Around Middlewich
Both the local clubs were racing on Sunday when the birdage was well down after a series of not could be classed as brilliant races, there were some who raced Saturday with mixed returns. On that day there were many with near 100% returns while others suffered and it does make me wonder if the young birds have had enough for the year and would be better left at home until next year. The Middlewich FC were at Yeovil when Ron Woodward clocked a Blue hen and chequer hen to take 1st & 3rd on 1390/1310ypm, the inner being 11th fed with 454 birds being entered by 36 fanciers when Curtiss-Wall-Lunt took the first four positions after they dropped together. 2nd club 17th fed and also 4th club go to W Wilson & Son who are keen on racing young birds and in this race clocked two reds a cock and hen.
The Middlewich 5B were also at Yeovil which saw Ron Woodward do the double after clocking a dark cock on 1348ypm. Ron was 12th fed when 35 members entered 415 birds with the top spot going to Brian Heath. Ken & Stan Bosson are 2nd with a chequer cock recording a vel. of 1332ypm. The next two positions go to Mark & Heather Smith with two hens being a blue and chequer both on 1287ypm.
The marking for the North West Classic went well and at Middlewich they were pleased with the send as were the lads at Cheadle the other marking station for the club, the race saw 45 send 448 birds to Bedhampton. This has been a good club over the years and they are celebrating 30yrs racing. I think it is worth adding that the club have two good marking stations now with good officials who can carry the club forward. The race was won by Colin Lindop from Crewe being 1st section B 1st open covering a distance of 167mls this being his second win in the club this year. Again this one is going back to the "Half a Minute" lines that have produced so many winners. These pigeons are flying well for Colin and this year as well as the two Classic wins he has also taken the top 4 in the Mid Cheshire Fed which is not easy with the present winning team. There are many more positions but we don't want to start adding lots of prizes. The winner has not shown much in the way of prizes flying to the perch but Colin does keep them going right through to Carentan. As anyone who knows Colin he is a hard trainer which has seen a few of the local fanciers benefit because he has taken theirs as well as his own on many a trip down the road. Second on the list for this race was also trained by Colin as are the pigeons of W Wilson & Son at Middlewich who have had a good season. A saying that I have heard many times is "You only get out of them what you put into them" and that is fact. 2nd also went into Crewe when the long standing partnership of Dave & Baz Mellor were 5yds further back when they clocked a blue hen raced on the darkness. Dave is not one for giving out much information on his winners and if he did not get a call we would get nothing and I think the email system is way down the list of passing on information for Dave. Anyway he was saying that thinking of the longer races they brought in some of the Eric Limburg pigeons in via Nigel Laycock and this is one from them. This is one of those hens that has raced steady all season which was why she was selected for this race and being on the darkness was in good feather. This is a loft where, if the pigeons are there they have to go there is no point in leaving them at home when they are racing pigeons. In this race they were saying that they did not come as well as they though they would with there being a 9min gap to their next in the clock. Dave went on to say, having said that they have been having an up and down season but their aim for future racing is going to be with the Nationals. Dave did say that the sport is suffering with not getting enough new members coming into the sport and this is reflected in the number of fanciers in Crewe at the present moment, they are well down and when they go the replacements are not coming along. It was odd when you look at the result because the first 6 are in section and the next 7 in section A and the reason I mention this is because P Hardman clocked 4 in seconds taking 4th 5th 6th 7th when others struggled with the vels. down to mid 1100ypm. Anyway getting back to what I should be including and 3rd & 4th section B went to Jones Bros & K Jones who over the years have been one of the most consistent winning lofts in Winsford but have moved to the Acton Bridge club this time where most of the 1st feds have gone in the Mid Cheshire. I have tried through various ways to gather information on this winning team but have never had much luck but I do know they did have a cracking team of Andre Clemens pigeons, whether these are the same i do not know, i would like to get more information if I could we are always on the email system. 1st & 2nd section A 7th & 8th open go to the Brinnington partnership of Smith & Eastwood clocking two just .2 of a yard apart. The 2 youngsters are a nest pair bred from a Mark Gilbert cock which has bred us Club, Fed and Combine winners, and their Dam was borrowed off club mate Vic Dace, the Dam is a Jos Thone and has won Vic many prizes at Club, Fed and National Level, we paired them together and shared the young with Vic.
Brian Lee's 3rd Section A 9th Open NWCC
Brian Lee races a good pigeon over at Congleton and for this race clocked a chequer pied Vandenabeele hen from the excellent National winning breeding pair of Jester and Carrie through stock purchased from Paul Stokes of Fenton plus Mike O?Hare & Ronnie Woodward from Middlewich. Brian is hoping her for continues because her programme was set out to go to the MNFC Chale then North Staffs 4 bird Carentan which may have now taken place. It was good to see section C involved in the races again with the first four in the section going to GJ Pendleton. The winner was from the Frans Zwols lines whilst the others were off the Fredialhofen stock and they are raced on the darkness. George was saying they were great up until the weekend of this race when he lost 10 youngsters but did say on the same day many fanciers also lost pigeons whichever organisation they raced with. George went on to say that they were sent in excellent condition and was expecting a better race and added that those missing have still not turned up which is unusual for at least a couple not to make their way home. They had been on plenty of good tosses so were well educated and really should have done the race with ease. George also added that he has spoken to a lot of fanciers over the young bird losses and said that most were down to 20% or even less in some cases.
Westlands
