Around The Up North Combine
By Good Corn
March is a very busy time for breeder/buyer sales, with the number of sales increasing every year. A majority of the young bird sales in our area are flown for from the Up North Combine young bird Maidstone National, while other sales are organised to be flown for a number of young bird races, which gives both the breeders and the buyers more chances of getting a pull of the top prize money that’s on offer. My brother Brian, grandson Hayden, Clubmate Ian Purver and me have attended the first two of three Sportsmans & Comrades sales in Silksworth, we also took Tyler along for the second sale; the Club is part of the very competitive Sunderland Premier Federation. The men in charge of the very well run event is John Potts, with his brother Graham being the auctioneer and the Club members helping out with putting up the pens, taking them down and carrying the birds to and from the auction pens. The members have restarted this once very well supported and popular event and I’m sure it will return to its brilliant best more sooner than later. After it first started it built up to around £2,500 for both the breeder and the buyer, with another nine prizes up for grabs. Like their previous breeder/buyers the cost of rings are £20 each with a five ring limit, this year 120 rings were sold. The two Friday night sales we have attend were well supported with the minimum bid starting at £30; there were some cracking babies on offer from fanciers in and out of the Combine. Fanciers who are interested in certain lots will more often than not have a price limit on their fancied baby, but they do get caught up in the price war and pay a little more than their limit. Most of the breeder/buyer sales don’t provide much information on the pens due to the fact the owners want the buyers to race the birds, because that’s why they have paid their £20 ring money for, and that’s not taking into account the cost of rearing the youngsters or the transport costs. I will give the final total raised and the prize money which will be flown for from the UNC young bird Maidstone National in a later report.
The very hard working John Potts, a happy buyer and auctioneer Graham Potts at the second Sportsmans & Comrades breeder/buyer sale.
The Loftus West Road Championship Club breeder/buyer sales have also got under-way with there being two of the four sales been held so far. This five ring limit at £10 a ring event that is run by Keith Arkless is getting bigger and bigger each year with a number of the donated youngsters coming from outside the UNC with some of the donors driving miles and miles to drop the birds off themselves on the morning of the sale. The first sale attracted over 200 birds which resulted in a very long and busy day for Keith, his assistant Malc “Abba” White and John Wilkie the auctioneer. The second sale mustered over 100 penned babies, like all sales some birds are always going to bring some top prices just as much are there is going to be some bargain lots. I helped to pen a number of the youngsters on offer and have to say that there were some belters amongst them and that showed on the prices they were bringing. Bill Heslop is marked down to auction the final two sales, I’m sure there will be some good money raised. There is a half time break in the sales with a buffet spread on offer, I did notice the barmaid going around the sale room at the second sale with bowls of chips that went down well with the lads and lasses.
Paul Shergold of Plains Farm and daughter Ava, with Kevin Watson of Castletown, Sunderland at the second breeder/buyer sale.
We purchased the allocated five rings for the Bushbury Rail, Wolverhampton breeder/buyer event this time, I wish the fanciers well this season and hope the involvement gets stronger. With the final sale taking place on Sunday 26th March I was on the lookout for a courier to collect the youngsters from me and deliver them to Damian Pearce in Wolverhampton. I had read on the internet of some very happy fanciers who had used D J W Pigeon Couriers of Dorset, so I thought I would give them a phone call to try and work something out. I spoke to a very helpful Darren (Dorset Daz) who said he could pick the birds up on Tuesday 21st March for the cost of £30, Darren with 40 years of Pigeon experience asked me to text both the collection and delivery details onto him. After doing that I received a text confirming the booking, so I contacted Damian with the information. I received a final text message from Darren on Monday 20th saying he would be picking the birds up at 4pm give or take half an hour the following day. The lad arrived at 3.45pm and after a quick chat which included his route for the rest of the day, he set off on his way 5 minutes later. Five hours later I received a message from Damian saying the five young birds for the Sunday sale had just being delivered. I would like to thank Darren for providing a first class service, something he prides himself on. I will certainly be using Darren again for any future pick up or drop off’s.
A number of fanciers have already suffered Hawk attacks on their birds; with the luckier ones escaping the Hawks claws while the unfortunate ones losing their lives to the birds of prey. Pigeons are falling victim all year round but late February and early March are probably the worst times, as the fanciers are just starting to get their birds ready for the early April racing. A lot of the birds will have being locked up most of the winter months after the previous seasons racing, so they are often an easy catch for the Hawks due to the fact they are lacking fitness. The Hawk attacks are happening everywhere, everyone you talk to has suffered attacks and killings or they know someone who has suffered the sad fate. I along with a great number of other fanciers strongly believe we are never ever going to reduce the massive killings of are birds to the birds of prey; this very big, sad and ongoing problem is always going to spoil our sport.
Sadly we have recently lost a couple of very popular friends of our sport after the passing of Walter Marsay of Loftus and Dennis Blakey of Trimdon, both being lifelong members of the Pigeon game. Walter who had gentleman ship right the way through his blood nursed his late wife through her illness for many years, often unable to venture very far from his home due to his love and dedication for his good lady. Walter was one of the old school who always enjoyed his pigeons whether he won or lost, the odd times I met up with him he always had time to talk. The very popular Dennis achieved great success with him winning an earth-shattering 3 x 1st Up North Combines, with Big Dennis achieving his first two Gold Medal winning performances in 2009 when he won 1st UNC Clermont with “Controversial Queen” from a convoy of 11,505 birds from the distance of 402 miles. Three weeks later Dennis recorded his second 1st UNC winning performance from the old bird Folkestone (2) National when there were 19,392 birds competing with “Out of the Mist” from 269 miles. Things got even better in 2013 when Dennis won a brilliant 1st UNC Clermont out of 6,048 birds, 1st Open Queens Cup from a convoy of 8,143 birds with “Triple X” who also won the UNC Bird of the Year and the NEHU Buckton’s Trophy Bird of the Year. Dennis was a much travelled man who was always on the look out to better his stock, and if ever he could do you a good turn, he would always help you out.
With time quickly running out, I will sign off until next time.
Any news to Good Corn 6 Boulby Drive
Loftus Saltburn Cleveland TS13 4JN.
Tel; 01287 643624 or Email;
