By Brian Dearn
I am a little behind with this report as Anita decided to take me away for a few days to Harrogate at the Old Swan Hotel. Tony and Kim Merrick ran a ladies weekend there last year which proved to be a great success with several members and guests wishing to return for this year's function. Tony ran into problems when trying to re-book it as he had left it to late and the hotel was fully booked, so this year's ladies weekend is to be held at the Royal Clifton which is right on the front in Southport. Moving the event around the country every couple of years gives guests a chance to experience what this wonderful country has to offer, the down side to this is when the function is held in your part of the world, local members and guests attend the function but in some cases don't stay in the hotel. This seems to be the case this year with both David Newson and Ray Pollitt and their wife's, who are only partaking in the Saturday night dinner. Tony is well ahead of the game this year as he has already booked next year's function at the Kensington Hotel in Llandudno and even though we have several members from that neck of the wood they have all promised to be there and support the Circle and in particular Tony and Kim who put in a lot of work behind the scenes putting this event together. Anyone wishing to come along if they give Tony a call on 01539 445995 as he still has a couple of room available for the Southport event held on 6th 7th October, and looking for interest for next year at Llandudno.
The Circle's second race of the season was held from Messac when 38 of the 40 members sent 75 birds that were liberated into a light west wind, liberated with the Three Counties Combine, following a one day hold over. The forecast for the Sunday was for a perfect race day but like all forecasts they are what they are, forecasts and the rain from the Saturday did not pass over as quick as predicted and as a result there were showers up and down the country. Having said that with an 08 30 liberation the prediction was for a 50 mph race but this again was not to be with the wind stronger than several members thought, and as I have always say the pigeons don't tell lies.
The winning pigeon was recorded into Cheadle where one of our new members took the first prize, it's surprising over the years how many of the new members wins their first race in his very first season. The honour on this occasion went to Ray Bullen who timed a yearling blue hen flying 385 miles doing a velocity of 1385 which is just over 47mph. Ray wins the W E Evans Trophy for the winner of the second race along with a Frank H Parsonage Award and the J O Shone Award. Ray also wins the Peter Titmus MBE Second Thoughts Trophy for the Best Two Bird Average from this race with a velocity of 1320.
Ray Bullen Winner of the LSC second race from Messac - Ray Bullen's winning blue hen from Messac - The End View of Ray Bullen's Loft
I went to see Ray for some background and he tells me he first started with pigeons with his twin brother Geoff in 1966 and flew as Bullen Brothers until 1970 before packing up for 35 years. In 2005 he was in his local pub the Printers when he heard someone talking about pigeons, this turned out to be a man called Kevin Hardy who in Rays words was a bundle of laughs. Ray and Kevin went to Belgium together and had a great time; he now had to convince his wife Margaret their small back garden was big enough to have a small pigeon loft. Once Margaret had been worked on and the loft was erected a team of young birds were raced in 2006, for the first five years he was at the bottom of the result sheet. He then realised pigeon racing had moved on since he last raced all thoughts years ago, so he approached Gerry Clements for some birds and a system of racing. With this his fortunes changed and now Ray has become a force to be reckoned with. Not wishing to stand still he also brought in six pigeons from another member of the Circle Graham Mackay, these being Herman-Ceusters and from these six three hens have won 9x1st 6x2nd a young bird Classic winner two first Feds and a first Combine. He has crossed these with birds from Gerry's 42 cock a winner of 3rd section L Saintes, 5th section L Saintes and has scored 5 times from 500 miles and now at stock for Gerry. This line of birds he now refers to as the Chris Crosses and its one of these that did the damage from Messac. Ray has been flying his team on the roundabout but as the season moved on his hens were flying less and less around the loft so he decided to pair them up and his winning blue hen was sent on a six day old youngster which she was reluctant to leave. On the same weekend of the race Ray also had three more birds away at Messac with the NW Classic Club he had four on the day and one reported in Cleveleys near Blackpool, which you might say was a bit stupid but not as stupid as you might think as it went into a corn store. Rays winning hen is a bit on the deep side and you could say dose not sit nicely in the hand which Ray puts down to the sire which comes from Gerry, that can handle a little on the big side. But with this extra size Ray feels she has come into form a little later and as a result was in perfect condition at the time of the race. His reasoning behind this is, as a youngster last year she hit form at the backend of the young bird season and won 1st Yeovil and then went on to win 4th Portland. The loft is another story, in 2014 Ray was in hospital donating a Kidney to his son and while he was laid up there were some very high winds and a 60 foot tree in next doors garden blew down crashing onto Ray’s loft killing 6 birds and having two which never returned. Rays wife Margaret made one phone call to a local fancier Glen Moor and he rallied a team of fanciers who took all the birds away and kept them safe, removed the broken loft but not before taking photos for the insurance. Once the insurance had agreed the clam a new loft was ordered from Clydesdale Lofts who were a great help as this is no ordinary loft. Ray will always be grateful for all the help from all the club members at this time. The Bullens garden is not only small and difficult to get to but is a very unusual being triangle shape with a piece coming off to the left at a 45 degree angle that is also triangle shaped. Which makes the loft triangle shaped being 7 foot wide at one end and only 4 foot at the other, the wider part of the loft has a corridor and a trapping system that uses part of next doors hedge as a landing board. The loft itself is not straight as the garden is not straight, but the birds seem to love it and as a result of it being so small the birds are very tame and can be picked up very easily. One problem he has is with only room for one trap all the birds have to go through this and the cocks and hens see each other every time they enter the loft, and this also applies to the young birds.
