Lancashire Social Circle
The words Covid and Brexit are wording all pigeon fanciers wish they had never heard of, simply because both these have disrupted pigeon racing and have put more nails in our coffin. Not wishing to go on about pigeon racing at club level and the difficult position many find themselves in, with fanciers getting older and in many cases thinking the sport will see me out, a term I have heard said many times. The Lancashire Social Circle has not fallen into this decline with a strong management team that is always looking to the future. The Circle was formed back in 1906 and is a strong today as it ever was, with an increasing membership and a new President at the helm for 2022. Stephen Beardmore whose background is in finance is in his first year of a five-year term of office, has elected to introduce a younger team to the Committee who he hopes will take the Lancashire Social Circle forward another 116 years.
With a look to the future the Circle has made the decision to up sticks and move from what has been its home for decades at the Prince of Wales in Southport to a new location at Lytham St Anne's on Sea. “The Prince” has served us very well over that time and a great package had been put together that has benefited both the hotel, members and guests attending the weekends. The main problem is more recent years has been the tremendous turnover in staff, in the 11 years I have been organising the Gatherings I have dealt with 7 Hotel Managers and lost count the number of Event Co-ordinators. This has made arranging events extra difficult, with each Gathering starting from scratch. Explaining what was expected and had been agreed for previous weekends.
The Spring Gathering got off to a great start at our new home at “The Inn On The Prom” a family run hotel that is employing the second generation of the Croston family now in charge. The hotel is located on the seafront overlooking the Irish Sea and St Anne's beach. It's a four star with a fully heated swimming pool, Poolside Bar, Fitness Rooms, Nordic Sauna, Jacuzzi and Snooker room. There is also Vettriano's Bistro, Cafe Lingerie Bistro and the Cafe Lingerie Bar catering for all our need when it came to food. With a large car park with easy access to the front, once inside there are a number of areas where members and guests can sit and relax over a drink. We don't hold a Friday Forum at the Spring Gathering as the numbers are a little down on the Autumn Gathering in November. But with this being a new location and members with their guest coming from all parts of the Country the hotel had provided a private Hot meal of Fish Pie and Lancashire Hotpot with all the trimming for all attending on the Friday night. This along with a private bar set the scene for what was to turn out to be the start of a fabulous weekend. The free and easy atmosphere grew as more and more people arrived as the day went on until 70 of us made our way down stairs to a well-dressed ball room for what was described by all as the best Friday meal we have ever had. With several new members having entered our ranks for 2022 alongside many longstanding members and guests the conversation started around Friday lunch time and went on into the early hours of Saturday morning. A little too late for me I only managed until 1 30. Over the years I must have had pockets full of votes of thanks for deeds I have done for the pigeon sport, but I have never had so many thank you and well done for the new venue and the meals provided over the weekend than I have ever had. A big improvement that stood out a mile was the very large number of staff the hotel had on hand and more importantly their attitude to their jobs, providing a tremendous atmosphere that was so noticeable to everyone.
Saturday morning, we had a whole section of the dining room cordoned off for Lancashire Social Circle. This proved a very good move on behalf of the hotel keeping the group of us all together. Following breakfast the Management Committee met for their usual meeting, honorary members are invited to take part in discussions but do not vote. Some of the main topics on the agenda was the racing for this coming season and the possibility of channel racing. The London Social Circle had been disbanded and when they were trying to reform it a number of years ago several LSC members gave pigeons to raise funds for them. Once they had wound up everything, they made a donation to the Lancashire Social Circle which they wished to be used in memory of Arthur Cowley in some shape or form. Mark Cliffe who had lost his father Ken in the early part of last year also wished to donate a trophy in his dad's memory. The Circle has a tremendous amount of silver wear and it was felt at this time we did not need any more, so decided to purchase a Silver Salver which we would display at every Gathering with the names of the past members. Both parties were very happy to go ahead with this idea of having past members there in name even thought they are not there in person. The next item was to make two of our long-standing members into Honorary Life Members for their services to the LSC and to the pigeon sport over their lifetime in the sport, and these were George Pulford from Chester and Vinnie Donnelly from Hyde. Finally, this being our 116th year and having published our 100-year history it was felt it would be a good idea to bring this up to date with our more recent history in readiness for the 120th year calibration.
