“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

A Three Borders Federation Special Feature.

Roy Barnett of Kingston.

Roy Barnett enjoyed another great season in 2010 racing with his small team of pigeons in the very strong Esher & Dist. RPC and following his wonderful success of 2009. His main success in that season was winning 1^st club, 4^th Three Borders Federation, 4^th open SMT Combine (1494 birds) Messac with his good hen, ‘The 72 Hen’, too follow up her brilliant performance of 2009 when she recorded 3^rd open SMT Combine from the same race point. This game little hen is daughter of another of Roy’s top racing hens, ’21 Les’ Hen’. Three other premier performer in the 2010 season were: ‘38361’ bred by Rookledge & Mearns and winner of 18^th Three Borders Federation Messac, ‘38318’ another daughter of ’21 Les’ Hen’ and winner of 19^th Three Borders Federation St. Nazaire and the good young bird, ‘27783’, bred by Andy Kyriacou of Richmond and winner of 15^th Three Borders Federation Wincanton. The 2010 season saw yet another of the Barnett loft’s top hen win again in the form of ‘Champion 10’ and she recorded 1^st club, 13^th Three Borders Federation Kingsdown, which is her favourite race point having won the Federation from there in 2008, plus lifting the BHW George Slade ‘Swing Clear’ Memorial Trophy.

This was an article that was well over due, as the fancier in question had put up outstanding performances ever season in the Three Borders Federation and had had very little credit in the fancy press. Having said that, Roy Barnett is the first person to tell you that is purely down to him, as he is a very private person and has always walked away from publicity. Roy was an Esher club mate of mine and after months of verbal battering from me, brought some birds around home and had them photographed for this article.

The Three Borders Federation sent 1008 birds to Messac at the back end of May 2009 and Roy Barnett won the Esher club and recorded 2^nd Federation, 3^rd open SMT Combine (3174 birds), with his little two year old blue chequer hen, ‘The 72 Hen’. Four weeks later the Federation sent 825 birds to Tours for its fourth channel race of the 2009 season and Roy was back at the top of the result sheet, winning 1^st Esher club, 2^nd Three Borders Federation, 15^th open SMT Combine. His winner from Tours was one of his favourite pigeons, ‘21 Less’s Hen’, and after the race Roy told, ‘the pied hen has finally won a race, having previously won several seconds in the club, plus 18^th Three Borders Federation, 24^th SMT Combine (3174 birds) Messac, 24^th Federation West Bay (1691 birds), 2008: 23^rd Federation (2404 birds) West Bay. She was sent to the last old bird race of the 2009 season from Bergerac and recorded 2^nd Esher club, 11^th Three Borders Federation, beaten by his good mate, Chris Slight, who won 1^st open SMT Combine in that race. This game dark chequer pied hen was bred by Les Penycate of West Molesey and Roy purchased her at the 2006 Three Borders Federation Breeder / Buyer sale and she returned the compliment by winning £300 for the two lads.

The 2008 season saw Roy win the BHW George Slade ‘Swing Clear’ Memorial Trophy with his good blue chequer hen, ‘Champion 10’, which recorded 1^st Three Borders Federation (1079 birds) Kingsdown and recorded a velocity of 2035ypm, which was the fastest in the UK that Saturday. This wonderful hen had previously won 6^th Three Borders Federation (2494 birds) West Bay. Roy favourite pigeon is his ten year old blue hen, ‘The Old 80 Hen’, and she has won several firsts, including 1^st club, 2^nd Federation, 2^nd open Combine (3174 birds) Sennen Cove.

