L J Parkinson - 23-05-24

L J Parkinson

This is the time of year when many fanciers used to look forward to racing the channel in their local clubs. Is that going to happen again, I don’t know but I hope so because we are missing a good part of our hobby. There are plenty of races available with Nationals and classic clubs but racing in the local fed gives us a chance to educate our birds. If you are trying to test and find the best to race from across the channel, we could do without the extra costs of club fees and more importantly the running about to enter these races. For many marking for these races takes a lot of time out of their day, travelling to and from marking stations. Whereas if you had the local fed racing it’s just another marking night in your own area. Thinking about it If we did get back to channel racing, I suspect we would have to have some form of central marking to meet DEFRA requirements, you can bet your life that would not suit many. Having said that with there being so many small clubs with the decline of the sport central marking is probably what we need.

Team performance.

I am always looking for events in pigeon racing that are worth an extra mention, especially into the northwest where we are, and especially when it comes to National racing. One such event was the recent team performance of Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw from up here in Cheshire. The race I am referring to is the BICC Guernsey National where they collected 1^st 3^rd 4^th 15^th 27^th 40^th 41^st 48^th 50^th 62^nd 65^th open from their entry of 21 when 166 members entering 1895 birds. Nigel likes to compete in the Nationals and puts a lot of time into the pigeons to achieve his goal. They missed out on 1^st National last year through not verifying the first bird in time, a mistake they won’t make again. Nigel has a team of cocks in a section of their own who don’t often see hens and they have not been paired as such; they are 2-3-4-5yo’s.

National Carentan.

I was rather disappointed with my birds in the NFC Carentan race when I entered 10 and didn’t get one on the day. Since commencing racing again after the break this is the worst day’s racing I have had and to be honest I expected better on the day. Our pigeons do appear to be handling well and have that sheen on them, maybe some are a little overweight but that’s how some pigeons are plus the down feathers are dropping fast. While I was not racing, I would still look at the National results to see how certain people were going on, fanciers we have met over the years and how their pigeons are performing. I had been waiting a long time to get back into National racing and was brought back down to earth with one mighty bump. Admittedly I don’t know the background of most of the pigeons we have because they are yearlings mostly bred for us by other fanciers when we restarted racing. Knowing the fanciers they come from there are well bred pigeons amongst them, but I need to find out how to get the best out of them. When you are sorting out a few, finding pigeons for National racing is not easy, over the years I have found that some do not cope as well as others. Still, I will persevere and reach my goal at some point in the future, my goal being to get a team of pigeons together to compete in the Nationals up to 697mls which is Tarbes to this part of the world. I am aware that many fanciers are not keen on the longer races but it’s a great thrill to see them finishing from the long-distance channel races to here in the northwest. Anyway, this was a bad weekend for me losing a total of 13, never been known before, but it happens. What I will say is I sent 10 yearlings with Carentan in mind, had I have known they were going further I would not have sent them because they had not been far as young birds and I only have yearlings to build a team on. I have spoken to a fancier who has been out there, and he sees no reason why they needed to move, in fact there are other organizations due to go there this year. It’s all a case of preference and where some want to race from. I suppose as far as space goes the NFC transporters are big vehicles and we mustn’t forget they have gull wings which take up a lot more space. Other smaller transporters could probably get away with it but not the National. When you see these transporters on the road, they are a credit to the sport, pity they cannot be used more than they are.

