JOHN DAVID'S
RAMBLINGS
Do future champions really need training and flock exercise? Was J O Warren & Son of Southport performance from Pau with Lancashire Rose the greatest win ever in the NFC?
Well it was too good to last and whilst April was blessed with brilliant sunshine throughout the month, May has certainly changed for the worst as far as weather is concerned and proves that the British weather is as unpredictable as ever. Let’s hope it improves later in the month when South Road National channel racing starts in earnest. The problem when we hit a very hard race as was experienced last week from Newbury with the SW Glamorgan Federation is that our birds are not used to flying under these conditions and yet later in the season when they are crossing France on long haul flights it is inevitable they will on occasions hit very harsh or even severe weather conditions and if we keep our birds wrapped up in cotton wool at all times these are the first birds to go down and fail to return. Our feathered friends are much hardier than we give them credit for and it is inevitable that sooner or later they are going to hit a bad race and I would prefer it to be from 100 miles than from 500 miles. Because of the blustery winds and frequent very heavy showers on Thursday of last week the turnout was poor at Talbot Green for the excellent training from Magor provided by Martin Parry. Martin is waiting for a replacement kidney and was telling me that a few months ago was rushed into hospital after being told a suitable kidney became available, only later to have his hopes dashed when it was found it did not quite match up to requirements. Martin I hope your luck will change soon and you get your replacement kidney and I am sure all fanciers will echo my words!
It is funny but last week with Martin I sent six hens that have now been separated from the cocks for ten days and one mealy yearling cock. A certain fancier asked me” why didn’t you send your other cocks? To which I replied “As this cock won’t exercise with the others and keeps landing on the aviary roof or house and stops the other pigeons exercising. To which he replied “I would not tolerate him in my loft if he won’t exercise and he would be buried in the garden”. I said he is a promising bird very well bred and the reason he won’t fly with the batch is that he has never learnt to do so. To this the fancier laughed and drove off! Well last year the mealy and his sister were in a large aviary with the stock birds that were rearing for two months after weaning and I then decided to move them into the loft with the later bred birds for training. However I could never get him and his sister to exercise and after a few weeks and a number of hawk attacks I decided to take a chance and start training them. The first toss was from Tonyrefail about two miles away and they all got home albeit over a two hour period. I then went a different direction to Pencoed and remember watching the birds from a car park after liberating. The batch circled for ten minutes before the two mealies left the batch and flew straight over my head in the direction of home. As soon as the pack saw them leaving they chased after them and all arrived home together. After that on the next toss from Porthcawl the two mealies were missing for several hours and I decided to leave them until the next year. However this year they still fly on their own and have never exercised with the batch and the cock seems to prefer to play up to young hens in the aviary and who can blame him! But both seem now to be getting used to racing and I am quietly confident that they will make good birds in the future. I am quite sure that birds that don’t fly with the flock learn a great deal in a short period of time and I am quite certain champions are born champions and cannot be made into such birds no matter how much training and racing they get.
Dark Shadow. He scored at National level in all channel races up to 418 miles as a yearling in 2010. 32nd Open WSRNFC Vire 215 mls vel 1354 on 22/5/2010. 196th Open WSRNFC Messac 265 mls vel 656 5/6/2010. 11th Open WSRNFC Tours 340 mls vel 1161 19/6/2010. 25th Open WSRNFC Saintes (1) 418 mls vel 724 3/7/10. 21st Open WSRNFC Saintes(2) 418 mls vel 705 23/7/10. Most races flown into north easterly head winds. He was winner of 1st Ace Pigeon Award RPRA Welsh Region for middle distance in 2010 and was bred and raced by me.
Many years ago when I was living in Llantwit Fardre I had a blue Van Hee hen that simply would not fly. I tried to make her fly as both a young bird, yearling and two year old with no success. She would make half a circle and back into the loft. As she was so well bred I reared out of her for two years but then when she was three years old decided half way through the season to send her for her first ever race from Shrewsbury 86 miles. Remember she had never exercised and never been trained. Imagine my surprise but also great joy when she returned quite late on the second day. She was absolutely shattered and had given her all. I then gave her three weeks rest and lifted her into Elgin 423 miles with the Welsh North Road Federation the biggest Fed in Europe at that time. Again she had no exercise or extra training before being entered but these same Van Hees had won Thurso for me five years running which was almost 500 miles. After being liberated at Elgin no birds were recorded in the Fed on the day. At the time I lived in 1 Llest Cottages about 50 yards up the road from my loft and that night I set my alarm for 4.15am to be at the loft for 4.30am when the second day opened. The alarm failed to go off and luckily I woke at 4.30 and quickly got dressed and was rushing down the road at 4.40 when Lynne Pearce who owned the land on which my loft was built came running up the road with a rubber ring in his hand. He had taken an interest in my birds that season and when he got to the loft at 4.25am found the blue Van Hee hen clinging to the side of the dowels trying frantically to get in. He had managed to catch her and had taken her rubber ring off and she was eventually clocked at 4.41am. Although there were no day birds she ended up 1st club, 8th Open WNR Fed as seven birds were clocked early that morning after 4.30am but because of the hours of darkness the greater distance flown made a big difference as it was a very slow race.
