Essex Central Federation - Wetherby & Grantham 19-20 August 2023

Wetherby & Grantham 19-20 August 2023

A double header this weekend for our membership with a Saturday race from Wetherby and a shorter event from Grantham to follow Sunday. So, we begin with Saturdays Event from Wetherby, the opening sequel to the Ace pigeon trilogy from the North Yorkshire racecourse.  With the mighty up north combine liberating in their five separate groups south of our racepoint at Grantham and the birds heading north the fed had no choice but to wait patiently to get a lib. The time for release came mid morning at half past ten where 256 pigeons made the best of their way home against a strong south west wind.

First stop of the weekend is Hadleigh club and John and Gaynor Ashenden, London region representative John and Fed Secretary Gaynor timed in a very brave young bird homing to their Rayleigh lofts after 4 hours and 5 minutes on the wing. The Frans Zwols chequer hen bred from 2 direct Zwols from the Mr Loverman, Micky Boy and Musketeer Lines landed on the pad at twenty five to three completing her 181 mile journey home averaging a club and fed winning 1301.9. John informs me that this pairing seem to breed tough middle distance pigeons and this latest performance enhances that theory. Runner up in both disciplines today is the top level partnership of Topp and Mann. Beaten into second by three hundredths of a yard would be a Grizzle son of their main Gaby cock paired to a Mark Gilbert grizzle hen, purchased at the Thames North Breeder Buyer,  dropping in less than a minute later and 1 mile further equating to 1301.6. Returning to The Fed winners Mr and Mrs Ashenden who complete the Hadleigh minor honours with their second arrival of 22, 3^rd club, and 3^rd fed is claimed by a double Grandson of loft matriarch Gaynors Gift landing on our victors boards 27 seconds inferior to our winner to claim bronze on 1299. We remain with the Wetherby champions for our fourth pigeon on the scoresheet, the blue cock 005, less than a minute behind our bronze medallist and a  close up 1295. Hadleigh had a good day at the races today with fellow members B Davis clocking a blue cock for eighth fed racing his 183 miles at 1249. Mr and Mrs Ashenden strike again for 10^th with their 3^rd  pigeon to register. The blue cock makes the top half averaging 1241. Topp and Mann appear again in 15^th fed with their second pigeon, a gold ring blue cock coming into view at twenty to three and going through the trap to clock 1230. Steve Duffell continues the great run for the club and his season so far by taking 16^th  with a blue hen making her second appearance on the sheet after finishing 12th fed a fortnight ago from Retford, today completing her 182 miles averaging 1226 and 18^th fed ,also a double recipient of the coveted federation card, the blue hen 19^th fed from the same Retford Contest and emulating that performance today racing home at 1223. Well done John and Gaynor and Great flying Hadleigh.

Laindon follows on with one of the Counties most revered fanciers David Coward Talbot taking top honours at the Ramsden collective. The red card and 5th fed go to a second Laindon Darlington Gold ring to appear today, this one belonging to a chequer cock completing 172 miles in 3 hours 55 minutes or 1290 ypm. Mick Smith takes the silver once again with our Wetherby old bird champ timing in a chequer cock at 14:38 to give our underage drinker 6^th fed with 1288. Mr Coward Talbot collects 9^th fed with his second arrival, the club bronze medallist blue cock registering 1246 and a third pigeon of the 15 sent by the legendary Essex fancier gets himself in the result. The chequer  17^th with 1225.

Stambridge next and that man is there once more, king of the youngbirds John Wickenden retains the top spot at the fed average champions. Twice a fed winner already in the young bird program the Shoebury sensation racks up yet another club victory with a chequer cock landing on the Huntingdon and Retford champs boards at 10 past 3, racing a difficult 189 miles to home at 1187. The Frans Zwols x Hermans Ceusters superstar collecting his second successive club gold after last Saturdays Grantham victory with John not only cleaning up the Stambridge podium but taking the first 6 in this strong outfit. 2^nd club would go a chequer, 13^th fed a week ago, on the same yard as todays winner, silver today with 1177. Third would be another of Johns super consistent 25 strong  team, making her second appearance after collecting bronze and 14^th fed from Grantham, the Busschaert x Janseen from Johns successful breeding program finishes in the same spot today from Wetherby. Fantastic flying from the Monarch of the youngsters.

A sad day for Norman Holliday at Maldon Club, sending his 9 entries to the race was a decision not taken lightly by the Colchester Fancier but never one to miss out on a contest from a little further, the Grantham fed winner in our second event was to receive only 1 pigeon, a Wallis brothers pied cock the sole arrival to the Highwoods loft. A disturbing Day for Norman as none of the pigeons have since returned or been reported and those that know him are aware that he rarely loses pigeons, never mind a whole distance bred team,  this being the most devastating race of his career.

