NEWS FROM SCOTLAND
Reports by Joe Murphy
I received an email from my old friend John Tyerman, who has just come back from holiday with his lovely wife Linda. He wrote: ‘Hope all is well with you and the family, nice photos in BHW of you getting your garden award from the Provost and also one of your son and his wife. We wish them both all the luck for the future. Since coming back from holiday it has been a bit hectic with various pigeon functions. As you probably saw, we were in Brussels last weekend for the Pau International dinner and I persuaded Ian Crammond to come over with us as he is keeping a bit better these days health wise. We all had a very enjoyable time and it was a very moving occasion when Geoff and Catherine Cooper, also Darren and Jo McFadden, went up to receive their many trophies for being 1st and 2nd open in the Pau International. The Officials made us all very welcome and the BICC winners are now getting the International recognition they deserve. We had a pleasant few days and visited the city of Bruges on the way home, buying the usual gifts and boxes of Belgian chocolates.Also this past weekend Linda and I were invited to attend the Gwent Greater Distance Club Presentation being held near Pontrydyrun in Wales. The Club run all their races in conjunction with the BICC and we had an excellent evening spent with some of the best fanciers in Wales. We were seated next to Jim and Hazel Hooper and as most fanciers know Jim is very actively involved with the Raptor Alliance and was able to update me on the progress so far. Seated at the next table were a group of Scots fanciers from the North of Scotland Federation - Paul Thomson, George Duncan, Jim Coutts, John Thompson and George Geddes who were all down for the weekend to visit some top Welsh lofts. I managed to have a chat to them and know they were very impressed having been to see various lofts including Mark Sparey and the top BICC International lofts of Dave and Vince Padfield. On the Sunday Linda and I went to see the magnificent loft and birds belonging to Ray Strawbridge who is a BICC committee member and Chairman of the GGDC. What a lovely double-decker loft set in the countryside with stunning views for miles around. Ray then very kindly took us on to visit the outstanding distance lofts of Vince and Dave Padfield who have won so many top positions over the years and were in fact this year's winners of a very difficult BICC St Vincent International. Dave had been in America when the race was being flown but had accessed the BICC website and was on the phone to Vince telling him that I had clocked from St Vincent and to beat me they had to be in by a certain time. As Dave was talking on the phone Vince saw his pigeon coming up the valley and of course it won this very testing race (I ended up being 7th). As you probably know they have the very best of the Wim Muller pigeons and both Ian and I have previously been with them on two occasions when we visited Wim’s lofts in Holland a number of years ago. Dave and Vince allowed me to handle some of the finest specimens at their lofts and these birds have superb balance and feathering and are indeed a credit to both Vince and Dave. Their loft location is set high up in the valley with incredible views but the area is plagued by many hawks and peregrines so some very good birds have been lost to these predators. Gareth has written a recent lengthy and detailed article on the performances of the Padfield family lofts (not to be missed - JM). I certainly enjoyed my visit and all weekend we enjoyed excellent Welsh hospitality wherever we went. This next weekend many fanciers are attending the ‘BICC Wedding of the Year’ in Surrey when our long serving Vice President John Wills 'ties the knot' and marries Jackie, his girlfriend of several years. John of course is a very successful fancier and Jackie has been very supportive of him and we wish them both well for the future. Linda also wants to visit her Aunt who is now in a retirement home at Lochgelly so all going well we hope to come up for a few days before Christmas, staying in Dunfermline. She also has her cousin in Dalgetty Bay and we also hope to go to Dumfries to see my sister and a few friends. If I get the chance I might get up to see the Murphy stock doos but will phone you well in advance and let you know if we are coming. On a sad note Lou McGee is quite ill at the moment and tests are ongoing and they have had to cancel their trip to Doncaster show where John was having a stand to promote the young bird race. Speak soon and kindest regards to Margaret and the family - yours John.’
My thanks to John for his email which is full of interesting items of news and I’m so sorry to hear that Lou is not keeping well and wish her all the best.
Mike Donachie of Kingseat
It is with great sadness that I report that Mike due to ill health has had to give up the sport as he will be under the care of a medical team from now on. This is a sad blow to everyone who knows Mike as he was without doubt one of the top fanciers in Fife and in the Scottish National Flying Club where he won 2 Gold Awards (a pigeon has to win a prize 5 times from France into Scotland). Mike’s wife Anna can no longer attend to the daily needs of the pigeons and has asked their good friend Ian French from Gretna if he would conduct a sale of Mike’s pigeons. Ian has asked at least 5 Scottish national winners to have a look at Mike’s birds and they were all impressed with the quality of pigeons and agree it was little wonder that Mike did so well in these classic races. These same fanciers are prepared to assist Ian by matching up the birds into pairs and selling them off at £100 a pair. Believe me this is a bargain and you will not get a better chance to obtain quality pigeons like this again in your life time. For details on the breeding of the birds contact Ian French on 01461 338479 also see the advert in this week’s paper. Finally Anna would like to thank Ian and Wattie Forman who have assisted her during the past while Mike was in hospital.
