WARWICKSHIRE WITTERINGS
DREW CALLAN
Warwickshire Two Bird Nantes Club
This is a brief outline and history of the Warwickshire Two bird Nantes club. It was formed in the mid 1970s to allow fanciers with a taste for channel racing to compete in a specialist club against a high level of competition. Having it as a two bird club went some way to levelling the playing field as it removed the threat of drag and the mob mentality, the result of this being that the birds and fanciers competed and succeeded on their merits and abilities alone, with a little bit of the luck that is needed in channel racing. In the 30 odd years that the club has been in existence the members have been competing in 2 old bird and 1 young bird race from across the channel each year and as you can imagine from arrange of race points. As the name suggests the initial race programmes always included Nantes up until a few years ago when it was scrapped as a liberation point.
As with all clubs there has been a decline in membership but each season we gather the troops and put together a race programme for the members to compete in. There remains within the club an old fashioned sense of every one mucking in to get the job done on basketing night and this reflects the camaraderie that pervades and of course the leg pulling on results night. Personally I love channel racing and 4 years ago I read an old race write up on the club and when I asked around most fanciers were of the opinion that the club no longer existed as they hadn’t heard anything about it for a few years. I thought nothing more of it until 10 months later when I was on a coach trip to Belgium and happened to mention that I was disappointed that it no longer existed, imagine my surprise at being told that the club was still alive and well and in fact on the same bus was the secretary, treasurer, chairman and president and several founder members!!! I joined there and then and paid my fees in euros. This year the members have reverted back to weekend racing due to having to change transporter arrangements. This year we are competing from Fougeres on 8th June, Messac on the 22nd June and Guernsey with young birds on August Bank holiday Monday. We are always looking for new members and you can join on the night if you wish. The fees for the year are £25 with a one off £ 5 joining fee. If you were interested in only competing in the young bird Guernsey race then you have the option of joining for the young bird race only at the cost of £10 with the £5 joining fee. I can assure you that you will not meet a nicer bunch of pigeon men and ladies, and you will be competing in very good company with the good, the bad and the ugly of channel racing around the Warwickshire and Midlands area having been members at one time.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the club then you will be made more than welcome, radius is not really something we worry about and you don’t have to live in Warwickshire to compete. The racing is competitive and on a different level to federation channel racing, with the birds often having to do a fair bit of the latter part of the home journey on their depending on what organisations we are transported by and liberated with. This type of racing certainly sorts out the birds and the fanciers and I think it takes a certain breed of fancier to succeed at it.It presents its own set of challenges and also a different sense of achievement when you succeed. Over the years many big household names have come and gone without making much of a dent in the club results but there have been the hardcore of members who remain and succeed at this level of channel racing. So we invite you to come and have a go if you think you are up for it. If you are interested then please feel free to drop me a line or a phone call on the contacts details below. We look to forward to hearing from you.
Drew Callan
01926 817796
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