“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

 

LOOKING BACK OVER THE YEARS (PART 11.)

 

Tony Hartley of Epsom.

It was second time lucky for Tony Hartley when he won 1st London and South Coast Combine Rennes in 1978, as he had done a similar feat before although it was not recorded as such. A few years back Tony flew in the London Coly and their birds were convoyed with the London & South Coast Combine, and despite the birds having a simultaneous liberation the Coly did not fly in the Combine. Tony sent a late bred Gits red chequer cock sitting 14-day old eggs to Bergerac, recorded it on the day and won the London Coly doing velocity 1162ypm. The Combine winner which was recorded on the south coast at Worthing recorded a velocity of 1159ypm. The great race controller in the sky smiled on Tony in 1978 and made it second time lucky!

 

 

I visited the Epsom home of Tony and his wife, Ruth, who is also very interested in the pigeons, in the February and he was thinking of painting the lofts ready for pairing up. The main racing loft was a three section 16ft Beacon loft, with drop hole trapping and all the nest boxes removed in the winter months. Tony said he thought deep litter was a good idea, but found it too dusty, so Ruth scraped out three times a week. He maintained that a dry and well-ventilated loft was a must for any degree of success. The self-built stock loft was also 16ft with three sections, with a nice roomy flight in the front. The stock birds were housed one pair to a section and the three pairs were paired up on 14th February. The eighteen pairs of racers were paired up on 15th March and about 30 youngsters were bred each year.

 

On my visit we inspected the racers first, and one of the stars of the loft was the two-year-old red chequer hen 'Red Star'. She was a good feathered pigeon, being medium to long cast in the hand. Tony says he doesn't like big pigeons and 'Red Star' is his ideal type for the distance. Her pedigree was made up of many good distance pigeons. She recorded 10th sect, 10th open BBC Rennes (233 miles), as a young bird and flew Bergerac, 455 miles, in 1978 as a yearling. Tony's pigeons were more or less his own family, based on birds obtained from W. F. Price of Burford Bridge and other good 500-mile fanciers, including Mr. & Mrs. Eric Cannon of Wormley and most recently Emrys Jones of Sully. Next to hand was the three-year-old dark chequer pied hen, 'More to Come', of pure W. F. Price bloodlines. She wasn't a particularly good-looking pigeon but was Tony's ideal type when it came to handle and she flew the very hard 1978 Dax race, previously winning 2nd club, 79th SMT Combine Niort.

 

 

Tony had always been in the sport and started as his father's loft manager, having the job of cleaning out and changing the water every day. Tony said his father was a fanatic and the loft had to be spotless, with no corn left on the floor. He told me most of what he knew was taught to him by his father who put up some great performances from the longer races. Tony started up on his own in 1957, when he purchased his own house. His start was with birds obtained from Mr. Greenslade of Ewell and Mr. Collins of Canvey Island. Tony's first loft was a converted chicken coop and he was successful from the word go. He only raced the English Channel, using the odd inland race for training; the old birds also got three tosses a week, although there was no set system. The young birds got one or two inland races to show them the ropes and then they went across the Channel to Avranches or the BBC Rennes event. Tony's performances from the Channel events were outstanding and the longer they got, the better they got. He had owned many great pigeons including his 1960 bred red chequer hen, winner of 1st Bordeaux twice, flying Bordeaux four times and Barcelona once and his 1974 bred blue chequer pied hen 'Tenacity' winner of 1st club, 6th Surrey Federation, 11th SMT Combine Bergerac 1976. Tony rated the late Eric Cannon of Wormley as the top fancier and said his performances in the National Flying Club races speak for themselves.

