NEWS FROM BALERNO
by Norman Dixon MBE
The Cathedral City of Ripon in North Yorkshire was the location for the fourth race of the season and the second joint liberation for the Scottish Central Combine. The weekend weather forecast caused a day’s delayed race marking and in hindsight that was a very good decision. The basketing for the race did take place on the evening of Saturday 7th May and with a few phone calls between secretaries and some adherence to official numbers of birds to be placed in the baskets across the Combine, we were able to get all the Combine birds on two transporters with 2 basket spaces to spare. So at the second time of working together this year the four member organisations of the Scottish Central Combine achieved their primary aim of making best use of their pooled resources and with that reduced transport costs for everyone.
At 12:30 hrs on Sunday 8th May 2016 4,239 Scottish Central Combine racing pigeons were liberated into sunshine and a North East wind. Again this was not an official Combine race but it was good to see that the winning pigeons across the Combine organisations all achieved similarly high velocities and made easy work of the 150 or so miles home. In fact if it had been an official Combine race then all four Combine organisations would have been represented in the top six positions.
"Jacko' Jim Jack 1st North West Federation Ripon, with the highest winning velocity out of the liberation of 4,239 Scottish Central Combine birds
Once again it was a North West Federation fancier who timed the bird with the highest winning velocity out of the Combine liberation. Jimmy Jack a.k.a. ‘Jacko’ from the Lauriston Club timed a Blue yearling Cock a bit out in front of all the other leading pigeons on a velocity of 1757.090 for the 158 miles 1678 yards home to win 1st Club and 1st North West Federation. This young Cock was flying natural to overdue eggs and was so keen to get home to his nest Jacko never saw him until he was on the trap and into the loft in the blink of an eye. The Sire of the Cock was from Bruce McKenzie from Dundee with the Dam obtained at the clearance sale of Andy Thomson another Dundee fancier. The first five pigeons on the Federation result out of 1,553 entered from eight clubs were all from the Lauriston Club, in the South section of the Federation. 2nd and 3rd Federation and only a second apart were two pigeons on a velocity of 1697 for Alex Orr and Son. C Smith was 4th Federation just in front of Alex Orr and Sons 3rd pigeon at 5th Federation. 6th Federation and 1st in the North Section was D H Ogilvie winning at Bannockburn, 7th Federation was W Orr from Lauriston, 8th Federation H Menzies from Avonbridge with Cowan and Berry 9th and 10th Federation winning Airth North Club with their first bird and being runner up at Bannockburn with their second bird.
At the Fauldhouse Club 24 members sent 549 birds to the Appleby race. With the 2nd Highest velocity in the liberation of the 4,239 Combine pigeons, 1st Club and therefore obviously 1st West Section in the Club was the partnership of Robert Wilson and Alistair Mackie with a two year old well fancied Hen lifting £31.70 in pools on a velocity of 1717.199. 2nd Club and West Section were H Drummond and Son and Hild. 3rd Club and West section W Redmond. 4th Club L & N Redmond. 1st East Section and 5th Club Jim Burt with another well pooled pigeon picking up £49;35. 6th Club and Hope Brothers and Bryce. 7th Club R Fell with H Drummond and Son and Hild 8th and 9th Club. 10th Club J McLaughlin. Lumsden and Colligan last week’s winners from Appleby were 3rd East Section and 11th Club. I should add that the pigeon that won the Appleby race last week for Lumsden and Colligan was a 4-year-old Cock bred from some of their top pigeons. Its Dam won £2,000 when racing and its Grand Dam and Grandsire were 1st and 2nd Open Leicester in the West Lothian Federation. The interesting story behind last week’s winner is that he was sent to Clermont with the SNFC last year and reported injured in Liverpool. The partnership sent for him, allowed him to recover well in the off-season and there he was justifying the faith the fanciers had in him, winning last weeks Appleby race.
David Jamieson 1st,2nd&3rd Scottish Central Federation Ripon
At the Scottish Central Federation where 1,703 pigeons were entered by six clubs, David Jamieson from East Calder RPC timed the first three pigeons in the Federation on velocities of 1716, 1716 and 1712. These birds were the 3rd, 4th and 5th out of the 4,239 birds liberated together that day. In fact David had a great race with eight pigeons in the top twenty places. When I spoke to David after the race he said he got two pigeons racing in from the East and one pigeon from the West all arriving at the same time and meeting over his loft. After a short chase about the roof the birds trapped and it was a Yearling that claimed 1st Prize in Club and Federation. This young roundabout Hen was only at her second race of the year the first one being the Bo’ness Open a few days earlier. As a young bird the Hen was 36th Open in the SNFC Young Bird National. 2nd Federation was another yearling that was actually he son of David’s 3rd bird in the clock, a three year old hen that was itself David’s fifth pigeon from the SNFC Clermont race in 2015 arriving on the day at 9:15 pm. 4th and 5th Federation and 1st and 2nd at Bo’ness was Jim Smith, 6th Federation Hamish Ferguson winning at Broxburn, 7th Federation John Boyd from Bo’ness, 8th Federation was Alex Cockburn winning at Newbridge for the third time this year, Tom and Gina Weir were first at Winchburgh and 9th Federation with Alan Davidson from Bo’ness 10th Federation.
In the Scottish Central Federation Clubs the winning fanciers were:
East Calder David Jamieson with the first four in his Club. Bo'ness Jim Smith with the first two, John Boyd 3rd and Alan Davidson 4th. Winchburgh Tom & Gina Weir 1st, Henry Borthwick 2nd and Peter Keogh 3rd and 4th. Pumpherston 1st Gary & Dean Kane, 2nd Jim Burnside, 3rd Agnes McLeish with A Fleming 4th. Newbridge. Alex Cockburn 1st with a yearling Mealy Hen from his John Ellis of Elphinstone pigeons, very keen flying to 15-day-old eggs. Alex was also 2nd, 3rd Norman Dixon with Three Year Old French Rung Widowhood Cock bought as a youngster from the French Barcelona One Loft race. 4th Last week Club winners Raymond & Jim Ward. Broxburn. 1st J.Ferguson and Son Hamish, 2nd Pat Rafferty and Sons Steven and Hughie, 3rd and 4th Gordon MacKenzie.
Daniel and Jim Hendrie of the J.Hendrie and Sons partnership 1st,2nd and 3rd Midland Federation Ripon.
The Midland Federation race at Appleby saw 434 birds competing from the four clubs. Taking the first three positions in the Federation was the partnership of Jim Hendrie and his two sons Thomas and Daniel from the Chapelhall Club. The winning pigeon on a velocity of 1702 was a two-year-old Louella Gabby Vandenabeele hen purchased by the partnership at the Federation Young Bird sale in 2014. Thomas told me that Louis Massarella always provides 5 or 6 young birds for the sale and as the youngster took his fancy he bought it. Her first attempts at becoming a homing pigeon never mind a top class racing pigeon didn’t go too well as at her first two training tosses as a youngster she left the basket and sat in a tree before returning home some hours later. The hen soon settled down to become a consistent performer and is now a Federation winner as well as being 6th out of the Combine liberation of 4,239 birds. 4th Federation is Peter Brown winning at Denny, with club mate Roy Kerr 5th and 6th Federation. Last weeks Federation winner Eddie Bartsch also from Denny was 7th Federation with Wattie Rollo, Denny, 8th Federation. Tam Jack yet another Denny fancier was 9th Federation and Cathy Grant of Grant and Cairns won the Border Club to be 10th Federation.
