Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past and present
L&SECC Tours Yearling Derby
The members of the L&SECC sent well over 2,000 birds to the Tours classic held at the back end of May and were liberated at 05.30 hrs in a strong north east wind. With the head wind and very hot weather conditions promised for the race day, the convoy was liberated at a good early time to give the birds a good start, but in spite of all these good efforts, the returns on the day were really bad and some fanciers had well over half their entries missing that night.
On the Saturday of the race I had to visit my good friends, John and Linda Tyerman of Bracklesham Bay and with the sea front only 100 yards from their home, after looking at John’s pigeons we decided to have a walk along the sand with the grand children. The English Channel was perfect, with good visibility and the Isle of White was in full view, but the north east wind was very strong, and has proved to be the main test for the Tours Classic pigeons. The Classic winning pigeon was a game blue widowhood cock owned by David Hughes of Windsor and this two year old Van Elsacker pigeon is a member of David’s very successful widowhood team of 36 cocks and 20 hens. I have contacted David by phone and his Tours Classic winner is racing on through the season, so we hope to sort out an article at a later date. Well done to David on his wonderful Classic win!
Johnny Wills and his daughter, Sarah, of Frimley won 1st SW Section, 2nd Open, 1st Yearling Derby with their handsome natural blue chequer cock, now named ‘Del Boy’. John’s Yearling Derby winner had no races as a young bird, only being trained along the south coast and this season had two mid week training races from Hamworthy with the ‘Lion Brewery’ club, before going in to the L&SECC Alencon race, and then in to the Tours Classic. John tells me he had not reared a youngster, being sent to Tours driving his hen to nest and was getting very keen for some days before the race as he kept going in to the young bird section and feeding the youngsters in there. ‘Del Boy’s’ mother is John’s great pied hen, ‘Rose’s Girl’ and winner of 2004: 85th open NFC Saintes, 2005: 88th open NFC Tarbes, 5th open Greater Distance NFC and this whole winning line goes back to the great old red chequer cock, ‘Roller Coaster’, winner of 1st open BICC Pau.
When I recently met up with my ol’ mucker, Johnny Wills and asked him how he felt about winning the 2009 L&SECC Tours Yearling Derby, his reply was, ‘I’m highly delighted and with my recent personal problems this win has given me a good lift. Over the last few years the pigeons have had to go on the back burner and with no regular work my loft of pigeons has gone a bit stagnant. I’m in the processes of building a new team and this Classic win marks the start of a new era for the Wills loft. My great old family of Ian Benstead are still brilliant for the Barcelona job, but these days you need a faster type pigeon for the 550 mile races, so I’m creating a second family from gift birds from good friends, the late great Brian Long and Brian Leadbeater. These two gentlemen are two of the best pigeon fanciers I’ve ever met and they have gifted me pigeons from their very best. My late friend, Brian Long, left me some pigeons, including birds out of his famous £55,000 pigeon ‘Lucas’, but I still love my old Ian Benstead pigeons which are still winning well up to Barcelona’.
I hadn’t seen John for a while, but he has given up the good life and lost a bit of weight and looked in top form. After his 25 years hard work on premier club committees John has made the decision to give up ‘pigeon politics’ and start enjoying racing his pigeons again. With his new start Johnny has installed ETS in his loft and thinks it is brilliant, and would not be without now. He would like to thank Mark Gilbert for coming to his Frimley home and installing the new system for him - he did a great job.
John Wills is a man I have known since the early 1970s and who is now one of the most respected fanciers in the world of long distance pigeon racing. In the early 1970s he was a footloose and fancy free young lad, and was a “hot arse” trying to win sprint, club and federation races every week. John lived in Feltham and raced in the West Middlesex Federation at that time. I can remember one snowy winter's day in 1979, when I had arranged a meeting with John at his loft, for an article photo shoot, and had to bang on the front door to get him out of bed!
He had enjoyed some good success with his good with his good blue pied Cattrysse cock, “Billy”, who had won the longest old bird race from Bergerac. This handsome cock was bred by Johnny's dad, Bill Wills of Ealing, who was a brilliant fancier for many years in the Middlesex area. I think Billy's Bergerac win changed John's whole outlook on pigeon racing and on that cold day in 1979, he told me that he had had enough of Federation sprint racing and was going to have a go at National long distance events only. John Wills has never looked back, with the rest being history! Johnny’s Frimley loft has won countless major prizes in the long distance National and International events, including 6 times 1st open British International Championship Club (British Section of the International), 10 times 1st East of England Continental Club and 4th open NFC Pau. The Surrey loft has been in the NFC Pau result every time they have sent since 1989 and John says his pigeon management is based on commonsense.
