Leicester Continental Club Update
by John Ghent
Welcome to 2017 everybody! January is just about over as I write this piece, Blackpool has been and gone, a few more meetings to be had and then we are into the season. When I was at school people used to say to me, “time flies when you are a little older”, and how right those people were! I cannot believe where the winter months have gone to. No sooner was the season over and the last young birds flying their final race than it is time to start thinking about this years attack on the Federation and National races in the next 5/6 months. The first Midland National race is less than 4 months away! When you say it like that it is quite scary isn’t it.
Anyway, down to business now! The 2016 season was another successful year for our Club. The Continental Club was formed to be a simple way of enjoying further competition within our area. The radius is now 20 miles from the Clock Tower in Leicester City Centre, giving flyers from Nuneaton, Bedworth, Desborough to name but a few, the opportunity to come and fly against the very best in the Leicester area. Yes there are one or two flyers who are not currently members who are absolutely top notch flyers and we believe would really benefit and most importantly enjoy the competition, but nevertheless we still have some outstanding flyers in our ranks, along with long distance nut-jobs who struggle to fly a kite like yours truly!
We will pay out over £2,000 at our presentation evening on April 7th, the annual event will have as usual have a superb panel which will be announced nearer the time. In 2016 the club was flying with 15 members so to pay out in excess of £2,000 is some going, I am sure you will agree. As has been the norm for the club we will be adopting the full MNFC programme for 2017 so if anybody is interested in getting involved please do not hesitate to drop me a line and I can get an entry form sorted out for you.
We are currently just in the process of collating our young bird phone in auction and it is one not to be missed! Keep your eyes peeled in the fancy press for further details of the birds which will be available. There will be some cracking donations from some really superb fanciers, it is great to see the response that these birds get as the donors work hard to make sure the very best birds are on offer for the sale.
My daughter Abbie with her Uncle Gary, both enjoying the show
It was nice to see a few faces in Blackpool, not as many Leicester lads and lasses as I have been used to but nevertheless the people that were there certainly made the Friday night one to remember! After watching some of the eye watering prices in one of the auctions, thousands of pounds for virgin stock does scare the living daylights out of me, we went off into town and finished in the Soul Club with a good dozen of us drinking the night away, we were certainly feeling the effects the following day I can tell you! It was nice for me to be able to bring my youngest daughter along, she really enjoyed running around the Winter Gardens and hopefully this is just the first of many shows that she will be attending in the coming years in my efforts to bring her up as a 4th generation fancier in the Ghent/Farmer family.
Until next time.
“Mush”
John Ghent
07510866515
