Joe Murphy Column 14-12-17

Details: Published: 20 December 2014; Hits: 942

The Joe Murphy Column

Received a list of Ayrshire Federation trophy winners from Archie McIntyre who informs us that the federation held their annual dinner dance and presentation night on the 18th of November at the Blacklands Bowling & Social club in Kilwinning Around 65 members, family and friends were in attendance along with the guest of honour Billy Steed who all enjoyed a lovely meal laid on by Mary Bryant and danced the night away to the band ‘Secrets’. Top prize winners for the second year running winning the ‘Anderson Memorial Shield’ was the partnership of Cowan & Findlay of Darvel Homing Society. Another outstanding performance well worth a mention was that of Alex Howie of Ardeer Homing Society who won the ‘President Cup’ for his fantastic performance from the Buckingham race with the SNFC winning 1st region F 56th open from an entry of 4,169 birds on the 3rd June 2017. The prize winners for the 2017 old bird season are as follows.

John Nicol and Jim Dunn receiving the points trophy on behalf of Ardeer HS

Benzing Cup for 1st open Arniston (1) won by W Lawrence

Gibbs of Galston Cup for 1st open Dunbar won by J & R Bryson.

J and R Bryson

Lethanhill Cup for 1st open Berwick won by C & K & K McKerrow

British Heart Foundation Trophy for 1st open Sedgefield won by A Barbour.

Alex Calder Memorial Shield for 1st open Wetherby won by A Barbour.

The Yearling Trophy for 1st Yearling from Wetherby was won by T Smith.

Tom Smith

Mayor of Stafford Cup for 1st open Retford won by T Logan

William Benson Memorial Trophy for 1st open Buckingham won by A Howie.

John Simpson Vice Pres with Alex Howie centre receiving his award from Billy Steed

George Jamieson Trophy for 1st Yearling from Buckingham won by T Smith

The J H Young Memorial Cup for 1st open Bedhampton was won by R Donegan.

Robert Donegan

The Chris Cattrall Trophy for 1st yearling Bedhampton won by T Smith

The Crawford Trophy for ‘Best Average Buckingham & Bedhampton’ won by R Donegan.

The Centenary Quaich for 1st open Ypres was won by H Wallace

John Simpson Vice Pres with Hugh Wallace centre with Billy Steed

The R Kennedy trophy for 2nd open Ypres won by J & T Davidson

Tam Davidson of the J and T Davidson partnership

The J K Paterson Trophy for 3rd open Ypres won by D McKinlay.

The C McKerrow Memorial Trophy for 1st yearling from Ypres was won by Jim Shepherd.

The W G Davidson Memorial Cup for the ‘Best Average’ from Bedhampton & Ypres was won by the Cowan & Findlay partnership.

Lindsay Cowan of Cowan and Findlay

The Rothman Cup for the ‘Best Average’ from Buckingham, Bedhampton &Ypres again won by the Cowan & Findlay partnership

Young Birds winners

Federation Trophy for 1st open Arniston (1) won by A Barbour

The Culzean Cup for 1st open Dunbar won by the Grant & McGovern partnership

Stevie McGovern and John Grant

The Rainbow House Trophy for 1st open Berwick won by E Diamond.

Eddie Diamond

The Mr & Mrs J R Ramsay Trophy for 1st open Alnwick won by Grant & McGovern.

The J K Paterson Trophy for 1st open Sedgefield won by Grant & McGovern.

The J H Young Memorial Cup for 1st open Arniston (2) also won by Grant & McGovern.

The Mr & Mrs Ditchburn & Daughters Trophy for the ‘Best Average’ ALL young bird races also won by Grant & McGovern.

The Kenning Trophy for the ‘Best Average’ from Sedgefield & Arniston (2) again won by the Grant & McGovern partnership.

The A McTaggart Memorial Cup for the ‘Best Average’ from the last 2 old bird inland and the last 2 young bird races won by T Smith.

The David Tudhope Memorial Trophy for the Runner up to the Anderson Shield was also won by T Smith.

The final trophy The William Anderson Memorial Shield for ‘Best Average from 5 special Federation races’ won by Cowan & Findlay

The Hunter & Dumigan Points Trophy awarded to the club with the most points was won by Ardeer Homing Society.

