Lillers Y B

Details: Published: 01 January 2020; Hits: 666

RHONDDA VALLEY FED

Reports by Martin Dunn

LILLERS

After Ramsgate, we found ourselves overseas at Lillers, with the Welsh Combine and Welsh South East National. The Weather had changed for the better during the week leading up to the race and on the Sunday we found ourselves with a South East wind and the sun in the sky.

The birds were liberated at 08:00 and they made light work of it, with 99% returns, there were few complaints. There were a small batch of pigeons that broke, with the fed winner being found at the back end of the radius, the Partnership of Payne, Parry and Davies of the Kenfig Hill club. These clocked a Vandenabeele x Leo Van Rhijn hen sent showing to a cock. The father of this hen was 1st club Epsom in 2007 as a young bird, with the mother taking 1st club Ramsgate, obviously the old adage of pairing winner to winner certainly pays dividends here. This hen was good enough for 1st centre section in the Welsh South East National, 3rd Open Welsh South East National. Well done on a cracking performance on the wind.

Parry Bros – 1st fed Lillers – flying with Payne Parry and Davies

Runner- up are Arnold and Keith Davies from the Gateway lofts in Porth, they were 1st and 2nd in both of their clubs, 2nd and 5th fed, with other arrivals for 14th and 25th fed. After a quiet old bird season by their high standards, their young birds have flown really well, they will probably be the top points winners with the young birds in the fed 2008.

Next in are Maerdy’s Morris, Pugh and Whitcombe, this partnership have really set the Federation and National results alight this young bird season, They had 11 pigeons on the fed result in Maidstone, 6 on the result in Ramsgate and again today from Lillers they have 6 more for 3rd,4th,7th,8th 18th and 28th fed. The first pigeon is a chq cock bred down from the Red fox Janssens from Anuerin Williams of Maerdy, which most of the pigeons in the loft come down from.

In for 6th fed are Tredegar’s, Williams Bros and Son, this partnership have also finished strongly, they clock another for 2nd club, 13th fed to round off a very good young bird season for them.

Gareth Watkins wins it at Tonypandy, flying as Watkins son and Cockcroft, Gareth had a good day with another arrival in for 4th club 26th fed. Splitting Gareth at Tonypandy are Dunn son Seal, they clock a young Rietvink x Jan loots hen that scored the week previous from Ramsgate, 2nd club, and another Vandenabeele x Jan Loots hen for 3rd club, fed positions of 10th and 19th.

Up to Cambrian next, Ike Evans wins it here and notches 11th fed, with Les Vaughan taking 2nd club, 21st fed. Les is never far away when the channel kicks in. Another loft that can be relied upon when we hit the Channel is Ynyhir’s Mike Kettley, Mike takes 3rd club 12th fed behind the Davies first two pigeons.

Clive and Carwyn Harris are another loft in top form, this week they have another 2 early arrivals for 1st and 2nd club at Abercwmboi, 15th and 24th fed, The winner if my memory is right is another from their Linderlauf lines. Congratulations on winning the Welsh South Road National the following week from Eastbourne with the same pigeon that topped the fed from Ramsgate.

Next in are the Gill Bros, Brian and Mike,15th fed, they win it at Treherbert, just rewards after the decimation they suffered 2 weeks previous, it takes some doing to carry on flying after going through what they endured. 2nd club at Treherbert are the Williams and Reeves partnership, another loft new to the Treherbert club in 2008, these were 27th fed.

Gwyn Humphries wins again at Tylorstown, Gwyn has been on the fed results virtually every week, as well as winning the £2500 first prize in the Maerdy single bird nom, Gwyn Must be favourite for the fed Young bird averages in 2008. From Tylorstown, we go up to Cwmparc, where the Butler Bros are now into Double figures in wins in the club, they clock John Kirk x Taffy Bowen hen, the grand father of which has topped the fed previously, add on 2nd club 30th fed it certainly was a good day for Chris and Jonathon.

Tonyrefail next and its another good day for Amesbury, Akers and Humphries they win again and have a couple more in the frame, first pigeon takes 22nd fed. Runner up to the fed winner at Kenfig Hill is Dai Gore,23rd fed, with the fed winners clocking their 2nd arrival for 3rd club 30th fed to complete the result, just 10 minutes after the fed winner which shows how good a race it was for 276 miles to the winner.

Final race of the 2008 season was Swindon, a Come back race of around the 70 mile mark, with just over a 1000 pigeons sent, a healthy amount for the last race. The birds were liberated at 10:15 after the early morning mist had burned off, the pigeons were up like dots when they came through, the first batch of around dozen started to break up over the top of us.

