London & South East Classic Club “Forum”.
2008 L&SECC Old Bird Race Review
Alencon Classic
The members of the L&SECC sent 2,466 birds to the first Classic of the 2008 season from Alencon and after a hold over because of bad weather in the English Channel and mainland England, I liberated the convoy at 09.30hrs in a strong NE wind on the Sunday. If my memory serves me correct, I’ve been to Alencon four times with the L&SECC birds and every time I return I’ve stated my unfavourable opinion about this liberation site. The site at Alencon is 220 miles from my loft in Surrey and has a good area for liberating the birds, but the car park site has no toilet facilities for the convoyers, and no water to top up the transporter tanks in the case of a holdover. What a good site this would be if it had these much needed facilities! I have known the site agent, Andre Gerard, for about 12 years now and he told me he had been the agent for near 40 years, but had to pack up his own pigeons in the late 1990’s. My assistant for the first Classic was my ol’ mate, Brian Goodwin, and what a Stirling job he did, on this his first time in France with the pigeons. He has driven lorries for a living all his working life and is in charge of the transport section at the big Greggs bakery in Middlesex, so was well at home in the transporter driving seat. We have been friends for nearly 40 years and it was great to have him come along for the Alencon Classic.
Garry Inkley of Hillingdon won the race and recorded his second L&SECC winner, being a previous winner from Dax in 2003. Garry is fast becoming one of the premier Classic and National racers in the South of England, putting up outstanding performances every season. The latest Inkley classic winner was a game Dutch hen of the Joop Koch family and she has some good previous form, scoring well from Lamballe and Lessay.
The 2003 longest old bird race was to be flown from Pau, but because of adverse weather at the race point, the pigeons were moved and liberated at Dax (530 miles). Garry Inkley had a brilliant race, recording 1st and 2nd Open, with his champion duo, ‘Festival Enigma’ and ‘Rathen Echo’. If I said that Garry had a good season racing in the L&SECC in 2003, it would be an understatement. He won 1st and 2nd Open Dax, 2nd N.W. Section Bergerac, 2nd and 3rd N.W. Section Guernsey (1), 3rd N.W. Section Tours, lifting a T3 quartz clock and six trophies, including The Amtrak Cup for the L&SECC Fancier of the Year. Congratulations to Garry on his wonderful performance!
Tours Classic
This season’s Tours classic was very hard work, but at the same time was very enjoyable and probably one of my best convoying trips to France with the L&SECC pigeons. I would like to thank our transport manager, Clive Turner, for all his good work in sorting out transporter teething problems we experienced at the Alencon race. My son, Mark, was my assistant for this trip and he is good company, and is a great worker when we are away with the birds. I must say the Tours race weekend was as perfect as it could be, with marking at all stations being very slick and finishing on time, which is full credit to the great team worker we are lucky enough to have in the L&SECC. It was nice to see two of our premier workers record pigeons in the first few in the open result in the form of Peter ‘Pedro’ Gretton, the classic press officer and Steve Appleby, my weather man when I was convoying the classic birds. Well done lads! Early on the Saturday morning we awoke to heavy mist over the near by lakes at Tours, but it was one of those days that you knew was going to be brilliant once the sun had done its burn off work. We cut the strings and liberated the 1,890 Classic birds at 07.45hrs in a light North West wind. The birds formed one batch and cleared the site very quickly in a northerly direction. The classic members enjoyed a first class race and the winning pigeon was clocked in Ewell at 13.41hrs and made a velocity of 1372 ypm.
2008 Tarbes Classic
Now the dust has settled on the Classic’s longest old bird race from Tarbes it would appear that every one enjoyed a great race, with plenty of pigeons recorded on the day of liberation. We, the Classic committee, gave Tarbes a try this season on my recommendation that the Pau site was a very poor liberation site and it proved to be a good move, as it was one of the best sites in France that I’ve visited. Although I will not be convoying for the L&SECC next season, it would be very disappointing to see them go back to the Camping Municipal at Pau, which I think is no where as good as the Supermarket car park at Tarbes.
Two very happy fanciers after the Tarbes classic are Darran and Des McFadden of Godalming who won 1st open with their champion blue chequer pied hen, ‘Razor’s Girl’. The 2008 season has been a dream come true for the Surrey partnership, previously winning twice 1st open SMT Combine from Fougeres and Messac and now the L&SECC Blue Riband event from Tarbes. Darran told me the 2008 campaign started off a bit shaky, with Sparrowhawks attacking his pigeons every day around the loft and his wife, Jo, having to have spinal surgery, and restricting his time spent with the birds down to a bear minimum. He says it was a very worrying time with Jo’s problems and he had to train his Tarbes pigeons off the south coast at 04.00hrs to fit it in. I’m happy to report that Jo is recovering very nicely and Darran has had the old bird racing season of a life time!
