Around Middlewich
The young bird season is now under way and I was talking to a courier who was telling me that he is very busy picking pigeons up and a lot are young birds. The first races in Middlewich are always below expectations and the Middlewich 5B saw 6 members send 73 birds to Tewkesbury when Alan Woodcock took the top two positions after clocking two hens recording vels. of 1375/1371ypm. 3rd goes to Jimmy Smith who clocked a grizzle hen on 1353.6ypm ahead of W Wilson & Son only .3 of a yard behind in 4th position with a red cock.
There was a good marking night at Middlewich for the Carentan and Niort races held on the same day because there was the normal Carentan race and the 4 bird limit race at £100 for the limit of 4 birds per member. I have the first information on Middlewich member Ted Carson who sent 5 to the race and had 4 home when about half the members who sent did not clock. Ted clocked a Heinz variety cock that had not been far from home because it was raining late and also next morning when the pigeons were coming. Normally in the modern day Niort race to this part of the country you would expect a good race with most clocking on the day but due to circumstances the pigeons at Niort were all liberated together at 11am which does not give them a good crack at getting home but the convoyers no doubt had their reasons for letting go at that time. I asked Ted what he meant by his Heinz variety and he said he had the Kenyons many years ago and stuck to them but did introduce the odd one now and again such as the Dordins and also some from Bill Whisker. The problem with introductions they are not used to the simple ways of racing to Ted's loft and the food they have which is mostly £5 bags of split maize and Barley from a local farmer that are added to the main corn which is the Johnson & Jeffs mix. It is only these last couple of years or so that Ted has sent across the channel and he is proving that he has left it later than he should have done because he had a good race last year from Fougeres and has topped it up this year with this North West Classic Niort win.
Mr & Mrs Ted Carson with Ron Woodward
The early races were done on the widowhood system but they were all paired up for the channel just to settle the birds down. W Mellor & Son Dave had a good race clocking 4 with the best two being 1st & 3rd section A 2nd 6th open with the other two being 9th & 10th open. The first three are all out of the same pair of De Weerdts from a pair off Neville Wallbridge that were from the Bob Ashman stock, in the breeding are 2 x 1st National winners. They are raced on the natural with the second bird being a hen paired to another hen after their cocks went missing and they are sitting eggs. Dave is not one for training but he doe like them to exercise well around home. Garnett, Moore & Withers are 2nd section A 3rd Open with a 2yo blue hen out of the very good pairing of Antonio & Che lines bred in Bren Withers stock loft where they have consistently bred winners. These pigeons have bred many good ones for Bren and has put the odd ones in to the partnerships loft where they are also performing well as shown with this hen. Dave was saying that this one is always there and a good hen and for this race was sent sitting a 9 day old youngster. Dave has mentioned before that they made the mistake of altering their loft too near to the start of the season and this upset the pigeons, they reduced 6 boxes across to 5 and it took the pigeons a long time to settle to the new set up. Even so the pigeons did keep coming but were that few yards behind the winners and the further they have gone the better they have come. Dave went on to say that this wa a mistake they made and one to learn from for the future. Eric Taylor clocked two on the same minute so I am wondering if he found them in the loft to finish 2nd & 3rd section B 4th & 5th open. Eric tell's me that both pigeons are Van de Rhee and have won before.
