Joe Murphy25 Nov

NEWS FROM SCOTLAND

Reports by Joe Murphy

The Philips family from the West Durham Amalgamation taken at the Scottish One Loft final race. The partnership finished 4th open in the race and 14th open in the Scottish National Flying Club.

Kieran & Rachel (Kevin & Linda’s children) did well last weekend when they both secured a black belt at Karate. Kieran aged 15 gained a senior 1st Dan while Rachel who is only 13 years old won her 2nd black belt and is now a 2nd Dan. Not to miss out Kevin achieved a ‘Green’ belt, however he has not been going to classes as much as the children. He started himself as he was taking the children back and fore twice a week and rather than just drop them off he decided to join the club and as you can see he is doing quite well. To say were are proud or the three of them would be an understatement as they have deserved these awards after all the hard work they have put in. One thing that sticks out about all others is their Murphy competitiveness as they are each trying to achieve their goal in this sport.

Losses

I held a conversation with a fancier the other day (who does not wish me to mention his name) and he brought up some excellent points regarding the losses we are experiencing in UK especially with young birds. He has lived on the continent and is now back here staying and explained to me how they race pigeons in Europe and this is how their programme is worked. Firstly there is no emphasis on club results. All pigeons competed in their district (we will call it federation) on a weekly basis. This stopped the part of the sport where one man or woman takes the first 5 or 10 places in the club which looks good but when you then find out that there are only 5 or 6 members competing in the club you wonder ‘What is the point?’. Whereas this fancier stated there is only one result, the ‘federation’, and the winners change most weeks depending on the wind and drag of the birds. Then there is a requirement for all fanciers to take part in 2 training tosses with the federation prior to the racing season starting. These are from the 100 miles (160 Kilometres) mark. The first old bird race will be on the 3rd Saturday from a distance of 150 miles (241Kilomers) then on the Sunday a race from 180 miles (289 Kilometres). The following week the Saturday race would be from 180 miles (289 Kilometres) and the same distance raced on the Sunday. Then the following week the Saturday race point would increase to a further distance than last week and the Sunday would have the 180 miles (289 Kilometres) race. This is basically for sprint pigeons and they keep this race point throughout the season every Sunday. The Saturday race point continues increasing and covers the 300 to 600 mile races.

As we know, most fanciers nowadays breed early youngsters and have them on the darkness system right away they are let out once a day and go through the body moult. They are then taken off the darkness system in the middle of June and are then trained for the start of young bird racing that starts in July. Therefore these birds are jumped into racing and have not had enough training or experience for these races and we encounter horrendous losses. Now we could find a BENEFIT that would suit everyone and help with the young bird losses. These darkness youngsters (bred in December/January) can be trained and go with the federation transporter say on the 30th of May which was a Sunday this year, with 2 training tosses starting from say 50 miles then the following week from 100 miles.  The first race will be on the 3rd Sunday with a race from 180 miles (289 Kilometres) The transporter is going with the sprint old birds and therefore is not costing any extra money to the federation. These Sunday races from 180 miles can happen throughout the season with later bred youngsters being trained and added to these races. These youngsters could have at least 12 races from 180 miles (the early bred ones at least) then if you wish you can send them to the young bird national the following week. This would be of great benefit to the youngsters and my learned friend told me that as these youngsters get the hang of the racing and they beat the old bird sprint pigeon’s home. They will have also gained invaluable experience that will live with them forever. Surely fanciers would rather have youngsters that had flown this amount of races at the end of the year rather than the scenario we have at the moment with fanciers having lost half their team by the time it comes to the 2nd race. Continuing on the above the Saturday old birds racing would benefit as well because if you happen to have a bird not sitting right or recovering from an injury or hawk attack (cover feathers out) you can send it to the Sunday sprint race from 180 miles a couple of times to help it gain fitness before jumping it into one of the distance race. We could have youngsters having 12 races; the sprint pigeons can have about 15 races from 180 miles while the older distance pigeons could have a 10 week period to cover between 180 miles to 600 miles. Yes I know it is going to cost MONEY for a transporter to go running down the road but this is where amalgamating federations together can solve the problem. For example federation A would take (all) the birds down the road on a Saturday. Federation B could take the birds to the 180 mile race every Sunday and as the youngsters joined in then it would mean a larger transporter required or Federation C transporter come on board and take some of the birds down to the 180 mile race point. Therefore you have 2 or 3 transporters going down the road each week end, this would not be hard to organise and I cannot see major problems working this out. All it would take is dialog between federation officials to arrange a system and notify the fanciers but then again some people do not want to lose the power they have of being the head of their organisations.    