Roy was a good worker at the Esher club and is a second generation pigeon fancier, with his late father being the Kingston ‘ace’ of the 1970’s and 1980’s, Roy Barnett senior. He was never in partnership with his dad, but as a lad helped out around the loft, cleaning out and training the birds. In the 1970’s the Barnett loft had several outstanding pigeons, one being ‘Billy’, winner of ten times second prize and won the £5 pool in the very strong Kingston club most weeks. The loft also housed several Federation winners. Roy senior had pigeon 50 years, starting up at the age of 16 and Roy junior has been involved in the sport all his life. Roy’s sister is Sue Barnett, mother of the ten year old pigeon ‘hot shot’ kid, Tyrone Buggy of Kingston, so good pigeon fanciers run right through the family. Roy still has his loft in his dad’s garden and although it is a new loft it is the same design as the old Barnett loft. Roy senior was very successful with pigeons from the late, great Fred Meale of Hounslow. The present day loft is self-built and is very smart being 24ft feet long, with four sections, ETS timing and the drinkers are in little boxes on the front of the loft for easy replenishment. Roy is not a fan of deep litter and cleans out the loft two or three times a week. The main family kept is the Rex Doe / Herbot pigeons, but Roy tells me he has had one or two good crosses from his good friend, Chris Slight, who is the chairman of the Esher club and won the Three Borders Federation three times in the 2008 season.

Roy races eight pairs on the roundabout system and pairs them up in early January, with Federation racing in mind. The racers rear one pair of youngsters, then are split and put on the system before they lay their second round of eggs. The birds are not broken down, being fed a good widowhood mixture and Roy is only interested in Federation and Combine racing from 90 miles through to the longest old bird race from Bergerac, 450 miles. He tells me his success has all come from racing hens and apart from his first winner after his dad’s passing, all his wins have come from hens. Roy’s profession is a welder and works on classic cars, and say he works long hours, with his time with the birds being very limited, so goes for Federation racing as it is very straight forward and not time consuming. He maintains his roundabout system is very simple, with the birds getting a few training tosses at the beginning of the season and then they are exercised around the loft twice a day for an hour. He has two good friends in Chris Slight and Mike Charlton and says the three of them help one another with their pigeons and Chris being the driver, dose the pigeon training. Although Roy has one or two old stagers in the race loft, he has no stock birds, breeding one round of babies each year and never adds to them through the season, because he says younger ones hold back the older youngsters. His 24 young birds are kept natural and are not put on the ‘darkness’ system, as Roy believes it is detrimental to them in later life. They are given lots of training down to Winchester (50 miles) and race the Three Borders Federation programme, and race to the perch, although they are allowed to pair up for motivation if they want. The babies are fed on the same mixture as the old birds and Roy says his pigeon management is based on simplicity. His management has no hard and fast rules, and has won good races when feeding in the nest boxes and on the hopper. He sends all his old birds to the early Federation races and once the French races start they are split into two teams, with the older bird going over the Channel and the yearling staying inland. The old birds race through to Bergerac and never go beyond that to Pau or Tarbes. Roy likes the ETS and says he is not the quickest clocker in the sport, and enjoys having nothing to do, including writing out a race entry sheet.

The late Andy Kyriacou of Richmond.

The Three Borders Federation continued its 2012 racing season with a race from Messac at the end of May and encountered yet another really hard race. This was the second race with the SMT Combine and the convoy was liberated at 05.45hrs in to an Easterly wind. Across the board what a terrible racing season we had had so far that year, with strong Easterly winds, rain, rain and more rain which have taken their toll! Generally the first half of that season had been so bad, we had seen some organizations bring birds back from race points to liberate short, change race dates and even cancel races. A consequence of this bad start to the season was a massive drop in birdage, in some cases, thousands of birds. It had been the worst start to any racing season I can remember! Well done to the Three Borders Federation convoyer and race advisor who had made the best of the adverse weather conditions and produced some reasonable racing that season!

