Keith Mott writes about winning fanciers past & present

TONY SEERY OF WEST DRAYTON

Tony Seery has always lived in the London and Southern Counties area, apart from a six year stint in the army, and after a recent weekend visit to the North East of England in June 2008 he move up there lock, stock and barrel. He works for the newly formed Premier Stud at Patrington, near Hull and tells me it’s a great job looking after there top quality stock birds. He has been very successful racing his pigeons in his many years in the sport and has won the Federation many times. In recent seasons he has owned some of the best racing Busschaerts in the U.K. and tells me he likes on the day racing up to Bergerac (450 miles). I would think his London & South East Classic Club winner, Champion ‘Nobby’, must be one of the best racing Busschaerts in the U.K. today, winning a long list of premier prizes, including 1st open L&SECC Alencon and 1st open Combine Fougeres. A brilliant racer!     

The London & South East Classic Club kicked off the 2005 season, with a banger of a race from Alencon, in northern France and with lots of wind and rain on the day, it produced plenty of thrills and spills. The heavy showers didn’t seem to have any bearing on the out come of the first classic, but the strong south westerly winds produced some very high velocities. La Ferte Bernard was the classic’s first choice for this 200 miles race, but with loss of the car park liberation site, so it was switched back to Alencon. I think it was a shame that the R.P.R.A. lost the La Ferte Bernard site, because it was one of the best the 200 mile stage. The Alencon site is not one of my favourites, it has a good open area for liberating the pigeons, but on my last visit had no facilities for watering the birds, or toilets. Back to the race! The members sent 2633 birds and after a good over night run down to Alencon, the convoyer liberated at 07.35hrs. in a south west wind. The returns were very patchy, with the leading pigeons making over 1900 y.p.m.

Marriott & Seery of West Drayton won the race with their all pooler, a champion widowhood Busschaerts cock named “Nobby” and he made a winning velocity of 1928 y.p.m. This game three year old blue cock was no stranger to winning, having previously recorded, twice 1st club inland, 2nd club, 3rd Federation, 12th open Combine Fougeres (beaten by loft mate) as a yearling and 1st club, 1st Federation, 1st open Combine Fougeres (200 miles), 1st club, 4th Federation, 4th open Combine Guernsey as a two year old. He is bred from the very best Busschaerts bloodlines, with his sire coming from Tom Sparks of Gravesend and his dam from Roy Fox of Harrow. Champion “Nobby” has won many other premier positions racing and has a brother named ‘Milton Keynes’ that has won many firsts racing and has been fantastic at stock, breeding many winners for Tony Seery and other fanciers, including ‘Tony’s Choice’ winner of 2nd section L&SECC Bergerac. I asked Tony why he was called ‘Milton Keynes’ and it’s because on one inland race he went wrong and was picked up in the town in Hertfordshire, and returned homes to carry on with his wonderful racing career. It was the only time he went wrong in his long successful racing career, as he is a champion racer winning many firsts and a brilliant breeder. A brilliant line of Busschaerts! Tony Seery sent six birds to the Alencon classic and clocked his winner at 10.49hrs, flying 212 miles.

Tony Seery has had pigeon on and off since he was a lad, with his brother in law, John Wight, starting him off when he started to race proper, many years ago. He formed his successful partnership with the late, Bill Marriott, in the mid-1990’s and has kept the same flying name out of respect for his friend, since his passing in 1999. He has won 1st. open Combine four times and told me he thought his best performance ever was when he was 2nd open L&SECC Alencon in a north east wind, a few years ago, losing the race on decimal to the winner in Surrey. Tony raced 20 cocks on the widowhood system and liked to race all distances with them, telling me, ‘if they are right, they go’. He paired up the week after the Blackpool Show in January and all the racers reared a pair of youngsters before going on the widowhood. The cocks got about six training from Newbury (45 miles) before the first race and got daily work around the loft during the racing season. Tony’s widowhood system was a bit different from the norm, as he trained his cocks once a week during the season; in fact “Nobby” had three training tosses from Newbury in the week prior to his classic win. Tony got his feeding from Sough Corn and fed Verselle-Laga Irish mixture, which is also unusual for the normal widowhood system, as it is a very heavy mixture and normally used by the long distance lads.

The pigeons were never broken down. Tony told me he fed heavy, that’s the reason why he had to train the widowhood cocks during the racing season. A very interesting system, which was very successful! He had a regular 18ft. “L” shaped loft, which housed the widowhood pigeons and stock birds and it had open door trapping. Tony had seven pairs of stock birds and the main families kept were Busschaerts and Janssen. They were paired up the same time as the racers and were kept on deep litter, with the feeding being “breeder mixture” and Hormoform. Tony is a great believer in Herbs and gave his birds them regularly, obtaining them from Ingram & Spavin. His 40 youngsters raced to their own 10ft. loft, which had sputnik trapping and raced them on the darkness system. He put them on the system on Good Friday and took them off in mid June. Tony is not a keen young bird racer and some times only gave them two or three races in a season, with the cocks being stopped at 150 miles, and the hens going to the longest race. The babies were fed heavy and trained heavy, with lots of tosses from Newbury (45 miles).

That’s it for this week! There you have it, Champion ‘Nobby’ one of the best racing Busschaerts in the U.K. today and one of our great classic winners. Any fanciers who need to contact me can reach me on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!