Lancashire Social Circle Carentan 11th July 20
Strange times we all find ourselves in and for some time the Circle looked like it would not be racing in 2020. Should this have been the case the next question would be what about the Autumn Gathering. This is still an unknown, until we see how the Coronavirus unfolds and we get to the backend of the year. The Circle Management Committee is very aware that none of us is getting any younger with many possibly having underlying health conditions. The whole point of self isolating for several months was to keep the virus at bay and to organise a social gathering with 150 fanciers attending from all parts of the country at this moment in time seem irresponsible. Then there is the question, will fanciers want to attend a function and in my opinion most would love to come along to Southport but common sense would dictate to stay away. As the year moves on into next year there is no reason why a prize presentation could not be held at our Spring Gathering in March. Should this be the case I can assure you as the organiser of the events this will be one to remember as I have a number of ideas up my sleeve to make the Gathering something to remember.
Race result for the first OB race
Moving on to the reason for the article the result of the first OB race that was flown on 11th July from Carentan. With racing being delayed this year, almost all racing organisations were at Carentan on this date and I am lead to believe there were 19 liberations on the Saturday morning from the Carentan site. The Circle birds were transported by North Staffs Fed, and a big debt of gratitude goes out to Roger Sutton who not only organised the transport of the birds as our usual company Diane Bonnie was not going over the channel this season. Roger put into place marking facilities for the circle members at his farm and also sponsored the cost of transporting the pigeons. The whole operation went like clockwork as only the week before the NFC had used the same facilities and I can only presume if there was any hick-up they had been ironed out for us. With the help of Peter Latham the birds were marked between the hours of one and two o'clock giving Roger and his family plenty of time before his club members descended upon him for their race marking. Roger's wife Pat put on tea coffee and biscuits that were very much appreciated by the members who had travelled a long way. Self isolating and social distancing being the order of the day, something quite the opposite to a normal race marking when we make a day of it with all members partaking in a lunch. Once all the birds were basketed, food and water troughs were placed on the baskets so that all the pigeons could have a good feed and a drink as the pigeons would not get another opportunity that day. Anyone entering hens into the race, that might have been sitting and taken from the nest for basketing, now had the chance for a last meal before their journey to France. As one could have expected a number of members felt a little unsure about taking part and had notified the secretary of their intention not to participate in the old bird races. I am very grateful to all the members who took the trouble and let me know that they were not sending, which meant we were not hanging around waiting for members who were not participating. From our total membership, 30 members took part and entered 59 pigeons that were liberated at 9 45pm into a light North West wind. As mentioned earlier there had been 19 liberations on the day and many members ether had birds in earlier liberations or knew of times from these liberations. This gave some indication of time of arrival, most were looking for the birds to do around the 45mph mark as the later lib's seemed to be doing faster velocities as the day warmed up. The race proved a great success with 26 members recording one or both their entries on the day. As was to be expected the shorter flyers had the biggest bite of the prizes but with the difference of some 70 miles from the first dropper to one of the longest flyers Maurice McCartney in Carnforth one can understand why.
Chris Knowles
Roger Sutton
Bob/Brian Smith
Having a great race was our President Chris Knowles from Stockport who timed a mealy widowhood cock flying 286 miles 1291 yards with a velocity of 1261. This mealy cock has been a very steady racer being in the prizes on a number of occasions but never having taken a first prize, so this year as a 5y old he has finally broken his duck. Chris tells me this season racing with his club the mealy has never been out of the first 4 to the loft and on one occasion was his first bird home from the four races Chris has raced in. If ever a pigeon was bred to win the Circle the mealy was, with his sire being a Jan Loot and winner of Eccles Two Bird Club flying 354 miles s a youngster with only two birds home on the day. While his dam is the nest sister to Chris's blue pied cock that won the bird of the year in 2012 with the Lancashire Social Circle, her breeding is Willy Thas from Alastair Ewart. Chris timed his second bird a dark cheq widowhood cock just 8 minutes later that carried his nomination for the Brian Dickinson trophy. This 3y old cock is based on the Jelle Jellema lines and flew the channel as a young bird winning 11th Sec. L 60th Open N.F.C. collecting around £350 for his days work. As a yearling he was not entered in any channel races and only flew the inland programme, as a 2y old last season he was sent to two Lancashire Social Circle races being 15th Fougeres and 12th Messac. From the two birds Chris entered the mealy had shown the better racing performances this season but with the Dark Cheq cock being a past winner and a more consistant pigeon over his racing career he carried his nomination. Although in his last race he made his first mistake of his racing career when he was 3 hours of the pace from 150 mile race, Chris was confident he would have learned from this and a week later was entered in the LSC race from Carentan. Chris wins the Briggs Trophy presented to the winner of the first OB race and the Webster Bros Trophy for the best two bird average and a Frank H Parsonage Award and the Albert Hitchen Award.
Having an equally good race was Roger Sutton who has not had the same amount of time this season as he would normally have for a number of reasons. Roger has a team of widowers that he handpicked from to compete in the nationals, he also has a small team of pigeons on the natural system. Roger’s timer was one such pigeon that would have gone to the national under normal circumstances but he found it easier to enter the widow team. As a result this fabulous 3y old winning blue hen, a named pigeon called "Astbury Abbie" who has top performances coming out of her ears is a direct daughter of the best stock hen "Astbury Addle" who is responsible for a stream of winners right up to national level. Roger flies 268 mile 1418 yards from Carentan to his home in Congleton and his first over the pad was doing 1238. His second pigeon was less than 3 minutes later another natural hen sent sitting this time a 2y old with a velocity of 1228. As well as taking second in the race Roger was runner-up two bird average a great performance that on any other day would have seen him taking top honours.