John had a very good season racing in 2005 and the star birds were: “URANUS”, winner of 2005: 6th open BICC Barcelona, 1st open Greater Distance NFC, “ROSE'S GIRL”, winner of 2005: 88th open N.F.C. Tarbes, 5th open Greater Distance NFC, 2004: 85th open NFC Saintes, “SARAH”, winner of 2005: 9th open BICC Dax. John races 25 old birds on the natural system, not including the yearlings, and hopper feeds beans for all races up to 700 miles. The Frimley set up is made up with two lofts, 24ft. X 8ft. for the old birds and 12ft. X 5ft. for young birds, and Johnny maintains that the main factor in good loft design is plenty of fresh air. He thinks deep litter is a good idea, but must be kept bone dry. John is a night worker, as a Market Porter and his pigeon system has to be kept plain and simple. John races about 20 young birds to the perch each season and 10 latebreds are produced annually, which are not trained in the year of their birth, just left to grow. John told me these latebreds are trained and raced later on and usually turn out to be some of his best birds. Six pairs of stock birds are housed at the Frimley loft, which are mainly John's own family based on the Ian Benstead of Capel pigeons and a bit of the Burger, Galabank and Cattrysse bloodlines.
Johnny has been a pigeon fancier for 40 years and says he can remember losing his first winner and his dad telling him he would have to learn that you lose good pigeons, because many get lost in the end. John has learnt a lot since those days when he started racing at the age of 15, winning top honours year after year. Johnny crowned his long distance racing career by winning 1st open BICC Pau National, by approx. 30 minutes in 1984. His winner, red chequer cock, “Roller Coaster”, was a six year old bred from stock obtained from Ian Benstead and the late, Ken Couch of Feltham. The Wills' loft was turned temporarily North Road in 1984 due to the Channel ban in 1993, but had the one race south race, the BICC Pau event, when he sent one pigeon, “Roller Coaster”. This cock's previous form was endless, including 1st club Dax (only bird in race time), 32nd open Combine Niort, 13th open Federation Bergerac and 47th open Combine Melle (smash). From the 1984 BICC Pau race he lifted £435 and recorded a velocity of 800 y.p.m., a brilliant pigeon! Another great winner for the Wills long distance loft was the blue hen, ‘Tommie’s Girl’ and she won 2004: 1st open BICC, 80th open International Biarritz and 130th open NFC Pau, 195 open NFC Pau. This wonderful hen is the daughter another of John’s best hens, ‘Ever Loyal’ and she won many premier prizes including, 5th open BICC Barcelona and 95th open NFC Pau.
John has had pigeons all his life, racing in the early years with his father in the Ealing Club. In later years Ian Benstead let him have birds off his best. Johnny says as a lad he used to watch Tubby Tate's pigeons whilst on his paper round and was inspired by this great fanciers performances. In the early 1980's his loft housed 20 pairs of racers and he bred as many youngsters each as he could, so he could keep his team young. The birds were raced on the natural system, with old birds going through the programme and youngsters treated lightly, with approximately three races each. Food was changed for different times of the year adding more beans as the longer races got nearer. John says he never goes on holiday as all his time is spent with his birds and the best race to win is the next one. In 1966 he bought some Cattrysse pigeons from S. Smith of Loudwater, Bucks, which won from 100 to 460 miles.
In 1977 he bought a cock from Ian Benstead which bred winners straight away and since then he has obtained many birds from this long distance “master”, and founded his highly successful present day family on them. As I've previously stated John's pigeon management has no real hard and fast rules and is run on commonsense. He says, he has always trained the pigeons when he thinks it is necessary, with single ups from the south coast. John likes eyesign and pairs pigeons up clashing all their eyes, but says he has seen many good pigeons with what he regards as not very good eyesign. He likes to pair his best birds to either a pigeon out of their brother or sister, and picks out stock pigeons on performance and type. John studies each bird separately and sends them in the condition they favour. He says he has respects for many of the present day long distance fanciers, but his mentor is Ian Benstead, who is no longer in the sport. John and his wife, Rose were once the secretaries of the B.I.C.C. and John is now a Vice President, and has been on the Committee since 1984.
Ian Benstead of Capel
The Dorking loft of Ian Benstead won 1st open BICC from Lourdes in 1986 and although he has been out of the sport many years, his name lives on, with many premier long distance fancier winning with his pigeon today. I first visited Ian in 1977 when my late good mate, Dick Brooker, took me to his Capel home to report on his Niort Combine win. When you visited his loft, which was set in the wonderful Surrey countryside, you were lucky to see the pigeons, as they had an open loft and roamed the fields all day. If the pigeons would stay in the trees, Ian said, he wouldn't bother with a loft. Ian Benstead was a natural flyer in the truest sense of the word, with his brilliant long distance team of pigeons spending most of their time in the trees and fields. I revisited Ian again in 1986 when he had a wonderful season racing in the British International Championship Club, recording 1st, 5th, 6th, 23rd, 25th and 26th open Lourdes (555 miles), 2nd and 13th open Perpignan (603 miles), 3rd and 19th open Pau (537 miles) and 4th and 11th open Marseilles (603 miles).