R Davies & Son 1st prize winner in the 4B NWCC race
Carentan 4 Bird race with the NWCC was won by R J Davies & Son who had a good race with their 4 entries collecting 1st 5th 6th & 9th section A 1st 5th 6th 10th open not bad from a 4 bird limit race. The winning pigeon is 2yo self bred Herman-Cuesters chequer cock, he has won club ,fed and combine prizes . He is bred from direct Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp stock. The sire to him is from Euro X Mysterious who is a daughter to the famous Olympiade cock. The dam to the winner is from a son of brother Nieuwe Olympiade X a daughter of Inteele Olympiade and Tia. Their second pigeon is bred by Daniel Boylan from his son of the famous Harry, this cock has also won club, fed and combine prizes this year with their third pigeon was bred in Holland by Cuddy Ovaska & Galley. 2nd section 2nd open sees the ever present Brian Lee score again in this club with a blue roundabout hen that topped the Wrekin fed from Portland as a youngster. Her mother is a multiple prizewinner, as are two of her sisters, between them winning the Cheshire Two bird as young and old birds plus the NWCC Fougeres and Messac as yearlings. One of them also took 15th section L from Saintes as a yearling. A full brother to these hens was 5th section L Saintes NFC a few weeks ago and was timed from this years MNFC Bordeaux taking 5th N/W section 21st open provisional. The sire of the 2nd open was bred by Brian for stock from the A &.H Reynaert inbred Figo cock and a good blue hen of Tommy Shaw's famous Rambo lines winner of 24 x 1st inc 5 x 1st North Staffs fed when they were sending far more than they are now. 3rd section 3rd open are D Cullinane & Son, we phoned several times but unfortunately did not get an answer to cover this good performance. 4th section 4th open is Tommy Carr who clocked a 2yo chequer Lambrecht widowhood cock that was bred by Mick Coulter from Halifax and a pigeon that Tommy believes will be one to watch in the future. Tom was saying that he really has been a consistent cock always there or thereabouts. Like many Tom has too many pigeons but as he said it is hard finding channel pigeons into the north west but they are the races he wants to mostly compete in so will sort them out and hopefully get a good team together. Tommy has had channel pigeons from good fanciers so sees no reason why they cannot get better as they are tested more and more. They are fed on three top widowhood brands that are mixed together. Eric Taylor had a good day with sending to both NWCC races and in this race he was 1st & 2nd section 9th & 12th Open with two from his old family of Sangers x McDonald x Verheye that have been winning for as long as I can remember both pigeons were 1st & 2nd Cheshire Combine Carenton, Eric was not all that far behind in the other Carentan race when he clocked a previous fed topper at Wincanton.
Graham Mackay's 1st section 2nd open Carentan NWCC - Blue Cock Mr & Mrs Hiam 3rd section 4th open Carentan
The club race from Carentan where 33 members sent 349 birds the very good racing loft of Crehan & O'Conner top the list with 1st section A 1st open. I spoke to John who was going to send something along but nothing has arrived to date. Graham Mackay likes racing in this club because he is generally well up in the result.In this race he is 1st section 2nd open. This chequer hen one of the best hens in the loft as you can see by the winnings on the photo she is a real good hen. She is a widowhood hen and in her race before this she was in a holdover for 9 days with the MNFC. Her breeding is the very good line Graham has of Herman & Ceusters being bred out of a pair of birds from John Wheatcroft. We have reported on this pair many times in the past as they have bred more than their fair share of winners. 2nd section A 3rd open is Brian Lee who is a very good channel flyer and come to think of it he does not do bad from the inland races either. Mr & Mrs Hiam are 3rd section A 4th openA with a Peter van de Merwe 4yo blue cock raced on widowhood. He was sixth the previous Saturday in Todmorden Homing Society's Cheltenham race and has previously been 7th Pennine Valleys Federation. He was bred by Leach Brothers, Hebden Bridge and is a grandson of their "Nathalie" hen which was in turn bred from Van de Merwe's National winning hen also called Nathalie which won the Chantilly National beating 30,074 pigeons in 2006. She has been a wonderful stock hen for Leache Bros and bred a daughter raced by A & S Hughes of Rochdale which was 2nd Ace Pigeon in the North West Section and 5th Ace Pigeon in the whole of MNFC . She has also bred a 20th and 32nd open MNFC pigeons and was grandmother to the Waterloo 2B breeder/buyer last year winning £1,000 for Leache Bros. She is also grandmother to the Champion Young Bird of Stocksbridge Federation raced by Pat Helliwell and dam to the Pennine Valleys Federation breeder/buyer winner raced by Brian Holland. Adrian and Rowan have won three first prizes in 2016 with her grandchildren. G Holker & Son are 2nd 3rd & 4th section B 5th 7th & 8th open this team being past winners of the National FC. Bren Withers is 4th section A 6th open with a Janssen/Van loon through the line of Antonio and Che that have done so well for him, Bren did say that most of his winners are off this pairing. Bred is in partnership with Dave Garnet an Glenn Moore used to be a member but does not have the time with the pigeons anymore. So Bren is breeding the young birds to go to the partnerships loft where they are starting to do well but need a little more time to get established. Bren still races a few at his home loft and has 16prs that are raced on the widowhood system. This Blue cock was also 4th last year at Carentan.
As with all the NWCC races we try to get hold of the major winners by phone or email and sometimes we cannot get in contact so if you are missed or win major prizes in the remaining races with the club can you send your winning details to the secretary.
Westlands
