Lancashire Social Circle - 26-09-25

Lancashire Social Circle

The Circle only hold one young bird race each season and this was arranged at the start of the year in January from Weymouth, along with the old bird races. Seemed simple enough but as the young bird season moved on the Weymouth race point was declared unfit for purpose and was withdrawn from the programme. A new liberation site was arranged from West Bay a few miles short of the costal race. This was appreciated by many of the longer flyers as several had experienced health problems in the earlier part of the season with young birds and in some cases had not got their youngsters that far down the country. A few weeks before the race was to take place I got in contact with the Golf Club we use for race marking to arrange lunch, only to be told the facilities we use had been booked for a wedding and as a result was not available. Having a long chat with Roger Sutton he suggested we put the race back a week and go to Chale, a race point many of the Circle members have flown in specialist club races these last few years. Great news, so it was back to the Golf Club to arrange lunch for the race marking for the following week. More bad news the Golf Club was booked up for that week too, and to make matters worse it was not available the previous week. A decision had to be made, I decided to hold the race on the original date and do the race marking at Roger Sutton's farm a venue all members are use to as Roger provides a marking station for the National Flying Club races. All members were informed of the change of race point and the new venue for marking the pigeons.

The Young Bird Race Following all the trouble in getting the race off the ground it turned out one of the best races the Circle has held in my time. A total of 111 pigeons in total were liberated on their own with the first droppers flying 170 miles while the longer flyers having to cover a distance of 250 miles. With the birds liberated at 09 30 into a south, south west wind it was remarkable one of the shorter members David Pritchard was first to clock with a velocity of 1743 that was just shy of 60 mph, while one of the longest flying members who is also one of our longest serving members David , flying 50 miles further was second doing 1736.  But what made this race so memorable was the vast number of members who timed multiple entries in a matter of seconds from the small number of pigeons entered. This was a pity as we only have one prize per member in all LSC races with the exception of the exchange race and the friendship race. As I said David Pritchard took the top spot timing a blue cock racing to his new loft location having had to move from his old location which I understand the land is under redevelopment. This meant David was unable to race this last season while a new location was found and the pigeons settled. David won the Battersby trophy as winner of the YB race alongside a Frank H Parsonage award, he also wins the Three Musketeers trophy being the winner of the highest winning velocity of 2025 season. This trophy was presented to the Circle by three honorary members from over the border from Scotland namely Hugh Higgins, Bob McLaughlin and Erskine Hilditch. These three fanciers travelled together to our twice yearly gatherings and were part of every event the Circle held. Mark Smith a new member for this year was one of the members who timed multiple birds his first a cheq hen on 1727 followed very quickly by his other three entries in a matter of seconds. This fine performance wins him the best two bird average winning the Irish trophy along with the Brian Woodhouse trophy for the first nominated bird clocked. Bob Smith timed a blue hen on 1721 that was fourth followed by John Winstanley in fifth, John has had a fabulous racing season this year scoring in all the Circle races winning 9 trophies and 3 awards including the OB average and Combine average. Picking up the final diploma in sixth was John Dearden from Norden, Rochdale who timed a cheq cock flying 202 miles on 1684.