Get Well
Dougie Bald has asked me to send good wishes to Gerry Thoms of Gerdon Products who has not been too good lately. We all hope that you feel much better soon and you are in our thoughts and prayers.
SNFC Year Book
I wonder if anyone has a SNFC year book for 2013 that they no longer require (I do not get one as I’m not a member). The reason for this is that recently I have been highlight good pigeons that have done well in the national in my column by adding their performances. I normally go onto the web page for details but have been informed that this is not updated with the final result and the ones I put are 2 or 3 places adrift. I have been informed that if I check the year book then it will give me the correct positions. So if anyone has a copy they no longer require then I will pay the postage for sending me their copy. Thank you in anticipation.
Losses
Have received more dialogues regarding the losses experienced this year with Les from Cumbria saying it is not all down to problems made by fanciers. He thinks the biggest problem we have in the sport is HAWK ATTACKS. Les has seen this happen to him and other local fanciers as soon as they let their birds out for a fly. So nowadays the pigeons are kept in and these raptors are now taking other birds as it is the survival of the fittest. Les also highlighted the attacks his federation have experienced over the years when birds are released from the transporters. He said ‘You would think they knew as convoyers have reported at least 5 peregrines attacking a convoy when first released. The pigeons panic and go in any direction to escape these murderers. I feel this has the most bearing fact on the heavy losses we have nowadays and until something is done to control these protected birds of prey then we are fighting a losing battle.’ My thanks to Les for his call and the chat as it was good to speak to him.
David Kennedy from Dunfermline contacted me regarding changes to the magnetic field as he knows that I put in a ‘Space Weather’ report during the racing season. I looked up this very good article and when you consider the changes that are happening to countries throughout the world it makes you wonder if these solar changes have anything to do with it. Firstly we have the disaster in the Philippines, then tornadoes and freak weather in America with houses and whole towns wiped out and yesterday we have news of a cyclone in Sardinia where 18 inches of rain fell in 90 minutes with people being killed and rivers bursting their banks submerging houses and sweeping cars and even bridges away with hundreds of people homeless. This amount of rainfall is equivalent to what falls in England in a YEAR yet this happened in 90 minutes over Sardinia. You cannot imagine this amount of rain falling in this short space of time. Has this anything to do with the sun's magnetic field? At the present time the entire magnetic field is on the verge of flipping over. Scientists are convinced the source of all life on Earth will shortly reverse polarity, an event that will be felt throughout the entire solar system. Should you panic? Well they so ‘NO’ as this is part of a regular occurrence as it happens over a few months every 11 years or so. And so far it hasn't resulted in a catastrophic collapse of solar gravity, or anything like that. The exact mechanism that drives the shift is not totally understood, but researchers at Stanford's Wilcox Solar Obervatory have monitored the phenomenon since 1975. During an 11-year cycle sunspots appear near the star's equator. These gradually disintegrate indicating the magnetic field is migrating from the equator to one of the sun's poles. As the surviving polarity moves toward the pole, it erodes the existing, opposite polarity. Todd Hoeksema, a solar physicist at Stanford since 1978, said: "It's kind of like a tide coming in or going out. ‘Each little wave brings a little more water in, and eventually you get to the full reversal.’ A positive effect that we may be able to see from Earth is an increase in auroras or Northern Lights. Less welcome could be disruption to satellites and electronic systems if the flip gives off particularly powerful solar flare. Hoeksema added: ‘We also see the effects of this on other planets. Jupiter has storms. Saturn has auroras, and this is all driven by activity of the sun. What happens in the next cycle will be interesting,’ Hoeksema said. ‘Technologically, it's something we need to pay more attention to as time goes on.’ My question now is ‘Do we as pigeon fanciers take this on board or are we more likely to say ‘It’s a load of nonsense’. These scientist and solar physicist are more knowledgeable than the average back garden pigeon fancier (and I include myself in this) and I believe we must listen to what they have to say regarding what is going on in the Solar System as it has a unquestionable effect on our world. My thanks to David for highlighting this article to me.
