their Ring Distribution List and a copy of the December’s BHW, and I must say your article on family fishing was most enjoyable. Many thanks’ again Keith! 

                                                             Yours sincerely – John Jones.

I hope you have enjoyed this little insight into an outstanding fancier of 2009 and a great one who raced 100 years early. My phone number is 01372 463480! See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.