News From Malta Feb 2014

Details: Published: 01 January 2020; Hits: 1183

NEWS FROM MALTA

by Tony Harte

February 2014

The weather in Malta has been warmer than normal but now it has started to get to the normal winter temperature of around 17C daytime temperature with around 11C at night. This might seem quite mild and during the daytime it can be very pleasant outside, if the sun is shining, but in the house, with no central heating, high ceilings and open plan design, it can feel very cold. The very high humidity doesn’t help and with the houses being built of a sort of bathstone/limestone, during wet weather this can make it feel even colder. On the positive side we only have about three months of so called cold weather and then we are back to T shirt weather. The bird migration has all but finished. Just before or just after some stormy weather, we might see “a latecomer”, such as a buzzard or kestrel and today I saw about six herring gulls, which is a rare sight for Gozo! Having said that, it will be soon for the start of the Spring migration.

Tony Harte releasing pigeons for a training toss from St Paul's Bay. Note the use of converted banana boxes for baskets. These are very popular in Malta.

The racing season in Malta is in full swing; here we race during the cooler winter months, to avoid the excessive heat of summer. Racing in winter also brings its own problems, with frequent early morning mists, rain showers at sea and strong winds. With cloudy/misty weather, pigeons flying above the cloud and maybe a half a degree out of line, the pigeons can easily miss a small island such as Malta (take a look at a map). The pigeons can then face a further 360 miles of sea, with the prospect of taking refuge on a ship heading in the wrong direction, or reaching Tunisia/Libya, too exhausted to fly back to Malta. The disadvantage of not being able to train young birds any farther than 25 miles overland before their first race, then having to face a 60 mile sea crossing, is self evident and if you happen to send a first timer in a strong headwind, then you are most likely to lose it. This means it can be very hard to try to build up a team of experienced pigeons, providing lots of disappointments, but pigeons that are hard as nails. So if success does come, then it is all the more rewarding.

Tony Harte congratulating "The Master", the legendary & world famous pigeon fancier, Eddie Newcombe, formerly of MacMerry, Scotland, now of Mellieha, Malta, on reaching his 92nd birthday.

The first two races of the season were held from Pozzallo, 100Km. The Fed topper for the first race, from 5806 pigeons, was Mario Grech, Club 18, Rabat RPC, Gozo. Mario was 1st & 4th Fed, 1st & 4th club. Second Fed and 2nd club, was Noel Galea, Rabat RPC, 3rd Fed, 3rd club was Tony Grech, Rabat RPC. Fifth Federation was Charles & Mattias Debono, club 11, Central Racing Pigeon Club. John Portelli, Rabat RPC was 5th club, 6th Fed and Sammy Cauchi, Nadur Pigeon club, Gozo was 7th Fed. Manuel Grech, Rabat RPC, was 8th & 9th Fed, 6th & 7th club. Joe Vella, Rabat RPC was 10th Fed and 8th & 9th club. The Pozzallo (2) race saw 6896 pigeons competing, with Melvin & Ch Vella, Club 10, Cottonera Zabbar Homing Union, in top spot, Emanuel Coleiro, club 9, Hamrun Union Racing Pigeon club, 2nd & 4th Fed, Alfred & Martin Mercieca, Club 4,Hamrun Pigeon club, were 3rd Fed, Anthony Sciberras, Club 1, Sliema Racing Pigeon Club, was 5th Fed, Raymond Falzon, club 9, Hamrun Union Racing Pigeon club was 6th Fed, Paul Vella, Club 6, Northern District Homing Union was 7th Fed, A & E Azzopardi, Club 10, Cottonera Zabbar Homing Union, was 8th Fed, Anthony Agius, Club 3, Birkirkara Homing Union was 9th Fed and George & Jeannette Portelli, Club 6, Northern District Homing Union were 10th Federation. In the Rabat RPC, Gozo, it was the JJC partnership taking 1st & 7th, club, the Mercieca Bros were 2nd, Renzo Muscat was 3rd, Josmar Cauchi, 4th, Salvu Cauchi, 5th, Demis Bajada, 6th, John Portelli, 8th, Joe Vella, 9th and John Hili, 10th. In the Rabat RPC, there are nearly 70 members and a trophy is awarded for the first 8 places, not easy to win in such strong competition. Points are awarded for 20% of the first pigeons, for a 100Km race, first place is awarded 100 points, second place 98, and so on. These points are accumulated throughout the season to determine the best fancier short distance, best fancier long distance and best fancier overall. The same applies for the individual pigeons, best pigeon short, long & overall best pigeon; gold pigeon rings are awarded to these pigeons and it is my ambition for one of my pigeons to win one. The same system is used in all clubs and increases interest and enjoyment for all. This system rewards the team performance, maintains interest in clocking pigeons even after the first arrival and gives encouragement for novices when they can see themselves on the result sheet gaining points, even if they are not up amongst the top experienced fanciers.