Catch-up
Received an email from Hans Meyeraan from Germany who wrote: ‘Dear Joe, we will say thanks very much for the contact to Mr Graham. It was very nice of you. We received this day the paper from Mr Graham regarding the information on the bird and we hope that we have happiness with the pigeon. We wish you all best for you and your family and a great next year with your pigeons. When you have a problem with a German pigeon you can contact us and we will help you out, with greetings from family Meyeraan’. This was very nice of Hans and I was only too happy to help him out.
Also received an email from Derek Bates from Duns who won 1st open SNFC Cheltenham in 1988. He wrote: ‘Hello Joe, good to see you looking so well (must be on the darkness system). I found a copy of a Homing World in the local charity shop and looking through found your column and it was a great read as usual. I have to say I still miss the doos after all this time and it must be in the blood. I often speak to Sandy Bain and Tom Keenan who both live close to me and occasionally to David Reed; I even meet Jeff Horne when he and I attend the local hospital at the same time. Sadly Duns does not have a pigeon club now and there are only 2 lofts actually in Duns. I was looking through Squills which had our article in it when we won the SNFC young bird national. My son Richard does not have time for the birds either as he has his landscape company which keeps him very busy. I took up golf after giving up the ‘doos’ and since retiring as project manager for a group who transported people with disabilities I now have more time and with 3 grandchildren who live close by I’m kept busy taking them swimming, to football and to golf. A few years after I sold up my birds to a chap in London who had over 250 bird he wrote to tell me that Reet Petite’s (name of Derek and Richard’s national winner) sisters had won 7 races for him that year and in one of them he won from France by 4 minutes. He apparently won over four grand. Sadly about a few months later I had a letter from his wife saying he had a massive heart attack and died in his loft. It is a good job we do not know what is round the next corner. Keep up the good work as it is good to read about how the sport of pigeon racing is going on in Scotland, kindest regards Derek.’
Scottish One Loft
I spoke with Billy Holland the other day and he was telling me that he had forgotten to activate the 2 bird average in the One Loft race this year and has spoken to the winner and they have worked out an agreement for next year. The winner was Tom Linden who has now forwarded the information on his pigeons that have won the 2 bird average prize. These two youngsters won 5th and 20th in the One Loft winning 19th and 95th open in the Scottish national Leicester young bird race. Tom wrote: ‘The sire of these two nest mates was bred by Alfie Hawthorn of Westerhope and is a son of Alfie’s number one pair Zoon Femke and Deb which are responsible for at least 7 separate federation winners (probably a lot more), and sons and daughters from this pair have bred 14 federation winners (minimum). Zoon Femke is through the lines of Piet Van De Merwe and Deb is through the lines of Woodroffe Brothers of UNC fame. The sire was bought from J Soderland’s (cancer sale). I had also bought a couple of young birds donated by Alfie from St Claire’s Hospice sale at the NEHU show. When I went to collect them Alfie generously offered me the choice of 2 from the number One pair or I could have the two I had bought at the sale, so I accepted the kind offer from Alfie and took the 2 young cocks from the number One pair. The dam of the two nest mates was also bred by Alfie Hawthorn and was purchased from Bob Pinkerton’s ‘Children’s Cancer Charity Sale’ held in Winlaton and she’s inbred to Alfie’s old Number 1 pair, ‘The Middle Cock’ who contains the lines of ‘Popeye’ from Woodroffe Brothers, and the Kavanagh Busschaerts. Alfie also gave me her nest mate when I collected her, such is his generosity. These two nest mates have done themselves proud and credit must go to Billy Holland who raced them. The cock is now named ALFIE and the hen is to be named CHARITY, which is very apt in the scheme of things. Last but not least a big Thank You to Alfie Hawthorn, John Soderland, Bob Pinkerton, Billy Holland and the lads and lady that run the St Claire’s Stall at the NEHU show as without their generosity and giving up their time to help give others some happiness and respite, I would not have won the 2 bird average. The nest mates are now entered in The Scottish One Loft Yearling Races for 2014 and as Billy had omitted a prize for the 2 bird average he has generously given me 3 free entries into the 2014 SOLR. All The Best to Everyone for 2014 yours Tom’.
