NORTH ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP CLUB
by George Wheatman
Berwick YBs - 14th September 2013
Ray Knight and family
The 60th young bird national organised by the North Road Championship Club delivered what could turn out to be the most stunning result in this famous club’s 102-year history.
Provisional results, based on first-bird telephone verifications, show that the winners are Ray Knight and Sons, of Old Leake, in Lincolnshire, but what these don’t reveal is that this family partnership had eleven birds close together and could dominate the final result in a manner never known before. Something like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12, perhaps, with Boston and District FC clubmates, Brian and Angie Garnham spoiling the 1-11 cleansweep by popping in at number nine. This will not be known for sure until the final result is published.
And that is not the end of the Knights’ fabulous Saturday. It is also possible that they will win the old hens race, squeezing in front of the Skegness partnership of Bartle, Harrison and French, the verification leaders, by a whisker. And, wait for it . . . the Knights entered only one bird in this race!
Race secretary Ian Bellamy has not been able to confirm that result at the time of going to Press because it is so close.
One thing that is known for certain, however, is that the young bird winner was doing the second fastest velocity only to that of the pigeon of Kevin and Barbara Smith, of Chapel St Leonards, which won the race in 2001.
It was a helter-skelter kind of race with the eastern side of the NRCC area reaping the benefit of the north-west wind, Boston area fanciers having a particularly good day.
No-one could match the Knight family on the day, however.
Ray Knight is one of the best known figures in pigeon racing, having mixed with the best, along with the most humble, fanciers through his video and DVD making, and, in recent years, through representing ETS specialists, Unikon.
Just turned 50, Ray was publisher of the popular Winner glossy magazine, which is no longer in existence, and more recently has published the Feathered World, a magazine which he has revitalised but which he is in the process of selling.
He and wife Julie also organise the annual Spring Show at Doncaster.
This is what Ray had to say about the family’s Super Saturday: “Although we fly as R Knight and Sons, it is a family affair. It is mainly Julie and myself now, but both the lads, Josh (22) and Dan (19) help out, especially basketing on a Friday night when I am rushing around due to not getting in from work every night.
“Emily (16), my daughter, also helps by letting the birds out when Julie is at work, or getting them in from training. She has even been known to clean out the corridors while I have been training.
“We moved to Old Leake in 2008 from Long Eaton in Derbyshire, where I used to race south before turning north. The move was for personal reasons, and the family love it in Lincolnshire where the people are so friendly.
“I have been secretary of the Long Eaton club, President of Coalville Federation, a vice-President of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire Region of the RPRA, and am now chairman of Peterborough and District Federation.
“We missed the first few young bird races this season as, for the first time ever, we had a few birds showing signs of young bird sickness, with losses in training, so I sent droppings to Belgium for testing and this showed that the birds had a massive coccidiosis infection. Obviously the birds were not right and they were left at home, and treated.
“When they had recovered, I trained them as far as Malton, 81 miles, on their own. Their first race was from Whitley Bay. After their second race I separated the sexes and flew them on the door system, giving regular short tosses. You can’t go far in Lincolnshire. Where I used to live I could do 20 miles in the time it now takes me to get on a road with two lanes, and then there is normally a tractor in front of you.
“All the youngsters have been on the darkness, and then on the light, having been weaned within a week of each other.
“They have been fed a light mix, formulated by the late Frank Tasker, and I use oil, brewer’s yeast, multivitamins and, always on Sunday and Monday, use Osmonds Envirolenze, which I think is the best and cheapest product on the market.
“We had eleven birds come in quick succession, two together followed by another nine. Within 15 minutes we had clocked 30 of our entry of 55, with others soon behind them.
“The previous week when we won 1-2-3 in the club from Whitley Bay, we were also 2-3 and 4 Peterborough and District Federation, and we had four more with them so would have been 5-6 and 7 Fed as well, but only three went up to the Fed.
“The winner is a red pied cock bird bred from the widowers of my Lucien Geert family. In fact, of the first 11, eight were Lucien pigeons which are from the line of Remi De Meys’ Paula 5000 (there’s a history lesson), the others being of Leo Hermans origin.
“The blue 2011 hen which hopefully will have won the old hens race is from my Leo Hermans pigeons. She had made her home in the young bird loft after the widowhood cock she had been paired to was lost racing.
“So I left her there and, when the young birds went training, so did she. I sent her as a trainer to three young bird races, and thought in for a penny, in for a pound, and sent her to the old hens race. She had four flights to go.
“She was paired to the red cock that finishes seventh in the young birds, before they were split up. I only sent one hen.
“You asked if I set my stall out for this race. The answer is no, because I set it out for every race I enter.