I visited the Messac liberation site in France twice a couple of years ago and was really impressed with the facilities there. I completed my first convoying stint for the Central Southern Classic Flying Club in mid-May 2010 and I must say it was one of the most enjoyable trips I’ve had to France with the birds. One of the main reasons that got me out of retirement and start convoying again that season, was the prospect of visiting some new liberation sites and our first destination was Messac, which is on the west side of France, midway between Rennes and Nantes. I think it is fair to say it is one of the best sites I’ve visited in France. The birds are liberated at the top end of the picturesque marina, on a raised tarmac area which is site between the water and open fields. The pigeons have a perfect fly out on their liberation, with no obstacles to hamper them at all and the site is very quiet, with only the odd person walking their dog passing the transporter. On our arrival on site we were given a code number to the lock of the Shower / WC block and I must say this facility was spotlessly clean. The liberation site at Messac is brilliant and is one that I strongly recommend.

As I’ve already stated the SMT Combine race from Messac was a very hard event and the late Andy Kyriacou of Richmond won the Three Borders Federation and 2^nd open SMT Combine. Andy’s winner was his nice little two year old blue chequer, ‘Carol’s Girl’, which he had named after his wife, Carol, who he said was a great help with the pigeons. He told me at the time, Carol would not own a loft of pigeons, but would always help out if needed with feeding, exercise and general loft management. ‘Carol’s Girl’ was bred from a Dutch stock cock that Andy purchased in 2003 when mated to a hen from his old Jim Dursley of Millwall family, which had been very successful since he brought them in in 1972. Andy had always been a natural racer, but since meeting his good friend, Roy Barnett of Kingston, about four year previous he had been on the roundabout system. Roy showed Andy the system, including the feeding and training, and he had been very successful. The Federation winning hen was paired up on 14^th February, with all the other racers, and reared two babies, and had every inland Federation race before the Messac race.

Andy said in his opinion the roundabout system gets the best out of the cocks and hens, where the widowhood is only a good system for cock birds. The racer were split into two teams at the beginning of the season, one for inland racing and one for channel racing, which he said he preferred. He had a small three section loft, which was just over 4ft wide and this housed his roundabout racing team, and his stock birds and youngsters were kept in two other small lofts. Andy had ten pairs of stock birds and kept two families, which were his Jim Dursley pigeons, which he had had for over 40 years and some Jan Aarden pigeons. Andy told me Jim Dursley was very successful in the 1970’s and won the ‘Tommy Long Trophy’ several times, and since he first brought the Dursley pigeons in in 1972, they had won good races from the very first season. The stock birds were paired up the same time as the racers in February and the whole loft was fed on ‘Irish’ mixture all the year around. He said at the time, being a channel racing man he used to be a ‘bean’ feeder, but had changed with the times, but had never broken down for natural or roundabout. He liked to make shore that his birds got plenty of grit and minerals, and a special thing he did for the birds was crush up the used Bar BQ ashes, he maintained they went mad for them. Andy’s 24 young birds were raced on the natural and never put on the ‘dark’ system, and never liked them to pair up, but said his were latish bred and rarely wanted to mate up. The youngsters were trained well up to 50 miles before the first Federation race and went through the programme from start to finish, and were trained most days during the season.

Andy was born in Cyprus and came to live in the London area just after the war in the 1940’s. His dad served in the British army and as a lad Andy keep rabbits, as most households then did, for the table. A pigeon fancier named Len Toomey lived just the street from the Kyriacou home and he started the young Andy off in pigeon by gifting him two pairs of white Logan pigeons. He was hooked on pigeons from day one and his first loft was a small converted garden shed. He soon wanted to race his birds and joined the Willesden Premier Club, which at that time had 150 members on their books. Andy told me in those days all the local clubs were huge and the member used to contribute money and pay the annual subscription for any young lads who wanted to join. The Kyriacou family lived in Willesden, which was a hot bed of pigeon racing after the war and a local fancier gifted Andy a Sky Master clock, so he was up and runner in no time. He had his first pigeons at the age of 12 and won his first race in the Willesden North Road club at the age of 14, and recalls it was one of the short sprint races. All the young lads used to go to all London clubs in the lorry on marking night to pick up the birds and take them to Kings Cross station, and then load them on to the train, to take them to the race point. Andy says it was brilliant fun when he was a kid and pigeons keep the lads out of trouble! Andy Kyriacou joint the Richmond club four years ago after the Putney club disbanded, which he had been a member of for many years. He was a founder member of the old Putney club and says it was a sad day when it packed up. On joining the Richmond club he met and formed a partnership with the late, Peter Wilson, who was at one time the secretary of the old Richmond North Road club. Peter Wilson was a larger that life character and his pigeon partnership with Andy proved very successful. They won several top races, including the only two birds on the day from Fraserburgh and these were clocked within 30 second of one another. Andy said he had never kept records of his pigeon racing wins, but showed me a big stack of racing results and he had certainly been an outstanding fancier over the years.

