Leicester Continental Club Coutances Race
Well the waiting was finally over and along with 8,500+ other birds the Leicester Continental Club birds were off to Coutances with the MNFC to compete in the first race of the season. Following the 2 day hold over the birds were liberated into a testing West North West wind at 7:15am, predictions were that it would be a tough race, around 240 miles to our members here, and so it proved to be with no velocities in the club topping 1200 ypm.
This provisional report of the Silver Race will highlight the first 5 members on the sheet according to provisional velocities, a more in depth report giving details of the full prize list for the Gold Race and the Silver Race will appear in due course.
First out of the traps this year is Derek Leitch on 1198 ypm, some 30 yards clear of second place! By his high standards Derek had a slightly disappointing season in the Continental Club last year but with this start he will be hopeful of more success this time round and he now has points on the board early in the race for the Super League title!
Derek Leitch(R), provisional 1st LCC Coutances
2014 Super League Champion and well known Midland National fancier Mick Lennon makes a solid start to the season on 1163 ypm, giving the competition something to think about already! In third spot provisionally is last year's Super League winner John Murphy, the big guns have made early moves this year in a difficult race, it will be interesting to see how the changes to the format of the Super League effect these fanciers that are previous winners of our Super League. Now that the Silver Race and the Gold Race, which is the single bird nomination element of our club, both count for points towards the Super League, a whole new dimension has been added which challenges the fancier even more!
Mick Lennon, provisional 2nd - John Murphy, provisional 3rd
Johnny Gilbert is provisional fourth. Leicestershire's most difficult man to get hold over sent a decent team and it was left to Diane to relay the details of the single bird nomination, we shall see how that comes to fruition once the main result has been worked out! Finally for the provisional report, a close neighbour of Mr. Gilbert is Jerry Wright, having split his team between the NFC Fougeres race and today's Countances outing, Jerry has provisional fifth in the Continental Club on what must have been a very busy weekend for the Lutterworth fancier.
Johnny Gilbert, provisional 4th - Jerry Wright, provisional 5th
That concludes the provisional report for the first race in the 3rd Season of the Leicester Continental Club, please keep your eyes peeled for the full report and the final result. Fougeres will soon come around and I have to admit I did get very excited watching the result unfold today. I even came home and told the wife I am looking forward to getting back racing, hopefully later on this season, we shall see! Good luck in your local clubs and Federations over the next couple of weeks.
A quote to finish to cheer you up if things didn't quite go your way this weekend.
"Take a deep breath, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again."
John Ghent
Secretary of Leicester Continental Club
