NEWS FROM SCOTLAND
Reports by Joe Murphy
With the grand children back at school it has given me the chance to catch up on my story on Billy Bilsland of Ayton for next year’s stud book. As many of you may know, Billy won the 2 inland nationals in 2014 with the Scottish National Flying Club and has won 4 x 1st Nationals in the past 3 years which is quite remarkable. One of the main things that impressed me when down visiting Billy for the story was his dedication and work rate with his pigeons. He used to be a professional cyclist in his young days and he has carried on this same commitment to his pigeons. For example his young birds have been to Worksop 179 miles twice and Melton Mowbray 220 miles and this week will be at Peterborough 239 miles before being entered into the SNFC race from Buckingham. Plus he keeps them fit by training them twice a week from 40 miles and he still has a strong young bird team left (see photo) whereas all I keep hearing when speaking to fanciers is the amount of losses they are experiencing. I hope fanciers enjoy reading about this quiet dedicated fancier who may even add to his national wins in the near future.
Billy Bilsland's 2014 young birds
Ayrshire North Road
Last weekend I assisted Ayrshire North Road federation at Thornton regarding liberating their pigeons. I did not stay until the birds were released as it was kept back to later in the morning and I had other things to do. However I did take a couple of pictures of the transporter and the 2 convoyers Davie Ellery and Dougie Hannah. One thing that I did notice was the birds had water on both sides of the crates, however my own personal opinion is the drinkers could be higher up in line with the edge of the crate so that the birds would see the water (see photo). I’m not saying that some birds did not drink because they did and I saw this with my own eyes but I felt as a pigeon man that it would be better if the drinkers were raised that little bit. I hope the federation had a good race from Thornton as it is an excellent liberation site.
Davie Ellery and Dougie Hannah, convoyers of Ayr North Road Federation.
Watering system on the Ayr transporter
Results
Angus Federation firstly my apologies to David Liddle the federation secretary as I have been thanking Ann Carrie for doing this tasks when in fact Ann does the race results for the federation. From Ridsdale 31 members sent 720 birds liberated at 08-00 hours into a west to south west wind the winners are D & D Hay of Gourdon club who also win 1st east section. R Page of Montrose is 2nd with Charlie Cameron from Arbroath in 3rd & 4th places. The Forfar partnership of Macaulay Ferguson & Curran is 5th 14th 15th & 16th federation and 1st 7th 8th 9th & 10th west section. Ian Scott of Forfar is 6th federation and 2nd west section with Davie Glen of the same club in 7th 8th 9th 10th & 11th federation and 3rd 4th 5th & 6th west section. C Scott of Montrose is 6th east section 13th federation with Willie MacKenzie of Montrose in 7th 8th 9th & 10th east section positions.
Club Winners are as follows; Arbroath C Cameron; Forfar Macaulay Ferguson & Curran; Gourdon D & D Hay; Letham no entries; Montrose R Page; Inchcape L McKay.
Points League 1st place David Liddle on 221 points with Davie Glen on 218 points.
Arbroath RPC news from Charlie Cameron who informs us that 4 members sent 84 birds to Ridsdale liberated at 08.00am into a west to south west wind. Taking the first two places with a pair of Belge rung youngsters is Charlie with Bill Dorward in 3rd place.
Central Federation news this week from Carol Britton as her husband Bernie’s back and knee have crippled him and as a result he is laid up in bed on heaps of pain killers (hope he is better by now)
Broxburn and Uphall club from Otterburn 2 on 9th August had 4 members sending 181 birds liberated into a west wind the first 3 places are won by G MacKenzie with the winner a blue cock both sire and dam are Gabby Vandenabeele with his dam winning 2nd federation from Maidstone. His 2nd bird is a blue Gabby cock his sire won 3 x 1st clubs the dam is a sister to his 2nd open young bird national winner who has also won 3 x 1st clubs and topped the Fed. The 3rd bird is a dark chequered hen a Gabby via M & D Evans birds and was a gift from Mr and Mrs Forrest of Ratho. From the Consett race 4 members sent 220 birds liberated at 07- 30 am into a west wind the first 2 places go to John McNeill flying a darkness blue chequer pied hen out of the stock loft her sire is a inbred son of Sanny’s Memory while the dam is the mother of his 2nd open SNFC Messac winner. The 2nd bird is a blue bar hen on darkness she is a Gabby bred by D & J Hawkins & Evans. In 3rd place is G MacKenzie with a blue bar hen a Gabby from the loft s of Mr & Mrs A Forrest of Ratho. I hope this reaches you okay Joe as I have never done this before all the best to the Murphy Clan yours Carol’. There are not many wives who would do this task for their husband and I admire and respect Carol for doing this and the Broxburn club should be grateful that she continued to give them publicity well done Carol.
East of Scotland Federation
News from Tom McEwen who tells us that the birds were liberated at Tow Law at 08-50 am into a west to North West wind. Topping the federation is Andrew Bishop of East Linton with his winner was doing 1241. Dougie Grieve of Longniddry had a fantastic race taking 7 of the top ten positions winning 2nd 3rd 6th 7th 8th 9th & 10th federation great flying well done. There again with a good double in 4th & 5th places is John Bird of Prestonpans. Prestonpans HS has John Bird taking the first 3 places his winner is a chequer hen on 1182 from his own Bits & Pieces bloodlines. His 2nd club winner is a blue cock on 1180 from his D & J Hawkins Vandenabeele bloodlines with his 3rd bird a slatey cock on 1167 from his Frans Laereman from Belgium bloodlines. Belated congratulations to Bert Wallace of Wallyford on his 80th birthday (23rd August) from all his many friends in the East of Scotland federation a truly great fancier wishing you all the best Bert’.
