CHRIS GIBSON
News from the Sheffield area
Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship Club
The evening of Sunday the 19th of December saw the presentation night for the Championship Club held at the clubs HQ, Woodhouse West End Club. This was the weekend of the Doncaster show as it was cancelled from its original date due to the bad weather. Although there was no snow around on the day of the presentation it was bitterly cold with temperatures dropping below -12. Due to this obviously the turn out wasn’t fantastic but approximately 50 to 60 members, other local fanciers, family, and friends braved the freezing conditions. The guest of honour for the evening was Ray Night of Unikon, who kindly sponsor the Platinum Furturity young bird race that paid out a massive £7,000 (approx) in pools and prize money, not bad to say there was less than 160 young birds in the race. Hopefully this year this special race will be even bigger with more fanciers and big name lofts from the region having a go at racing their best birds against the best competition that the Derbyshire and South Yorkshire region has to offer. The dates for the 2011 Furturity young bird sales will be advertised very soon, but for more information on entering a pair of young birds into the sales or buying a ticket/s to basket your own bird/s on the day please call Mark Thomson on 07809545410.
Back to the pay out and Ray had come straight from the Doncaster show to present the prizes and was driving back home over to the east coast afterwards, so a big thank you Ray from all the members. Including the Platinum Furturity race mentioned above the club paid out a massive £26,000 in 2010. While we all know that it’s not all about the money it does make racing much more enjoyable when you’re in with a chance of winning this kind of money, not to mention racing against top quality opposition and their best 5 birds week in week out. The reason this fantastic club is so successful is because it was set up with one goal in mind and one goal only, to race pigeons on the most level playing field that you could ever get within this sport and against the best. When I say that in this club we fly on a level playing field or as level as it could ever be in this sport, we are aided greatly by the Officials and Race Controllers of the North Derbyshire Federation that convoy the clubs birds and liberate our 150 to 180 birds (dependent on entries each week) together with the Federations 2,500+birds that are on the transporter and with the radius for the Championship club being 11 miles North, South, East and West of Sheffield Town Hall this means that NDSRF radius is almost directly in front of our club with the bulk of the Federation’s members being over 20 miles in front of the shortest flying lofts in the Championship Club. This ensures that everyone’s 5 birds really do get split up from East to West and have to finish the last 15 or so miles on their own without any drag or pull, now you can’t get fairer than that. When you look at a map and think that the North Derbyshire Federation has been won many times flying into the village of Darly Dale and even more impressively into the hills of the tiny village of Youlgreave way out to the west and often done so on S/W winds you will realise that the Championship Club really can be won anywhere, regardless of your location. Whether your loft is in the West or East or to the front or the back of the clubs radius it doesn’t really matter so much as it does in normal Federation racing, for this is true racing. With all this in mind the club must say a big thank you to the officials of the North Derbyshire South Road Federation for their continued support of the Sheffield & District 5 Bird Championship Club.
The prize winning list contains 30 from the clubs 40 members who picked up prize and pool money for their efforts in the 2010 season and very well done to you all, as I have said before it is my belief that it’s harder to get in the prizes (top 10) in this club than it is to win any regular club. Plus, for me winning the Championship club is equal to winning a Federation, as it’s quality pigeons from top lofts from a large radius that your racing against not just large numbers and as stated above all on a level playing field, which is far from the case in Federation racing. Anyway, enough of me going on about the true racing we have, I’m even beginning to bore myself going on about it in every article...! but it’s all true. On to the prize winners list for the 2010 season, remember that there are three sections in the club. These sections being old bird inland (OB), young bird inland (YB) and the channel (C). Some members only race in one section and some in 2, while most lofts compete in all three.
The following prize list of the top 10 takes into account all three sections over the full race program. The winners are as follows also showing prize and pool monies won: In top spot and picking up £2,843 was the fantastic loft B&C Brelsford & Son racing in just two sections OB & YB, this partnership of Brian, Christine and son Brin is for me the best in the area bar none and being top of the tree in this club just proves it, particularly having only competed in two from the three sections. They also picked up over £3,500 in the NMCC finishing as top prize winners in the North section and were runner up top prize winners over all, so yet another good season for them. I will be doing a loft report on the Brelsford’s in the next few weeks. In 2nd spot and only by 2 points was last years NMCC Premier prize winners Mark & Alison Sherwood picking up £3,390 like the Brelsford loft this loft is also one of the best in the region. The partnership in 3rd spot was Steve Carder & Mark Thomson who won £3,174 and if my memory serves me rightly the lads picked up approximately £3,000 in the Platinum/Futurity race and over £1,600 in the NMCC as well, not a bad year then lads..! In 4th spot was D&C Gibson racing in the OB section only and picking up £1,070. In 5th was Thomson & Son this loft is the loft of Mark Thomson’s farther Matt and has been a top winning loft for many years particularly when Matt and Mark raced in the old Rotherham Federation before it folded, Matt picked up £746 for his seasons work. 6th position was gained by the loft of A Burton &Son, Tony walked away with £744 in his first year with the club. As I said in my loft report on Tony a few weeks ago he was also the Premier prize winner in the largest club in Sheffield Darnall HS and topped the mighty Barnsley Federation no less than three times in 2010 against some 6,000+birds. 7th place went to Mr&Mrs P Plant this family partnership tends not to compete regularly in a normal domestic club due to work and family commitments. They like to concentrate on the Championship Club and racing in organisations such as the Northern Classic and have had some top results in that also. The Plant family picked up £492. A loft report on Mr&Mrs Plant will also be published within the next few weeks or so. In 8th spot Mr A Atkinson, Alan is again another top quality flier and has been at the top in the Rotherham area for many years and is well known for being a MNFC winner Alan picked up £514. Now in 9th position was the loft of Bryan Boden & Wayne Hollingworth Bryan contributes hugely to the smooth running of the club and is always working hard on a Friday and Saturday night both taking the money and helping to get a result out on the night, they walked away with £368. Bryan and Wayne also won in 2010 the Woodhouse HS open race picking up the £1,000 first prize plus pools. The 10th position went to Mr T Garner & Morton like most of this clubs members Trevor has been one of the top fliers in his regular club Park HS that compete in the Stocksbridge Federation and has been a name I’ve known since I was knee high. He picked up £361 for his first season in the club. Trevor also had a good race in the Unikon Plainum/Furturity finishing 2nd by just 2 yards winning £630.
Well done to all who won prizes and pool money, as stated there were 30 lofts from the clubs 40 that picked up prizes in 2010. Many thanks to Mark Thomson for putting all the information together for me to help write this article. Let’s see what 2011 has in store for the members of this fantastic club, all the best to you all. Thanks for reading.
