Saltney Social Show & Christmas and Prize Presentation
With Alan Foster
Well that’s it!!! Another year over, this year’s final show marked the end of another years racing and showing for the Saltney Social Flying Club, which saw some highs and lows throughout the season.
Starting off on a sad note, due to unforeseen circumstances we will be losing one of our valued members of the club who won’t be flying with us next year. Evans & Jones were highly rated and valued members of the club for a number of years.
However on a more positive note we would like to welcome our newest flying member, Top flyer Robert Gordon. We wish you the best for this season.
The Christmas show and presentation were held on the 18th December 2016 in the function room of the Saltney Tavern in Saltney near Chester.
The tavern formerly known as the Saltney Social Club is situated in the middle of the small town of Saltney surrounded by an ever growing industrial environment boasting the home of British Aerospace located in Deeside just down the road.
The Saltney shows this year have been a great success thanks to Geoff Jones and his Girls Carla, Ashlee and Jamee taking over the reins to run the shows. What people sometimes don’t realise is that running shows takes a lot of hard work and time to run these shows. Big thanks from the club for relighting the desire for flyers to come out for a social and a bit of fun on a Sunday afternoon. Also a big thanks to the flyers that have supported us throughout the showing season to help make it all worthwhile for those involved.
Christmas Show
The Christmas show this year saw a record number of flyers turn up both showing pigeons and receiving prizes for club and breeder buyer/ open race results. The Christmas show consisted of three classes:
- Any Age Cocks
- Any Age Hens
- Pretty Class (Any Age, Any Sex)
The Any Age Cocks Class was judged by top national flyer Nigel Shaw, this was a very hard class of pigeons with winners of shows throughout the year competing. Result and winning Pigeons
1- A Malone (£39)
2- A Murray & Sons
3- Jones Lamb & Dtr
4- P Coombes
5- Archibald & Picken
6- Paul Coombes
The Any Age Hens Class was judged by Ray Newell, this was a very hard fought class of pigeon also boasting a few show winners in the class.
Result and winning Pigeons
1- G O Jones (£38)
2- Jones Lamb & Dtr
3- Jones lamb & Dtr
4- G O Jones
5- P Edwards
6- G O Jones
The Pretty Class was judged by Jeff Lawless, this class was host to some of the best looking fancy colours in the area. This was a class that was added mainly for the kids that came to the shows but has quickly turned into a class just as enjoyable as the others.
Result and winning Pigeons
1- Jack Lavender (£37)
2- Jack Lavender
3- Jack Lavender
4- P Moulton & Williams
5- Terry Allen
6- Lloyd & Bagnall
All three winners receiving their trophies are pictured below. Geoff Jones and his daughter Ashlee, Alan Malone and Young Jack Lavender
The Saltney Show team were also running a points system for all card winners, the prize for the winner was a trophy alongside a bottle of Whiskey. The accolade was narrowly won by Go Jones and his girls beating Brother Partnership Jones, Lamb & Daughter by a margin of 1 point.
Show points as follows
1- G O Jones with 81pts
2- Jones Lamb & Dtr with 80pts
3- Archibald & Picken with 34pts
As part of any Christmas show a best in show and best runner up prize were also to be awarded. After seeing the results above you will have seen the three pigeons this prize would have been between. In the Any Age Hens a sweet little Blue Pied Hen of GO Jones, in the Any Age Cocks a well standing Cheq Cock of Alan Malone and finally a rather fancy mosaic Cheq Cock of young Fancier Jack Lavender.
After hard consideration taken by all three judges a decision had been made to award Geoff and the girls the best in show for the Blue Pied hen’s condition, character and stance. With runner up best in show being awarded to the Cheq Cock of Alan Malone.
Club Prize Presentation
A club that had 9 flying members at the start of the year to compete saw a domination by “The Assassin” Alun Atkinson winning 14x 1st, 14 x 2nd, 13 x 3rd & 13 x 4th places, what a season by a flyer of this calibre. Some top class pigeons being raced by Alun this year with a lot from his “telly Savalas” lines. That was a pigeon and half.
This year’s Saltney club saw four North East Wales & West Wirral federation winners in a hard fought season:
Alun Atkinson
- 1st & 2nd Federation Monmouth 23/4/2016
- 1st Federation Carentan 29/5/2016
- 1st Federation Hereford 6/8/2016
D & S Williams
- 1st Federation Hereford 23/7/2016
D & S Williams did not only top the federation the once but also flying in the flint club saw him winning the federation a few more times. Top class flying by these two very good flyers.
A massive turnout for the presentation was duly appreciated by all club members. This was a very good afternoon that saw friends and fellow flyers come together for a good old chinwag from all over.