Results

The Mid Cheshire Fed race from Mangotsfield saw 75 members enter 1462 birds that were liberated at 13.30pm in a southeast wind. Leading the way is Sankey Bridge winner G Rutter collecting 1^st club 1^st north section 1^st open with a yearling on 1698ypm. Sticking with the top three in the club we see Mr & Mrs D W Cox 2^nd club 4^th north section 4^th open after seeing home a yearling on 1695ypm. Completing the top three in the club is Steve Cooke who also clocked a yearling on 1685ypm to finish 3^rd club 10^th north section 10^th fed. Moving on we see the ever-present partnership of W & P Brown from the Earlestown club are 1^st club 2^nd north section 2^nd open also with a yearling recording a vel of 1698ypm two decimals away from the top spot. 2^nd club 6^th north section & fed go to Arnold & Jackson with a 2yo on 1693ypm. The very good partnership of R & B Smith are 3^rd club 9^th north section and fed recording a vel of 1686ypm. 1^st 2^nd 3^rd club 3^rd 5^th 7^th north section and open go to Mr & Mrs Carl Hickman after entering their birds with the Acton Bridge club. In the Leigh & Atherton HS J Chadwick clocked a yearling on 1687ypm to secure 1^st & 3^rd club 8^th north section & fed being split in the club by Simon Kennedy on 1683ypm. That completes the top ten in the fed we now move on to the clubs starting with Frodsham where the top three positions go to W Ellis with vels of 1629/1578/1540ypm. In the Greenbank club Martin Williams also takes the top three positions on 1649/1614/1605ypm. Another filling the top three positions are D & P Whitfield from the Halmerend FC with vels of 1554/1502/1499ypm. Meanwhile over in the Lymm FC Ray Lunt clocked two close together both on 1680ypm to take 1^st & 2^nd club ahead of Andy Roberts on 1642ypm. In Middlewich FC M & H Smith are 1^st & 2^nd with vels of 1619/1616ypm, Mark missed the first couple of races but has soon caught up and is doing well. Peter & Dawn Latham are flying well and, in this race, ends up 3^rd on 1611ypm. In the Rudheath WMHS Dave Lowe is 1^st club 1^st south section and 19^th open on 1677ypm followed by Peter & Mike Child whose first two recorded vels of 1659/1648ypm. A Oates wins the Runcorn DHS with a vel of 1641ypm ahead of S Spataru recording vels of 1612/1543ypm. The St Helens FC sees Arnold & Johnson lead the way with a vel of 1649ypm ahead of A Greenall on 1637ypm and Guest bros clocking up 1643ypm. In the Wrinehill club Darren Everill leads the way recording a vel of 1605ypm while the next two positions go to Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw on 1603/1593ypm. Moving on to the South West Cheshire Fed race from Wincanton when 57 members entered 872 birds that were liberated at 9.30am in a light north east wind. This weekend saw the two local feds put their races forward one day and marked on the Saturday due to uncertainty with the weather. There was a clear winner for Hankelow member Joe Glover who continues his winning ways. Joe’s winner is an established 4yo who clearly knows what is needed to win the races, in this case winning by 105ypm ahead of 2^nd fed. Joe took the first three in the club plus 1^st 8^th 9^th fed recording vels of 1412/1295/1294ypm. 4^th place in the club goes to J Hughes with a vel of 1288ypm. 1^st & 4^th in the Crewe West End go to Mr & Mrs K Lovatt, who are also 2^nd & 11^th fed on 1317/1296ypm. 2^nd & 3^rd club 6^th & 10^th Fed go to Bob Humphries with vels of 1296/1294ypm. That completes the top ten in the fed, with now receiving an extended list with the fed it might be worth extending the fed positions included to the top 20, something to think about for the young bird season. We have not included them for the first half of the old bird season so it wouldn’t be fair to change the positions included now. The Middlewich 5B sees Mark Smith with another 1^st & 2^nd club to go with 3^rd & 4^th fed on 1313/1312ypm. The club had a good day with 3^rd club 5^th fed with a vel of 1311ypm going to Peter & Dawn Latham. 4^th club 7^th fed is won by Les Parkinson & Elizabeth Wilkinson from Elimar Lofts with a Chequer hen bred by Hibbert Bros from their Dirk Van Den Bulk stock. Right let’s move on to the rest of the clubs starting with what is generally the biggest club in the fed, the Duddon PFC where K W Walker & Sons top the list with a vel of 1292ypm with K & K Rowland 2^nd & 4^th recording vels of 1262/1250ypm, with Gary Adamson 3^rd on 1254ypm. In the Greenbank club top spot with a vel of 1283ypm goes to Turner & Son just two yards ahead of Martin Williams 2^nd on 1281ypm. 3^rd goes to Mick Stockton who was supposed to be doing a job for me, but I am still waiting, there will probably be snow on the ground before he gets back to me. Anyway, Mick’s first in the clock ended the day on 1277ypm ahead of John Peever with a vel of 1271ypm. Over in the Halmer End FC D Everill had a good race taking the first three with vels of 1288/1284/1277ypm followed by D & P Whitfield on 1267ypm. That leaves Winsford FC where A Jones takes the top sport on 1270ypm. The next two positions go to Mr & Mrs Dave Healey with two on 1258ypm leaving 4^th to G&A&C Jones whose first in the clock is clocking up 1252ypm. The Middlewich 5B put colour and sex on their details to the fed, would be a good idea if all clubs did the same.

NWCC

Diane Bonney secretary of the North West Classic has sent me the race program for the club. The first race is from Weymouth on the 1^st of June with marking on the 31^st May followed by three races from Guernsey on the 15^th 29^th June and 13^th July with Marking for the later races being on the Thursday prior to the races.

Photo

Caught in the act by Lizzie when Ebony and I were one spotting the youngsters, all 76 of them, it was a good job we did them on this day, the following day was when the rain started. These youngsters were very slow at getting going so the day before the photo was taken, I had given them a start to get them in the air. Looks like some were offended because we were a handful short on the night but returned next day, think they were making a point that they weren’t at having a ball thrown at them. Having said that I recall the same thing happening last year when they were taking their time to cover air space. I did the same then, gave them a starter to get them off the top of the loft, it worked.

Les Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: +44 (0)1606 836036.
Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
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Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com