To give you a taste of how this is working below is the official race programme for the Belgium sport in 2014:

Basketing/Liberation/Race/Category

Distance racing into Scotland

While talking to the above fancier we also discussed distance racing into Scotland and he could not understand how the SNFC raced from race points that are not on the line of flight with the majority of federation races held on a weekly basis. This year the majority of organisations including some from the west of Scotland raced from race points down the easterly side of Britain. The national's first race is from Newbury which has caused no end of problems with bad races and birds reported in Ireland every year and now we have federations holding races from 300+ miles on the line of flight with normal weekly racing in competition to the national. This can only affect the birdage and prestige of the national so why do they not change and have a race from Epson Downs’s race course (where a show was held a few weekends ago). The fanciers that I have spoken to who attended this show said the area was superb with a flat surrounding for at least 50 miles and it is high vantage point that you can see for miles. The national could then go to Maidstone if a 2nd inland race point is on their programme as this is again due south on the line of flight. As you cross the English Channel I don’t understand how you don’t race where it is the shortest channel crossing. There are numerous race points: Arras; Lille; Lillers; Abbeville; Amiens; Beauvais and Clermont these race points are all in the same area and on the line you have been racing. For your longer races there is Reims; Chalon-Sur-Marne which are again on the east side of France and in line with the above mentioned race points. Whereas at the moment you are going to Alencon that is 300 miles WEST of this line of flight and it is little wonder you Scottish fanciers have so many bad races and loose pigeons. You have highlighted just a few weeks ago about a fancier having his bird reported in Denmark and Germany in your column what about the birds not reported that have never returned. Plus the fact Alencon is also due south of the widest channel crossing into England and to make matters worse Tours is on the same line. My advice to the national is to stick with race points to the east side of France and give the birds a better chance of making it home. Surely in the present climate (with fanciers giving up the sport on a daily basis) it is better to have happy members who have timed a bird in or at least have their birds home rather than have them sitting waiting 2 or 3 days for a bird to home and worse still not getting a bird home. Plus the fact people cannot afford to take days of work nowadays and it is ok saying ‘Oh we have the ETS’ but not everyone can afford has this timing system. In the past 2 years the Scottish national has had bad races from their longest race with only 8 birds in race time in 2012 and 29 birds home in race time this year from Ancenis. The thing I cannot understand is the membership is prepared to accept this on a regular basis which is truly unbelievable but someday the penny will drop and maybe it is happening now as the birdage in the national distance races is dropping dramatically as less and less fanciers are going. The question must be asked WHY? and the officials must act on these answers. The time for change is now or it could be the death knell of the SNFC and distance racing into Scotland.   

This week’s photos

These are very impressive pictures of the new alterations and aviary added to my friend Sheldon Leonard loft in Arklow, County Wicklow. I hope you enjoy them. The other picture is of the Philips Family from West Durham Amalgamation taken at the Scottish One Loft final race. The partnership finished 4th open in the race and 14th open in the Scottish National Flying Club.

Alterations to Sheldon's loft

New aviary

Joe’s Joke

Prior to the 10 o'clock news Bob enters the pub and sat down next to a blonde at the bar and looked up at the TV just as the 10 pm news was coming on.  The news crew were covering the story of a man on the ledge of a large building, preparing to jump. The blonde looked at Bob and said, "Do you think he'll jump?" Bob said, "You know, I bet he'll jump." The blonde replied, "Well, I bet he won't." Bob placed a £20 note on the bar and said, "You're on!" Just as the blonde placed her money on the bar, the guy on the ledge did a swan dive off the building, falling to his death. The blonde was very upset but willingly handed her £20 to Bob. "Fair's fair she said ‘Here's your money." Bob replied, "I can't take your money. I saw this earlier on the 6’o clock news, so I knew he would jump."  The blonde replied, "I did too, but I didn't think he'd do it again.” Bob took her money!!

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;  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE.

© Compiled by Joe Murphy