NEWS FROM SCOTLAND
Reports by Joe Murphy
A decision has been made to close down the Angus College ACCORD LOFT due to lack of interest and Kevin has asked me to notify readers that all the racers can go ‘FREE’ to a good home however those interested will have to pay the carriage. He also has some of his own very well bred ‘distance’ stock pigeons going at £100 each plus carriage and believe me they are bred in the purple and worth the money. If anyone is interest in any of the above then give me a call on 01592 770331 and I will make the arrangements.
SNFC Double
The Ypres birds were liberated at 06-15 hours into a west to south west wind with the speed on the channel 10 knots and visibility very good. The liberation went well and all birds cleared the race point and everyone anticipated a fast race. We arrived at Kevin’s in plenty of time to watching for birds. We heard on the SNFC web page that the birds were in the Scottish Border area just after 15-15 and I told Kevin if you have a bird by 17-00 we will not be far away. Then we noticed the birds were in the Edinburgh area about 16-15 to 16-30 hours and the race was on. I normally sit facing south looking over the house towards the North Sea and I thought I saw a pigeon away in the distance but never said a thing.: I kept watching and as soon as I saw it draw its wings back to descend I said ‘Here’s a bird’. Kevin and Margaret were out of their chairs when the bird gave half a turn and was on the aviary roof and into the trap. Kevin said ‘It’s my 19th open Clermont Hen’ and she was timed at 16-56 hours and when he came out we were all hugging and kissing and I have to admit we thought we had pulled it off but alas there were better pigeons than our hen. However she did well and won 5th section C 19th open SNFC Ypres, so a double 19th open winner in the SNFC and therefore is ‘not a bad pigeon’. Then when we heard of Stuart Maskame of Maskame & Mackie of Peterhead had timed in at 17-10, then this surely was the national winner flying away up into the north east of Scotland. This pigeon must have flown right over the sea from Norwich as she won the national by 27 yards a minute flying 498 miles and there is no way she could have come up the coastline, which was a truly outstanding performance. As was the Michael Main of Portlethen in Aberdeen pigeon that was 6th open flying 476 miles. When I spoke to Stuart he was telling me that his hen had been down for a drink as her feet and rings had white clay on them. Stuart has called his winning hen ‘Poppy’, which is very significant when you realise that she flew from near the (Menin Gate where the names of the war dead are decorated) in Ypres. It was also quite poignant that the hen had started to pair up to a cock whose ring number is 11-11 and when you think of the 11th hour on the 11th day ‘We will remember them’. Another item that I found of interest was this cock homed from Newark in 11 hours 11 minutes and when Stuart was telling Irvine Buchan he said ‘Oh and you are going to tell me that he won 11th club’ (he was 3rd club) but they had a laugh at the similarities. I have known Stuart since he took part in my Sporting Challenge many years ago and believe me this national win could not have happened to a ‘pleasanter’ fancier and I’m over the moon for him. He did say that his partner Craig Mackie has not been involved as much with the pigeons these past 3 years but they still keep the name of the partnership. An excited Stuart said ‘Joe, this is a dream come true for me and the congratulations I have received from fanciers from all over has been so overwhelming and I cannot thank them enough, so if you could say in your column how much I would appreciate it I would be grateful’. It is a pleasure to do this and there will not be a prouder young man than Stuart when he follows ‘The Piper’ in, as he leads the Scottish National winners into the club presentation.
Stuart Maskame, 1st open SNFC Ypres 2014.
Michael Main, 6th open SNFC Ypres - see text
The Scottish National's longest old bird race was flown on the same day as Ypres race. This was from Ancenis liberated with the Midland National Flying Club. My good friend Russell Bradford informed me that their birds were doing 1500 yard per minute and the weather was ‘perfect’ with good visibility and it looked as if we could get pigeons into Scotland on the day. 17 gallant pigeons made it home on the day with 6 flying over 590 miles, which was remarkable achievement and the 1st open winner was Craig Halbert of Eastriggs near Annan. Again you could not meet a nicer or a more genuine person than Craig and I’m happy that he has won the SNFC. During the night the rain came on and it never stopped till after dinner time the following day and it was not until then that pigeons started to arrive home with another 30 birds making the open result and 3 of these being recorded on the 3rd day. Unfortunately we did not get our only entry home until after the close of the race but we were happy to have her home. Well done to everyone who managed to make the result and there are some very good pigeons that have won previously and again they have shown their true ‘Class’ and I intend to write about them at a later date.
Craig Halbert, 1st open SNFC Ancenis 2014.