Back to the present time and racing flown on the weekend of 21st May was from Fougeres which was the opening race with the NFC and the WSRNFC which were racing from Carentan. I had entered four birds with the NFC which was their first race south this season and four in the WSRNFC. I travelled down to Frome on the Thursday morning after dropping my wife off to work at 10.45am and reached Frome by 12.15pm. Unfortunately although I entered the post code for Frome market it took me to the old town and I then arrived by 12.45. There was a considerable queue and funnily enough I met up with a lovely couple who fly as D & G Thomas from Seaton on the South coast who were in front of me and said they had found the same problem with their Sat Nav. I noticed in the NFC handbook the post code is BA11 2QH but if you use BA11 2B it takes you straight there. My wife said she has relations living in Seaton which is a really lovely place so would be a pigeon paradise if it was not for the very many peregrine falcons who frequent this coast line. Dexter was very interesting to talk to and had detailed information on the whereabouts of the very many peregrine falcons along the south coast. It’s little wonder I had such a bad toss with the young ones in Poole last year as it seems peregrines in abundance are waiting for the unsuspecting visitor to liberate their pigeons there. The Frome NFC marking was run very efficiently and despite a large number of fanciers arriving on a regular basis within one and a half hours we were on our way again.
Daughter of Spitfire
On the Saturday liberations commenced at 6.15am from Carentan with the Midlands NFC with the WSR National liberating at 7am while the NFC liberated at 8.30am from Fougeres. The leading birds into Wales started arriving around 10.20am with velocities in excess of 1600 ypm. Winds were mostly southerly with a slight easterly influence. It was interesting to follow the progress of the NFC race on the internet. For some time it looked as if L & J Peters of Weymouth were in with a shout who incidentally won section “C”. I worked out I had to clock by 12.45am to be on par so when my first arrival came at 1.15pm I knew I could not win but it was pleasing to see the hen return in such wonderful condition for this her first race south this season and of course her first two days and nights stay in the baskets. Then Stuart Wilcox was the front runner winning section G in Bristol. However the excitement continued for several hours as velocities increased the further north you went until the eventual winner was clocked by Tom Jackson of Preston recording a provisional velocity of 1802ypm from his small team of 6 birds. The only downside was that a lot of birds overshot their lofts and had a very difficult flight back into a strong headwind. I was indeed very pleased when my best hen from the previous year dropped back off the north at 5.30pm. She won the Gold ring scheme in the National as a YB and then after returning late from Saintes as a yearling last year was taken out of the sky by a goshawk who then dropped her over a wooded area within sight of my loft. I searched the undergrowth for an hour without success but incredibly she dropped back to the loft just before dark very badly injured but still managed to get on her eggs. After that night she failed to go to the nest for three days when the cock took full control. However thereafter she resumed her sitting duties and reared a fine pair of young birds.
The performance of Tom Jackson brought back memories of 1964 when JO Warren and Son of Banks, Southport won the Pau NFC with Lancashire Rose flying an incredible 722 miles who won against 3,289 birds with a velocity of 870ypm in such a hard race. It was the talking point of the country for many years and I remember buying a pair of birds off Jimmy Warren in 1965 for £10. Later that year the father of one of my purchases won 1st sect Pau and became known as Lancashire Lad and if my memory serves me right was sold to South Africa for £500. I corresponded with Jimmy Warren for many years and he used to tell me our winners from Thurso would come straight over his loft on race days and not come east of the Pennines like many people thought. A number of years later I decided to call upon Jimmy Warren when I was passing through Southport. Regrettably Jemmy’s health had deteriorated at that time and he had just undergone major surgery but I spent a wonderful few hours in his company talking about old times.
Well Jimmy you can rest assured that we will never forget this great performance from Pau with Lancashire Rose which many rate as the best performance of all time in the NFC.
John David Havachat Bungalow, Mwyndy, Pontyclun RCT CF728PN Phone 01443-226809 Email
