PIGEON TOPICS
Stuart Bowman
From the last Old bird race of the season from Arras with the KRPA it turned out a steady affair with the birds getting away a little later on Saturday at 8.30am due to inclement weather above them which had to clear before their release. With a south west wind at the race point it looked like it would be a blow home, however the wind had more west in it as they came nearer home. So it wasn’t as easy as we thought. With the close of the race at 10.30pm they had 14hrs and it was interesting to see how many would make it on the day! In all 15 made it on the day to nine different lofts in the Association. With George Anderson and Jock Mackenzie getting three each, Dave Burns and Jock Ellis with two. The other five came from Chic Dinsdale, Rab Pearson, Pete Patrick, John Anderson and Garry Hall.
The Spoils this year though go to Chic Dinsdale of the Coaltown club on 1121. Chic timed his 3yo wf cock of Maurice Delbar lines racing to eggs at 8.55pm for 1st Open. Chic told me this cock has been very consistent for him having won 4th & 5th Open from Wanstead Flats 345mls with the Association plus other minor cards, he also scored this year with the SNRPC at Wanstead, and last year scored at Lillers with the SNRPC. An excellent win Chic, Hearty congratulations from the members!!! Chic wins the Cory Mara Trophy and with his pigeon Duplicated in the SNRPC he also wins 1st Sec, C 4th Open National and Bronze Medal which he keeps for good!
In 2nd & 3rd Open Association was a very happy George Anderson flying a bit further timing in at 9.36 & 9.44pm. These two were doing 1105 & 1094, the first one was a yearling and wins the J & J Keir & Son Trophy, George also wins the A & J Galloway Trophy for 2 bird ave. These two birds are 2nd & 3rd Sect, C plus 6th & 9th Open SNRPC. George actually timed another one at 10.22pm for 9th Open in the KRPA on 1049. Good flying George!
In 4th place it was a well kent face in the shape of John Anderson. John timed at 9.14pm and was doing 1082 winning 4th Sect C and 10th Open National. 5th & 6th Open places go to John Ellis both on 1076 these two winning 5th & 6th Sect, 12th &13th Open National timed at 9.50 & 9.51pm. I was quite happy when John called to tell me that his first one a yearling was one I bred and donated to the Scottish National Racing Pigeon club sale. John obviously took a bit of a liking to this chq pied hen and so bought her and he has been rewarded!!! Great stuff and well done John on another fine season!
Jock Mackenzie had a great race too timing 3 on the day at 9.21, 10.11 and 10.27pm good flying by any ones standards! The first one was 7th Open on 1067, and duplicated to win 16th Open National. Jock Mackenzie is another fancier who like the Ellis loft has had another very fine Season! Pete Patrick came in at 8th Open on 1060 this one was timed at 9.37pm and wins 17th Open National. Finally Pete’s near neighbour Gary Hall was 10th Open on 1044. This one was timed at 9.49pm to win 23rd Open National. This 3yo chq pied hen was well fancied and won the K &B Reid Trophy for 1st nominated bird. I understand that this hen was 2nd Sect C at Reims 2009, when yours truly won the Section that day, and the hen also won from Reims this year. So well done Garry! There was a correction at the bottom of the result stating that there was a mistake in the Wanstead result. It was in fact Matt Shields who won the 2 bird ave and the A & J Galoway Trophy.
At Rosyth the Arras winner was Rab Pearson timing at 10.09pm with his 2yo Dark, chq cock duplicated to win 29th Open National. This one was unraced as a yb and at the Wanstead Flats race earlier this year was 2nd club. He was sent sitting 16 days and the breeding was Jones Bros from Blaenavon South Wales. This was an excellent win for Rab, (no more tips though for you next year ha ha!!!) and proved to be the only bird in the club on the day! I hope your mobile is ok Rab as I heard that it accidentally got thrown away when the pigeon arrived!!! Very well done Rab I hope you get many more thrills in these long races in the years to come!