 

 

The 1978 London & South Coast Combine Rennes winner was a pure Price two-year-old blue chequer cock named, 'Tony Boy', which handled above medium and was a deep type pigeon. The London & South Coast Combine was probably one of the strongest Combines in the south of England and Tony's win was in excellent style with 6,462 birds taking part. After inspecting this champion, we moved on to the stock loft, where I handled his sire 'The Price Cock'. This cock was a six year old dark chequer, bred by W. F. Price and was Tony's best stock cock being the sire of many good Channel winners including 'Ruth', a blue chequer hen, winner of 2nd club, 1st yearling Bergerac, 'Scruff Bag' a dark chequer white flight cock winner of 2nd club, 4th South Coast Federation, 23rd L. & S.C. Combine Rennes, and of course 'Tony Boy' the Rennes Combine winner. While in the stock loft I handled 'Tony Boy's’ dam, a four-year-old Price blue chequer, here Tony brought to my notice that she had a withered fourth flight on each wing, which she moulted the same every year. Because of this defect Tony had only bred from her once and that was when she bred 'Tony Boy', needless to say she was back in the stock loft that year with `The Price Cock', apart from her withered flights this hen was a perfect stock hen, being roomy with an apple body and fantastic eyesign.

 

 

Another good pigeon for the Hartley loft in 1978 was Tony's plum cock, 'The Rock', which won 2nd club Vire, 3rd club Rennes and 2nd club Niort in 1978. Tony said he kept an open mind on eyesign, and he flew on the natural system because for the long races, he thinks sitting eggs is the best condition. He tried to have the birds sitting eggs, but on four occasions he has won 450-mile races with birds feeding one to three-day old babies. The birds were fed on beans, with a little wheat; Tony mixed his own condition seed, to which he adds cod liver and wheat germ oil.

 

 

John Byng & son of Portsmouth. 

 

 

Although I didn’t race in the 1995 Nantes National, it gave me a great buzz to learn that a natural hen had won, what has become a National Flying Club race for widowhood cocks. The winner was a class looking blue pied hen of the Busschaert bloodlines owned by the Portsmouth partnership of John Byng & son. After several phone calls John junior invited me down to video their National winning loft set up. On the day the weather was freezing and wet for the one-hour ride down the A3 from London for our loft visit.

 

On our arrival at the very smart loft, the first bird I was given to handle was Champion ‘Janet’s Gem’, the Nantes National winner. She was as classy as she looked, being medium long cast, silky feathering and with a wonderful rich eye. This great hen looked and handled as you would wish a champion National winner to handle, real class. She won the Nantes National with 11,663 birds competing, sent sitting eight-day old eggs and had one race from Sartilly in her build up to the National race. She was down from the ‘Parkside Superman’ line and flew Guernsey as a youngster and smashed herself up on wires as a yearling. Her sire won 5th Solent Federation Nantes (4,000 birds) and her grandsire which was mostly kept for stock, won 1st Federation.

 

 

The partnership of John Byng senior and John Byng junior was formed 20 odd years earlier, when Busschaerts were obtained from J. Crowder and Busschaert / Cattrysse from A. Cogman. John senior’s father was a good fancier many years ago and won 2nd open Nantes National to a house only six doors up from where the partners race today. From their outset in the sport the Byng have been successful winning, 1st, 2nd club, 10th, 13th Federation, 23rd Amalgamation (3,000 birds) Saintes, 1st, 2nd, 4th club, 1st, 3rd, 6th Solent Federation young bird Guernsey (4,000 birds), plus many other premier positions through the years.

 

John’s first loft was 12ft long, quite different to their very smart present day set up. The father and son partners were both bricklayers by trade, having to travel great distances to work sometimes, so they fly only Natural, which fitted in well with the erratic work hours. Despite only racing the natural system they preferred and exceled in races up to 300 miles. Although they had never raced widowhood, they had the right families for sprint with Busschaerts from J. Crowder, J. Soderland and K. Moger, topped up with a few Janssens from K. Hurst and J. David in Wales. The Byng’s very smart racing loft was 26ft long, plus stock loft and flight and this consisted of two sections for old bird racers and two sections for the young birds. The loft housed 24 pairs of racers, six pairs of stock birds which were paired up on 14th February and about 45 young birds were raced every year. John senior’s main job was stock birds and youngsters, and he told me, the loft should have plenty of sunshine on the front and a good flow of fresh air through it. He also maintained it is important that the stock loft should have a flight so the inmates can get into the weather, rain or shine. The partners raced in the Purbrook Park R.P.C. and Hillsea I.H.S. and flew the west to east route.

