LEICESTERSHIRE NOTES
by John Ghent
November 2013
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Well, Winter is upon us! I am writing this piece in the first frosty morning of the season and changing the water in the lofts this morning was not an enjoyable experience although I am sure it will get a lot worse as the Winter progresses and I don't envy you lot out in the countryside as it must be even colder out there than it is where I am, about a mile or so from the clock tower in Leicester.
I am pleased to say that this edition of Leicestershire Notes is a real mixed bag of old and new, North and South, inland and channel racing. The diversity that this great sport offers has to be one of the biggest draws and is what keeps people interested. Whether you are a distance specialist, a sprint guru, a young bird demon or a breeder/buyer expert, there really is something for everyone and all of the above crops up in this article, a real mixed big to keep everyone happy!
The question is, where do we start! Well... let's start at the top, or in the North should I say, and the final round up of the East Midlands Amalgamation. I know that the people behind the scenes are working really hard to make sure the offering from the E.M.A is top class and lots of possibilities are being explored for next season which will no doubt be downloaded to me in the months ahead but it would be wrong to start putting anything out there that I do not hear from the horse's mouth, sorry to label you a horse Sam but you know what I mean I hope! I have mentioned this before but I feel I need to say it again, the results that Sam Merry produces for the East Mids Amal are second to none, with an overall result, section results, points championships, breeder buyers, it all makes for a compelling season with something to fly in for all concerned. The combined old bird and young bird points league highlights what an amazing season the winner had. Johnson and Haskard of Nottinghamshire recorded a phenomenal 424 points, thanks in no small part to 7 1st places in the Amal. To put this into context, no other flyer topped the Amal more than 2 times in the season and the flyers in second place, Mr and Mrs Guilford, of NRCC Fraserburgh fame, scored 156 points. P. Crooks finished 3rd on 144 points and we dipped below 100 from there on in with Mr/s Augustini on 97, W. Bearder and Sons on 91 points in 5th place, Geoff Myring with 82 points finished 6th. H. Fisher, Mr/s Widdison, Mark Smith and G. Weston round up the top 10 on 68, 62, 57 and 52 points respectively.
The Amalgamation paid out just under £1,100 in prize money and pools over their 5 Championship races in 2013. The races being Perth, Fraserburgh, Thurso and Lerwick which was flown with the NRCC for the old birds and then young bird Berwick. Top of the tree for prize money was W. Bearder and Sons who won prizes or pool at all 5 race points and collected in the region of £260 for their efforts. Another stellar performance in the Championship races came from G. Chaplin and Sons who put in a stunning effort at Lerwick with the NRCC which added to the pools that they secured at Fraserburgh, Thurso and young bird Berwick to pocket them £207. Mr/s Shaw collected pools to the tune of £94 from Perth, Fraserburgh, Thurso and Berwick and Les Berry and Son also scored in 4 races, including their beloved Lerwick, to come away with £88. In 5th place in the prize money chart was P. Crooks who won prize money at both Thurso ands Berwick, his coffers were swelled by some decent pool money in the young bird race. Whilst we are on the subject of prize money, let's take a look at the Leicestershire Two Bird Championship Club which is run in conjunction with the East Midlands Amal and really does pay some excellent prize money. The Champion was Les Berry and Son with 19 points and £95, in 2nd was Mr/s Shepherd with 12 points and £104. 3rd place was Paul Bakewell who was actually the highest prize winner thanks to victories in both the Fraserburgh and Thurso races, which grabbed him £134 for his efforts. In joint 4th in the points league was P&R Stokes and Glennon/Bakewell, both with 6 points and prize money of £10 for the Stokes partnership, with the Henley Road outfit netting £44.90, mainly thanks to victory from the Shetland Isles with the NRCC at Lerwick. That just about wraps up the East Midlands Amalgamation season but whilst we are still on the North I will round up what happened specifically in the Braunstone Premier over the end of the old bird and the full young bird season.
We'll kick off with the Lerwick race which was flown in conjunction with the NRCC and this year G. Weston took 1st and 4th having only sent 2 pigeons to the Shetland Isles, what an excellent performance that was. The all out "Lerwick Man" John Summers was in 2nd place and the ever consistent Mr and Mrs Augustine were in 4th, these were the only 4 clocked in the club from 19 pigeons sent. Wetherby was the following week and the Sec Paul Smith took the first 3 with Mark Smith in 4th and 6th, Mick Moore in 5th and 8th, P. Webster in 7th. It was then the finale of the East Mids Amal season and it was up to the North Coast of Scotland for Darren Shepherd and the testing race point of Thurso, 420 miles into Leicester. There have been some amazing performances of the years from this racepoint, which is one of my Grandad's favourite race points as a matter of fact, and Mr/s Augustine did themselves proud with the first 4 in the club and 1st East Midlands Amalgamation. There were only 12 birds back in the Amalgamation on the day and only 4 in the club, all to Tom, cracking team effort I am sure you will all agree. The last old bird race was from Ripon and Mark Smith took 1st and 3rd, Paul Smith and Grandson Ellis in 2nd, 4th and 5th with Mick Moore in 6th. Be careful Ellis, Grandad's have a funny habit of getting you involved in this sport for life, whether you like it or not, I am talking from experience so be careful, haha!
