LEINSTER NORTH ROAD FEDERATION
by Francis Corcoran
6/9/2016
Its been a time since I last wrote in the books and a lot has been happening in the last few weeks, there have been a lot of races taking place and with the weather not playing ball, a lot of races were postponed and rescheduled, not a practice I am a follower of. Certainly the weather plays a major role in the decisions that are being made, but I also think that there are other factors at play here within the fancy. Some fanciers do set out their stall for certain races and distances, and certainly when there is a lot at stake its not right if races are put off for other reasons, ie when certain fanciers or area’s are not ready for a particular race, but then, that’s another story. The answer to that of course is for clubs especially National organisations to stand alone and carry on regardless of the opinions of other smaller but seemingly more influential clubs and federations.
Some of the workers at the Waterford marking station
News now from Sharon in Wexford,
From Trim on the 17/07/16 when a 100 birds were sent. It was the new kid Tony Kelly that took 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th and 7th leaving only 8th 9th and 10th for the north road stalwart Peter Doyle. Sharon continues, This was a fabulous performance by Tony, considering he has only joined the club in recent years. He is obviously going to be a force to beat in young bird racing this season.
Since the above was sent in by Sharon, the season has deteriorated into chaos with races being cancelled, called off and rescheduled into shorter events, we are practically camped out in Trim or Carrigmacross, a distance of only 50 to 80 miles to our locality, things have got so bad around the clubs, that most members seemed to have packed up and only reappear if the races are short enough. There has been two Fed races so far and these have been dominated by the in form loft of the season, that of Joe Brennan of the Barrow Valley RPC, so I will give you what results I can glean from the Fed result sheet, not ideal, but the best I can do at the moment.
Tony Kelly Wexford RPC
First up was the Coalisland race that took place on the 7th of August. Taking the first thirteen positions, in section “B” and the Federation was Joe Brennan of the Barrow Valley club, seven were on 1094ypm and six were on 1093ypm, the first two over the line, a Grizzle hen 777 followed by the cheq cock 82, both are Belgian rung and were bred by our good friend Luc Cueleman, in fact nine of the thirteen were bred by Luc Cueleman in Belgium and were collected in the middle of April, raced on the darkness system all these birds were in extremely good condition, Joe in fact took seventeen of the top twenty positions available in the Federation. The second placed pigeon 82 will go on to feature in the next couple of races.
Winning section “A” Crosbie Bros of the Enniscorty club, followed by Ion Benyo of the Wexford RPC and finally Kurowski & Ptr of the Enniscorty club were 3rd section “A“. Joe Brennan wins the section “B” and Open noms, whilst Eugene Crosbie wins the section A nom.
On now to Larne on the 14th of August and the Fed result shows Joe Brennan of the Barrow Valley club taking the first nine positions in the federation and section “B”, , four on 1271ypm and five on 1261ypm, the first bird over the pads was the cheq cock 82 followed by a blue hen No 81, don’t know if these two are nest mates or not as they were both bred in Belgium by Luc Cuelemans, in fact five of the first nine were bred by Luc.
Joe Brennan
Big Ger Moran of the Moran & Doyle partnership clocked first in the Carlow Premier club to take 10th in the Fed. James Roach of the Arklow club, wins 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th section “C”.
Crosbie Bros win section “A” also 3rd, followed closely by John Dobbs in 2nd section “A”.
Joe Brennan wins the section “B” nom, James Clare wins the section “C” and Open noms. and finally Eugene Crosbie wins the section “A” nom.
Also held on the same day was the Federation Gold ring scheme race, and it was the federation winner No 82 belonging to Joe Brennan that brought home the spoils from this event winning a tidy sum, also second with another Belgian rung cheq cock to complete a great day’s racing for Joe. In third position was Eugene Crosbie of the Enniscorty club. Taking the final prize in fourth place was Peter Lucas of the Hacketstown club, Peter has sort of been left on a limb with most of that clubs members packing in early, meaning a much longer journey for Peter to have his pigeons marked for racing at the Barrow Valley RPC,
so well done to him.
As an aside, I have been racing a few on the south road myself, whilst waiting for the north road National races to come around, the races on the south route seemed to be progressing nicely until we came to the Barlycove young bird National, at which point the wheels appeared to come off the wagon, with delays and postponements being the order of the day, it was a race that I was much looking forward to, having a full team set up for the big day only to have to hold them in that condition for a further ten days.
And although they flew quite well it was obvious to me that the delay had taken the best out of them.
Paul Gunning on a recent visit to our lofts
No such problems for the man of the moment on the south road this year, namely Damien Maher of the Barrow Valley club, having just won the Federation Derby from Skibbereen on the previous Saturday and taking the first seven in his club and 1st, 6th,7th,8th,9th, & 10th Federation for a great result for Damien, however it did not stop there, as his second timer was also the winner of the Federation Gold ring scheme, this turned out to be a red letter day for Damien with the corn bills well and truly paid for some time to come.
