GWENT GREATER DISTANCE CLUB
Reports by Gareth Watkins
FALAISE
This club was formed in the winter of 2006/7 with the firm intention of competing in long distance International races with the BICC and Welsh South Road National Flying Club. In the first season, with just 16 member lofts competing the members achieved amazing success with the BICC with a number of top ten open finishes including 1st Open BICC for Adrian Ware and daughter Vicki.
The 2008 season has witnessed a massive influx of new members with close on 50 lofts now competing. The first Falaise race organised by the BICC was thought to be too early in the season for most Welsh pigeons and yet a few club members entered and gained top class finishes with Terry and Carol Gardner finishing 3rd Open BICC with their good Jan Aarden x Stichelbaut hen. Gordon and June Mears also clocked a cracker to finish in the top ten of the Open result with the BICC with more than 4,500 birds competing. So the season started well for GGDC members.
The second BICC race from Falaise on the weekend of 17th May saw the first of the GGDC races and 27 members entered more than 300 birds for this 230+ mile event. Marking went smoothly and all birds were basketted and away by 10.30 am. The forecast for the weekend didn’t look too promising and a holdover was expected by most fanciers that I spoke to at the time of basketting. This proved to be an accurate assessment as the birds were held on Saturday 17th and released at 7.30 am on Sunday 18th. With a strong north wind blowing in northern France and a very strong north easterly wind turning easterly in the channel, it was estimated that the leading birds should be in south Wales around the six hour mark. At 13.16 pm Spencer Jones of Pontypool had the thrill of clocking his three year old celibate cock to be the first bird clocked in Wales making a velocity of 1182 ypm. At 13.19 pm Tyrone and Kevin Arnold of Six Bells near Abertillery timed two roundabout hens within a minute to record a provisional velocity of 1181 ypm. At the time of writing the result is too close to call as it could depend on clock variations. Nevertheless, all three birds will dominate the BICC Open result whether it be 1st Open to Spencer Jones and 2nd & 3rd Open to the Arnold Brothers or 1st& 2nd Open or 1st & 3rd Open to the Arnolds and Spencer sandwiched in between!! So, to start the report I will give details of the first bird in the clock, but as I say, not necessarily the winner.
Spencer’s timer, as stated, is a three year old cock which has been flown on the celibate system as he has not reared nor sat a round of eggs this season. He is exercised with the widowhood cocks for an hour twice daily and in recent weeks has been allowed the company of a hen just prior to basketting! The cock is a previous winner of two firsts and is bred direct from Champion “That’s My Boy” a winner of 4 x 1sts Fed and 1st Combine 17,000 birds for Spencer. He also won the Taffy Bowen Champion Sprinter of Wales Trophy with the WHPU.“That’s my Boy’s” dam was also a winner of 6 x 1sts when racing so this Falaise performance follows in the family tradition. Bloodlines include the best of Alan Maull’s “Champion Jack” Janssens with a smattering of Staddon Bros Van Loons and Spencer’s old Lerwick National winning family based on “Folly Girl” a superb long distance racing hen that won 1st & 3rd Open Lerwick for Spencer in the 1980’s. Preparation for the Falaise timer in the build up to this race was four inland races culminating in a 160 miler from Maidstone a week before basketting.
Kevin and Tyrone Arnold’s two timers are both hens flown on the round about system. All racers are mated on 15th February and allowed to rear a youngster and sit their second nest for ten days before being separated and put on round about. They are exercised twice daily for an hour on each occasion and have two 20 mile training spins each week. The race team is fed depurative on race return and then go on to Buckton’s Super Widowhood mix from Sunday evening. In the build up to the Falaise race the team was exercising really well around home indicating that they were coming into form at just the right time.The first in the clock was a 4 year old chequer pied hen of Hansenne bloodlines bred by the Blaenavon Ace Dennis Ford. Now named “Glyn’s Girl” after the brothers’ good friend Glyn Cousins of Newport, she is a previous winner of 1st Messac 9th section 15th Open National. The second in the clock, although both hens arrived together, also has a long list of “previous” with 7th National as a young bird and 9th National Bergerac as a three year old. This six year old Buschaert x Houben, now named “John & Pat’s Girl” contains the very best of ace fanciers John and Pat Webber’s multi National winning family in her breeding.
Arnold Bros and their set-up
In 4th spot in both the GGDC and BICC result with a velocity of 1153 ypm, is the Chirk partnership of Chris Davenport and Darren Roberts. The partners must rate as one of the top lofts in Wrexham and the whole of North Wales with scores of wins in channel racing and top finishes in classic races with the BBC and BICC. The partners timer in the BICC Falaise1 race also finished in the first dozen of the result at 305 miles with most birds flying 100 miles or so less. In this week’s race Darren and Chris clocked a yearling Busschaert hen bred by Tommy Laskey of the north east. Raced on round about she was raced to the coast as a youngster and to 120 miles this season in preparation for this 305 mile trip to France. The 180 mile jump obviously didn’t seem to phase her. Darren and Chris would like to thank Tommy Laskey for breeding their timer and also four of the others that they got on the day.
In 5th spot with the GGDC and provisionally 6th Open with the BICC is the Caerleon partnership of Gordon & June Mears. This hard working husband and wife team clocked an August 2007 bred late bred to record a velocity of 1121 ypm. She is bred from Dale Newcombe birds obtained from Cliff Everard of Skegness, crossed with Brian Kaid’s National winning family. This little blue hen had just two tosses as a baby last year and the second of these proved to be “a bit of a tester” as the hen took a few days to return. In 2008 she has had two in land races plus numerous training tosses before being entered in this, her first channel race sitting 7 day eggs. The Mears birds lead a back to nature existence as they are allowed an open loft from dawn till dusk , are hopper fed and receive the occasional training toss as and when Gordon thinks they need it. These laid back methods certainly seem to work as Gordon and June are past winners of 1st National Lerwick [only bird in race time], 1st National San Sebastian and 2nd National Pau amongst many other top class performances.
Gordon & June Mears
The provisional BICC result, based on phone verifications, shows GGDC members in the following positions:- 1st, 2nd, 3rd Arnold Brothers/Spencer Jones; 4th Davenport & Roberts; 6th Mr & Mrs Mears; 7th Colin Pearce; 8th Mr & Mrs Jones & son; 10th & 11th Adrian Ware & Dtr; 16th Preece Bros & son; 18th Wilf Reed; 20th Padfield Family; 26th Mr & Mrs Gardner. Well done to you all.