“John Salt (F and T Salt Bros) said to me, and this has always stuck with me, that if the last pigeon is not home within an hour of clocking the first on three occasions, then it should not be in the loft a yardstick that I think we should all adopt, and then we wouldn’t be guilty of keeping rubbish.
“Perhaps this may be a good young bird performance, but the NRCC result I always remember is that by Guy Perry when he won 1-2-3 from Lerwick.”
What Ray has omitted to reveal in his appraisal of this outstanding performance is the dedication and commitment necessary from the fancier to achieve national success. For instance, he trained his young birds twice a day. In the morning before travelling nearly 30 miles to work, and in the evening after retracing those 30 miles home, when Julie would have them ready for him to take.
His success in this race is reminiscent of the dominance in NRCC young bird of Ray’s friend and a man whom he greatly admired the late Frank Tasker, a big influence on his pigeon racing career. Other major influences he lists as Lunt, Wall and Green, the Manchester aces, and Tom Shaw, of Stoke.
Work and business commitments have not always given Ray the time he would like to devote to his pigeons, but he hopes he may have more time in the future and one race where he would like to succeed is from Perth. He feels that is the fairest test of all.
Whatever he does in the future, Saturday’s result will take a lot of beating.
As ever with NRCC racing there were excellent performances elsewhere among club members, not all blessed with favourable conditions on the day.
For instance, Fred and Keith Dawkins timed a youngster doing more than 1700ypm into London, while fanciers like Terry Winterton and Miss M Judd added to their long list of section wins.
Provisional section winners are, young birds: Section One, J Kirkpatrick and Son; Section Two, R Knight and Sons; Section Three, DA Duffy; Section Four, T Winterton; Section Five, Miss M Judd; Section Six Mr and Mrs S Kaschner; Section Seven, F Dawkins and Son; Section Eight, L Fuller and Daughter.
Old Hens race: Section One, KD Spiers; Section Two, Bartle, Harrison and French or R Knight and Sons; Section Three, DA Duffy; Section Four, GE Knight and Sons; Section Five, no entries; Section Six, D Bryant and Son; Section Seven, J Connolly and Son; Section Eight, Sanders and Son.
For convoyer Steve Spinks the Berwick races brought an end to a long, hard, sometimes difficult and frustrating season, and here is what he has to say about the race and liberation:
Convoyer’s Report
Race marking went very well at all the stations, and we thank Ipswich marking station for taking their entries to Cambridge, and Clenchwarton station for taking theirs to Boston, as we only had the one truck collecting this time due to the size of entry. Merv and I left Grantham just after 3.30pm. We had a difficult trip up the A1 fighting with the Friday afternoon traffic, stopping for a much needed coffee at Wetherby Services, and then some fuel at Newton Aycliffe services. We stopped again at Purdy Lodge for a meal, then on to Berwick. It was dark when we arrived, but with torches we managed to level the vehicle for the water. I took my car, as the truck only had one bed, so managed to put the back seats down and get fully stretched out in the back to sleep. (Didn’t know how to disable the interior alarm sensors, so that was interesting!
Brian Garnham had telephoned during our journey north, to give us the rundown on the weather forecast for the race day, and all appeared fine for a mid-morning liberation, with sunshine forecast for the north of the country for all of Saturday, and rain clearing from the south during the early afternoon, with a north wind prevailing. I had 10.00am in my mind as the time to release the birds, as this would enable the longer fliers to be timing in the middle of the afternoon.
We were both about at 6.00am, to a good morning of sunshine and no mist, but a chilly north west breeze. I spoke to Brian to confirm the forecast for the day, and after speaking to contacts en-route, I decided to liberate at 9.30am in a light north west wind.
The other organisations at Berwick decided to liberate well after us, and with few races from the south our birds would almost have the skies to themselves. It was nice to get a visit from Committee member Frank Widdison and his wife Vivienne who were holidaying nearby. They witnessed a near perfect liberation, with only one bird needing persuasion to come out. The birds got up into one group and off they went with purpose, not turning once!
A wonderful race ensued, a bit fast for mine, but what a performance from Ray Knight and his family, winning the old hen’s race as well with ONE entry, and probably taking the first 6-8 positions in the young bird event. Well done Ray. I did predict it would be won in the Boston area, and boy did they all have good positions.
Thanks to Merv our haulage contractor for all his support over those hours, the trip was superb with all going to plan. It appears from the provisional result that most members verified and returns from the race were excellent.
That is that for 2013, a difficult year, especially with young bird racing. There are far too many small liberations going on both north and south. As a convoyer it was almost impossible to avoid clashing with other organisations during the YB races. The BHW list is only a guide, organisations change their race-points as late as the Friday evening, and the small liberations are not listed........crazy! We need to do something soon guys and gals or we are going to lose more members each year if this carries on.
Stephen Spinks
