Peter Hookins of Mitcham by Keith Mott

[sapper756]

Peter Hookins of Mitcham.

Peter Hookins was brought up with pigeons as his father was loft manager for the National winning loft of Alf Pays of Mitcham. His father had a team of birds which were looked after by Peter's mother, until his clearance sale in 1974. Peter was out of the sport for several sea-sons until he went as loft manager for Tom King of Tooting in 1977 winning 1st Federation Exmouth and 90th open Young Bird National. In 1978 Peter put 18 old birds on widowhood for Mr King and they flew really well winning five firsts.

He started racing on his own with young birds in 1978, flying to his parents address in Mitcham with Burger pigeons from G Humphreys of New Addington. Peter raced in the Long Thornton Wednesday FC and won his first race from Dorchester in 1978. Racing old birds in 1979 the Hookins' Burgers won 1st club, 1st Federation Exmouth, 1st club, 6th Federa-tion Seaton, 1st and 2nd club Rennes sending two birds. By this time Peter and his wife, Ger-aldine, had bought their own house in Wimbledon and a new loft was set up racing young birds to the new address in 1979. The partners purchased Busschaerts from Goodall & Swainston of Cleveland and gift Busschaerts came from Eddie Hurley of Sutton. Peter said Eddie Goodall and Eddie Hurley gave him all the help possible with their methods of widow-hood racing and feeding etc. He said the great Alf Pays, winner of the National Flying Club from Nantes gave him a lot of advice on Channel flying, but Peter was always impressed by the performances of Terry Goodsell of Mitcham flying widowhood with his outstanding sys-tem. One of Peter's early mistakes was in 1978 with his young birds which he trained well in the evenings, and then he switched to an early morning toss and only got nine out of his twenty-seven youngsters home. He says he thinks the cause was the change of routine which is so important with the babies.

One of Peter's best racing cocks is the handsome Busschaert chequer cock 'The 42 Cock' and he has won: 1st club, 1st Federation Dorchester, 1st club, 1st Federation Seaton, 1st club, 2nd Federation Seaton, 1st Feltham Open Weymouth (462 birds), 1st club Weymouth, 1st club Dorchester, 1st club Weymouth and many other top positions in the club, Federation and Combine.

The partners loft was 'L' shaped, 36ft long and made up of six sections. There were two wid-owhood sections each with 12 nest boxes and half glass front, with controlled ventilation and heating. The young birds had two sections, his twelve pairs of stock birds had their own sec-tion and the widowhood hens had a small section. Peter said the loft must be draft and damp free, but well ventilated. The partners had twenty cocks on widowhood and breed about 70 youngsters each year. The widowhood cocks were paired the first week in January and the stock birds the last week in February. The cocks were fed on break-down mixture on return from the race and a racing mixture the rest of the week. The cocks raced Wednesday and Sat-urday and garlic was used in the drinking water, Columbine tea was used the day after a race. The cocks were let out for a fly twice a day for an hour and were not forced to fly, as they came in and out of the loft as they please. The loft was cleaned twice daily during the season and the water was changed twice a day. Sometimes the cock was shown the hen before the race or the nest bowl was turned and all cocks were fed in their boxes during racing. Peter reckoned there were pigeon keepers and pigeon fanciers, the fancier only gets out of his birds what he puts in, and the keepers sit back and wait for success. Another of the star widowhood cocks housed at the Hookins' loft was yet another Busschaert called 'The 28' and he had many major prizes to his credit including: 1st club Weymouth, 1st club Exeter, 1st club Weymouth, 2nd club, 4th Federation, 4th Combine Plymouth, 2nd club Weymouth, 4th  club Weymouth.

Peter was an upholsterer and said this job, being self-employed, gave him plenty of time with the birds. He looked for a change of temperament and this helped him pick out his pool birds. He said his young birds were trained and raced hard, but fed well and in 1983 they stopped all their young cocks after two races. The main racing family was the Busschaerts, with some Burgers from John Furness of Woking and a team of late breds were introduced at the end of 1983 from P Bates of Wales. The Goodall & Swainston Busschaerts were from their famous 'Klunk Klick' family and the Eddie Hurley Busschaerts were from ‘The Thief'’ bloodlines. The Goodall & Swainston family had won from the shortest to the longest, hard and easy rac-es. Eddie Hurley's family were very good inland, although Peter's chequer cock '83' won 2nd club, 13th Combine from the Melle smash race, over 13 hours on the wing and Peter's brother Terry won 1st club, 1st Federation, 4th Combine Dax with a grand-daughter of '83'. Peter said his best performance to date was winning 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th London Federation Open Ex-mouth in 1981. His most thrilling experience was in 1979 when the partners won 1st Open Greater London Specialist Wadebridge Open race with over 1,000 birds taking part. Gerald-ine and son, Ryan, then aged 7, took a lot of interest in the pigeons. Geraldine looked after the young birds for four seasons, but in 1983 a new addition to the Hookins' family, a baby daughter took up most of Geraldine's time. She fed, watered, timed in and cleaned the birds out. The partners liked their birds to have lots of short tosses on the line of flight and young birds were raced Wednesday and Saturday right through the season. The old birds were raced through to the longest race point and yearlings were stopped at 300 miles. Peter said eyesign had never interested him, although he always paired opposite colours together. The old birds and yearlings were trained while on their second round of eggs and young birds were trained hard to Winchester then got single ups five miles from home.

Peter thought a lot of his little Denys x Krauth dark chequer cock ' The 63 Dark Cock' and said this cock was always on his toes, had an excellent racing record winning: 1st club, 5th Federation Seaton, 1st club, 7th Federation Exmouth, 1st London Federation Open Exmouth, 1st club Guernsey, 1st club Dorchester, 1st club Exmouth, 3rd London Federation Open Ex-mouth, 4th Phoenix Open Exeter, 6th Kingston Open Blandford, 2nd club Dorchester, 9th club Dax (534 miles).

The partners rated Ernie Ford of Carshalton the best local fancier and said at the young age of 76, he had been winning year in and year out, long, short, easy, hard and was at that time still one of the hardest to beat. The Hookins said many fanciers make the mistake of not changing with the times and this is their downfall. The partners had been very lucky with young bird fly aways and put it down to the fact that Geraldine spent hours with them in the garden. Pe-ter maintained this helps them feel confident and kept them under control. The youngsters were fed on Ludlow’s, no bean mixture and squeaker mixture. They did a little bit of showing in the winter months but never with race birds. They paired good birds to good birds having not had any paperwork from Goodall & Swainston or Eddie Hurley and not wanting any. The 1983 season was the first time they used a moulting mixture and the birds sailed through the moult. A round of late breds were always reared from the widowhood cocks although they had never paid much attention to late breds, but in 1983 they purchased some for flying out stock birds. They used Natural floor dressing during the winter months which helped to keep the loft dry, but all was removed before racing starts. The partners really never had tame birds, as they thought they become pets and not racers. They didn’t look for any special points when selecting producers, but they were always looking for a new family to beat their own.

Text & Photos by Keith Mott (January 2026)