The Exchange Race The race is run in three parts, the second part being the exchange race. Last year at the Autumn Gathering a draw took place with all members names going into the hat with each member exchanging a pair of youngsters with each other to race at the end of the season. As you can understand from this small number of pigeons that start the season an even smaller number reach the race in September. But the real benefit of the event is it bring the exchange partners together, and it's from these events the bonds of friendship the Lancashire Social Circle is renowned for and fosters. Thirteen members managed to enter the race that saw 13 names on the result, topped by David Sowerby from Lancaster with a youngster on 1737 from Tom Owen. David was over the moon with this performance as this same pigeon topped the federation the week before, so was sent with full confidence, that pleased both David and Tom. This performance wins David the Barrett trophy and a John Marsden award as racer of the winning pigeon. Tom wins the Braithwaite trophy and a John Marsden award as breeder of the winning pigeon. These two trophies go back to 1951 when Jack Barrett father of the late Guy Barrett OBE and his  brother-in-law Ted Braithwaite presented these two identical trophies for the exchange race. In the 1920's Jack Barrett and Ted Braithwaite attended the Circle Gatherings. With both fanciers being very popular along with O I Wood and Dr. William Anderson being part of the group of members attending leading lofts in Belgium. The exchange race was first flown in 1944 and will be forever linked to these two Yorkshire fanciers. As can be seen the Circle holds many traditions going back to its roots formed back in 1906. Mark Smith, following his success in the LSC race was second with a youngster from Maurice Jackson, a blue cock doing 1724. In third and fifth places was Jim Kenny from Banks with a blue hen and a blue cock from David Hilton the first of these doing 1712 with the second on 1704. John Winstanley was fourth with a blue hen from Ian Cooper on 1705 and picking up the final place was Peter Morris with a dark cock from fellow Liverpool member Jim Frost. Peter  Morris won the most difficult trophy to win the Brian Dickinson trophy, being one of only three members left in the running following the young bird race. This trophy is presented to the member with the best average single bird nominated bird timed in from all the races. The other two members were Bob Smith who was second and Alan Jones in third place.

 The Friendship Race The third and final part of the race is an event we call the friendship race where a guest would supply a member with a pair of youngsters to race on their behalf. This event came about a few years ago when it became imposable for the Lancashire Social Circle to carry on the exchange with the Midland Social Circle with their decline in membership. With the Circle holding some of the better silver trophies in the sport with a long documentary history of who presented them it was felt at the time the two trophies used alongside the exchange with the Midland should be put to better use, and the friendship race was formed. This seasons winner is no stranger to the result sheet whatever the competition, Bob Smith who timed a red cock presented to him from a former guest speaker who first attended some years ago and has been attending the Circle dinners as a guest ever since. Chris Gibson, who runs the Northern Powerhouse Auctions and is an excellent fanciers in his own right from South Yorkshire.  Bob wins the Dave Allen/Brian Newson trophy as the racers of the winning pigeon while Chris wins the Colin Brough Memorial Plate with the pigeon doing 1688 on the day. Tom Owen was second with a blue hen from a long time guest Jimmy Hampson who for several years came as Tom's guest but has now been adopted by Alan Bamford and added to his string of guests attending the Gatherings. This performance will be well received by the members at our prize presentation in November when he collects the R McLaughlin trophy for the breeder of the second prize bird in the race. The popularity of this race is plain to see and when you look at the result with the names of fanciers from all parts of the UK you can see how far travelled these fanciers have come to the Circle Gatherings. The first of these being George Chalkley from London who provided not one but two youngsters to appear on the result in 3rd and 8th places raced by his good friend from Rochdale John Dearden. The first of these being a cheq hen doing 1583. Alan Bamford took fourth spot with a cheq pied cock from one of his guests Paul Bolton flying 204 miles on 1537. Graham Mackay was fifth with his entry from honorary member Scott Irving from Annan in Scotland. This pair have been more that successful in this competition being past winners on more than one occasion. (and Scott's advice to Graham is you must try harder this next season.) Graham timed a cheq hen from this 202 mile race to his loft doing 1517. The final place went to Bobby Brandon who timed a blue pied hen from another of our London guests Albie Stockwell on 1513. This means we will have two London guests, a fancier from South Yorkshire and one from Scotland all coming to the prize table to collect their diplomas at the prize presentation this November.

A Unique Club A few years ago I wrote an article for the Stud Book about the Lancashire Social Circle titled a Unique Club, that gave the background and formation of the Circle. I hope readers will understand how unique this club is, being formed 120 years ago this next year, retaining its membership and traditions under only the one rule. We have held our subscriptions at the same price for the last 16 years from which the members receive free entry into all the races, a free lunch at the race marking, the Saturday night dinner at both Gatherings provided free along with a hard back Hand Book, with 20 pages of information, loft book pages, covering breeding, training and racing along with free pages for notes etc. No other club I know of offers anything like this to its members and one can understand why we have retained our membership and have a waiting list for new membership.

Brian Dearn. Tel. 01254 772515.