Andy said at the time that since he met Roy Barnett they had become great friends and Roy had helped him a lot with the pigeons. Andy had a few health issues and hat to go and live abroad in the winter months every year, and Roy looked after his pigeons for him. Roy was an outstanding fancier in his own right, being from a great pigeon racing family and he showed Andy the roundabout system. When ‘Carol’s Girl’ won the Federation from Messac, Roy Barnett was 4^th Federation with his good blue pied cock, ‘Charlie Chaplin’, and he was bred by Andy Kyriacou. Brilliant stuff! Andy had bred several good pigeons for Roy in recent seasons including the super two year old blue cock, ‘Andy’s Boy’, and he was the Alencon specialist, winning: 2012: 1^st club, 2^nd Three Borders Federation, 3^rd SMT Combine Alencon: 2011: 1^st club, 10^th Three Borders Federation, 14^th SMT Combine Alencon. Roy was good worker at his club, the Esher &Dist. RPC, and is a second generation pigeon fancier, with his late father being the Kingston ‘ace’ of the 1970’s and 1980’s, Roy Barnett senior.

Andy ran his own fish and chip shop in Putney for over 25 years and it was site just up the road from the Putney pigeon club, and on Friday and Saturday nights it was always full with local pigeon fancier. He told me he would like to see more young people come in the sport, but said it is an electronic age and kids these days are more interested in computers than hobbies like fishing and pigeon racing. Andy maintained the sport has progressed with the ETS clocking, training and feeding methods, but he was very much against keep treating pigeons. He maintained too many pigeon losses from races are blamed on Hawks and Peregrine Falcons, and although some were because of the raptors, he thought some the birds were not up to doing the job because they were over treated.

The late Vic Johnson of Kingston.

Vic was one of the sport's gentlemen and he won 1^st Three Borders Federation Kingsdown (1952 birds) in the 2005 season, lifting the Inland O.B. Average, O.B. Average, Combined O.B. / Y.B. Inland Average and Combined Average in the Federation.  He won 31 positions in the Three Borders Federation in the 2002 season including four times 1^st open Federation, twice 2^nd, twice 3^rd, twice 4^th,  twice 5^th and once 6^th and was also runner up for the Federation Individual Points Trophy. Brilliant pigeon racing! One of his 2002 Three Borders Federation winners, his good blue pied widowhood cock, 'Slippery', had to his credit nine times 1^st club, twice 1^st Federation plus 2^nd and 3^rd open Federation. This game cock was half-brother to one of Vic's SMT Combine winners ‘Diesel’, both having the same sire. ‘Diesel’ won the SMT Combine from La Ferte Bernard (3,795 birds) and also won the Federation Inland. Vic won the first Three Borders Federation race of the 2002 season from Lulworth with a yearling Janssen blue chequer widowhood cock, '26820', which had been on the darkness system and flew the full young bird programme the season prior. His sire was the Johnson loft's other SMT Combine winner, the outstanding blue chequer pied De Klak cock, ‘Denny's Boy’, winner of 1^st Federation (twice) and 1^st SMT Combine Sennen Cove. This wonderful pigeon was bred by Dennis Sheppard, the old Kingston club secretary, through the Terry Hudson / De Klak bloodlines. Vic told me at that time that he raced in the very strong Kingston & District HS and won ten times 1^st club in 2001, mirroring the same performance in the 2002 season when he won ten times 1^st club again.

