Lancashire Social Circle
Following what has been the hottest and driest spring the country has experienced for several years, the weekend of the first race for the Lancashire Social Circle saw the weather change for the worst, with heavy rain forecast for the whole country. Like many other racing organisations a decision was made by the transporters to cancel the race marking for Friday and instead mark the pigeons on Saturday for a Sunday race, when it was hoped for better weather. With all clubs this is not a problem as long as members can be informed in good time so as to make amendments to their loft arrangements and feeding plans etc. The Nationals on the other hand with racing from over the channel, having booked ferries are more committed, as is the Lancashire Social Circle. The reason the Circle find this more difficult is we provide a free lunch for all members at our race marking and this had to be put back a day, which our marking station very kindly obliged to do. On this occasion we were very lucky as the venue the following day was fully booked for a wedding party.
At the Circle's AGM last November a decision was made to make four of the members Associate Members, the reason behind this move was these four members found themselves in a position of not being able to race for a number of reasons. With the decline in the sport's membership it was felt should any of these four members were to resign, would mean less fanciers attending the twice yearly Gatherings. The Circle has only one rule part of which says if you cannot compete in the races you must resign. By making them Associate Members meant they were excluded from the exchange draw resolving another problem of none participating members. As a result of this decision, the first race of the 2025 season had all but one member enter the race from Weymouth that was sponsored by fellow member George Pendleton. The reason for the one member who was unable to enter was his loft location had only just been lifted from the Bird Flu restriction zone. With this being a two bird entry only 68 pigeons were entered that were liberated on their own in a separate liberation from this 200 mile plus race point, making it a true two bird specialist race.
George Pendleton Sponsor of the Weymouth Race.
The birds were liberated at 09 00 into a strong West North West wind that continued all the way up the country. The birds handled this very well making very good time doing just shy of 50mph that was a little slower that the bigger liberations from the same lib site, but with such a small liberation this was only to be expected. John Winstanley from Orrell was first with a 3y old hen carrying his nomination for the Brian Dickinson Trophy, (the result of which is decided at the last race of the season.) John was flying 202 miles with a velocity of 1392, his second pigeon timed just two minutes later means he wins the Best Two Bird Average winning the Webster Bros Trophy with a velocity of 1387, John also picks up the Briggs Trophy as winner of the race along with a Parsonage Award and the Albert Hitchen Award.
John winstanley Winner of the First OB Race with the LSC and Winner of the Best Two Bird Average.
David Pritchard was second on 1366, who again had both his pigeons in the clock in good time. David was unable to compete in the races last season as he had to move his loft and relocate, and finding land to erect his loft took far longer that he would have liked.
David Pritchard Secondin the First OB Race with the Circle
Ray Bullen was third with the first of his two entries a yearling blue cock again a well fancied pigeon that was entered in the Brian Dickinson nomination doing 1356. Roger Sutton was fourth with the first of his entries a 3y old blue cock doing 1345.
Ray Bullen Third Weymouth LSC First OB Race.
Roger is runner-up to the Two Bird Average with a velocity of 1332.
Roger Sutton Winner of Fourth Weymouth and Runner-up Two Bird Average.
Jim Kenny took fifth prize, Jim who races into Banks, near Southport clocked a good pigeon flying 211 miles on 1338. The sire of this pigeon was an exchange bird from John Winstanley two years ago who in turn has been a good pigeon for Jim.
Jim Kenny Fifth LSC Weymouth OB Race.
The final diploma in sixth spot goes to Chris Knowles from Stockport who clocked a 5y old widowhood cock that has been a most consistant pigeon over his racing career being in the prizes several times in races with the Lancashire Social Circle doing 1336.
Chris Knowles Sixth in the LSC Weymouth Race
A big thank you has to go out to our race marking team on the ETS systems, Peter Latham is one of the key members of our race marking team alongside Maurice Jackson. A big thank you has also got to go out to one of our new members for this season Mark Smith who kindly delivered the crates to the marking station and took them back to meet the transporter along with the help of Peter Latham.
Peter Latham a great help at the race marking & Maurice Jackson a big part of the race marking team.
From the 68 birds entered 48 were timed in with all but two members recording pigeons even our longest flyer on the Day Peter Robinson who was flying 256 miles. This is a good performance as many of the members birds have only been raced just over 100 miles so far this season, which has proved to be the norm for many clubs, as no clubs can race from over the channel and the urgency to get the birds down the country is not so important with no racing from France, plus this helps to keep the transport costs down for these racing organisations.
Peter Robinson Longest flyer on the day from Weymouth.
Brian Dearn. Tel. 01254 772515.