 

 

Apart from winning 1st open NFC Nantes National (11,663 birds) the Byng’s had a brilliant season that year, winning many other top prizes including, Old Bird: 1st, 2nd, 3rd club, 3rd Solent Federation Newton Abbot, 1st, 2nd, 3rd club, 6th Solent Federation Newton Abbot, 1st, 2nd  club Plymouth, 1st club Dorchester, 1st  club, 2nd Portsmouth Federation, 8th SMT Combine Rennes, 1st, 2nd, 3rd club Sartilly, 1st, 2nd, 3rd  club, 1st, 2nd, 5th Portsmouth Federation Plymouth, Young Bird: 1st club Guernsey (three times), 2nd club, 2nd Federation Exeter and 2nd, 3rd  Romsey & District Open race. A brilliant loft performance! One of the partner’s top racers was ‘The Hartog Hen’ and she was bred by local aces, Wearn Brothers of Portsmouth. This nice natural hen won 1st club, 6th Federation (4,633 birds) Exeter, 1st club, 19th Federation (4,217 birds) Sartilly. The Byng’s 1st Portsmouth Federation Plymouth winner was a Frank Aarts / Janssen blue hen and she also won 5th Salisbury Open from Plymouth as a young bird.

 

John senior’s wife, Janet, helped out around the loft when the two Johns had to work late or are tight for time. Any bird that scores well in races up to 300 miles were never sent to the long-distance events, yearlings were sent up to 250 miles and all the young birds went across the channel to Guernsey (113 miles). The whole loft of pigeons was fed on a top brand mixture and were trapped with Red Band. The Byng partnership used Gem ‘Multivits’, once a week, on the day before a race. They also use ‘Strike’ every Sunday, which they considered a must, and told me in their opinion it was the best specific on the market for pigeons, and maintain it worked over night. The loft got the usual treatments before pairing up in February. The old birds got as much training as possible before the first race, then two 25-mile midweek tosses through the season. The partners mostly trained from the New Forest, west to east route, which was about a 25 miles fly. The babies got all stages up to 35 miles before the first race and then as much training as possible through the season.

 

 

John senior showed me his main Busschaert stock bird, a nice blue hen, and she was closely related to ‘Janet’s Gem’, the Nantes National winner. This stock hen had bred many good winners for the Byng loft and her sire won 1st club, 4th Solent Federation (4,000 birds). John recommended that novices build a loft that lets in the maximum amount of sunshine and fresh air. All the best fanciers they knew were very dedicated and said this was the main factor for consistent success. The partner’s very smart self-built loft had open door trapping and was scraped out every day.

 

 

Mr. & Mrs. Nev Charlton of Overton.

 

As I drove the 50 miles to see the Charlton’s at Overton it belted down with rain as it always does on my loft visits. The Charlton’s won an R.P.R.A. Southern Region award in 1978 for best loft performance south road and their performances really were fairy tale stuff. They were top prize winners in the Andover Premier Club and Berkshire & Dist. Federation, lifting 16 firsts and won the ‘Old Bird Average’ in the newly formed B.T.B. Combine. The partners started up in 1975 and have never looked back being top prize winners every year since 1976 in the very strong Andover Premier Club. The ‘Ron Mitchieson Memorial Trophy’ was won in 1978 for the best average in the three National Flying Club races by a Federation member. They recorded 2ne section F (only bird in the section on the day), 16th open (4,515 birds) Pau National and 9th section F, 285th open Guernsey Y.B. National in 1978. The highlights of their 1978 club racing were: 1st, 2nd club Blandford, 1st club, 6th Berkshire Federation (2,074 birds) Blandford, 1st club, 15th Berkshire Federation Blandford, 1st club, 1st Berkshire Federation (2,244 birds) Weymouth, 1st club, 8th Berkshire Federation (2,016 birds) Weymouth, 1st club, 2nd Berkshire Federation (2,010 birds) Exeter, 1st, 2nd Club, 1st, 2nd Berkshire Federation (2,532 birds) Weymouth, 2nd club, 2nd Berkshire Federation (2,174 birds) Weymouth, 1st, 2nd club, 11th, 14th  Berkshire Federation Weymouth, 1st, 2nd  club, 5th, 9th  Berkshire Federation Exeter, 1st club, 4th Berkshire Federation (1,861 birds) Exeter, 1st, 2nd club, 3rd Berkshire Federation, 3rd B.T.B. Combine Niort, 1st, 2nd club, 1st Berkshire Federation, 2nd B.T.B. Combine Bergerac, lifting many trophies including the Berkshire Federation ‘Channel Average’.