The runner up for the 2 bird average was George Willie & Paul Macaloney from Coatbridge who won 6th & 18th One Loft race and were 21st & 92nd open in the Scottish national Leicester young bird race. Willie wrote ‘Please find information as requested: Mac 1 is pure Vandenabeele and is direct from ‘Dark Shadow’ a direct son of ‘Shadow’ he is sire and grandsire to 1st federation winners and the dam is ‘New Belle’ a direct daughter of ‘Rolls Royce’ and she in turn is dam to 1st federation winners in the Lanarkshire, Midland and North West Federations. The blue cock Mac 2 is pure De Raul-Sablon and is nest mate to one of our best young birds this year. I hope this is sufficient for you cheers Willie’. My thanks to Billy for the information on the birds and the photographs for the column.
Scottish Show Racer Society (East region)
Received the first show result for the above society from secretary Struan Ferguson who wrote: ‘Hi Joe, please find result of the show One held on the 17th of November 2013 at the Hill of Beath Ex Servicemen’s club. The Judges for the day were Brian Massey from Rosewell in Midlothian who is a former member of the society and who has had recent success showing his racers. Jimmy Mackie from Bonnyrigg also in Midlothian and Jimmy is part of the Mackie & Knox partnership that won the SHU show last year with a young racer. The partnership of John & Alice Bell left off where they finished last season with six firsts out of 8 classes and Best in Show & Best Young bird with a dark chequer young hen that won likeliest Young Hen under Jimmy Mackie. They also won runner up to Best in show with a dark chequer old cock that won Likeliest Old Cock. The other winners were Carrie Winter who won with a young Mosaic hen and Struan Ferguson who won with a mealy Old Hen.
Likeliest Old Cock -judge J Mackie
1st J & A Bell -Dark chequer -runner up to Best in show; 2nd S Ferguson
3rd J&A Bell 4th S Ferguson 5th J & A Bell 6th C Miller
Likeliest Old Hen -judge B Massey
1st J&A Bell -dark chequer 2nd J & A Bell 3rd Wallace & Ferguson
4th S Ferguson 5th J&A Bell 6th Wallace & Ferguson
Looking through Pen old cock -judge B Massey
1st J & A Bell -Dark chequer 2nd C Winter 3rd J & A Bell 4th C Miller
5th Fitzpatrick & Fleming 6th J & A Bell
Looking Through pen old hen -judge J Mackie
1st S Ferguson Mealy 2nd C Miller 3rd J & A Bell 4th J & A Bell
5th C Miller 6th J &A Bell
Looking Through pen Young Cock -judge J Mackie
1st J & A Bell -Dark chequer double winner 2nd S Ferguson 3rd C Winter
4th S Ferguson 5th J & A Bell 6th J&A Bell
Looking Through pen young hen -judge B Massey
1st C Winter -mosaic 2nd C Miller 3rd J &A Bell 4th J & A Bell
5th Wallace & Ferguson 6th C Winter
Likeliest Young Cock -judge B Massey
1st J & A Bell -Dark chequer 2nd Wallace & Ferguson 3rd C Winter
4th Mrs. A Ferguson 5th J & A Bell 6th Mrs. A Ferguson
Likeliest Young Hen -judge J Mackie
1st J & A Bell -Dark chequer -Best in show /Best Young bird
2nd J & A Bell 3rd Mrs. A Ferguson 4th J &A Bell 5th S Ferguson
6th C Winter
John & Alice Bell lead the points by some margin 82 points with
S Ferguson on runner up on 27 points and Carrie Winter on 21 points, the young bird points also a clear lead with J&A Bell on 38 points from Carrie Winter on 16 points. Next show will not now be until the 15th December as open shows take precedence cheers Joe Struan Ferguson -Show secretary.
Joe’s Joke
A woman awakes during the night to find that her husband was not in their bed. She puts on her dressing gown and goes downstairs to look for him.
She finds him sitting at the kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee in front of him. He appears to be in deep thought, just staring at the wall. She watches as he wipes a tear from his eye and takes a sip of his coffee. ‘What's the matter, dear?' she whispers as she steps into the room, 'Why are you down here at this time of night?' The husband looks up from his coffee, 'I am just remembering when we first met 20 years ago and started dating. You were only 16. Do you remember back then?' he says solemnly. The wife is touched to tears thinking that her husband is so caring, so sensitive.
'Yes, I do' she replies. The husband pauses. The words were not coming easily... 'Do you remember when your father caught us in the back seat of my car?' 'Yes, I remember!' said the wife, lowering herself into a chair beside him. The husband continues. 'Do you remember when he shoved the shotgun in my face and said, 'Either you marry my daughter, or I will send you to jail for 20 years?' 'I remember that too' she replies softly.
He wipes another tear from his cheek and says... 'I would have been released today. '
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