Members and guests made the most of the rest of the day getting their bearings and seeing what the town had on offer, and with the best of the weather we had experienced for some time made this a pleasant experience. I was most grateful to everyone who helped with the setting up of the Normandy Room in the afternoon which was to be the venue for our Saturday night official dinner. The room can only be described as perfect for what the Circle requires offering a large area that easley accommodated the 12 tables and a top table for officials and speakers. Having done the table plan on paper all seemed well but for the next function we will move the top table to the other side of the room giving us a better seating arrangement. The room itself is designed more as a dance room and the hotel hold dance groups from all over the country with many weekends being booked up for these events. One of the main problems when it came to changing hotels was the size of the room as we need to seat up to 130 people at our Autumn Gathering and prize presentation. While the room has four pillars these are in no way in the way when it came to setting out the room so everyone could see and be part of the evening. I have been in rooms where the pillars have meant people have not been able to see the whole set up and if this is the case one finds people start talking among themselves and this is never a good thing.
New members with President - Brian Holland
The Saturday evening got under with President Stephen Beardmore welcoming everyone to the Spring Gathering in this our 116th year, at our new venue at Lytham St Anne's. He asked all to stand in a minute’s silence in memory of one of the Circle's honorary members John Archer from Congleton, while still standing he said Grace. The four-course dinner went down very well with all plates going back to the kitchen empty, which is always a good sign. Following dinner, the President was once again on his feet making his address, he explained since taking over in November there have been two committee meetings the first of which he was unable to attend along with 3 other members as a result of Covid. But putting this aside, he felt the Circle had made a great deal of progress and emphasise in his short time in office decisions had been made that will benefit all members and guest over the coming months. The move to the new venue while under his presidency was not his doing and emphasised it came under the past President's term of office, Chris Knowles and thanked the Secretary in obtaining the hotel under very difficult conditions with the Covid lockdown. Stephen then went on to congratulate one of the honorary members Geoff Kirkland on his Presidency of the NFC, a position he follows in the footsteps of several of the membership and LSC guest into this elite position. Following the departure of members from our ranks at the AGM, we enrolled 6 new members to add to the strength of the Circle. Stephen asked each to stand as he then introduced them to the Gathering, the first of these, Brian Holland who has been a guest of Gary Cockshott for a number of years. Jim Kenny someone who is relatively new to the sport of pigeon racing having joined our ranks following his retirement from the horse racing world, who has been coming to both the race markings and gatherings as a guest of David Newson. Ronnie Wignall from Denton Manchester, Ronnie has been around pigeons all his life and more importantly around winning pigeons who has been coming as a guest of Gerry Clements and Ray Bullen to the function. Jim Frost a long-time guest at the Circle who has been invited by several members from the Liverpool area over many years was the next to his feet. Chris Corfield from Heywood and a very close friend and guest of both Bobby Brandon and John Dearden who has a wealth of experience with pigeons being a past winner of many top prizes including several firsts with the NWGN. And finally, two young men who have made their presence felt in the racing world at the very highest level, national flying. Both are members of the National Flying Club Committee and are trying to give something back to the sport they both love, William Curtis and Jamie Campbell. Jamie along with the other members of his family have been coming for several years as guests of Gerry Clements, while William has followed in his late father Philip's footsteps as a guest of the Circle, and more recently as a guest of the President. Before moving on Stephen then made the announcement of the two new Honorary Members George Pulford who sadly was not with us that evening, and Vinnie Donnelly. This came as a very pleasant surprise to Vincent who for the first time ever was a little lost for words, but not so when Bob Smith later made reference of his football team Manchester City slowly loosing the lead of the premiership to his team Liverpool. Vinnie's quick reply to this was the only Smiths he likes are Smiths Crisps.
Roger Sutton with President Stephen Beardmore and Scretary Brian Dearn
Following a shore break Roger Sutton took the microphone to pay tribute to the late John Archer. John was unique in that he was never a member of the Circle but originally came as a guest of Roger himself until Harry Aspin took him under his wing. John was a larger-than-life character over the years as a guest and was made an honorary member following his very serious stroke which left him incapacitated, and it was the Members way of keeping him in contact with all that was going on within the LSC. Along with Harry they became part of the entertainment in the form of hilarious stories of their exploits over the weekends. John was born in 1941 and played football in his youth as a midfielder and inside forward for five professional teams, starting at Port Vale before moving to Bournemouth in 1961. Later signing for Crewe where he helped the club to win promotion out of the fourth division, after finishing his playing career he became manager of Sandbatch Rangers, and kept a team of racing pigeons but was always more of a keeper than a racer. The older members of us will remember him as a larger-than-life character who you were always happy to be in his company.
