“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

Three Borders Federation (Blandford / Wincanton Races).

The first two weekends in September saw the Three Borders Federation fly their two young bird race from Blandford and Wincanton, and bother races were won by Ashridge club members. The Federation were at Blandford for its fourth young bird race and members sent 764 birds, for what turned out to be a good fast race, being liberated at 08.00hrs in a West / North West wind. Terry and Sue Leonard of the Ashridge club have been ‘knocking at the door’ all season and have pulled a good race out of the bag inland racing several times this season! The husband and wife partnership won the Federation from the Blandford race, recording 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, 23^rd Federation and have previously won the Three Borders Federation in recent seasons. Brilliant pigeon racing!

The first ten in the Blandford Young Bird Federation result were: 1) Terry & Sue Leonard 1706: 2) Terry & Sue Leonard 1706: 3) Terry & Sue Leonard 1705: 4) Terry & Sue Leonard 1704: 5) Terry & Sue Leonard 1704: 6) Terry & Sue Leonard 1704: 7) Terry & Sue Leonard 1704: 8) Terry & Sue Leonard 1704: 9) Terry & Sue Leonard 1704: 10) Terry & Sue Leonard 1704.

I first met Terry Leonard a few years ago when he came to my home in Claygate to have several of his Federation winners photographed and ever since he has continued to do well in the Federation and Combine results. Flying in the strong Ashridge club, members of the Three Borders Federation he had put some good performances in recent seasons, including winning the Federation from Honiton in 2019, recording 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th Federation. Terry started up in pigeons at the age of twenty in 1978 and previous to that, was good friends at school with, Dave and Mick, the pigeon racing White Brothers of Epsom. After they had all left school Dave White moved into the house opposite Terry and after a few visits to Dave’s pigeon loft he caught the pigeon racing ‘bug’. Terry’s father had local pigeon racer Mick Heasman working with him and he presented some late bred youngsters to the young Terry too start him off in the sport. Terry now races in partnership with his wife, Sue, to their loft in Carshalton and when he was interested in sprint racing he was very successful racing the Paul Arnold / Staf Van Reets pigeons. One of his best sprinters was the Staf Van Reet mealy cock, ‘Taunton Boy’ and he was bred from stock obtained from Paul Arnold and Vic Emberson. This brilliant cock won 1^st Federation Taunton, 1^st Federation Portland, 1^st Federation Taunton and was 2^nd Federation Taunton, being beaten by his nest mate when they dropped on the loft together. Brilliant pigeons! Another of the Leonard loft’s top racers was: ‘Fougeres Express’ a two year old widowhood blue chequer cock and he won 1^st Woodside FC, 1^st Surrey Federation, 1^st SMT Combine Fougeres, lifting the ‘Eric Matthews Trophy’. This game cock was a Romani Janssen / Kees Bosua cross and his sire won 1^st Federation twice. The Combine winner was bred down from a wonderful line of winners, with his mother winning the Federation as a young bird and his grand sire winning seven times 1^st club, three times 1^st Surrey Federation and 1^st SMT Combine. A brilliant family of winners!

The following week the Federation was at Wincanton, when the members sent738 birds to compete and they enjoyed another quick race, being liberated at 08.00 in to a West wind. This week it was the turn of the Ashridge ‘super star’, Terry Goodsell, to win the Federation and record his fifth Federation winner of the 2020 season. Fantastic pigeon racing!

The first ten in the Wincanton Young Bird Federation result were: 1) Terry Goodsell 1870: 2) Terry Goodsell 1869: 3) Chris Slight & Mike Charlton 1846: 4) E. & K. Benjamin 1839: 5) Chris Slight & Mike Charlton 1838: 6) Terry Goodsell 1835: 7) D. & A. Lebby Brothers 1826: 8) Freddie Ditch 1826: 9) Freddie Ditch 1825: 10) Terry & Sue Leonard 1825. This was race number thirteen of the season and at this point the Ashridge club are leading for the ‘Federation Points Trophy’ with 100 points, with the Mitcham & Merton club being R/U on 55 points. Terry Goodsell is leading for the ‘Individual Points Trophy’, with 62 points and his club mate Terry Leonard is his R/U on 48 points. The competition in the Three Borders Federation had been strong and hard in the 2019 season, and the mighty Ashridge RPC came out on top for the second season on the trot, winning the ‘Federation Points’ Trophy’, with 176 points. Terry Goodsell of the Ashridge club won the Federation several times, lifting the ‘Individual Points Trophy’, with 102 points. Previous to this wonderful performance in the 2019 season, Terry, had won six times 1^st Three Borders Federation and the ‘Individual Points Trophy’ in the 2018 season. Brilliant pigeon racing!

