ACROSS THE MIDDLE
by Gordon Braban & John Wilkie
Hello and welcome to what is the start of my young bird reports, which over the next 9 weeks or so I will give you the fed and section results that are sent to me. Over these weeks I will try and give you the reports on who won what, who lost how many and what the weekend was like for racing and a little bit of chat from around the area if it comes in to me.
This week saw the first young bird race of the season. With the first race the feds and sections can decide where they want to go for themselves. The 4 liberation sites are Sand Hutton, Wetherby, Pontefract and Bubwith. Sections 2 & 3 were at Wetherby and Section 4 were at Bubwith. The NNA and Tynemouth North Fed were also at Wetherby under the close eye of Jeff Wallace and section 4 were at Bubwith looked after by Steve Proffitt. With the first race there is always a little bit of doubt whether we will get a good race and most of the fanciers would only send half their teams of none at all. The weather forecast was spot on for an early lib on the Saturday morning so I was surprised at the number of birds that went away in my own club, but some people have not had that much training {but that’s their own fault at the end of the day}. Well let’s get down to the section 2 result as I have it, and only club birds that make the fed sheet. I’m sorry if your club does not make the sheet if I miss you off if you win.
Gateshead fed 1998 birds. Lib 08-40 in a light south-east wind.
Bensham h s 373 birds. Quinn, son, Smith & Noble got off to a good start when they timed 2 young pigeons in with just 1 second splitting them. First was a check hen doing 1595-10 then a blue cock doing 1594-76; these 2 birds were 1st & 2nd club, fed & section. Kenny and Jed Hooker thought they might have got a couple of club turns when their 2 birds dropped with a half a min in between them. Their first bird was a blue wh cock that took 1hr 18mins29secs and was doing 159458 then the next bird was a check hen that took 1hr 19min & 2secs; these 2 birds took 3rd & 20th club, fed & section. The Gray bros {Bob & Mick} dropped 21 birds together and these were timed in within 40 seconds {you’d better get bigger traps Bob}. These lads took positions from 4th down to 19th in club, fed and section and the other 5 birds were 23rd, 25th, 27th, 28th & 29th fed. These were a mixture of both young cocks and hens {good flying lads}.
Dunston h s 512 birds. Morpeth & Scott clocked a check cock that took 1hr 17mins & 43secs to be 1st club 21st fed dong 1582-60 {good start Chas & Dave}. Neil {the salad dodger} Peart was 2nd & 3rd club with 2 blues both doing 1577 but hundredths splitting them.
Big Tommy Laskey & Brian Robinson were the winners at the Wrekenton club flying againts 490 birds, and Ray Howourth jnr took the red card at the Mount Pleasent club against 191 birds. Neil Peart was the winner of the 2 bird club and Elliott & Watson took 2nd place. I think the returns were about 98% with most of the birds being home within 30 mins.
Newcastle West Fed 850 birds.
Westerhope h s. B Wallace & son Jeff were the club and fed winner at the start of the young bird season when they timed a young blue cock in that took 1hr 23mins & 26secs to cover the 74 miles doing a vel of 1577-76. This young cock ended up 25th section. They were also 5th & 6tth club 13th & 15th fed with a check hen and a check cock a min & 20 secs later. The singing sparky Davy Little, son & Southgate ook the next 3 positions in the club. The first 2 birds were hens taking 1hr 23mins and 27 & 29 secs and the 3rd bird was a blue cock 40 secs later to end up 4th, 5th & 11th fed.
British Legion h s. Decca Lamb kept up his winning ways with a young check cock that was doing 1574-61 and he was also 3rd, 4th & 5th club with 2 hens and a cock bird 40+secs later. Decca finished up 2nd, 6th, 7th & 8th fed. K Maughan & son took 2nd & 7th club 3rd & 12th fed with a young cock and hen doing vels of 1569-72 & 1555-85. A&M Wharton took 6th club 9th fed with a blue wh cock.
D Rutherford was the winner at the Coxlodge club with a check cock that was doing 1556-97 and was 10th fed. Grant Robson was 1st & 2nd club at Hazelrigg with a cock and hen that were 14th & 16th fed. Park & Young were 3rd club 20th fed with a young blue hen. The returns were good in this fed also Chester Le Street fed.
Chester Le Street fed 298 birds.
Perkinsville h s. With the only bird from the club on the fed sheet the winning honours go to B Nixon who timed a young blue hen in that took 1hr 14mins& 22secs doing 1561-04 to top the fed this week.
Birtley h s. Potts & Walker took the red card with a mealy cock that was doing 1554-00 to be 2nd fed and were also 5th club 7th fed with a pied hen 77secs later; this hen wins the 4 bird club. Irving & son took 2nd & 4th club 3rd & 6th fed with 2 blue cocks. McCabe& Ptnr were 3rd club 4th fed with a blue hen doing 1534-89. This partnership were 3rd in the 4bird club and also took 6th& 7th club. First was a grizzle cock that took 2nd place in the 4 bird club and then a mealy hen. These were 9th & 10th fed.