 

The 1979 season was the first with their new fantastic four section loft which was 25ft x 8ft., with open door trapping. The stock section had a nice flight in front and the rest of the loft consisted of two old bird racing sections and a young bird section. In the middle of each section there was a clear plastic sheet in the roof to give extra light to this nice deep loft. The partners kept 16 pairs of racers, eight pairs of stock birds with about 30 youngsters bred each year. Two main families were kept, Busschaerts from Jeff Horn, Ray Callender and George Busschaerts direct, and Leonard pigeons for the distance from Leonard & Son of the Up North Combine. The team was paired up the nearest weekend to 14th February and all racing was on the natural system. The partners liked to see the birds out and about the garden enjoying themselves, so the natural system was the only way. One of the racing sections had eight widowhood nest boxes so if they fancied widowhood racing, they could. A lot of thought went into this loft before it was constructed. The loft was spotlessly clean, being scraped out every day by Nev Senior, and corrugated cardboard was used on the nest box floors for speed when cleaning. The Charlton’s' first loft was too well ventilated, said Nev Junior, facing South West it was exposed to rain, that had piano type trapping. He said good ventilation, dryness and open-door trapping are the main factors in good loft design. Their new loft was built by Pat Bowles, an Andover club member.

 

 

On my visit we inspected the stock birds first and immediately to hand was their best stock hen, a Busschaerts blue chequer bred by Jeff Horn. Nev Junior said she has bred countless winners and every youngster bred from her had scored. She handled medium apple-bodied and was a daughter of the ‘Broken Keel’. This pigeon had a lovely nut-brown eye and Nev Junior said he is interested in eyesign but keeps an open mind. The stock loft housed several pigeons from top U.N.C. fliers besides the Leonard and Busschaerts pigeons. One of Leonard & Son's ace racers was at stock at the Charlton’s' loft, that being a five year old pied cock which had to its credit, 1st club, 2nd Federation, 1st Tyne Tweed C.C., 30th U.N.C., (12,258 birds) Beauvais 1975 and 1st club, 1st Federation, 2nd Tyne Tweed C.C., 8th U.N.C. (7,344 birds) Bourges 1976. This cock was true to the Leonard type being medium long cast and he only had those two channel races in his life. Another direct Leonard cock in the stock section was an eight-year-old mealy cock, a full brother to the Leonards' U.N.C. winner. This handsome cock was a great producer and had won five firsts including 1st club, 5th Federation, 30th U.N.C. (13,397 birds) Beauvais in 1973.

 

In the racing section, the Busschaerts blue chequer white flight hen which won 1st club, 3rd Berkshire Fed, 3rd B.T.B. Combine Niort in 1978 was in my hand first and she was a real gem. She was one of a whole string of winners of that line. The next two pigeons I looked at were two children of the good Busschaerts stock hen, the first a two year old pied hen which belongs to Nev's daughter Kate, was lost as a youngster, but was retrieved and she repaid the Charlton’s by winning 1st club, 1st Berkshire Federation (2,532 birds) Weymouth, 1st club, 5th Berkshire Federation (1,861 birds) Exeter and 3rd club Exeter. The other was a two-year-old pencil blue cock which had won three firsts and some good Federation positions.

