Parky31214

Details: Published: 20 January 2001; Hits: 996

LES J. PARKINSON'S

NEWS-REPORTS-ARTICLES

Mid Cheshire Fed, Greenbank & Crewe Premier 2014 Prize Presentations

When I first started racing in the Middlewich FC they were and still are racing with the Mid Cheshire Fed and still are and for me it is by far the best federation to race in the Cheshire area. I also served as secretary to the fed for something like 13yrs and the fed was well worth the time that was put into it. Yes they did go through a spell when the going got tough but even though at times they come over a bit strong to some members I believe that they are going in the right direction. Then this year when I decided the pigeons were going from the garden and it was made public the officials gave me the honour of presenting the prizes. There are quite a number of fanciers who were surprised at the prize money given by the fed and that should in all probability be improved on in the 2015 season. I was hearing that this was going to be a long night with all sorts of presentations being held but that was not the case, in fact everything flowed that well the presentations were out of the way and we had a good night.

There were two bowls clubs and three pigeon organisations there to present the winnings to their members for what was a good season for them all. The other two pigeon clubs were the Greenbank club and the Crewe Premier Invitation the later being affiliated to the Mid Cheshire Fed. This year the competition was made tougher when one of the best racing and breeding lofts in the North West joined the fed via the Acton Bridge club who opened their radius and accepted the partnership of Curtiss, Wall & Lunt in the club and then the fed. I was talking to Geoff Bebbington who packed up racing a few years ago and he said he was coming back into racing for the 2015 young bird season because his local club had shown that they were not afraid of competition by opening their radius. I understand what Geoff was saying because if you are going to make it in pigeon racing you have to set a target and there is no better target than these lads in the North West. In their first season they flew in 14 races and won the following in the Mid Cheshire Fed 7x1st, 7x2nds, 4x3rds, 3x4ths, 2x5ths and they were only putting their first four birds forward for positions. Yes that is the competition that we now have and a target for the members to aim for and over the years the fed have not been short of top winners with such fanciers as Joe Glover a long time winning member of the fed. Then we have John Allbutt from over at Sandbach another fancier who is hard to beat and an RAPA award winner. Eric Taylor is as keen a fancier that you will come across and was the highest money winner during the last season. I could go on and mention other fanciers with the new winners including Mr & Mrs Geoff Matthews of Crewe who had a great season with both the Crewe Premier and Greenbank clubs.

Another comparatively new name in the area is Mick Stockton who was the premier winner in the Greenbank and a fancier who we will be seeing more of especially if he put more focus on the Sandbach club. The later two were premier flyers in the Greenbank club and their other weekly clubs. Competition is what we need no matter what we compete in and this is what makes us work harder to be successful in our chosen hobby and without that competition it is hardly worth competing. The extra work put in with the local competition helps us all build a team of pigeons to go out and compete in the Nationals and if you look at the Mid Cheshire fed over the years they have had some of the best in the North west when it comes to those all important National races. I also know that there are a number of Mid Cheshire members who just want to compete in the local clubs and have no interest in going further but if they did they would also reach great heights competing against the best in the country. Before going onto the prize lists for the three organisations present I must pass comment on a couple of photos starting with Malcolm Hewitt who looks like he had a hard day.

Then we have Eric Taylor who looked well pleased with being the highest money winner in the Mid Cheshire Fed. There are many other good fanciers competing who make it good competition all round and there are some of the Crewe West End members coming on board for the 2015 season so things will hot up even more, all good stuff. So lets start to look at the winners for the 2014 season starting with the Greenbank club where secretary John Peever was the first to hand over a list of fanciers who had collected prize money, not all were there but we shall include them because they are winners. First up was Mick Stockton whose main prizes were 6x1sts, 8x2nds, 7x3rds, 9x4ths gathering 143 points plus the channel ave and £163.30 prize money. Mr & Mrs Geoff Matthews are one of the most consistent racing lofts in the area and in this club they collect £115 for 112 points to go with the old bird ave. We now move on to secretary John Peever on 50 points collecting £62 and the young bird ave. Dave & Barry Mellor are next with 50 points and £55. Steve Parkinson £41. John Allbutt £23. Tommy Hulme & Son £20. with the following also collecting a share of the prizes, Ken Powell, Ken & Stan Bosson, Dave Jenks, Ray Lovell, Tommy Wright with Pete Berry and Charlie Peel collecting minor prizes.