Ian started in the sport in 1949 with a stray blue chequer hen from a fancier in Carshalton and that game pigeon broke his novice status from Seaton the following year. Ian had trapped the hen, so he took it back to the man on his bike, who thanked him very much and gave him half a crown. On his return home, Ian found the hen had already returned there, waiting for him. Next day, he returned the pigeon once again to Carshalton but the man presented it to him and thus started him up in the sport. When Ian went into the army he gave the hen away and she bred many winners before she died at a ripe old age. He obtained 30 July bred, latebreds from Ron Sheppard in 1964 and these were the base of his champion long distance family.
Ian's best performances in the SMT Combine were 1st and 2nd open Niort in 1972 and 2nd open Nantes in 1975, although many other positions were won. He hadn't competed in very many Pau N.F.C. races, but recorded 2nd section,15th open, 9th section, 34th open, 4th section, 142nd open and 6th section, 259th open. Ian's Niort combine winner, “The Combine Cock”, was still in the loft at that time and looked fantastic for his 18 years of age. This handsome old white flight cock won the SMT Combine in only the second race of his life. Ian rated Eric and Pat Cannon of Godalming the best long distance fanciers in the Surrey area and had a lot of admiration for John Goodwin, the N.F.C. convoyer at that time. He said John was second to none and when he liberated you knew the birds would home well. He thought a good loft ventilation was most important and said a horse is likely to catch a cold when you bring it in and not when you put it out in a cold field. When the birds are exposed to the elements they come to hand naturally, with the seasons. He said he thought the old bird races started too early and finished too early. Ian had never introduced another bird into his loft since he started with the Sheppards in 1964. The loft was creosoted inside and out, and Ian thought there was nothing finer. He said it doesn't hurt pigeons, as a hen drunk some one day and she didn't bat an eyelid. Ian always said he would bet odds on a short flier in regard of over fly as the further the bird fly there is always another wire and another gun, and the further fliers have a hard job. His loft was 20ft.x 12ft. and the birds were trapped through open doors. Ian built the loft himself with wire floor and the droppings are cleaned out from under the loft. Wire windows were on all four sides so the wind blew right through the structure and the nest boxes had no fronts, so the intruders could be rejected without much fuss or damage. He liked the birds to be subjected to the weather and maintained they were better for it. He told me, one day he put a handful of grit on the nest boxes and the wind blew it straight out the window at the back of the loft. The birds had an open loft all day, in any weather, and nested in anything, including cardboard cartons.
The 1986 BICC Lourdes winner was a very nice blue chequer hen called, “The Lourdes Hen”, and was a classic long distance type, being medium sized, with good length in the body. This game hen won the Lourdes event in only the second race of her life. Ian's 5th open B.I.C.C. Lourdes winner was the blue cock, “Double One”, and he also won 3rd East of England Continental Club from Orleans (246 miles). Ian told me the cock was for the future. Another of Ian's stars was his blue chequer cock, “The Marseilles Cock”, which had flown Marseilles four times with the BICC, recording 4th, 7th and 9th open and Ian flew 603 miles from this race point in the south of France. He liked a medium apple-bodied pigeon and said it took three year for his to mature. Ian liked to see the eye placed in the centre of the head. He used to be a race horse trainer at Epsom and a lot of his pigeon management was based on his horse training days. He didn't race inland and the youngsters were not raced or trained in the year of their birth. One hen in the Benstead loft was sent over 600 miles for her first race of her life and returned safely. The birds were not parted in the winter months and were put down to breed in March. Training started the first week in May and was mostly from the south coast, including Bognor, Worthing or Brighton . Sixty old birds were housed and 30 youngsters were bred each season and if anything looked wrong with a squeaker or egg it was disposed of without delay. He said pigeons are easy enough to breed so why waste time on sub-standard goods?
The birds were hopper fed on beans in the winter and a good mixture when racing, but didn't like rearing on beans. A pigeon that caught my eye was the blue chequer cock, “The Bergerac Cock”, which had won in 500 mile show classes. This handsome cock was getting on in years, but had a wonderful racing record, winning 1st. club Bergerac and 6th open BICC Barcelona. One of Ian's favourites was the light blue chequer cock, “The Two Way Cock”, which won 1st club, 11th Federation Thurso (530 miles) north road, as a yearling. Ten days later he was sent to Lourdes (555 miles) south road and was recorded on the winning day. A wonderful family of long distance racing pigeons!
After my visit to Ian Benstead's loft in 1986, the loft went from strength to strength and Ian is one of the most respected long distance fancier in the sport. One of his best performances in recent years was in 1992 when he won 1st. open London & South East Classic Club Dax. A brilliant fancier!
Well that's another “ON THE ROAD” put to bed! It has been great fun featuring Johnny Wills in this week’s article; we go back a lot of years and his mentor, the great Ian Benstead. I can be contacted for any pigeon comments on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.