Andy McKenna of McKenna and Diamond George Hutchinson of Hutchinson and Tudhope partnership

receiving his award from Billy Steed receiving their award from Billy Steed

Ian Noble Ayrshire Fed Sec presenting Billy Steed with a thank you gift

John Simpson

Pigeon Shows

Received a phone call from Joe Hunt of Dundee informing me that Logie Pigeon Club are holding a show in the Black Watch Club in Arthurstone Terrace Dundee on Boxing Day 26th December. Judging starts at 11am with gift birds for sale which will also have a breeder/ buyer prize. There is a bar and food on offer throughout the day so sounds good, so take note of the venue and time.

Gourdon & District RPC open show was a great success with 265 entries and the results were as follows: Any age cock through wires won by Gordon Campbell; Any age hen through wires won by Turpie & McCord; Likely old cock won by Chick & Ann Carrie; Likely old hen won by Eric & Neil Yule; likely young cock won by Turpie & McCord; Likely young hen won by Chick & Ann Carrie; Eyesign Eric & Neil Yule; Best in Show Chick & Ann Carrie; Best Opposite sex Turpie & McCord; Gourdon Show Cup won by B Craig; Gourdon Best young bird won by D & D Hay. The Gourdon club would like to thank the sponsors of the classes, Susan & Karen for the lovely bacon rolls, cakes, teas and coffees, Michael Craig for his tasty tablet, Margaret Hay for Clootie dumpling and David for his sausage rolls and to all who supported the show and made it a very successful day. Many thanks also Joe for giving our show a mention in your column yours kindest regards Margaret Hay.

Good SNFC Birds

I start this week’s good birds with a blue hen SU14AF 1440 that won 3 times in the national during one of the hardest seasons that I can ever remember. She was raced by my son Kevin Murphy from Arbroath and her performances are as follows; in 2016 she won 25th section C 63rd open flying 455 miles then during this season she won 69th section C 201st open from Buckingham flying 322 miles. A few weeks later she was up with the winners from the Bedhampton race winning 9th section C 26th open flying 400 miles. She was then set up for Ypres and again was to the fore being 24th section C 63rd open. She was then sent to the last old bird race of the season with her eggs due to hatch (she had never had a young bird all season) and unfortunately she failed to return home when only 71 birds made the result in 3 days from an entry of 802 birds. Staying in Angus federation we come to the successful partnership of Macaulay, Ferguson & Curran of Forfar club. Their blue bar cock SU14AF 2151 has won 4 times in the national twice last year and twice this year. In 2016 he went to Littlehampton a distance of 415 miles winning 29th section C 82nd open he then went to the last old bird national from Roye and won 33rd section C 108th open flying 534 miles. This year he was sent to Bedhampton a distance of 408 miles and he won 91st section C 349th open then again sent to the last race of the season this time from Falaise a distance of 551 miles and he won 45th open but no section prize; regardless he is still a good pigeon. Staying north of Dundee and the River Tay we come to the Peterhead loft of Jim & Ann Donaldson who are household names in the sport. When I was a long distance lorry driver I used to stop over in Peterhead for the night and meet up with Ann and Jim; also Jim Wiseman and Irvine Buchan and we talked about pigeons the whole night (well up until we had to go home to bed) Great nights with many fond memories; now to get back to Jim & Ann’s chequer hen SU14NE 6030 as a 2 year old she flew Littlehampton a distance of 466 miles and won 4th section G but no open prize. She was then set up for the last old bird national from Roye a distance of 570 miles (and knowing the Donaldson’s she would be going on her first youngster of the year sitting about 3 days old) and she won 7th section G but no open position. This year she had the Buckingham race a distance of 382 miles but did not make the result she was then set up for the Ypres races and won 3rd section G 82nd open flying 498 miles.

We now go back over the Firth of Forth to the village of Broxburn just west of the Forth Bridges to the loft of Mark Doran. His blue bar hen SU14CA 653 first scored as a baby from Buckingham a distance of 290 miles were she won 2nd section D 44th open. Moving on to 2016 she was again sent to Buckingham and won 32nd section D but no open diploma. This year she was entered into the Bedhampton race a distance of 366 miles and won 62nd section 528th open then a few weeks later was sent to Falaise and came up trumps winning 1st section D 16th open in a very hard race. Well done to all the above with their excellent birds.