NEWS FROM BALERNO
by Norman Dixon MBE
On Saturday 14th May 2016 the Scottish Central Combine continued its race point journey southwards and at 08:30 am 3,270 Combine pigeons were released into a light North wind at Wakefield. This gave a race from the Eastern side of the Pennines in West Yorkshire of approximately 180 miles to the centre of the Combine area. Initial reports from fanciers at clock checking showed it had been another hard race with plenty of birds to come. But as the day wore on the birds started falling in and at the end of the day losses appeared minimal across the board. Reports from other areas showed that nearly every organisation that had been racing from the same area in the same conditions, experienced a similar type of race.
The North West Federation members sent 1,206 birds to the Wakefield race and it was Angus Orr and Son Allan who timed three yearling Widowhood Cocks within 3 minutes on a hard day to win 1st, 2nd & 3rd at the Lauriston Club and the South Section of the Federation and 1st, 2nd and 5th overall in North West Federation. The Federation winning pigeons velocity was 1232.765, the fastest recorded from the entire Combine liberation. These three pigeons are all related, two being brothers and their cousin. All the birds are direct from the famous Ollerton Lofts of Kevin Lawson. These three Sootjins x Van Loon pigeons are among the 20 Widowhood Cocks Angus and Allan are racing this year, that have kept them in the top three of the Federation places of the results in all this seasons five races. In fact this weeks 2nd Federation pigeon has been named ‘ Kevin’s Choice’ by the partnership, as he has already been once 1st Federation, twice before this race now three times 2nd Federation and 19th Federation. That’s a super pigeon. 1st at the Airth North Club, 1st in the North Section of the Federation and 3rd Federation overall was the partnership of Cowan and Berry. The winner at Bannockburn Club was D H Ogilvie who was also 4th Federation and 2nd North Section. 6th Federation was C McLaughlin with Rab Hamilton 1st and 2nd at the Stirling Club and 7th & 8th Federation. 9th Federation was C Smith from Lauriston with C McLaughlin timing his second bird for 10th Federation.
Allan and Angus Orr winners of the North West Federation Wakefield race and first out of the SCC liberation, with their 2015 Club and Federation Trophies
'Kevin's Choice' Top performer for Angus Orr and Son Allan
At the Scottish Central Federation Wakefield race within the Combine liberation, 1,325 Federation pigeons raced home and it was Martyn Brown from Bo’ness, who timed the Federation winner for the second time this year with a winning velocity of 1229.032 for the 183 miles 1647 yards home. This was the 2nd fastest velocity for the entire Combine liberation. Martyn’s winner is a Mealy Pied yearling cock flown on Roundabout. His Sire was 127th Open at the SNFC Buckingham race last year and was bred out of a Willie Thas Cock purchased from the RPRA One Loft Race sale paired to a 2003 Bred Victor Lough of Dunbar x Jan Aarden Hen that Martyn purchased at the Clearance sale of David Blain from East Calder. The Dam of the Federation winner is bred out of a Cock from Martyn’s own Willy Thas Bloodlines when paired to a daughter of ‘Budgie’ Cranthornes from ‘Kiln Lofts’ national winners ‘Kiln Matador’ that is itself a 2001 bred Jan Theelen pigeon. 2nd Federation and First at Broxburn was Hamish Ferguson, 3rd Federation and 1st at East Calder RPC was David Jamieson, 4th Tom and Gina Weir winning at Winchburgh, 5th Hamish Ferguson with his second bird on the result, 6th and 3rd at Broxburn was Gordon McKenzie, 7th & 8th Federation Henry Borthwick from Winchburgh, 9th Gordon McKenzie’s second timed bird and 10th Federation David Jamieson with his second bird over the pad.
Mealy Pied Cock 1st Scottish Central Federation Wakefield for Martyn Brown of Bo'ness
In the Scottish Central Federation Clubs the winning fanciers were:
East Calder David Jamieson 1st, 2nd and 4th, with Colin McCreight 3rd
Bo'ness 1st Martyn Brown, 2nd Shanks and Grant, 3rd and 4th John Boyd.
Winchburgh Tom and Gina Weir 1st and 4th, Henry Borthwick 2nd and 3rd.
Pumpherston Gary and Dean Kane winning again along with 2nd place, 3rd Willie and Gary Russell with Agnes McLeish 4th
Newbridge Mel Noble 1st and 4th, Neil Jamieson 3rd with Alex Cockburn 4th. Mel’s winning pigeon was also 18th Federation and is a Gabby Vandenabeele Roundabout Hen bred from his direct M&D Evans stock obtained via Mr and Mrs Forrest.
Broxburn J Ferguson and Son Hamish 1st and 2nd, Gordon McKenzie 3rd and 4th.
The Midland Federation contingent of the convoy had 349 birds flying for Federation honours and it was Iain Gibson of the Wattison / Caldercruix Club who came out on top with a velocity of 1186.56 just fractionally in front of the 2nd bird by .03 of a yard. Iain’s winner was a yearling roundabout hen bred from his own family of Janssen x Van De Rhees pigeons that have been flying well for him for the last few years. Ian obtained his Janssens from Bill Reaves of Caldercruix and his Van De Rhees from Conway Brothers from Stirling. Ian is helped out a lot by Billy Duncan of Slamannan and Iain would like to thank Billy for all he does for him. Iain also won the £20:00 put up by Martin Miller for winning first prize in the Federation race. Unfortunately Iain said he couldn’t send me a photo of himself as he lives alone and he doesn’t have a selfie stick. 2nd Federation and narrowly missing out on collecting his own prize was Martin Miller of the M&J Miller partnership winning the Chapelhall Club just .03 yards a minute behind the winner. 3rd Federation and 2nd at Wattison / Caldercruix was Iain Gibson again, 4th Federation was last weeks Federation topping partnership of J Hendrie and Sons another Chapelhall member. 5th Federation Andrew and Marie McKee from Wattison / Caldercruix with club mates J McPheat & Son 6th. 7th Federation Clark Brothers from Chapelhall and Iain Gibson’s third bird in the clock took 8th Federation. 9th Federation was M&J Miller with Andrew and Marie McKee’s second pigeon claiming 10th Federation. The winners of the Border and Denny Clubs were A. Scott at 13th Federation and E. Bartsch at 16th Federation.
At the Fauldhouse Club 23 members sent 390 pigeons and it was John Mclaughlin who came out on top with a well pooled yearling to win the race on a velocity of 1135.3 and pick up £46.90. Johns winning pigeon is a Gabby Vandenabelle cross Sumo breeding that was raced on natural, being in between eggs. This is the Cock’s third x 1st Club position and last year won the C&M Smith Trophy in the Fauldhouse Club for Best Young Bird. If there is a Trophy for best yearling then it’s on its way to claim that as well. 2nd and 3rd were Johnny Lumsden and Derek Colligan with firstly a two year old widowhood Cock, another fancied bird winning £33.25. This pigeon is bred from stock obtained from the late Alan Bridges and flew every race in the programme last year appearing in six Club results. Their second pigeon is a widowhood yearling Hen bred down from 5 generations of their own breeding. 4th Was Jim Burt with another yearling hen this time a Sion / Kirkpatrick sitting 10 day eggs, 5th & 6th was L&N Redmond with two home bred roundabout pigeons. The first a Blue Pied hen that previously won 1st Otterburn at the comeback race last year and a Blue white flight yearling Cock that was unraced last year and coming strong here from Wakefield. 7th was Jim Burt’s second bird in the clock quickly followed by John McLaughlin’s second bird for 8th place, 9th was C&C Smillie and 10th was Hope Brothers and Bryce.
John McLaughlin 1st Wakefield at the Fauldhouse Club - Tommy Weir 1st Winchburgh Club at the Wakefield race
One thing I saw for the first time ever whilst waiting for the birds at my lofts located in the foothills of the Pentland Hills to the west of Edinburgh was a piece of interaction between a batch of Racing Pigeons and a Peregrine Falcon. I saw a batch of around 30 Racing Pigeons racing fast over my lofts when suddenly they all stopped racing and began gliding round in circles just how streeters fly when they are looking to land in a field. It was not until they had dropped height and my eyes focussed properly on the birds that I saw a Peregrine Falcon gliding beside them. I think what happened was that the birds were flying so high, they flew directly into a Peregrine and rather than immediately dive for cover they stuck close to the Falcon as if they knew they would be safe. As I watched I thought the Peregrine was working the Pigeons like a sheep dog back and forward but then I realised it was the Peregrine trying to rise above the Pigeons but the Pigeons just followed it and this went on for a few minutes until the Peregrine realised it would not get high enough to get a stoop attack on the Pigeons and it just flipped its wings and flew off. The Racing Pigeons waited for a short time still gliding around the area then once they knew it was safe they just picked up speed and started racing off home westwards. If that’s how easy a Peregrine can stop a batch of 30 birds then what does a Peregrine attack do to a larger batch far closer to a liberation point and how many times does that happen to birds coming up the road on race days. It does make you question what are the real factors at play when we have a bad race day.
