Barcelona dreaming becomes a reality.
5 years ago I was asked a question, what do I think of the Barcelona International pigeon race? My answer was something like it seems far away where only the greater and good of the fancy race. After all logistically up here in the north east it would be virtually impossible to get my birds into this race. But and it’s a big but 5 years on this is the situation I find myself because of one man namely one Jim Emerton who motivated me, mentored me and gave me the belief that it was possible to achieve your goals if you put the effort in. Now I’m not saying this has been an easy journey far from it but with the support and encouragement of Jim this is exactly where I find myself. It would be wrong of me to say it was just Jim as there are numerous kind and generous fanciers who have provided me with there unwavering support along the way too many to name individually but they know who they are and I am eternally grateful to them. There’s a lot of great people in this sport and our beloved pigeons are just the conduit that brings them together. Anyway back to Barcelona, lots of fanciers dream of racing Barcelona but very few actually fulfil their dreams by doing it. I always say that there’s lots of reasons not to do it but only one good reason to do it and that is the feeling of achievement that chemical rush of dopamine you get when you do but if you never try you will never do it. PMA I call it positive metal attitude. So after thinking about the Barcelona race and building up my team of birds by racing them from the furthest races I could breeding around my own Jim Donaldson birds which incidentally have a large percentage of Jim Emerton’s line’s in them and my addition of direct Jim Emerton and Nick Harvey pigeons which Jim and Nick gave me I now am confident that they are ready for the big race of Barcelona. But there was still the logistics of getting them to the marking station. As fortune has it earlier this year, I had donated a pair of my distance bird to a charity auction and the gentleman and his wife came to collect them. Well you know how it is with us fanciers we got chatting and he mentioned that he was going to send to Barcelona for the first time this year as it was his dream to fly Barcelona into the north east. Well as I was once given the advice shy bairns get nout I asked would it be possible if he could take my birds with him to marking as this was also my dream. Without hesitation he replied yes of course no problem if you can get your birds to me. So I joined the BICC (British International Championship Club) who I must say were very supportive in helping me to achieve this. I asked my daughter if she would take my birds to Newcastle for me and she agreed. I gave my candidates a last warm up race from Roye over the channel in France which they all completed so I have all my ducks in a row as they say well pigeons not Argentinian racing pigeons for those old enough to remember the two Ronnie’s racing pigeon TV sketch. So with the Barcelona race just on the horizon you might be wondering why I’m sharing my experience with you, I’m sharing it to show you, you can live your dreams lots of people as I mentioned before talk about it but never do. In my younger days I used to train a lot of ex forces personal and a lot of them talk the talk but don’t walk the walk I used to say to them were you in the gunner regiment and they would reply no why I would say “because you always say your gunner do this and that but never do” You only live one life and in that now famous catch phrase “just do it” you’ll never regret it. The Barcelona race is 914 miles to me a big ask you may say but it can be done in fact the fancy have been doing it over a hundred years look up the king and Prince of Rome 1913 1001 into Derby and 1093 into the north east. For those fanciers dreaming of competing in the Barcelona International race stop dreaming and just do it the experience of just being a part of it will give you a memory that you will carry with you for the rest of your life.
Yours in sport
Dave Bunker Brierley