 

Nev Junior first kept pigeons at the age of 13 for two years and took up the sport again in 1975 after picking up a stray at work and caring for it. His uncle, Lester Featherstonehaugh gave them a lot of help to start; Lester was a first-class fancier in the Hexham Club. Their first stock was mostly gift birds from Nev senior's friends in Hexham, Northumberland. These gift birds were good quality as they recorded some good positions in the Andover Premier Club in 1975. Nev junior said he was a student of U.N.C. and W.D.A. results and admires the dedication of Up North fanciers, such as Leonard & Son, Bowden & Son, Mitchell Bros, Bobby Calvere, Ray Callender and Jeff Horn. Nev Senior was retired, doing a lot of the loft work and Nev Junior was an H.G.V. driver and a past secretary of the Andover club and was the 1979 show secretary of the R.P.R.A. Southern Region show.

 

The birds were fed on a good quality mixture of beans, maize, peas, tares and small seed, and were trapped with Red Band. The Charlton’s liked to send their birds sitting eight to ten-day old eggs, but this depended on individual birds. The old birds were trained according to the race they were to be entered in and the youngsters were trained as much as possible. They liked the yearlings to fly through to Bergerac (450 miles) and the youngsters through to Guernsey (134 miles).

 

One of the 1978 stars was their two-year-old Leonard blue hen and she recorded 2nd club, 16th Berkshire Federation, 24th B.T.B. Combine (1,945 birds) Niort (beaten by the white flight chequer Busschaerts hen), 1st club, 1st Berkshire Federation, 2nd B.T.B. Combine (1,852 birds) Bergerac, winning the Federation by 35ypm. Nev Junior said this apple-bodied hen needed no work as Niort was her first channel race in 1978. In fact, a week or so before my visit she was sent to Seaton with no training for an opener and she chalked up 2nd club. A great pigeon! The 1978 16th open NFC Pau winner was a three-year-old blue chequer hen, bred by Bowden & Son of the U.N.C. and she was the only pigeon clocked on the day in section F, to record 2nd section (285 birds). The partners call her 'The Pau Hen' and in 1979 she has chalked up 1st club, 1st B.B. & O. Federation (1,559 birds), 3rd M.C. Combine Nantes, being the only bird on the day in the Federation.

 

 

As I wrote this article the Charlton’s had just finished a fantastic 1979 old bird season, recording thirteen 1sts, six 2nds, seven 3rds, three 4ths and three times 1st Federation, three times 2nd Federation and three times 3rd Federation. The highlights were, 1st club Newbury, 1st, 4th, 5th club, 4th, 7th, 12th Berkshire Federation (2,865 birds) Weymouth, 1st, 3rd, 4th  club, 1st, 5th, 6th  B.B. & O. Federation (3,338 birds) Weymouth, 2nd, 3rd club Weymouth, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th  club, 2nd, 3rd, 4th  Berkshire Federation Exeter, 2nd, 3rd  club Weymouth, 1st, 3rd  club, 5th Berkshire Federation, 20th B.T.B. Combine Laval, 1st club, 1st B.B. & O. Federation, 3rd M.C. Combine Nantes, 1st club, 2nd Berkshire & Dist. Federation Weymouth, 1st, 2nd club, 3rd, 4th  B.B. & O. Federation (1 ,990 birds) Exeter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd club, 8th, 14th, 16th Berkshire Federation Angers, 1st club, 45th M.C. Combine Niort, 1st club, 1st B.B. & O. Federation Seaton, 1st club, 3rd Berkshire Federation, 4th B.T.B. Combine Niort, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th club, 2nd Berkshire Federation Weymouth, 3rd, 5th club Bergerac. What a fantastic loft of pigeons! I hope my readers have enjoyed this article, on what was then one of the best lofts in the South of England! The Charlton family of Overton!

 

 

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