Bob Smith takes third prize with a 2y old cheq widowhood cock doing 1228 flying 291 miles to Burtonwood. If this was my pigeon he would be called "Lucky Escape" as I understand he was entered in the Midland National race a couple of weeks ago, once race marked he escaped while being placed in the racing crate. A little earlier in the year with little prospect of little or no channel racing Bob decided to join the BICC in order to get his channel team across the water. He fully understood in the open result he would not be able to compete with the members flying 200 miles shorter them him but the section positions were doable. Looking at the BICC results in the BHW the Burtonwood family of channel pigeons have more than held their own beating a large number of fanciers further down the country. Moving back to his timer in this race he has been a consistant cock having scored several times winning 2nd club Bath 4th club Bath 2nd section 4th open North West Grand National Bedhampton. He is from a Curtis Wall & Lunt cock when paired to a direct daughter of the good stock cock "Hughie".
Mark Cliffe
David Pritchard
Gerry Clements
This last season we made a slight change to our constitution, for a number of years we have held the membership of the Circle to 40 members but with a waiting list of fanciers and the sport in decline it was decided to offer membership to four fanciers on the list. One of these was Mark Cliffe who along with his father Ken has been coming to the Gatherings for decades. With poor health and age catching up on Ken his position within the Circle membership was elevated to an honorary position. This made an opening for Mark and in this his first race as a full member he took fourth place with the first yearling timed in doing 1225 flying just short of 270 miles with his entry. The same as Chris and Roger, Mark timed his second pigeon another yearling having both his entries in the clock in just 7 minutes fantastic racing for a two bird race by any stretch of the imagination. It never ceases to amaze me how top fanciers make channel racing look easy sending two class pigeons and timing both in a matter of minutes from just short of the 300 mile mark.
The next member on the result in 5th place was another of our new recruits into the membership of the Circle, David Pritchard, David timed a 3y old widowhood cock doing 1204. A little background on David, as a boy of around the age of five or six he raced pigeons alongside his dad. As time moved on David's working life kept him away from the sport when he was building up his business over a 25 year period. In 2016 he made a comeback and started racing youngsters. In most cases when fanciers make a comeback they win the odd young bird race but in David's case he won the first YB race when he had 29 birds drop together from the 32 birds sent. This went on to fuel his enthusiasm and that season he went on to win every YB race with his club. Don't think for one minute this was beginners luck, nothing could be further from the truth, David sourced his stock from the very best fanciers and built a team of racers around four stock pigeons all of which contain 500 mile blood lines. His prizewinner is a grandson of the originals a truly great pigeon that has won in the show pen in a handling class, bred from two pigeons that are past winners for David as he is himself, being a winner of 18th open NWCC from Fougeres. The OB race team consist of 24 widowhood cocks raced on total widowhood. He keeps a strong team of youngsters that come from his team of 10 pairs of stock pigeons, these are paired the second week of February as this fits in with his work. No early youngsters are bred and once weaned are put on the darkness. The stock birds are a combination of the originals plus retired racers that are all kept prisoners, the reason behind this is a very big problem with the birds of prey. David suffers from the Sparrow Hawks, Peregrines and the Goss Hawks and has lost count of the number of pigeons he has lost this season. David's business was based in a unit on a farm and the pigeons were kept there until the backend of last year when the farm was sold. David moved the lofts and pigeons over the winter period and set about settling his race team once he had them paired up, but did have some problems when they returned to their old location and would spend the night on the barn roof. With the Covid 19 causing the lockdown and a slow start to the racing season, gave David a chance to get the pigeons settled and while most fanciers wanted to get started he was more than pleased to have the extra time. In his short time back in the sport of pigeon racing he has made a big impact winning a total of 85 first prizes so far, and this is with no young bird racing last year with having to move loft location.
Gerry Clements picks up the final diploma with a yearling widowhood cock who was in the clock in just over 7 hours with a velocity of 1202. Gerry did not come to the marking as he is still self isolating being one of the members who has underlying health problems. Vinnie Donnelly kindly did the honours calling for Gerry's birds on his way to the marking. Gerry was very grateful to Vinnie for all his help. Gerry's good mate Ray Bullen who would under normal circumstances have been sending and would have brought Gerry birds, but Ray has suffered a heart attack and has been in hospital. He is now home and doing well but will not be racing anymore this season which is a pity as he was flying out of his skin with his club in the early races when he topped the Combine. While on the subject of Ray and heart attacks, another of our members Ray Pollitt has suffered the same fate and also been in doc. Speaking with Ray he is on the mend but once again will not be racing this season which is a pity as in the first four races with his club he was doing remarkably well with his 13 widowhood cocks. Ray's wife Jo is in charge of the pigeons but I understand is not allowed to race them in case she flies better than Ray and that would never do, would it Ray.
Ladies Weekend Cancelled
The Circle was to have held a Ladies Weekend this October in the Lake District. But due to the situation the country finds itself in the event has been cancelled. The hotel has been going through a complete renovation but this has run into difficulties as the workforce had been laid off because of the Covid 19. It would seem the hotel might not have been ready in time for our function, so Tony Merrick the event organiser took the decision to cancel this year's weekend and re-book it for the same weekend next year, the date being 1st and 2nd October 2021. The deposits paid will stand for this next year's Ladies Weekend, but should anyone want their money back a quick call to Tony on 01539 445995 and Tony will be only to pleased to re-fund you your deposit.
Brian Dearn
Tel. 01254 772515.
