Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present...

London & South East Classic Club

The L&SECC sent 2,450 birds to Guernsey in August for the first young bird and old hens classics, and being liberated in a strong tail wind the member had a ‘banger’ of a race, with the winners recording over 1800 ypm. It is very refreshing to see one of our young fanciers win the race and was particularly nice that Dean Garrett of Feltham took the top honour, as is a very good pigeon racer and loves the sport. This up and coming ‘ace’ won the young bird classic with his Soontjen / Janssen blue chequer hen, ‘Bill’s Dream’, which is named after his late grand father, Bill Tidbury, who was his pigeon partner for several seasons. This game hen won the classic, racing celibate to a nest pan and previously won 9th Federation Guernsey when the Tidbury & Garrett loft won the first eight positions in the club. Dean tells me the parents of ‘Bill’s Dream’ cost him £90, being purchased from sales at the BHW Blackpool Show and her dam, called ‘The £30 Hen’, was bred by Mr. & Mrs. Arrowsmith. When the L&SECC secretary, Steve Nicholson, phoned him to inform him he had won the race he was over joyed and just looked up to the sky and thanked his late grand father for his help! Dean has enjoyed a brilliant 2009 young bird racing season winning a long list of premier position, including several firsts in his club, 1st Federation and now 1st open L&SECC Guernsey. Well done mate!

Dean was born in Feltham, Middlesex (same as me) in 1981 and his late grand father, Bill Tidbury, was a pigeon fancier, starting up when he left the armed forces. Bill fort in Burmah, finally being taken prisoner of war and Dean says he was his best friend as well as my grand dad and still misses him very much. When Dean was a youngster he was a keen boxer, walking in the foot steps of his grand father and his cousin, Eric Boon, who were both good sports men in the boxing ring. Eric was famous for knocking out Arthur Danaher in the 15th round of their bout and had many top encounters all over the UK. Dean started racing pigeons in partnership with Bill in 1995 and he trained the youngsters, single up, from Cranford Park on his grand dad’s old GPO ‘postman’ bike. Dean was only 14 years of age and says he loved taking those north road babies for those short tosses on that bike, which paid off as they won several good positions in the club. In the early days the partners had some good success with their mixture of gift pigeons, which were mainly from George Oliver and he raced Cattrysse, Kirkpatrick and Fear Brothers pigeons. When Bill passed away in 2000, Dean got rid of every thing, loft, clock, pigeons, the lot and hit the night club scene, and enjoyed the normal teenager pursuits of drinking and woman. After he had got that out of his system, he rejoined the sport in 2004 with several gift late breds from Allen and Janina Jenkins. Dean told me the Jenkins’ gave him a lot of help in the early days and these two wonderful people now live on the Isle of Barrow, off the coast of Scotland, but still in his thoughts. His first real season back was in 2005, when won several good prizes with young birds and was always at sales looking for good stock birds, which were mainly Janssen. He went to a sale at the ‘Lion Brewery’ PH in Ash and purchased two pairs of Eddie Wright / Janssens very cheaply, and they produced his good cock called, ‘99’, which won several premier positions including 1st club, 2nd Federation, 2nd Combine Fougeres. Another good pigeon was the Marcelis red cock, which was purchased for £11 from Mr. Davenport and he won Dean’s first race for him, recording 1st club, 3rd Federation, 26th Combine St. Nazaire. Some outstanding pigeons have been obtained from several local fanciers including, Rod Berry, Clive Yates and the L&SECC winning partnership of Jenkyn, Barrott & Rolfe. His club was the Bedfont SR Club and he is still a member today, and told me it’s a great club, welcoming him with lots of help and a gift pigeon clock. Dean tells me the best local fancier is the great Jack Newell of Feltham, who is a legend, winning every thing in his life time in the sport, including 1st open NCF Pau.

The main families now raced are Cooremans, Lambrects and De Meyers obtained from Jason Hulse and Kevin Head. Dean’s loft set up is a 21ft race loft with an 18 widowhood cock section and two hens sections, plus two 12ft lofts, one for his young birds and the other which contains 16 nest boxes for the stock birds. He thinks the main things needed in a loft is good ventilation, good light and above all must be dry. Dean loves young bird racing and breeds a good strong team of 60 babies every season to compete well in both Federation and Classic racing. The Tidbury & Garrett young birds are put on the ‘darkness’ system and Dean is a firm believer that young pigeons need to be trained, and he gives them a 32 mile tosses twice a day once they start to race. He maintains to be successful with the babies they have to be trained, trained and trained again, and fed correctly for the weather conditions and wind direction the next weekend. He lets the youngsters do as they want and has won with them pairing up, sitting eggs and even feeding a youngster, but maintain the only way to be successful in the National and Classic races is to be on the ‘darkness’ system. Premier young bird racers for the Tidbury & Garrett loft in 2009 are: ‘Dean’s Dream’, bred by Kevin Head and winner of 1st club, 1st Federation Kingsdown, 8th Federation Wincanton: ‘Cheryl’ winner of 1st club, 5th Federation Yelverton: ‘Big Man’, Dean favourite youngster and winner of 1st club, 2nd Federation Wincanton, 16th Federation Kingsdown: ‘Bill’s Dream’ winner of 1st SW section, 1st open London & South East Classic Club Guernsey, 9th Federation Guernsey.

Dean races his old birds on the widowhood system, which suits his work as a brick layer and slabber, but he thinks the system of only racing cocks is a waist of good racing hens. He pairs up in early January and the racers rear a youngster before being separated for the widowhood and are later repaired for the training period, which is about six short tosses. The widowers are not trained during the racing season, but are exercised around the loft for an hour twice every day and the cocks are required to race the programme. The loft has won many premier positions in the first six in the club and Federation through the years and Dean prefers sprint / middle distance racing up to 400 miles, but in the future hopes to have a go at some long distance events. Recent racing seasons competing in the Federation have been very successful winning, 2006: twice 1st club, 2007: four times 1st club, 2008: nine times 1st club, fourteen times 2nd club and at the time of writing this article Dean has won twelve times 1st club. His ambition, after wining several seconds and thirds in recent seasons, was to win the Federation and he finally achieved it in the 2009 season from Kingsdown, with his game mealy cock, ‘Dean’s Dream’. He was delighted to win the Federation, having won 2nd Federation on the two weekends before, then came out and won 1st open L&SECC the week after. Great pigeon racing!  

He tells me he has no idea about the ‘eye sign’ method, but likes to see a nice bright eye on a pigeon and he thinks the eye tells the whole story, with the bird’s general condition being seen in the eye. Dean says the three local fanciers who are setting them alight in the premier races this season are Mark Gilbert, Garry Inkley and Richard & Reg Maybey, who have all had brilliant success. He maintains the moult is a very important time of the year and says a bad moult this year will almost certainly mean bad race results next season. In October the birds should enjoy some good relaxation and be given plenty of seed, oils and regular baths. He is not a fan of late bred youngsters for stock of racing, but lets the widowhood cock breed a round of youngsters at the end of the season, which he gives away to his friends.

Too finish this article Dean would like to thank a few people who have helped him out through the years; Firstly his grand father, Bill Tidbury, who he still misses very much; Mum, Dad, girlfriend Cheryl and little Chloe for their support and inspiration; his good mates Steve Oliver, Imran Malik and Danny Seedwell; Mick Maitland for teaching him and all the member of the Bedfont SR Club for their help. Dean would like to dedicate the Guernsey Classic win to Bill Tidbury and his best mate, George Oliver, who he knows had a Guinness or two up in the pigeon club in the sky!

 There you have it, the brilliant success story of Dean Garrett of Feltham! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT