Les J Parkinson - What’s going on this week.
No sooner had we started than we are all but over for another year, just a few Gold Ring races and the odd National to go. This is the time of year when we used to think about the shows but there’s nowhere near as many of those about as they used to be. Remember the days of so many social evenings down at the pub talking about how we lost races in the previous seasons when they wouldn’t trap because of the number of times we rushed catching them and taking the rubber off. No doubt if we had a Dictaphone, we could have recorded so many good stories. Mind you many are pairing up much earlier than they used to do, think it’s as early as November for some. I wonder what percentage per loft of those very early young birds were lost before the New Year arrived.
Races
We have all sorts of races and obviously most depends on the weather which we have no control over. We have had some strange races this year, probably as we do in most seasons. The direction the wind blows suits some but doesn’t suit others because of the position we are in, especially whether we are racing from the north or south routes. What we are short of living here in Cheshire are a few steady north winds, as the old saying goes, that sort the wheat from the chaff. We win in all sorts of winds that create the velocities, nowadays preferably a steady 1300ypm. Although we are winning most of our pigeons go wide of us and come back from the North, which is not what I need. I had an ex-fancier come round and watch them come, he was surprised that we could win, and they were coming back out of the north. That’s where the story changes because the winners are not always the leading pigeons in the race, I am of course talking about our pigeons now. We have had races this year where we have won with pigeons coming right online. That is what we want but they are not always the first past the post, that is something we don’t know, we can only work on our own judgment on the way the pigeons arrive at the loft. Working on the last two races, (at the time of writing) the way the pigeons arrived at the loft told me which were the best ones on the day. We then move onto, are they the actual winners, they are on paper, because it’s the result that counts and history will tell you who the winners are. The only way we could find that out is if we all had ETS rings that also sent a signal back to the clock when they crossed an imaginary line, where our lofts were located, latitude in this case. What we do need in our lofts is a team of pigeons sent to races with their minds on the job and that’s where the consistent winners come into their own. The fanciers who can motivate, prepare and condition their pigeons are a little bit better than the next fancier. We had a youngster arrive home but there was a BOP hovering well above the loft and it would not come down. We lost 3 mins on the clock but then we saw 5 pigeons heading back from the north, all hit the loft which also brought the first arrival down, to finish 3rd 4th 5th 6th. We only have the first 4 on the result and I must add that even if the first arrival had dropped straight into the loft it would not have won the race. However, the next race saw a Grizzle cock come straight online, hit the loft and through the traps. We entered 36 in this race, 3 spent the night on the tiles somewhere but were there in the morning. I set up my seat with a coffee and waited, from the 32 give or take the odd one, 30 of them came back out of the north. If they had been on the north road, it would have been a good day watching them arrive home. It was one of those days when the wind was changing direction, this in itself altered the velocities depending on what time of the day your birds were liberated, these were doing around the late 1500 to early 1600ypm mark.
Old hens National.
Well, I had the hens looking good and exercising as they had done all season, an hour plus flying freely as if they were enjoying their time in the air. Everything was going to plan until they decided the weather was hot and decided to get rid of lots of feathers. My second favorite for the race, the Red Hen was clearly needing to cool down, there was no way she could be sent with so many feathers missing. This is a big disappointment to me having worked with them for this race. If they cast anymore, they wouldn’t even make a sprint race and when they get into the transporter that is more than likely to happen. I have been in or around pigeons for 70yrs and this is the first time I have seen them break out into a molt so early in the year. I know there are ways to stop the hens molting but I don’t like to stop or speed up the natural progress of the pigeon’s molt. As was pointed out to me, if I am going to be competitive in the old hens National and serious young bird racing, I need to change my ways. I am wondering if the pigeons are in such condition they are bringing the molt on themselves, after all they are in good condition, otherwise they wouldn’t be winning as well as they are.
Transporters.
