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Greater Distance Single Bird NFC
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| "Taffy" "Sarah" Bred & Raced by Bred & Raced by Jordon Bros John & Spencer Nicholson |
GREATER DISTANCE SINGLE BIRD NFC SAN SEBASTIAN 2005
flown in conjunction with the British Barcelona Club
The view south confronting the San Sebastian birds as they were liberated. This photograph was taken at the lib site by Keith Mott a couple of years ago.
The San Sebastian birds were liberated last Friday at 6am. The birds had to contend with east-north-east winds en route and no birds made their lofts by nightfall. The following day saw sporadic returns and amongst these were 3 birds flown by members of our club.
1st GDSBNFC - Len Painter
Top honours went to Southampton's Len Painter, who will finish 14 th Open in the BBC. Len cocked a 1999-bred red hen at 11.27 on Saturday morning for a velocity of 684ypm. This was her first race of the season and she is a previous winner of 2nd Solent Fed Bergerac 3,500 birds as a yearling, and last year was 2nd Greater Distance Club from Pau. Len says she had no particular preparation but her eggs happened to hatch on the morning of basketing. Her sire was a red cock who flew Pau 6 times, and in turn he was a grandson of a pigeon which came via Eric Cannon. The dam is the sister to a hen who was 4th Open NFC Pau and was down from a Dutch stray. The red hen will not be raced again this year but will be back on the road next season as Len expects his pigeons to keep on racing up to ten years of age. Len remarked that she returned tired but he was not surprised considering the east wind. He added that the Channel on Friday night was such that it would have taken fit pigeons 4 hours to fly Guernsey so the San Sebastian pigeons had no chance of crossing. Len, who won the NFC's Langstone Gold Cup back in 1965, was 2nd Open NFC Pau in 1988 and 4th Open NFC Pau in 1993, told me that his thinks pigeon racing at the distance is 95% down to the man and only 5% down to the pigeon!
Len Painter's winning Red Hen
2nd GDSBNFC - Dave Chapple
2nd goes to David Chapple from Kent who was telling me that he is pleased to finish sandwiched between two such good lofts. David took the rubber off a 2y Van Geel/Herbots hen who was specially prepared with three Channel races. Last year she scored in the BBC Bordeaux race where she finished 10th Section, 74th Open flying 14hrs 30mins. David has only been at his present address for 5 years and is presently building up a family of distance pigeons. His main aim is to compete in the 600/700 mile races and the one against one ethos of the Single Bird Club appeals to his competitive streak. He pointed out that we all think we have good pigeons but when you come to test them they don't always come up trumps. David's introduction was through his grandfather who passed away last year and was an influence in the type of competition that David is now aiming for. His grandfather always set his sights on clocking from San Sebastian on the day. His dream never materialized but no doubt David will achieve that feat at some time in the future. David is keen to see pigeons get their rewards and is going to set about writing a further piece on his pigeons and system for a future article.
3rd GDSBNFC - Padfield Family
Taking 3rd are the ever-present Padfield Family of Cwmtillery who clocked one of their 3 entries at 4.37 on Saturday afternoon for a velocity of 620ypm. Their 3y cock, who returned quite badly injured having been skinned underneath, was 163rd Open BBC St Nazaire earlier this season, whilst last season he was 23rd Open BBC Nantes and flew Pau. He is of Jan Aarden and Clerebaut lines. His sire is out of a son Invincible Spirit, the same son having also bred Mal Cook's Lerwick National winner. The dam of the sire is a double g.daughter of Invincible Spirit purchased from Louella. On the dam's side, the sire of the dam is 100% Wim Muller, a winner of 37th Open NFC Pau. The dam, a blue pied Clerebaut down from Paul Kendal's Holloway, 1st NFC Pau, was twice in the first 100 from the Pau National and also 10th Welsh SR National Saintes. It is worth noting that in this San Sebastian race, Doug Gatland of Reigate was 24th Open with a bird bred down from the Padfield Family's great champion, Albert.
The great Padfield racer Albert, who appears in the breeding of their 3rd GDSBNFC San Sebastian winner
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