In the Crewe Premier it was a case of who else was in amongst the winners with Mr & Mrs Geoff Matthews having such a good season£155.79 prizes which was almost twice the next member and that is unusual with such a good club they also collected £62.25 pools making a total of £218. The winning partnership also collected a fine array of trophies, Channel J Bennion cup, Combined, OB Comb, Young bird, YB Longest race 2B, First & Longest YB race, First & Longest YB races all being average trophies, they also collected the F Evans cup, F Chesters Mem, Lowest vel all old and young bird land races, Points trophy (1 to 6), Longest YB race 2B nom, Best individual Pigeon A Mellor Mem Trophy and were r/p in the G Goodwin and Mr & Mrs Geoff Gollings, r/u F Howard and K Parton trophies. I mentioned good flyers earlier on well this next partnership have been winning for as long as I can remember and they are Dave & Baz Mellor collecting £86.73 prizes and £113.92 pools a total on £200.65. Dave & Baz also collected the Tommy Shaw Cup, Frank Howard Trophy, Timpson Shield and were r/u in the YB ave, Points Trophy, YB Longest race 2B ave and the best ave in the 1st and Longest YB races. Steve Parkinson is next with a total of £173.51 plus the Wright & Son Cup, the OB land ave and being r/u in the best ave longest OB & YB races inland. Mr & Mrs Jimmy Bennett £53 and are r/u in the OB Land ave. Manley & Lloyd £37 to go with the K Parton cup and the first channel race trophy. Other winners are Martin Williams, Dave Jenks. John Peever, Tommy Wright, Charlie Peel 1st Ylg Messac, Ray Lovell, Eddie Platt, Ken Powell, Mr & Mrs Colin Earp and J Talbott who is a new one on me.

I have the list for the Mid Cheshire Fed and it is not in any particular order so we start with the Grand ave winner and r/u in the channel ave Malcolm Hewitt who also collects £100. R/U to the Grand Ave is Joe Glover with £153. Eric Taylor is the highest money winner with £410 which includes the breeder/buyer money to go with the Old Bird inland ave. Tommy Hulme & Son won the Channel Ave and had the only bird on the day in the fed to collect £220. Mr & Mrs Geoff Matthews cement their place amongst the winners with another good season and win the Young Bird Ave and £217. Dave & Baz Mellor are r/u in the YB ave and win £145. Geoff Hanagan won the Falaise race and collected £95 while the next channel race from Fougeres went to Graham Davies who wins £120leaving the other channel race from Messac to Steve Parkinson who is r/u in the old bird inland ave and has £145 in the pocket. £308 went to John Allbutt who won the breeder/buyer with probably the feds best loft of the season being Curtis, Wall & Lunt with a great string of results as mentioned above and £141. Colin Lindop won £145 and there are a few more good money winners with less than £100 each. Tommy Howarth £68 and was 3rd in the breeder/buyer. Manley & Lloyd £58. Parkinson& Wilkinson £56. Charlie Peel £40. Dave Jenks £35. Ian cooper £35. Wayne & Roy Beverley £32. Mr & Mrs Jimmy Bennett £30. Also getting in with a draw from what ahs been a good season are Dave Beeston & Son, Mr & Mrs J jones, John Peever, Mr & Mrs P Sylvester, Martin Williams, Eddie Platt and B & G Mainwaring. I had a chat to several of the members during the evening and they all appeared to be happy and most were planning on their 2015 campaign. I also had a good talk to fed secretary John Allbutt who was telling me that there were no propositions in for the fed and the officials were all re-elected so a quick AGM. At an ordinary meeting the plans for the 2015 season are to start with a payment of £200 for each of the channel races and £85 as a staring point for the land races but that is expected to increase as the season progress's. John went on to say that the officials hope to at least match the £400 per channel race of 2014. I was also in discussion about the best way to reward the members who support the fed and all sorts of ideas come forward and I the one I think is best is for the fed to sponsor the member clubs by giving something back on a pro rata basis with the number of birds sent. Anyway thank you to the officials of the Greenbank Club, Crewe Premier and the Mid Cheshire Fed for the invitation to present the prizes on what was a good evening.