I was talking to a fancier about transporters and the old ones that Catteralls had many years ago. They were the pride of pigeon racing on the road at the time and all these years later still look good. In their day they were without doubt the best pigeon transporters on the road with good sound wicker baskets that were comfortable for the pigeons. As the wicker baskets have been wearing out, they have been replaced with wooden ones which takes nothing away from how good they have been over many years. We do have a photo of a next generation transporter that was built more recently for Highfield Pigeons who are working hard to bring pigeon racing more up to date, especially for the channel, when we can get across. Highfield do have two smaller ones to collect and bring the pigeons into main pick-up points. I don’t know whether I am correct in saying that there will be at least one more transporter specifically built for channel racing. If that happens then we are taking a big step forward, not just a small step but a massive one because that is what sport needs, an injection of something useful. We need to get back to federation style channel racing, which will not only benefit the everyday racing but also the National clubs as well. A case of going back to where we were prior to Covid, we had been racing that route in what seemed like forever and a day, and it also gave a lot of fanciers a lot of enjoyment. Highfield are the perfect people to do it because one thing is for sure, if David does it you can be sure it will be done right, and they have the experience of Janet Hull working alongside them.
Photo.
I have another interesting photo of “DARK 39” winner of 13 x 1sts for Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw from Shavington. As many will know I have covered this partnership for many years because of their consistent performances through to the likes of Tarbes. Good pigeons such as this are what we all need, not only as winners but also a standard that we want to bring other members of the race team up to. What a challenge that is, but let’s be honest, that’s what we all strive for, winners that are doing it week after week. The problem that we all have is hanging on to them, knowing when it is time to stop them and put them in the stock loft. How often have we been in our loft, looked at the winners and asked ourselves “Do I give so and so one more race” we decide to give them one more race and on the race night our Ace has not returned. I have spoken to many fanciers who have lost their best pigeons, even this year there are fanciers who have lost long time winners, including Federation and Combine winners. If you push them hard enough, they will nearly all go down at some stage in their lives, when we really cannot afford that to happen.
Results.
The South West Cheshire Fed birds were at Mangotsfield when 29 members entered 506 birds that were liberated at 11am in a light east north east wind. This was one of those races where if a member won the club they had a good race. Oddly enough, the only club where the winner didn’t take multiple early positions was in the Middlewich 5B club where Mick Stockton also topped the list in the fed. Mick saw home a clear winner and was also 3rd recording a vels of 1400/1372ypm. 2nd goes to K Bosson & Son plus helping hand sister Mary who takes the pigeons to the club, they clocked up 1374ypm. The next two positions go to Craig Wilkinson on 1358/1354ypm. This is where the multiple winners came in with Chris Hitchin taking the first 6 plus 8th & 9th in the Winsford club with a leading vel for his first three being on 1381ypm securing 2nd 3rd 6th 8th 9th 10th fed positions. Then we see the young bird specialist from the Crewe West End club Colin Lindop with the first 7 positions with the first three all being on 1381ypm to go with 4th 5th 7th Fed. When you look at the velocities it goes to show how tight the races can be in the modern days of racing pigeons. In this SWCF race there were 6 in the first 10 recording vels of 1381 and a further 3 on 1380ypm. Moving on we go to the Duddon FC where the top 4 places all go to Gary Adamson with a leading vel of 1365ypm. That leaves us with the Hankelow FC where Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw secure the first 8 positions starting with a vel of 1364ypm.
Photo.
I have mentioned the David and Emma Armstrong family a time or two in my notes, because they are moving into transporting racing pigeons with new up to date transporters. So, I couldn’t let the latest photo that has hit my emails folder go by without a mention. The photo is of Alfie grandson of David & Emma Armstrong of Highfield Pigeons. Could this be a fancier of the future, he handles the pigeon well for his age.
Another photo is of an unwanted guest at Peter & Dawn Latham’s loft, someone must have had the camera ready.
Les J Parkinson. 15 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: 01606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
E-mail:
Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com