Kibblesworth h s. T B Wilkinson were the winners with a blue cock that was 5th fed and Eltringham & Hall were 2nd club 8th fed.
Mid Tyne Federation. Wetherby (1) Young birds.
For this the first young bird race of the season the fed only saw 28 lofts send 944 birds. The erratic weather forecast, I believe, put a lot of members off from sending. The federation winner came from Heworth HS where only 4 lofts sent 59 pigeons. The winners being W & L Curry, their pigeon recording a velocity of 1599.615ypm. The remaining federation positions were all taken up by Boldon Colliery HS lofts. Here we had 14 lofts send 582 birds. I say Boldon HS took the remaining federation positions, but it was in fact just two lofts that shared the positions from two down to twenty. Winning 1st club 2nd fed were Graham, Gilchrist & Brennan, their first pigeon recording 1599.122ypm, and they also had another 12 on the sheet with the last of these in at 20th fed with a velocity of 1594.342pm. This one clocked just 14 seconds behind their first pigeon. The other loft in the shake up was that of McKenna Bros. These lads had a total of 6 on the sheet, the first one for 2nd club 3rd fed doing 1597.000ypm and the sixth one at 15th fed on 1594.955ypm. At Jarrow Alexandra HS the two Glens, Scurfield & Son were the victors and at Hebburn East End it was Ian Nelson in pole position. I know the result, apart from the fed winner, was dominated by just two lofts but on the whole all those who sent were very happy with the way the race turned out. Boldon alone had over 100 pigeons clocked in just three minutes, and all lofts recording near or 100% returns, just what we wanted for the first young bird race. Fingers crossed for the rest of the season.
Section 2 Gateshead fed, Newcastle West fed, Chester Le Street 4865 birds lib 12-55, Gateshead Fed 2898 birds
Dunston h s 456 birds. Neil {the salad dodger} Peart got his first fed win of the season this week when he timed 4 birds in with 1min 16secs splitting them to take 1st, 2nd, 5th & 6th club and 1st, 9th, 23rd & 24th fed, also he will be 1st section. The first bird was a blue hen who took 1hr 17mins & 30secs to fly 71 mile and record a vel of 1615-60. His second pigeon was a blue cock 28 secs later then he got a blue cock & a blue hen going over the pad together. They were doing 1589-62. A good start Neil. Charlie Morpeth & Davy Scott were 3rd, 7th, 8th & 9th club 13th, 26th, 28th & 29th fed. Their first bird was a check cock that was timed in after 1hr 16mins & 43secs and doing 1603-22 and the other 3 birds were timed in under 59 secs later with only 7 secs between them. Tommy Mollett was 4th club 15th fed with a blue cock.
Wrekenton h s 719 birds. Tommy Laskey & Brian Robinson got their 2nd club win with the young birds this week when they timed a young check hen in after 1hr14mins & 48secs and doing 1612-82, then a check cock in 1 sec later to take 2nd club and claim 2nd & 3rd, then a minute later a pied cock that was 19th fed fed. Tommy Gray & son timed 2 checkers in to take 3rd & 4th club and another 1 in 50 secs after to be 7th club the first bird was a FUT hen and the other 2 were TR cocks that claimed 5th, 6th & 16th fed. Monaghan, son & Irvine were 5th club 12th fed with a blue hen, doing a vel of 1605-46. A&M Hirst took 6th club 14th fed with a check TN cock that wins the fed 2 bird club doing 1601-21. Terry Elliott & John Watson timed 3 SS blue wh cocks in to take 20th, 21st & 22nd fed with only 1 sec splitting them.
Springwell h s 228 birds. Scott, son & Harty took the top 3 positions in the club. The first bird was a GB blue cock that was timed in after 1hr 14mins36 secs to be 4th fed and the other 2 birds were blue wh hens timed in 7 & 14secs later to be 7th & 8th fed. Harry Finley was 4th club 30th fed with a check hen.
Bensham h s. 629 birds. Kenny & Jed Hooker won the club with a blue wh cock that was doing 1605-83 and 10th fed and the Gray bros were 2nd club 11th fed a decimal behind them doing -160582 {there were only 2 Bensham pigeons on the sheet this week?}.
Mount Pleasent h s 254 birds. Ray Howourth jnr took the first 3 turns this week making it his 2nd win on the trot. This week he timed 2 blues in to be 17th & 18th fed and then a blue hen in 10 secs after to be 25th fed.
Going off the crack from the lads in the Gateshead fed area, there were quite a few birds missing on the day and after a couple of days they were still missing. Let’s hope they find their way home. It’s nice to see a fed sheet well split up with nearly all the club winners on it and there was only 32 yards between 1st and 30th fed.