The winning pigeons this week could be found in Cwmparc, to the Butler Bros. Chris and Jonathon for the second season running top the fed at the last race and like last year they have a Basket full right behind each other, they clock them for the following positions 1st. 2nd 15th,17th,27th and 28th fed to round off another good year for them both.

Chris Butler – 1st fed Swindon with Gail Jones W.H.P.U. Secretary

The winning pigeon is the same John Kirk x Taffy Bowen hen that was 1st club, 20th fed Lillers the week previous, This Hen’s father as won 3 x 1st section in the Welsh South road Fed and its grand father was 1st open fed, it’s uncle has also taken 1st fed, again as said earlier, winning pigeons to winning pigeons breeding winners, simple when it works. The pigeon taking 2nd fed is another John Kirk based pigeon, this crossed back to Van Den Bosch lines.

Taking 3rd fed is Gwyn Humphries of Tylorstown, again as said most weeks, Gwyn hasn’t missed a fed result since the first week and he’s been unlucky not to have topped the fed on a few occasions. This week they turn up for 3rd and 7th fed to complete a cracking young bird season.

Next in are Maerdy’s Morris Pugh and Whitcombe, they are 1st and 2nd club, 4th and 5th fed, with others at 11th and 18th fed, they’ll need a file for all of their fed cards at the end of the year. Splitting these at Maerdy was Gareth Downes he has a good race, clocking 4 early ones for 3rd and 4th club, 8th,10th,12th and 22nd fed.

Up at Treherbert it’s a clear win for the Stanton Bros and Evans partnership, 6th fed to finish off a very good season for this loft. Over to Aberdare and another loft that’s flown well this young bird season, it’s Wilkins and Phillips who are 1st ,2nd, and 3rd club, 9th and 24th, 29th fed. Staying over the Cynon Valley and Ray Sheldon, takes the win at Abercwmboi, this one at 13th fed.

From the top end of the fed we go down to Pontypridd where Dai Rowlands finishes off on a high note and wins at ‘Ponty’ for 20th fed, Moving up the valley and its Phillip Garland and Slade who take the first 2 pigeons at Ynyshir, these take 14th and 16th fed.

From here it’s to Tonypandy, where Dunn son Seal finish off another good season for them, they clock 2 right behind each other for 1st and 2nd club, 19th and 21st fed, first pigeon is another bred by Obryan and Jones of Port Talbot, 2nd pigeon is a grandson of their Maidstone national winner, the nest mate to this was 1st pigeon same day from the Welsh South Road National Eastbourne race. Watkins son and Cockcroft keep the strong end to the season going after winning Lillers, Gareth is 3rd and 4th club this week.

Up at Tredegar, its Gregory and Davies who bring a successful 2008 to an end, they win it here this week, 25th fed, to go with their 4 x 1st outright fed wins. Chris Jones is the winner at Trebanog, 26th fed, with Brian and Mike Gill winning at Penygraig for 30th fed to make sure they take over from Graham Warren as the 2008 champion loft in the Rhondda Valley Federation, well done both.

Final results to include come from Glyn Hazelwood down at Newport, starting at Maidstone it’s a win for Bob Saddler, with Glyn taking 2nd and 3rd club. At Ramsgate Glyn Hazelwood cleans up taking the first 4 positions and at Lillers it’s a Win for the channel specialist Bob Saddler. Final race was from Swindon and Glyn Hazelwood is 1st club, Bob Saddler runner-up and new starter Tariq is 3rd club to finish off.

To round up the 2008 season,We’ll take a look at the birdage figures, with 29876 young birds convoyed to the races, it’s a drop of nearly 7000 young on 2007, added to nearly 700 old birds a week less than 2007, you can certainly see how difficult a year 2008 as been.

On a positive note, the fed will find itself healthily in the black for 2008, going into 2009 with a positive bank balance. The fed transporters are all paid for with the only possible outlay is to bring one of the pick up vehicles up to scratch, the estimate for this is being looked at as I write this out. We have re-submitted our grant application for the new pick up vehicles and baskets, although this may take a little longer than first anticipated. This scheme is a lot more popular these days with huge numbers applying for these grants, we’ll just have to wait our turn hopefully.

On appositive note, the fed held a race programme meeting on 15.10.08, this meeting went really well, with a good discussion taking place between all clubs that attended the meeting, and ended in a positive feeling with all that attended.