Moving onto Sunday and we head 80 miles south to Grantham Lincolnshire where an increase of 509 fed pigeons were released at 8am with the wind still prevailing in a South westerly direction. Top of the pile in this event is the Wickham Bishops maestro that is Dangerous Dave Freeman. The Burnham fancier well respected amongst his peers had a cracking race last week from the same racepoint where he took 2^nd to 5^th spot in the fed honours with all four pigeons clocked in twenty seconds. Mr Freeman registers an amazing 7 entries on todays scoresheet with 6 of those in the top ten. First up will be a blue cock, dropping into the countrymans abode just shy of two minutes to ten. The club and fed winning pigeon completing 99 miles at 1488.84. Runner up in the club and third fed goes to our victors second arrival, a chequer pied cock going through the trap a mere 8 seconds later recording 1487, the exact time and velocity of the third pigeon in the care of our winner, 4^th fed from Grantham last Saturday, the blue Westcott cross cock bronze medal club and 4^th fed again today. Our champion would only have to wait 12 seconds for his fourth arrival, a blue pied hen 7^th with 1484. Fifth to go in the clock for the Wickham Bishops wonder would be a Keith Turner ‘Red Danial’ Blue pied cock, 3^rd fed last week, 16^th fed from Retford the week before that and a third fed appearance today 9^th with 1481. Good pigeon. Number 6 is another blue pied cock taking the last available top ten spot with 1478, coming together and trapping with Daves final entry, a red hen on the same time and velocity  collecting 11^th with all seven pigeons recorded within a minute I might add. Superb Dave. Burnham club as a whole had an enjoyable outing to Grantham with the ever present Mr and Mrs Moss 12^th with a blue hen on 1455, 15^th with a second blue hen 1453. Silver End partnership and Grantham club winners at the end of July John Upson and David Phillipos register the next three blue cocks at five minutes to. The trio all timing within 6 seconds to give the loftmates 16^th, 17^th and 18^th with the first duo 1449 and the third a yard behind on 1448. 20^th spot goes to a third blue hen belonging to the top level partnership of John and Mrs Moss landing one second before quarter past ten concluding her 110 mile journey at 1444. Another great day for the traditionalists over on the coast.

Maldon and two lofts that appear time and time again in the Fed articles dominate the club result today. Winning the accolades and runner up in the fed, the SIS Wallis dark pied hen completing her 102 miles at two hours dead equating to 1488.8. The current club champions second pigeon, a blue cock runner up last week and 11^th fed betters himself today, 5^th fed with 1485 and three seconds ahead of the wood road masters third pigeon a chequer pied cock completing the podium at the Scraley Road club and 6^th fed on the same yard. The fourth pigeon the lads clocked in would be a blue cock, another of their consistent bunch to reappear in my article, 10^th fed from the same racepoint 3 weeks ago, another top ten position today with 8^th on a close up 1483. The Bocking bullets of Derek Parsons and Son Derek put three on the sheet themselves with their first two arrivals dropping in and trapping together. The blue hen and red cock 13^th and 14^th traversing 90 miles at an identical 1454.2 with the Multiple fed winners third pigeon trapping just 2 seconds later to collect 16^th a yard behind on 1453.

Mr and Mrs Ashenden complete the double at Hadleigh, the Wetherby fed winning partnership from yesterday, strike again to take the Grantham red card and their second club win of a fruitful weekend. The winning pigeon, again from their Frans Zwol armoury is a cock that John did not hold out too much hope for after falling victim to the dreaded sickness. The son of a retired racer originating from Young Brion, landed on the boards at 17 minutes past 10 averaging 1390. Runner up would be one of the clubs previous fed winners Anthony O’mahony who timed in the bronze medallist from our opening Huntingdon Race, this chequer pied hen was one of six bought in from Royal lofts and takes the club silver on 1349, half a yard ahead of a chequer pied Van Den Bulck x Meuleman loftmate picking up bronze. The father from the Golden Vale line via the Cumbria ace partnership the Mcluckie Brothers with the mother obtained from Timbarra Stud. Cheers Gents.

We wrap the weekends racing up at the capital where I hand over to the club winner himself Mr John Payne who this week writes. Due to holiday arrangements and low race entries the members decided to miss the Saturday race from Wetherby and concentrate our efforts on the Sunday race from Grantham. The returns were gappy with quite a few empty perches come nightfall. Taking the first three places in their first race of the youngbird season we have John and Tina Payne with in 1^st, a nice chequer hen, 2^nd a maturing red pied cock, both pigeons homebred Vandenabeele x Delbar and in 3^rd place a lovely mealy cock from Dave freeman originating from the famous Van Reet Red Danial courtesy of Mr and Mrs Keith Turner. John adds he won’t be pushing these pigeons hard in the hope they mature into good yearlings. Well done Mr and Mrs Payne and as always, thankyou John.

C L Elmes