Yours truly was 2nd with a 2yo blue cock which I was lucky to get raced as a yb as it was bred a little late. Nevertheless I was glad I did breed him and his nest mate the only pair I bred from an old stock pair supplied to me by my good friend in the sport John Mackenzie from Anstruther. The parents (full brother & sister) were same way bred as the sire of my 1st Open Association from Arras “Mrs Mack” winning 4th Open National in 2008. The blue cock won a few prizes in club as a yb then was on yb Open result before going to the yb National when he was missed as I had just left to go with the clock with the other four I had timed and it was grey dark so I was quite pleased with 5 from 5 home. As a yearling he was spare but was timed from Leicester and Wanstead Flats before going to Lillers with the SNRPC coming home second afternoon with his keel smashed. This year he was my 1st bird in the clock from Leicester wining 2nd club. He was sent to Arras with his hen having laid her first egg the day before basketing and was duplicated to win 43rd Open National. This cock might me one for the future but time will tell. I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Mackenzie for supplying me with honest pigeons which without no one can begin to climb the ladder!
Yours truly was also 3rd club with a 2yo blue hen sent sitting 12 days to win 51st Open National. She too scored as a yb and scored from yb Open then Scored at YB National. Last year She was 2nd club beaten by loft mate at Wanstead Flats 343mls by the above cocks nest mate. She also flew Reims 570mls the next week. This year she homed from a sticky Leicester race at almost 10.20pm and this is when I decided I would send her over the channel again, having been unsure before this. Her sire is a stock cock bred by the late Dale Newcombe being a full brother to Style before he won his Gold Award. The Dam is a hen bred by Wullie and Barry Kinnear from their established long distance family.
In 4th place it was Louie Mitchell with another consistent performer. This 3yo mealy hen flew SNRPC Arras as a yearling and homed on the second day. As a 2yo she won the club from Lillers last year. This year she was set up for this race and sent sitting 14 day eggs. The sire was bred by Wullie Henderson of Cardenden and the dam was from Woofe Bros & Son from New Ollerton.
Well what can we say about the SNRPC Arras race. Congratulations again to Walker & Wilson who have done it again!!! Pete Virtue takes the Silver Medal with his yearling in 2nd Open. There were also a few other notable performances put up by Frank Baillie Clackmannan, Brian Kelly Chirnside, John Bell Tranent, Wullie and Maureen Smith Macmerry, John Callan Lesmahagow, Ken Buchannan, Hamilton, Luke & Paterson Port Glasgow and a few others. Bye the way the pigeons seemed to have come back from this race in very good condition probably due to the care taken by the Convoyer. From what I hear the returns were also pretty good. I got my 5 out of 5, four in race time so can’t complain, so all in all it seemed a decent race! We will all just have to try a little harder next year if we want to topple some of the crack flyers of 2010.
While the last of the ob races were going on fanciers were busy training their ybs when the weather would allow. It was the same old story, fanciers being hammered in the training with clashing, criss crossing each other, unsuitable weather, yb sickness and Falcon attacks were some of the explanations given.
However when the first young bird race comes around their will always be an entry in all clubs. I must be honest and say when I went to the first race my birds were not any further than 20mls and not often enough. I usually give them a bit more training than that. A few days before the first race I had a horrendous trainer from Edinburgh with very few home on the day and the weather the next day was also horrendous! The next time I went back to my usual place and the same happened again. I don’t think they had enough rest before going on to the next point. Anyway I sent only 6 to the first race and a lot of fanciers were saying they would have really liked more training before the first race this year but the weather dictated a lot of this.