Bob Smith Winner of Second Messac and Best Ave from 1st and 2nd Race
Second place for the second time this season went to Bob Smith with a well fancied pigeon carrying his nom timed at 16 58 with a velocity of 1348. This 4y old blue pied cock flown on widowhood has a string of prize cards being a past winner on several occasions for Bob. He is known as "Joe X" as his dam comes from eggs which came from a fancier in Malta by the name of Joe, while on the sires side is from his good blue pied cock "Hughie" presented to Bob as a youngster to race in one of our guest races that went on to win the race before becoming one of his top stock sires. The nest-mate to his second prize winner won the section with the MNFC which I think was from Carentan, so a great winning blood-line all along the way.
George Hilson with fellow member Tom Owen
George Hilson is third, who times in a 4y old blue pied hen on 1323 speaking with George following the race he tells me this hen has been a great racer for him having won twice from over the water in the past and is one of his Maurice Mattheeuws pigeons which have been so consistent for him over many years. Some pigeons have a story to tell having spent nights out or come back injured etc, but as George said she has been a good honest pigeon having done nothing wrong. George was over the moon with the performance by our winner Ray Bullen and was first to admit it was a great performance on the day from one of our new members.
Gerry Clements with Connor Littler outside Gerry's Loft
While I was over at Cheadle to see Ray Bullen a short drive away in Audenshaw is Gerry Clements who was my next port of call, while there I met a young man who give the sport of pigeon racing hope, he is 18 year old Connor Littler who's granddad kept pigeons but sadly passed away at the young age of just 42. Connor got the bug from him and races to his granddads loft. He has been racing since 2013, and as with Ray Bullen he has been receiving help from Gerry Clements who has supplied him with birds, which this last season helped him win the Channel Average in Stockport FC. He told me he has 8 pairs of stock pigeons and has in the past bred from them along with the odd race pair, but this season has decided to concentrate on the pigeons from Gerry and as a result has only bred 16 youngsters which at the time of my visit he tells me are ready for training. He has been helping Gerry for the last couple of seasons with the cleaning and on the day of my visit he was putting up a new fence and working very hard. Back to the reason for my visit Gerry Clements takes the next position with a yearling cheq widow cock that has had three channel races this season and scored from Fougeres the first time across. He is inbred to a pigeon called "Top Star" who is sire to a pigeon called "Extra" who is a National winner, "Top Star" is also grandsire to 3 first National winners. This line has been inbred for three generations and then crossed with the inbred line of Gerry's old family of birds and this cracking cock is just one of them. While I was there I was surprise to see the birds all sitting as Gerry is totally widowhood with only his cocks making up the race team. Gerry explained he could not stop the cocks from flying; they were putting in over two and a half hours every time he let them out, so he only let them out once a day but this made no difference. He then tried letting them out every other day which made little difference. He asked a top local fancier what he thought and his reply was I would sooner have them flying than not, which was of little help to Gerry. With the birds flying for hours at home Gerry was worried he was losing the races at the home end before they even went to the race, so he decided to pair them and this has helped to cut the flying time down a little, and produce this great performance from 390 miles with a velocity of 1311.
John Mills Winner of 5th LSC Messac
The second of our two new members John Mills takes fifth place with a 2y old blue cock flying 390 miles to its Liverpool loft on 1306. I have not been able to catch up with John so have no real details of his system and birds kept but I am sure it won't be long before I have to make the trip over to Liverpool for a full loft report.
Alan Bamford 6th Messac LSC
The final diploma went to Alan Bamford who has put up some remarkable performances these past few seasons picking up a number of diplomas, trophies and awards with his team of Wildermeersch bases pigeons. Alan's pigeon on this occasion was a blue cock carrying his nom on 1289 and well fancied as it was his first pigeon last season from Messac when he was 3rd just beaten on a decimal by Dave Sowerby from Lancaster. This 2y old pigeon was bred by Mick Liddle from Banks whose good long-distance family of pigeons have excelled in the North West Combine and North Ashton Two Bird Club. Alan has prepared him on his own brand of feed using Cool Racer, Multi-Task and the long distance Boost Feed along with Extreme Energy.
The race turned out a good one with 36 birds timed in, and 9 members clocked both their entries. With 12 members timing in their nom birds and all these go forward to the next race in an effort to win the Brian Dickinson trophy where the members has to clock his nom bird in from every race. By the time you read this the birds will be in the basket for the final OB race of the season from Ancenis, as it has now not profitable for the transporting organisations to go to Niort the 500 mile race point. Over the last couple of years several of the transporters have got their heads together and have used just one of their transporters to get the pigeons to the longest race point. But with ever decreasing interest in the 500 mile event from clubs and their members this race now seems to be a thing of the past unless you race with the Nationals or Specialist Clubs.
Brian Dearn Tel. 01254 772515.