Tony Grech, 1st place Rabat RPC, Gozo, from Messina, 280Km, outside his racing lofts.

Manuel Grech and two young sons (twins), learning the ropes at basketing night, Rabat RPC, Gozo, Malta.

Mario Grech, Rabat Racing Pigeon Club, Gozo, winner of 1st club and 1st National, Pozzallo (1), 100 Km.

Two British fanciers, Phil Cooper & Ray Scrivens, enjoying the views from Gozo, looking across to Malta.

The third race of the season was from Belvedere, 155 Km, 7319 competing and in 1st & 3rd Federation was Albert & Stefan Spiteri, Central RPC, Mario Portelli, Nadur Pigeon club, Gozo was 3rd Fed, Claudio & Warren Fenech, Qormi PRC, was 4th Fed, 5th Fed was Jesmond & Eml Agius, Msida PFC, Raymond & Nicholas Gauci, Central RPC, 6th Federation. Frankie Cauchi was 1st club, Rabat RPC, Gozo, JJC partnership, 2nd, Joe Vella, 3rd, Raymond Bajada, 4th, V & S Spiteri, 5th, Paul Aquilina, 6th, Tony Harte,(yours truly), 7th and Melvin Grech, 8th. The Belvedere,(2) race had 7632 pigeons competing for Fed honours. Noel Grima, was 1st Fed, 1st club, Rabat RPC, David Bugeja, Nadur PC, was 2nd Fed, Gordon Camilleri,Nadur PC, was 3rd Fed, Manuel Grech, Rabat RPC was 4th Fed and 2nd & 9th Rabat RPC, Joseph Portelli, Nadur PC, was 5th Fed and John Mercieca, Rabat RPC, was 6th Fed and 3rd club. Demis Bajada, the long distance specialist was 4th club, Stephen Spiteri was 5th club, Joe Vella was 6th club, Tony Harte, 7th club, with a Staf Van Reet hen and Noel Galea was 8th club, Rabat RPC, Gozo. The next race was from Messina, 280Km, with 6339 birds entered. George Attard, Zabbar , club 22 was 1st National, fellow club member, Stephen Debono was 2nd National, Jes & Delores Magri were 3rd, Alfred Ellul, South East PC, 4th, Seychelle Baldasser/Charles Farrugia, Southern PC, 5th and Tony Fava, Sliema RPC in 6th National. Tony Grech was first in the Rabat RPC, Pace Bros, second, Alfred Hili, third, Manuel Grech, fourth, John Mercieca, fifth, Marlon Curmi, club secretary in sixth, Stephen Spiteri, seventh and Mercieca Bros in eight.

The Nadur Pigeon Club, Gozo held their pigeon show, which was very well supported and it is strange that in Malta the shows are held during the season, whereas in the UK and other countries the shows are held during the winter months to maintain interest and social contact with other fanciers.