Onto the young birds now first up as Wakefield on 20th July. Top due Mr/s Augustine kicked off with 1st Club, 1st Section and 1st East Mids Amal, 2nd Club, 2nd Section and 2nd Amal was G. Weston who also took 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th club. It was then into Wetherby and another 1st for Mr/s Augustine, as well as 3rd and 6th. John Summers popped up with 2nd club and G. Weston was 4th and 5th. At Ripon Mr/s Augustine secured a hat-trick of wins and added 2nd and 6th place for good measure, Mark Roberts was 3rd and 5th with the consistent G. Weston in 4th. Even as the races came back don the country the Augustine partnership could not be stopped and took 1st and 5th at Wakefield, M. Roberts was 2nd and 3rd with C. McManus in 4th and 6th. At Wetherby on 18th August the Augustine juggernaut was finally stopped by M. Roberts who took 1st, 2nd and 6th. Mick Moore dropped in with 3rd and 4th with the Augustine team having to settle for 5th. The Roberts young bird team really hit peak form the following week at Ripon as they stormed home to take the first 8 in the club, another cracking team showing from a Braunstone Premier fancier. They continued that form into the Otterburn race with 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th. C. McManus was 2nd with Mick Moore 5th. At Aycliffe C. McManus won his first race in 8 years, what a feeling that must have been, 5th place also went to the McManus loft. M. Roberts split them up with 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th. The final race was from Berwick and once again the Roberts loft came to the fore with 1st, 2nd and 3rd. C. McManus then cleared up the remaining places with 4th through to 8th.
Paul Smith and all the members of the Braunstone Premier would like to thank Nigel Shepherd for the phone calls, Sam Merry for his hard work behind the scenes and Darren Shepherd for racking up the miles through North England and Scotland whilst looking after the birds, a thankless job at the best of times! Paul and the club members would also like to thank Mark Smith for his ETS skills and Mick Moore for his solid contribution throughout the year. The presentation night is on December 14th, there is food and a disco on, £7 for adults, £3 for 16-18 and kids go free, a night not to be missed, I know I'll be there!
Wow, that was a lot of information, massive thanks to both Sam Merry and Paul Smith for all of this, without people supplying the information I do struggle so their contribution cannot be underestimated.
I rounded up the South Road results in my last article but the Saturday just gone saw the presentation evening take place for the South Leicester FC and the Leicestershire South Road Federation. It was good to see other clubs supporting and we welcomed members from the Braunstone Premier, New Parks, Monsell FC, Leicester Harrow, Desborough and Northampton to share an evening of singing, dancing, drinking and eating. (Sorry if you didn't get enough food, morale of the story is never get behind Dick Oram in a buffet queue!) A massive thank you must go out to Rich and Linz Lovell who, despite running the Morcote animal sanctuary on a daily basis, continue to put in so much hard work for the club to make it the massive success that it now is! Danny Underwood, Fed Champion three years running, was on hand to give out the prizes and there was a very nice touch from Rich Lovell, who asked us all to raise a glass to our club mate Vic Whatley who is not very well are minute, our thoughts are with you Vic, get well soon pal. As I said, I went through the full season previously, but just to tidy up the final winners I shall rattle through them now. Lee Allen won the first old bird race, the old bird championship race and was crowned old bird champion. J&T Gateley claimed the lowest winning velocity, as well as the longest young bird race and they were also young bird champions. G. Creese won the longest young bird race, D. Sturgess, Son and Grandson won the young bird championship race and John Underwood and Son were once again the Overall Fed Champions. Betts, Topham and Son rounded off an excellent Midland National Campaign by winning the Channel Points and also won the Vire and Ancenis races, flown alongside the MNFC. Summers Brothers won the Carentan race, Jones and Coleman the Fougeres race, Mr and Mrs Jerry Wright claimed both the Bordeaux Old Bird and Carentan Young Bird races with John Murphy the victor from Chale on the Isle of Wight.
That brings me nicely onto the Leicester Continental Club which is now really moving forward. After our initial meeting 3 weeks or so ago, we are now at 16 confirmed members with more expected to come onward over the next few weeks and months. Subscriptions do not need to be paid until April 1st 2014 and can be paid in instalments if that is better for you. There are several fanciers that I would have thought would be all over this that we have not yet heard from, gives me a better chance I suppose so I am happy with that! In all seriousness, there will be some super prize money on offer but you have to be in it to win it, I am taking bets on how many times I hear someone say to me next Summer, "well I would have won it if I was in the club." I know for sure it will happen, just don't let it be you!!! Letters went out to around 50 or so people, if you received a letter you are in the radius so just give me a call if you want more information, or better yet come along to the AGM, it will be announced via these pages, and ask as many questions as you want before making your decision. We currently have some top notch fanciers on board and I for one am really excited about the prospect of competing within the Leicester Continental, you can be sure of one thing, you'll get a cracking write up if you score!
Starting to wrap things up now. The South Leicester Federation is holding a sale on December 29th at The Old Aylestone Social Club on Middleton Lane. This is for latebreds, old birds, whatever is available, and all money raised will go towards the Federation's funds, please support it, we need everyone to continue to rally around so we can have another successful season in 2014! Penning is at 12.00pm for a 1.00pm start. Finally, the photos included in the article go way back to the early 1960s and they are of one of the old Federation cards that the Leicester North Road Federation used to produce. I thought it would be nice for fanciers of today to see them, 50 years on and some of the names are still well known to this day! See if you can spot a name or two that you may know!
Thanks again all, speak soon.
"Mush"
83, Newport Street
Leicester
LE3 9FU