Vic had been in the sport for over 60 years having become interested as a six year old in his home town of Putney in South London. As a lad he used to see flying round the houses a local flock of pigeons which belonged to Ted Townsend. He said that the man to beat then was the late, great Freddie Meale of Houns1ow, who won the SMT Combine several times. Vic was very keen on fishing and, on starting up in pigeons, had a lot of help from Ted. His first stock were obtained from here, there and everywhere, and he didn't do very well racing in his first club, the old Barnes & Mortlake Flying Club. His first loft was built from old doors and floorboards salvaged from demolition sites and his first successful birds were obtained from Freddie Meale. His families were Barry Goodhand of Wakefield, Janssens and Van Loons via Plant Brothers, Terry Hudson De Klak and the old Micky Walker lines for Channel racing.

He raced mainly widowhood with 24 cocks, with a few pairs on natural for racing from France, all the racers being paired up in mid-January. The widowhood pigeons reared a pair of youngsters and the hens were taken away when the squeakers were about 16 days old and the cocks were on the system. They got 12 training tosses up to 25 miles before the first Federation race and were not trained during the season, just exercised around the loft twice a day. The widowhood racers only raced inland and the natural team went through to Pau. Vic was very proud when he told me that his best long-distance pigeon was a Micky Walker natural blue chequer cock and he had been clocked on the winning day with the London & South-East Classic Club from  Pau, recording 28^th and 31^st open, flying 556 miles to the New Malden loft. A real quality pigeon! Vic's main racing loft was 24ft long with trapping through windows off landing boards; his small widowhood loft was very old and ramshackle, but he said he would not change it because the pigeons loved it and race well to it. He was retired from work and said he was really enjoying himself, giving most of his time to the pigeons. He was a 365 days a year pigeon man and derived his greatest pleasure when he clocked from Pau. He maintained that to keep a successful trend in the pigeon loft, you have to give the birds the best care and feeding. And don't sit on the fence; always be prepared to try something different. He fed a varied diet, according to the work being done, and makes up his own mixtures, using all the high fat seeds, groats and pearl barley, which had been soaked in peanut oil. Vic liked plenty of natural garlic and used multivitamins twice a week. He kept 12 pairs of stock birds and his 50 youngsters were put on the darkness system. Although raced to the perch, they were allowed to pair up if they want to.

If a fancier is refused membership of a club, Vic believes that the club concerned should be made to put in writing the reason why and the letter sent to the RPRA; he said no one who lives in a club's radius should be refused membership unless they are a known troublemaker. Another thing that got on Vic's nerves was fanciers who don't wing stamp their birds. In the 2002 season he had about 20 freshly race rubbered stray birds in and only seven of them were wing stamped! A good, dry and well-ventilated loft was very important for success with racing pigeons, said Vic, and he rates Khan Brothers of Kingston as the best local fanciers because they were highly successful in National and Classic races. He thought the moult was a natural function and liked to see the birds falling to pieces, as it showed things are going well and they are in good health. During the moult he parted the hens and cocks and fed plenty of protein and seed. Vic tried deep litter on the loft floor many years ago, but thought it's detrimental to the fancier's health when breathing in the dust. When picking out new breeders, he liked good winning bloodlines; good eye sign, soft feathering, but said most of his stock team were his retired outstanding racers.

Well that’s it for this week! I hope my readers have enjoyed this look back these Three Borders Federation champions of yester year. We will be looking at some more very soon. To view some old video footage of some of these fanciers and their birds go on to my YouTube channel. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters 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)