Anyway the birds were away at 8.30am and everyone thought it would be a reasonable race even considering that it was their first one. I only managed to get 2 home on the day, this I had not experienced before. I new at 10 maybe 10.15am that something wasn’t quite right because I hadn’t seen or heard of any! At 11am I still hadn’t a feather like a few other fanciers and gave up. This from less than 50mls. Finally I got one about 11.12am and another near the half hour mark, they were only just in race time but I was so cheesed off and disgusted that I never even bothered to go to the club with them such was the embarrassment of struggling to time in. I thought it was just me and a few others that struggled, but believe me I was not alone and there were other fanciers in the same frame of mind as well! To cut a long story short there were only 5 birds in the club clocked in race time. These being J. Skelton on 591. H .Guthrie on 539. L . Birkett on 468. Then the last two being H. Guthrie on 446 & 442. A lot of fanciers would like to know what happened, there must be some explanation. Some of the ybs may not have been expertly trained but they should come home in better time from approx 45mls. They have been coming home days and weeks later from this race even ybs that had been well enough trained. Was it a Peregrine Falcon or was it the weather? Suppose we will never really know! Still believe though that the first race was possibly a week too early.
Back to the fanciers in the club who clocked in race time from the first St Boswell race and the winner was John Skelton with a De Baere hen flying to the perch on Darkness. 2nd was Henrie Guthrie with a blue hen just flying to the perch on the natural method. This one was of Louis Coorman breeding. 3rd Lee Birkett with a chq hen bred from Bob Blyth of Kirkaldy’s Soontjens just racing to the perch. 4th Henrie Guthrie with a red cock flying to the perch naturally. This one was bred by George Anderson from Scone and Henry bought this yb at the Kingdom yb sale back in April.
What a difference a week makes as the 2nd St Boswells race was a lot better with good returns and better velocities which you would expect even from ybs on at short race. The winner in Rosyth from the 2nd St Boswels was George Dow with a blue cock from a pair of stock birds from Digger Taylor from Nottingley near Leeds. This one was flying to the perch on the conventional method. George was also 2nd with a blue hen also flying naturally to the perch. She was bred from a son of McAndrew & Dows Crossgates Special 1st Open SNFC Falaise 2004, and a daughter of their 11th Open Reims hen. 3rd club was Henry Guthrie with a blue pied cock flying to the perch on the natural system. This one was one of four ybs that Jock Mackenzie kindly brought to me to pass on to Henry so that he could race them out. This is Henrys first year flying ybs and he seems to be flying quite steady as some of the members have noticed. Well done Henry you have just to keep going! Louie Mitchell was 4th but unfortunately can’t remember the breeding of this one but it was racing natural to the perch.
A lot of fanciers went to the third race as their first race of the yb season from Otterburn. I decided not to and was nursing some birds back that had been out plus some that were injured. Too be honest I didn’t have a great number left (22/23) and they weren’t coming well in the training and had still not got a proper line. I had decided the injured and the ones that were still a bit down were going no further. I even put two or three aside that were bred from the best pigeons, so I could just concentrate on the rest for training. I still decided not to send to Otterburn because I felt they needed to get a line and this involves more training and I just didn’t think they were right plus its not fair on the ybs. They may have coped ok, but I wont know cause they weren’t sent, but to be fair the Otterburn race was a very good race so who knows!
Rosyth from Otterburn and the winner was Louie Mitchell with a yb flying to the perch that came into him from a fancier in the North of England. This one contains Busschaert lines. 2nd was young Barry Rankine with a Blue wf cock racing to the perch. The sire was from Ally Birkett from birds he bought from Dougie Barnes. The dam was from Allys bird that won Huntingdon. Barry is another new member to the club and is enthusiastic about his pigeons and like Henry he’s got to keep trying the same every week. 3rd was John Skelton with a De Baere cross Lowick Bros d,chq cock on darkness just flying to the perch. In there again for 4th is Henry Guthrie with a home bred red hen bred from birds from an Edinburgh fancier. These birds originally came from Richard Brown who used to fly in Rosyth club. This one like all Henrys doos was flying natural to the perch. Reports from this race were excellent with most members more than happy, some having their first race and looking forward to the rest. Seems like I’m the only one that missed the boat, but there’s always next week!
That’s it I can be contacted at 118 Sinclair Drive Cowdenbeath Fife ky4-9rg, tel 01383—518471,or email to