Terry Goodsell’s pigeons are raced on the widowhood system, which consists of a team of 20 cocks and he says he liked to keep the widowhood cocks warm in the loft. The birds are paired up after the BHW Blackpool Show in January and the families raced are mainly Soontjens and Janssen of Arendonk, with the Janssens being obtained from the Ponderosa Stud in Holland and Fountainhead Stud. New families introduced recently from the Ponderosa UK Stud are the Heremans-Clusters and Koopman- De Weerdt. He maintains the Janssen are good right through the programme to 455 miles, although the Soontjens are very good up to 250 miles. As far as his pigeon loft is concerned Terry is very keen to have warmth, a good dry floor, together with good ventilation, with no draughts in his lofts. He told me over feeding was the biggest mistake a fancier can make and was totally against fat pigeons at any time of the year. He says, many fanciers make the mistake of over exciting their birds and feed them too much hemp. Terry feeds the birds according to the temperature in the loft, using a good racing mixture, but with more carbohydrate when it was colder. I’ve known Terry Goodsell of Mitcham since the mid 1970’s when he was put up brilliant performances in the Surrey Federation and SMT Combine with his widowhood cocks, and I featured him in the fancy press. He was a brilliant fancier then and he is still a brilliant fancier today, winning many 1^st Federations through the years! He now races his pigeons to his loft in Morden and he has enjoyed several wonderful seasons racing in the Three Borders Federation, winning many premier positions including 1^st Federation several times. Year in and year out a name that is consistently in the Federation and Combine results is that of Terry Goodsell of the strong Ashridge club. The club has only been formed for several short years, racing in the Three Borders Federation and Terry is one of the main ‘cogs’ running this very successful new pigeon racing club. I have known Terry since the mid 1970’s and he has rarely had bad season in all that time.

Terry started keeping pigeons at the age of ten, at which time he used to help his friend to clean out his father’s pigeons and became interested. His uncle built his first loft which was 8ft x 6ft and his first birds were obtained from the late Alf Neal of Mitcham and some youngsters of the Sion strain from G. Lay. Terry told me, Alf Neal gave him a lot of help to get started and Bill Shepherd’s great performances always stood out in his mind as brilliant in those early days. He had been racing ten years, being a member of the Mitcham Common Club from the start. Terry had raced widowhood for five years, beginning with a basic system according to the book and along the way the finer points had been picked up through trial and error. The Goodsell lofts housed some of the Billy Shepherd of Mitcham pigeons and Terry told me that Billy had been a great help with advice since he started up. Terry was a pioneer of widowhood racing with cocks in the Surrey area in the 1970’s and won everything in front of him. He maintains that fanciers should be dedicated to their pigeons 52 weeks a year and not just in the racing season.

There you have it Terry Goodsell of Morden! Here we are all these years after my first loft visit and Terry is still racing in Morden, and winning the Federation positions out of turn. He must rate as one of the all-time great in the London area! I really enjoyed doing this one, Terry is a great worker for the sport and deserves all the praise he is given!

The Esher partnership of Chris Slight and Mike Charlton were up there at the top of the Federation result, taking 1^st, 2^nd club, 3^rd, 5^th Federation from Blandford, following on from there success in the 2019 season. The Three Borders Federation were at Newton Abbot for their last race of the 2019 season and members sent 464 birds, for what turned out to be a hard push home. Personally, it was very nice to see my two good mates, Chris Slight and Mike Charlton of the Esher club win the Federation on this, the longest young bird and last race of the season. Chris has raced very successfully for many years in partnership with Trevor Taylor, but with our Trev leaving the sport at the end of 2018, Chris formed a new partnership with Mike Charlton. Chris and Mike enjoyed a good 2019 racing season winning several first in the Esher club and 7^th, 14^th Federation Blandford (719 birds), 25^th Federation Honiton (633 birds), 7^th, 8^th, 9^th Federation Blandford (713 birds), 17^th Federation Yeovil (673 birds), 17^th, 18^th, 19^th Federation Yeovil (990 birds), 6^th Federation Blandford (1,044 birds), 12^th, 14^th, 15^th Federation Kingsdown (677 birds), 1^st, 19^th, 23^rd Federation Newton Abbot (464 birds). It goes without saying Mike Charlton is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and dose so much good work for the sport. To be quite honest Mike is the ‘backbone’ of the Esher club these days and carries out most the secretarial work in the club, with marking, results and a lot of week to week running work. It is great to see the name Mike Charlton at the top of the Three Borders Federation result! Well done to Chris and Mike!

That our article for this week. Well done to Terry Leonard and Terry Goodsell on their Federation wins. I can be contacted with any pigeon ‘banter’ on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT www.keithmott.com).