Erick Entwistle with Brian & Bob Smith with their winnings
It was now the turn of one of the new team of committee men to take to his feet, Brian Smith, to introduce the principal guest, Chris Gibson. A serving police officer who Brian had not wanted to put under any pressure with his introduction, but did so but in a very funny way. Chris who has kept pigeons since the age of 10 along with his brother Daz who at the time would have been 14, when his fascination with our feathered friends began at junior school. Thing moved on at a pace when Daz set up home on his own with a loft in the garden with many top Fed positions won by the partnership. Born and raised in Sheffield but now living in Barnsley, like most families they have had their problems with the loss of another of his brothers. A short time ago Chris organised an internet auction where he raised over £4000 for victims of child sexual exploitation and their families. He approached several famous names from the pigeon sport and asked them to donate a youngster from their best pigeons, raising more that £3000 and a further £1500 after auctioning off another 4 birds. Chris also runs the Northern Powerhouse Auctions, through which is his desire to promote the ordinary English back garden lofts. Which he feels deserve as much publicity as is given to the Continental lofts on an ever-increasing commercial scale. In 2018 for a number of reasons including work and family commitments Chris decided to stop club racing and focus on national racing, with his goal being to be consistently successful in section K of the National Flying Club. Over the next two years he did not race competitively in preparation for the NFC races, although he did achieve some good results being 1st Fed 5th Combine Falaise with over 3000 birds, 2nd Sec 8th Open NMCC Messac, 6th Sec 11th Open Falaise Northern Classic. He achieved his goal by winning 1st Sec K 108th Open Fougeres in 2020 when 861 members sent 9976 birds flying 138 further than the winning pigeon. As Brian finished his introduction, he asked all members to stand and made a toast to all the guests attending that evening.
Chris Gibson
Chris was next to his feet who explained he was honoured to be in the company of all members and guest of the Lancashire Social Circle something he had read about in the fancy press over many years but never thought he would be in this position. As a policeman he is used to standing and addressing cadets, but had to admit he felt a little nervous. He had no need to worry he made a real job explaining his life with pigeons and more importantly life as a serving police officer with all the pressure that go with that job. He spoke from the heart when he explained how following the loss of his younger brother at the age of only 32 how this had not only affected his father and mother but himself. He spoke of a topic much in the news these days mental health and how the job as a policeman had affected him, and this is where the pigeons came in, and helped to a great extent. Chris was under no illusion that pigeons could go a long way with people suffering from mental health problems and could be a good way to help promote the sport of pigeon racing. He then asked all the guest to stand and raise their glasses in a toast to the Lancashire Social Circle.
President Stephen Beardmore then asked Alan Bamford to reply on behalf of the members. Alan picked up on several points Chris had made in his address in particular Chris's mental health points. He then entertained us with a funny story that involved pigeon foods and an old fancier who was to remain nameless, with the help of one of his guests he promoted his new Centenary range of mixtures. Alan being the man behind the Bamfords Top Flight pigeon foods.
Bob Smith with the final speach of the evening.
Bob Smith was the final speaker who made his address with his reminiscences of how he first got involved with the Circle and his early life in the sport. he touched on a number of past members as he explained the many benefits of being a member of the Circle, the most unique pigeon organisation in the country. Where both members and guests can sit beside several top administrators and top national and specialist club winners and obtain some of the best information on our great sport.
Stephen Beardmore & Vin Donnelly
Stephen Beardmore brought the evening to a close by wishing anyone travelling home a safe journey. This gave everyone another chance to catch up until the early hours with a small number not making it to bed before we all met for breakfast together in part of the dining room that had been cordoned off for the Lancashire Social. With several guests having to travel many miles on the Sunday morning to get home I received many votes of thanks for a great weekend with cries of what is the date for the next one.
Brian Dearn. Tel 01254 772515.