One interesting thing about the Ancenis race was I had a call from Pat Cairns from County Antrim in Northern Ireland reporting a pigeon SU 10 P 2818 (this belongs to Mr Pringle and was his only entry at Ancenis) and here it is reported in Ireland. Poor Pat sent 4 birds at the King's Cup race and has never seen a feather and here he is with a Scottish pigeon coming into his loft. Mr Pringle should have contacted Pat by the time this is in print but I thank him for caring for the pigeon.
Before I leave the subject of the SNFC I must congratulate the convoyers who were with the pigeons at both races as the birds were in the baskets for 5 days and they returned in excellent condition. I know that our birds did not lose too much weight and after a few days you would have wondered if they had been out of the loft so well done lads a ‘great job’.
Chloe McCall
While in Ireland I had taken a pigeon with me to donate to the sale of top quality pigeons on behalf of the Benefit Auction of Chloe McCall the granddaughter of Liam who is running the sale. This very special sale will assist Chloe to have a better quality life and it has been kindly assisted by some of the top fanciers from North & South Ireland as well as the UK and Mainland Europe. Sheldon Leonard has been asking for pigeons for this cause and he maintains that the quality on offer will enhance any stock loft for years to come. The venue for the sale is Ernie’s Bar in Wicklow Town on Sunday 24th August 2014 with kick off 3pm. A full list of fanciers donating birds will be published 2 weeks before the auction and for more details please contact Eamonn O’Brien on 0878496968 or Liam McCall (evenings only) on 040469647. Donations will also be greatly appreciated to the Bank of Ireland; Account Name: The Chloe McCall Trust: Account Number 63523423 with Sort Code 90-68-34. For more enquires email to:
Murphy Birds doing well
Liam McCall phoned to thank me for donating a pigeon to the above charity sale and he also informed me that he won from Truro in Cornwall with a pigeon bred down from stock he purchased from me a couple of years back so well done Liam. I also received an email from Rob Glover saying ‘Hi Joe, thought you might want to know that the blue hen 5133 you bred for me won 29th section 234th open Midland National Fougeres last week. She was also 4th Leicester federation and also 11th Warwickshire federation as she was duplicated back into both feds. I know it was not a fantastic result but it was a good result on a very difficult day so thank you for the quality pigeon and I hope you are having a good season yours Rob Glover’. I replied to Rob thanking him for informing and to let him know that a cousin to his hen won 86th open SNFC Alencon last week flying 573 miles in a very hard race where the last pigeon in the open result was doing a 604 velocity. Kevin had 3 home from his 4 entries and had 2 on the result. The grand dam of 5133 also won in the SNFC Alencon race being 18th section 120th open so now she has won 8 times from France. Another niece to 5133 won 19th open SNFC Ypres 454 miles and she has already won 19th open Clermont 540 miles. My thanks once again to Rob for letting me know about his hen and I hope he does well in the remainder of the season.
Andy Parsons of Salisbury
Looking at the results of the main clubs in the south of England on the internet it would seem that 90% of the races from over the channel have been very hard however you always find that good fanciers come to the fore. One of these is Andy whom I met when I went over to Belgium for a weekend what an end to the year he has had finishing a wonderful season by being: 3rd open CSCFC Pau, 2nd open NFC Tarbes and last weekend he won 4th & 5th open CSCFC Bergerac. Brilliant flying where his family of birds come to the fore - well done Andy.
INFC
Since my visit to Ireland I have been following with interest the INFC web pages to follow the King’s Cup race from Saint Allouestre and the Friendship National from Quimper and they have both been disastrous races with the King's Cup having only 40 birds timed in 3 days from an entry of 2807 birds. The Quimper race was flown on Thursday 10th July with 263 members sending 994 birds and they had 11 birds timed in. It looks to me as if the first 2 pigeons have been together as the winner was to Mr & Mrs D Suitters of Doagh & District HPS flying 493 miles doing a velocity of 600 ypm. The second pigeon flying the same miles belongs to C & L Woodside of Ballyclare and was doing a 597 velocity. There will hopefully some birds returned home now but the losses from these 2 races are very sad as this is the creme de la creme of Irish lofts and like the Scottish fanciers they only send their very best birds to the King's Cup race. It will take YEARS to replace the quality of pigeons lost this year and my heart goes out to all these fanciers. Races like these are killing our sport and many fanciers do not have time to try and build up a team of distance pigeons again as we all know this takes about 3 to 5 years, therefore many will revert to club and federation racing and the INFC is the loser. To all the people who managed to get a pigeon home from these 2 hard races my congratulations and to the fanciers who have lost their ‘top pigeons’ in these events my commiserations.