Fife Federation
Dunfermline RPC news from Walker Kennedy who writes ‘From our Sedgefield race 3 members sent 58 birds and as it was NOT a good forecast the majority of members did not race. The winner this week is Dan McNeely and the winner’s sire is son of his best stock cock the dam is daughter of his 1st section C 11th open SNFC Tours winner. His is also 2nd with a bird bought at the Fife federation breeder/ buyer and bred by S Diamond Kennoway his velocities were 927 and 922. In 3rd place is John D Robertson on 918 with a bird bred from Ian Ross of Kirkintilloch bloodlines, well that’s it for another week Joe yours Walker’.
Pentland Hills Federation
News from Andy Miller who informs us that ‘We held our 4th young bird race of the season on Saturday August 16th from Tow Law a distance of 87 to 100 miles for the members, liberated at 08- 50 am into west north west wind 14 clubs sent 3520 birds.
Winning 1st & 2nd New Lothian and Pentland Hills Federation is the loft of Jake & Tam Young from Danderhall. The winner is a blue bar hen flying to the perch she is basically Wildermeersch crossed Andy Miller. A great granddaughter of ‘Slim’ and a granddaughter of Andy Miller’s pied hen. ‘Big Slim’ was a multiple prize winner in the Pentland Federation before being retired to stock and the pied hen is a Staff Van Reet crossed Janssen origin and was purchased at a local sale a few years back, she is also a multiple prize winner in the Federation. Returns were 60-70% for most lofts although as usual some were better than others. What a difference a week makes in pigeon racing Joe when the birds from the first 3 races were tumbling in-yours Andy’.
3rd federation are McNamee & Dewar of Danderhall with L Affleck of Sighthill in 4th & 7th places. Club mate Andy Miller is 5th & 6th with D Linton of Gilmerton in 8th place. Sighthill members P McLaughlin is 9th with Ronnie S Bremner in 10th place.
Club Winners
Danderhall 444 birds; J & T Young 1257.3 & 1257.1 McNamee & Dewar 1234
Sighthill 253 birds; Affleck 1227 Miller 1226.3 Miller 1226.1
Gilmerton 331 birds; Linton 1211 Hume (junior) 1181 A.W. Robertson 1153
Whitecraigs 126 birds; Aitken 1190 Kelly 1164 Aitken 1163
Woodburn 352 birds; Brown & Black 1188.7 1188.0 1187
Castlebrae 171 birds; L. Mitchell 1174 Sammels & Lunn 1171 Willis 1167
Edinburgh Premier 170 birds; Hutton 1127 Gilchrist 1120 Cunningham & Cains 1099
Bonnyrigg 215 birds; Russell 1102 Murphy 1100 Brown 1090
Loanhead 281 birds; Murray 1083 Cherrie 1063 Baillie 1061
Edinburgh West 179 birds; C. Bennett 1074 McCaig 1045 McCaig 1039
Newtongrange 74 birds; Lawson 1032 Johnston 1008 Watson & Daughter 945
Penicuik 134 birds; Lawrie 1028 Lawrie 1018 Knight 991
New Lothian 81 birds;
Traprain 464 birds; Newcombe 1237 Thomson 1206 Thomson 1206
Others 245
New Lothian RPC had 56 members sending 1912 birds: top 1st & 2nd prizes go to Jake & Tam Young with the winner lifting £135.40 3rd is McNamee & Dewar of Danderhall with Andy Miller of Sighthill in 4th & 5th places 6th is D Linton of Gilmerton with Ronnie Bremner of Sighthill in 7th place with H Aitken & Sons of Whitecraigs in 8th spot. Brown & Black of Woodburn take the next 6 places.
Dalzell FC news from Joe Boyle who tells us that 13 members sent 180 birds with winner being Robert Clark on 1030 with a Jan Polda (never heard of these birds Joe M so spelling may be wrong) crossed Janssen in 2nd place is C Murphy on 993 with a John McNeil of Broxburn crossed Ian McGee of Newmains. Third place is yours truly on 986 with a Jan Aarden bred from G & J Palmer of Bellshill stock.
Joe Joke - House of ill repute - See if you can work this out:
There was a brothel at the top of a hill, with a large red light at the bottom of the hill. There were four men....
One was walking briskly up the hill;
One was inside the brothel;
One was walking slowly down the hill and
the fourth man was sitting in his car at the bottom of the hill.
What were the nationalities of the four men?
The man going up the hill: was rushin
The man in the brothel: him-a-layin
The man walking down the hill: was finish
Now wait for it. Ya going to love this...
The man in the car at the bottom was Irish - he was waiting for the light to turn green!
News Flash
A woman stops a Grizzly bear with a 25 calibre Beretta Jetfire pistol. This is a story of self-control and marksmanship by a woman facing a fierce predator. Here's her story:
While out hiking in Alberta Canada with my husband we were surprised by a huge grizzly bear charging at us from out of nowhere. She must have been protecting her cubs because she was extremely aggressive. If I had not had my little Beretta Jetfire with me I would not be here today! Just one shot to my husband's knee cap was all it took. The bear got him and I was able to escape by just walking away at a brisk pace boy was I lucky I had my little pistol.
Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or to my NEW EMAIL ADDRESS at;
© Compiled by Joe Murphy
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