LEICESTERSHIRE NOTES
by John Ghent
May 2014
Well here we, nearly a month into the season and it feels like w heave never been away! Ridiculous as it may sound I am already planning a couple of things for the off-season, just a few little tweaks that need making to hopefully make things a little easier for myself! I know I shouldn't be wishing the season away but once you have something in your head it is pretty difficult to shift but I shall use my willpower and patience and make sure it is all delayed until I have finished racing. It's highly unlikely I will complete the full young bird programme so am be able to make some changes in September, but anyway, I digress!
Something close to my heart is the drive to improve co-operation between organisations in the pigeon world and during the back end of April the Leicestershire South Road Federation needed a lot of help! Due to unforeseen circumstances the transporter could not get to the first race in the middle of April so much to everyone's frustration the race was cancelled! Step forward the East Midlands Amalgamation and after just a day or so's communication between the powers that be in the East Mids Amal and our own Federation it was agreed for us to borrow their small truck, as they are an organisation blessed with two transporters. This allowed us to get a race sorted for the end of April and by the third week of the season our own transporter was back up and running! So a big thanks to Sam Merry, Roland Stokes, Dave Boxford and any other of the committee members who assisted in this matter. Also a thank you to Darren Shepherd for the help he offered to make this a great success and maybe in the future we could repay the favour!
So, onto the results for both organisations for April and the start of May. To show my gratitude we will kick off with the East Midlands Amalgamation who were at Wakefield on April 20th. The 1232 birds were liberated at 11:15am in fresh north east wind. For the shorter members in the Nottingham clubs Wakefield is around 50 miles with the Brixworth club in Northants flying around the 95 mile mark, on this occasion it was the North Section which took the spoils, having the first 5 in the open result with the consistent Mr and Mrs Guilford taking top honours in both the North Section and the open result. D.Lack was 2nd, Mr and Mrs Lee 3rd and 4th with W. Bearder and Sons finishing the top 5 off. The first South Section flyer was Tom Augustini, the results just keep coming for Tom and I know he had an excellent year in 2013, 2014 has started very well for him as well as he was also 2nd Section, 7th Open and 6th Section, 12th Open. Another super flyer in the Braunstone club is Mick Moore and Mick claimed two positions in the top 10 in the Section, claiming 3rd Section, 8th Open and 5th Section, 11th Open, he was just split in the Section by G. Chaplin and Sons who were 9th Open and also 10th Section and 19th Open. The remaining top 10 in the South Section were P. Smith and Ellis in 7th, D. Gray in 8th and P&R Stokes in 9th. From 6th to 10th in the North Section were M&L Horton, K Spiers, Mr and Mrs Guilford again, Bearder and Sons and finally Mr and Mrs Lee.
The next race was Ripon on the 3rd May when the birds were liberated at 7:45am into no wind at all. The South Section really stepped up to the plate, taking 10 out of the first 13 positions in the open result! The first 15 in the Open were as follows:-
B. Manning taking the red card, pipping Geoff Myring with a 7 year old pied cock by 2 yards. In 3rd, 9th and 10th open was Mark Smith, Boden and Son were 4th and the Augustini partnership was 5th. M. Thorpe was 6th and the partnership of Paul Smith and Ellis was 7th. Then came the first North section member, P. Crooks finishing 1st Section, 8th Open, Bearder and Sons in 11th, Mr/s Kirkpatrick in 12th, back to Geoff Myring in 13th and the North Sections 4th and 5th places, both taken by Mr and Mrs Lee, were in 14th and 15th Open.
As has already been mentioned, racing in the Leicestershire South Road Federation had to be postponed for 1 week so we got underway on April 27th from Marlborough. It was a fairly tough race considering the distance as the East wind took hold and made it a difficult day for some of the yearlings involved. With that in mind, what a great pigeon Derek Leitch clocked to top the Federation, a yearling cock doing 1245 YPM. The bridesmaid in both the Federation and the South Leicester Club was the newly formed partnership of Allen and Hope, who also clocked two more to take 4th and 17th Federation. The South Leicester Club took 9 out the first 20 in the Federation, in addition to those already mentioned there were Fed positions for Ronnie Watson who dropped two together for 13th and 14th and Wilf James who clocked two within a minute for 15th and 18th Federation. Well done to Wilf as this was his first race on the South Road so what a way to start! Finally from the South Leicester Club Gaz Marsh sneaked one in for 16th Fed. This pigeon is from Gaz's famous Fed-Flopper strain and is on Gaz's unique "Send Um and See System"! The Carlton Club replicated the South Leicester with 9 in the first 20, P. Starbuck in 5th and 6th, K. Bowskill in 7th and 8th, the Ireland Bros in 9th, Bennett and Dtr in 10th, 19th and 20th with J. Saloman in 12th. It was then left to the Leicester Harrow to claim the final two positions with the top flyer Dave Hardy in 3rd Federation, no doubt warming up for the Midland National races, and then flying the flag for the more mature statesman was Joe White who grabbed 11th Federation.
It was then onto Salisbury and 1,444 birds were basketed and members of the Carlton, Loughborough, South Leicester and the Harrow shared out Federation honours. Mr and Mrs Whitmore topped the Fed with a yearling cock and were 17 yards clear of Allen and Hope who had to settle for 2nd place once again. The partnership also took 5th and Derek Leitch continued his good start to the season with 3rd place. John Murphy popped up with 4th and 9th positions, Dave Hardy scored again, this time 6th place. Summers Bros managed two positions, taking 8th and 11th. Graham Creese of the Leicester Harrow also had two places, taking 10th and 18th, with Mick Beadle and Dtr having 14th, 15th and 19th places all sewn up. Mr and Mrs Whitmore also took 13th, 16th and 17th places. The Carlton club members showed they are also a force to be reckoned with P. Starbuck in 7th place and G. Jones wrapping things up in 12th and 20th places!
Phew, lots of results, lots of different fanciers scoring and some collective co-operation to allow us to continue racing! I am finishing off this article two days before the first MNFC race and going into the race there are many local fanciers in real form. Sending to the National we have Fed toppers Allen and Hope and Derek Leitch, Section winners the Summers Brothers, National winning Jerry Wright and the ever consistent John Murphy, and that's just from the South Leicester Flying Club!! Add to that true Midland National stalwarts like Bill Marbrow and John Havens, as well as Warwick Federation's Baz Lovell and Dick Oram, who's birds are coming really well, and there is a great opportunity for Leicestershire to make another impact in the South Centre Section! By the time this is published the result will be known and we will all be looking forward to MNFC Fougeres and more Fed racing, good luck everyone and stay dry, it's chucking it down here now!
"Mush"
83, Newport Street
Leicester
LE3 9FU
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