Results
Angus Federation held a comeback race from Ridsdale on 5th July with 23 members sending 232 birds liberated at 08-30am into a light north west wind the Forfar club members dominated the result with David Liddle taking the top spot and he was also 5th & 9th in both west section and federation. Davie Glen was 2nd 3rd 4th 6th 7th & 10th section and federation with J McKay also of Forfar in 8th section and federation place. The east section was won by Willie MacKnight of Montrose who took 1st 2nd 4th 7th & 8th section positions. R Page of the same club was 3rd & 10th with Les McKay of Inchcape in 5th place followed by A & S Whyte of Montrose in 6th spot Chic and Anne Carrie of Inchcape are 9th. Club winners are as follows; Arbroath No one competed; Forfar D Liddle: Gourdon D & D Hay; Montrose W MacKnight; Letham J Anderson & son; Inchcape L McKay. Point’s competition so far: D Liddle 184 points; D Glen 161 points.
East of Scotland Federation news from Tom McEwen who writes ‘the federation were at Maidstone for our open race and the convoy were liberated at 06-30am with no wind at the race point. This was the last old bird federation race of the season and the 1st open prize was won by John Bird of Prestonpans. Finishing in 2nd & 10th open is Jim McNeil of Tranent. He is followed by the ever consistent Brian Lavery who took 3rd & 4th open. Another partnership taking a double is Richard & Jamie Combe of Elphinstone in 5th & 7th positions. Tom Waddell completes a great season taking 6th & 8th open with yours truly Tom McEwen and son Scott of Elphinstone in 9th open to complete the top ten. My thanks to Tom McEwen for sending in his club news on a weekly basis it is much appreciated. Prestonpans HS Taking 1st place is John Bird with a yearling Vandenabeele cock on 1156. Brian Lavery takes the next 2 places with his first bird a yearling red hen bred by Spider Rowley on 1145. Brian’s second pigeon was a yearling blue cock bred from Bobby Dickson bloodlines on 1144. Well Joe that’s the old bird programme completed and I would like to thank you for putting the East of Scotland federation and Prestonpans results into your weekly column I can assure you that it is much appreciated by all members.
Pentland Hills Federation. News from Andy Miller with the Maidstone old bird race flown on Saturday 21st of June with the convoy liberated with the SNFC at 06-30 hours with No Wind at the race point. 77 members sent 822 birds with 623 entered into the SNFC and 199 from Federation members. This was a distance of 353to 365 miles to most members and winning 1st federation open is the Danderhall partnership of Tam Nolan & Steven Farwell who timed their 2 year old cock unfortunately I have not received any details on the winner as yet. The partnership was also 3rd & 9th federation. Sammels & Lunn of Castle Brae club are 2nd with Willie Kinnear & son Barry of Danderhall club are 4th 6th & 8th places. McCormack & Fraser of Castle Brae are 5th with Andy Miller of Sighthill club in 7th & 10th places and club mate Ronnie Bremner is 9th open. Dalzell Flying Club News from Joe Boyle who informs us that 15 members sent 161 birds to Otterburn and taking 1st & 2nd places go to Steven Selfridge with his winner doing 1298.9 this was a Hartog crossed Van den Pol while his second bird point 4 behind was a Jan Aarden. 3rd place goes to Brown & McKeown on 1289 with a Luc Van Hoek gifted bird from John Smith from Fife, congratulations to winner and all taking part in this race yours Joe Boyle’.
Joe's Joke
Dorothy and Edna, two "senior" widows, are talking.
Dorothy: "That nice George Johnson asked me out for a date. I know you went out with him last week, and I wanted to talk with you about him before I give him my answer."
Edna: "Well, I'll tell you. He shows up at my apartment punctually at 7pm, dressed like such a gentleman in a fine suit, and he brings me such beautiful flowers! Then he takes me downstairs. And what's there; a limousine, uniformed chauffeur and all. Then he takes me out for dinner; a marvellous dinner, lobster, champagne, dessert, and after-dinner drinks. Then we go see a show. Let me tell you Dorothy, I enjoyed it so much I could have just died from pleasure! So then we are coming back to my apartment and he turns into an ANIMAL. Completely crazy, he tears off my expensive new dress and has his way with me three times!"
Dorothy: "Goodness gracious! So you are telling me I shouldn't go?"
Edna: "No, no, no... I'm just saying, wear an old dress."
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;
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