Club Result
Pos |
Name |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
PTS |
Prize Money |
Pools |
Total |
1 |
A Atkinson |
14 |
14 |
13 |
13 |
137 |
£208.00 |
£202.13 |
£410.13 |
2 |
D & S Williams |
5 |
4 |
6 |
5 |
49 |
£114.00 |
£82.41 |
£196.41 |
3 |
G O Jones |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
17 |
£63.00 |
£61.77 |
£124.77 |
4 |
R Dodd & Son |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
11 |
£34.00 |
£36.42 |
£70.42 |
5 |
Evans & Jones |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
£57.00 |
£17.80 |
£74.80 |
6 |
D Parry & Partners |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
£18.00 |
£12.70 |
£20.70 |
7 |
D & L Woodworth |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
£14.00 |
£15.46 |
£29.46 |
8 |
P Moulton & Williams |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
£4.00 |
£8.70 |
£12.70 |
TOTAL |
£512.00 |
£437.39 |
£939.39 |
||||||
Breeder Buyer & Open Race Presentation
This year’s breeder buyer saw a sale held at the Saltney Tavern with birds being auctioned off from all over. Some of the highlighted birds in the sale were youngens off the likes of Derek Jones, Colin Rudd, Paul Dalton, Daughter Emily Dalton (Combine Winner), John Quick (Chester Two Bird winner), Nigel Shaw (Top National Flyer) & Steve Williams (Highest Prize winner in the West Cheshire Federation Winner)
Alongside the breeder buyer race an open race was run were all breeder buyer pigeons could be double banked and for every pigeon a flyer had in the breeder buyer, 2 birds could also be entered in the open race.
20 members sent 42 pigeons on 07/09/2016; this race was to be held from Carentan however due to the bad weather we were hit with for a lot of the season we had to bring the birds back to Bedhampton. They were then liberated with the Gloucester Federation. The birds were liberated quite late at 12:15 even though this was an inland race in a south east wind.
This race saw one pigeon home on the night in the breeder buyer race, Steve Williams who was the highest prize winner in the West Cheshire Federation clocked at 16:59:24 with a winning velocity of 1123.62, flying a distance of 191 miles 306yds. This saw Steve winning both the breeder and the buyer money totalling £2000. This is a top top pigeon to manage to get home in the weather conditions we were experiencing.
Pos |
Buyer Name |
Clocked Time |
Velocity |
Ring No. |
Breeder Name |
Distance |
Breeder |
Buyer |
Total |
1 |
Steve Williams |
16:59:24 |
1123.62 |
GB16Z66104 |
Steve Williams |
191m 306yds |
£1000 |
£1000 |
£2000 |
2 |
Robert Gordon |
08:18:19 |
669.62 |
GB16Z55959 |
Ray Newell & Son |
189m 1043yds |
£300 |
£300 |
£600 |
3 |
Derek Jones |
08:20:03 |
612.54 |
GB16Z10479 |
J & B Oakley |
174m 65yds |
£200 |
£200 |
£400 |
4 |
Alun Atkinson |
09:38:35 |
556.84 |
GB16Z46105 |
Alun Atkinson |
183m 101yds |
£150 |
£150 |
£300 |
5 |
Robert Gordon |
10:28:22 |
531.03 |
GB16Z38743 |
Alan Shinton |
|
£100 |
£100 |
£200 |
6 |
George Harrison |
10:56:22 |
504.65 |
GB16Z23988 |
George Harrison |
188m 357yds |
|
||
7 |
Geoff Jones |
12:08:00 |
448.76 |
GB16Z76339 |
Paul Dalton |
185m 1102yds |
|||
8 |
John Quick |
15:11:29 |
363.18 |
GB16B27394 |
P Charles |
189m 1402yds |
|||
|
TOTAL |
£3500 |
|||||||
Open Race
The open race was on the same day alongside the breeder buyer race, the birds were let up with the breeder buyer pigeons. 15 members sent 46 pigeons on the 07/09/2016. This section of the two part race saw three pigeons home on the night with the pigeon placing second scoring in the breeder buyer on the same night. The other two pigeons that made it home on the night were two pigeons of Nigel Shaw who won the Open race with a clocking time of 16:07:23 with a velocity of 1172.03, also scoring third with a time of 18:15:46 with a velocity of 771.63.
The tenacity these three pigeons showed to get home on the night was remarkable and well deserved. Having 10 pigeons over the space of two days proved the poor weather conditions and other elements coming into play, a very well done to all pigeons that made it home, these pigeons are well worth their salt.
A year that has seen flyers have both ups and downs has finally come to an end. Now to start the silly season, pairing old birds and rearing young birds to refresh the lines in our teams. From the Saltney Social Flying Club thank you for your support and we wish you all the very best for the New Year.
James Farnworth pictured with one of his prize pigeons - Alun Atkinson, highest club prize winner pictured with Jeff Lawless Guest - Young Ashlee Jones receiving G O Jones’s club awards - Lyn of D & L Woodworth - Stowey receiving his awards
Dave of D & S Williams receiving his awards - Paul Moulton receiving his awards -Robert Gordon (Saltney’s newest member) receiving 2nd & 5th in the breeder buyer winning a total of £400 - Steve Williams receiving his accolade for 1st breeder buyer / 2nd open winning a total of £2000 in the breeder buyer.