Darran’s Tarbes classic winner, ‘Razor’s Girl, is a nice two year old pied hen, bred by the Albury long distance ace, Ray Hammond, and is a direct daughter of Ray’s 2005 L&SECC Pau winner, ‘Simply the Best’. Ray Hammond is one of the ‘all time greats’ of long distance racing in the Surrey area, having put up many outstanding performances over many years and has won the longest old bird race in the London & South East Classic Club three times, including 1st. open Pau (550 miles) in 2005. His Pau Classic winner was the dark cock, ‘Simply the Best’, and he is a firm favourite at the Albury loft, and now resides in the stock loft. The 2005 Pau Classic was a very hard race and he won it well, being only the fourth race of his life. ‘Simply the Best’ was a latebred youngster in 2003 and had no racing as a young bird or yearling. I handled this great pigeon recently and I must say he was a perfect long distance type, being long cast in the hand, with very good silky feathering. A wonderful pigeon! His daughter, ‘Razor’s Girl’, is a nice apple bodied hen and when I handled her three days after her Tarbes win she was a quarter up on her first flight, being sent feeding her first every youngster, which was two days old. Her breeding is 100 per cent long distance, with her dam flying Pau as a yearling and her grand sire won Bergerac twice in the Dorking club. The Tarbes winner was paired up in April and after sitting eggs for five days, flew out with the widowhood hens every day. She was given the first two BICC races of the season from Falaise (135 miles) and then was left alone for four weeks, when she was repaired and sent to the Tarbes classic feeding a two day old youngster on the Tuesday marking day. In 2007, as a yearling she had Falaise and Messac and then was stopped in readiness for the 2008 Tarbes Classic. When Ray Hammond presented her to Darran as a squeaker he joked that because she was out of ‘Simply the Best’, she would win the long distance classic as a two year old and she has! Darran and Des have asked me to publicly thank Ray for their wonderful gift pigeon, which they have named after his nick name, ‘Razor’ Hammond. What a great story! Congratulations to the McFadden’s on their dream 2008 season.
Bergerac Classic
My assistant for the last old bird race of the 2008 season from Bergerac was my good mate, Brian Goodwin, and I must say he has worked out of his skin for the three Classic races he has covered with me this season. The life of a pigeon convoyer is a very hard one and Brian has done a brilliant job as my assistant, in spite of his recent health problems. This was his last race, but says he really enjoyed the experience, especially going to Tarbes. Thanks mate! We dropped off empty baskets at the marking stations the day before marking and I had the great pleasure of meeting up with my long standing friends, Mike and Edna Shepherd, at the Stevenage marking station. Mike is one of my oldest friends in the sport and is my ‘mentor’, being the man who pushed me on with my pigeon articles in the early 1970’s. It’s been a few years since we have met up and was really nice to see them both!
The L&SECC and CSCFC had their usual successful transport amalgamation in the 2008 season, and I convoyed the CSCFC birds to Tarbes and they took the L&SECC birds to Bergerac for the last old bird race. When we arrived at the Salisbury marking station with the London pigeons the place was buzzing and the atmosphere was brilliant! The CSCFC were convoying several organizations to Bergerac and the place was very busy with fancier’s ether marking or transferring pigeons to the Classic’s aluminium race crates. Brian and I unloaded the 1,100 L&SECC birds and the crew at the Salisbury marking station did a brilliant job of re-basketing them, which was very hard work. My ol’ mucker and CSCFC convoyer, Tony Cain, took the birds to Bergerac in the South of France, and liberated at 05.30hrs in no wind.
The L&SECC was won by the very successful south coast loft of Ian Crammond & Nigel Langstaff of Fontwell. To say the partners had a good season in 2008 would be an under statement, winning many premier positions right threw from Federation to National level, including: 1st open L&SECC Bergerac, 2nd open NFC Angers, 3rd L&SECC Tours and 4th open BBC Bordeaux. Brilliant pigeon racing! Ian and Nigel recorded their third L&SECC win in mid-July and about two weeks after the event, Peter Taylor and I picked a nice summer’s day to make the 60 miles drive down to Fontwell to see the Bergerac winning pigeon. Ian Crammond is famous in the pigeon racing fraternity for his wonderful loft set which is sited on his rare breeds farm near Fontwell Race Course, just a couple of miles from Bognor, on the south coast. I have visited the farm many times over the years, but never tire of viewing the partner’s great lofts and pigeons. The partner’s Bergerac Classic winner was their three year old champion Vandenabeele blue chequer cock, ‘Crackerjack’ and he is a M. & D. Evans pigeon, being a grandson of ‘Eisenhower’. Nigel told me he is named ‘Crackerjack’ because he crackers and is very mad around the loft. After being clocked on the day to win the L&SECC Bergerac race in 2008, he was sent back to the NFC race from Saintes (353 miles) and recorded 3rd section A, 84th open. ‘Crackerjack’ had the best velocity of the six organizations (3,442 birds) liberate off the CSCFC transporter at Bergerac that day and won the RPRA Southern Region Award for best individual performance up to 450 miles. He is bred from a long line of good winning pigeons and his full brother won 1st section NFC St. Malo.
Ian Crammond has been in the sport 60 years and has won it all in that time including three times 1st open L&SECC, 1st open BICC and 1st section in the NFC several times. He tells me the partners have several families going well at the present time including the M. & D. Evans / Vandenabeele, Peter Van Osch and Emil Dennys. He has had his present loft set up at Fontwell about 14 years and has taken Nigel on as a full pigeon partner in recent seasons. Ian can’t praise Nigel enough, saying he is first class pigeon man and is mostly responsible for their outstanding racing success in the 2008 season. Ian likes the continental families of pigeons, with going over to Belgium and Holland obtaining top class birds being a big part of his hobby, which he joys as he has made some good friends of fanciers from over the English Channel. When he goes out to obtain new stock he always goes to lofts that are winning consistently with very big birdage in the National and Combine races. Ian says years ago he enjoyed long distance racing and did not mind waiting several days to clock a bird from Spain, but these days he only likes one day racing, up to about 550 miles.
That’s it for this week! I hope my readers have enjoyed our little look back at the 2008 L&SECC old bird racing season. In a few weeks Part 2 will feature the 2008 young bird and old hens race winners. The L&SECC has its first race of the 2009 season from Alencon this weekend and I would like to wish all our membership the very best of luck! I can be contacted with any pigeon comments on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!
Text & Photos by Keith Mott. Also click on the following link to see all Keith's articles now displayed on pigeonnetwork.com numbering some 160. http://www.pigeonnetwork.com/admin/keith_mott/index.cfm