On to the IHU National on the Wednesday from Barlycove when 108 members sent 1305 Birds to this, the first Inland National for the young birds, and Damien had a right flyer on a velocity of 1504 to secure 1st section “C”, 1st Open National IHU NFC.
Damien Maher
His cheq hen was on her sixth race of the season and was consistent all the while, she is bred from a Soontjen hen bred by Paul Stobbs which was purchased from the NCC one loft race dispersal sale last year.The sire of the National winner was bred locally by JJ Hurley and was purchased in a kit of six late breds last year, breeding is of the Stickers Donkers strain.
Damien would like to thank JJ for the birds as they have produced three federation winners already for Damo, and only in their first year of breeding.
Damien has a very neat set up which is at his parents home, which means he has to travel every day to attend to the birds and with a young family to support this takes a bit of doing. The birds are raced on the darkness system also incorporating the sliding door method; they are fed well and trained hard.
As stated the result above was really first class as it would have to be to beat the onslaught that came from the Wexford club who claimed the following twelve positions. Winning 1st section “B” 2nd Open National was P Quirke velocity 1490ypm, with another of his birds close behind for 6th open. Dobbs Bros were 3rd, 8th, 9th,10th,11th, & 12th Open, whilst William o Neill & Son were in at 3rd section “B” 4th open.
Next we had the ever present Billy Cullimore who had an excellent race, in that he only sent three birds to this event taking 4th 12th, 13th section “B” and 5th,13,& 16th open national, these birds were obviously well prepared for the job in hand.
N&M Winston were in at 6th section 7th open.
2nd section “C” 14th open went to Fred Malone of the Kilkenny club, whilst 1st, 2nd, 3rd, section “D” went to the Dungarvan loft of o’Donnell Bros & Moore for a very creditable 15th,17th,18th, Open.
In section “A” Derek Larkin had three in quick succession to take the top three positions in his section, noticeable here was that all three were pooled which made for a nice payday for Derek.
This race also incorporated a breeder / buyer race. But I’m afraid I am not up to speed on the full result of this part of the event, so I will leave it up to those in the know to report on that.
On the Sunday we were back on the North road for the Irish North Road National young bird race from Malin Head a race point that’s as far north as one can go without a boat in this country.
The birds were transported by the Munster Federation and released at nine thirty, with the wind at their back, which indicated that a fast race would ensue, and that’s the way it turned out.
Clocking six pigeons within a minute in just under the three hour mark for 176 miles on a velocity of 1740ypm was the in form loft of [no darkness here ] Joe Brennan of the Barrow Valley club, the first five birds will take the first five positions in section “R” and the National, tremendous flying by any standard. His first arrival was a blue cock bred from stock off of club mate Derek o Shea when he packed in a couple of years back, these were Vandenabeeles that were purchased from Alun Jones of Red Star lofts, second bird to the loft was the White Grizzle hen 777 bred for Joe in Belgium by our good friend Luc Culemans, next two were home bred from Joe’s old stock and finally another bred by Luc Culemans to secure 5th open National.
In section “M” it was Ray Baldwin of Passage east in Waterford on 1729ypm with a Cheq Pied Kilpatrick x Busscheart young bird that has been raced through the programme this year, Ray has had a decent year with the birds but a little unlucky having been 2nd in the three previous races to this event, Ray is a hard worker for the sport in his area and is ever present on marking days at the club, well done Ray.
Also, on Sunday September 4th the Irish Homing Union National Flying Club held their cross channel young bird National race from Talbenny in Wales. The birds were convoyed with a Northern Ireland organisation and were liberated at ten thirty on Sunday morning.
Ray Baldwin
.Listed below are the top ten positions in the IHU National Flying Club Race. held last weekend from Talbenny,
1st P&J. Jones Skerries, Dublin 1230ypm
2nd P&J Jones Skerries, Dublin 1230ypm
3rd D. Larkin Finglas, Dublin 1224ypm
4th M. Walsh Dublin 1214ypm
5th M. Byrne &Son Dublin 1209ypm
6th Gregory Bros Rathnew Wicklow.1185ypm
7th P&J Jones Skerries, Dublin 1184ypm
8th M. Walsh Dublin 1182ypm
9th Gregory Bros, Rathnew Wicklow 1181ypm
10th P. Rock. Skerries Dublin 1179ypm.
It was obvious that with the wind in a north westerly direction that most of the birds in the result would be on the coast and that’s the way it turned out, well done to P&J Jones and all those that clocked in this event, however I did hear that some very brave birds were clocked in the Limerick area from this race, so congratulations to them as well.
As you can see, there is quite a lot of information above, and from all over the shop, on at least two different routes, its not easy to get all the information compiled, so in future I would ask that if you have a good result in your section of the National, either North or South road, please get in contact with some information on yourself and the birds in question, also a good photo, and don’t leave it too long to get in touch, as the results need to get to the fancy press as soon as possible, yes I do believe that some have it on social media in a jiffy, but its not quite the same as reading it in the pigeon papers.
That’s all for now,
any news or photo’s to
or
Ph: 00353599145419.
Punch
