‘NATIONAL FORUM’

WITH KEITH MOTT

New Trophies.

It might be said that I am a bit bias, when I say that in my opinion, my good friend, the late, great Eric Cannon of Wormley was the greatest National flyer of them all. I suppose my readers might say that my thinking might be a bit clouded, because we were such good friends, but if he wasn’t the best, he certainly was one of the best National flyers of all time. The whole of his pigeon racing life was dedicated to the National Flying Club and loved the thrill of long distance pigeon racing, in the Pau Grand National. Eric passed away in 2000 and in his will he set a side £1,000 for a silver trophy, for his beloved National Flying Club. Eric’s wife, Pat, put a lot of time and effort into purchasing this very special silver cup and has named it ‘The Eric Cannon Memorial Cup’. Eric always considered winning ‘The Langstone Gold Cup’ five times, for the best average of three N.F.C. races, to be one of his best achievements, so it was decided that his memorial cup would be a sister trophy to ‘The Langstone Gold Cup’ and be presented to the average winner every season. Eric’s cup was won for the first time in the 2002 season by the brilliant Wantage partnership of Mr.& Mrs. Paul Kendal. Paul had a wonderful year racing in the National, including winning 1st. sect. 2nd. open Pau (571 miles), with his champion blue cock ‘Morning Glory’. This game cock won the N.F.C. Pau merit award, having recorded 2nd. open Pau (twice) and 82nd. open San Sebastian. A brilliant pigeon! At the N.F.C. prize presentation, held at Blackpool in December, Eric’s good friend, David Bacon of Pettswood, was asked to present the memorial cup to Mr.& Mrs. Kendal on the night.

Latest On The Dax International Race

I had an e-mail from the N.F.C. president, Bill Harris, this week and reads: Since the introduction of the Dax race into the N.F.C. programme for the 2003 season I have had many phone calls congratulating the committee on taking the club forward. The club has received an offer of £500 from Mark Gilbert of Windsor, this is for the club to purchase a trophy to be awarded to the N.F.C. Dax winner. The trophy is to be called ‘The Mark Gilbert Perpetual Trophy’. Catherine Cooper also rang to offer one of her fantastic oil paintings, also for the Dax winner. These kind offers will be put to the N.F.C. committee at their next meeting, on 5th. February. If any fancier or company wish to offer sponsorship for the Dax race or indeed any of the other races organised by the N.F.C., then any committee member, Sid Barkel or I will be please to hear from you. At the recent meeting held at Kidderminster it was agreed to send a delegation of committee members to visit the Ente Belge (organisers of the Dax International race), with the view to finalise details for the race in July. The visit has been pencilled in for the weekend of 15th. or 22nd. March.

Mr.& Mrs. Bellchambers & sons of Brentford.

Members of the N.F.C. sent 6,873 birds to last seasons Guernsey young bird National and with a strong westerly element in the wind, a lot of the leading pigeons were in the London area. The Bellchambers family crowned a brilliant 2002 season by recording 1st., 2nd. and 6th. open in the Guernsey National. Bill has named his winner ‘Nelly Bell’ after his late wife. The pigeon a Staf Van Reet / Meulemans cross blue hen, which is a cross that has been very successful in classic and national racing for the Bellchambers loft in recent seasons. ‘Nelly Bell’ was a darkness youngster, sent to the national sitting 14 day old eggs and is bred down from a long line of good winners. She was one of a team of 60 youngsters in the Bellchambers loft last season and had four club races on her build up to the national win, being rested for one week before the national. Bill and his two sons, David and Derek, put 40 youngsters on the darkness system and keep the sexes separated until the first young bird race, then they are let loose together, to pair up if they wish, in a big young bird loft. The young birds have three 30 mile training tosses every week through out the season. The Bellchambers youngsters don’t exercise around the loft in the racing season, only going out the day after the race for a walk around the garden and a bath. I had a good chat with David at the N.F.C. prize presentation in December and he told me he is very hot on the young bird management and spends hours in the loft with them. In the Guernsey national the partners had three pigeons flying around the loft together and although ‘Nelly Bell’ was the third pigeon to the loft, she was the first bird on the clock and became the national winner. The 2nd. open winner was a pencil blue Van Reet / Meulemans cock called ‘Bill’s Lad’ and he was also a darkness youngster. Their fourth pigeon in the Guernsey national, which rated very highly in the open result, previously won 1st. sect, 3rd. open Guernsey in the London & South East Classic Club, three weeks earlier. The four pigeons clocked in the Guernsey national were all bred down from one blue white flight Van Reet stock hen purchased at the Rod Baxter clearance sale. The Bellchambers young bird team were on fire in the 2002 season winning: 3rd., 4th., 46th. and 50th. open L.& S.E.C.C. Guernsey (1,376 birds), 1st., 2nd., 6th. and 16th. open N.F.C. Guernsey (6,873 birds), 2nd., 6th., 13th., 26th., 47th., 78th., 82nd. and 92nd. open L.&S.E.C.C. (2,145 birds). Young bird racing at it’s very best! The Bellchambers partners started up in pigeons in 1969 with a few streeters in the garden and their first racers were obtained from Billy Sando, and the old West Middlesex Federation convoyer, Roy Perkins. The partner’s first winner was from Bournemouth in 1970 and they always enjoyed club and federation racing up to three years ago, when they started to concentrate on national and classic racing. The Bellchambers loft has won the federation countless times and in races from France have recorded 1st. open S.M.T. combine Nantes in 1999 and 2nd. open S.M.T. combine Nantes in 2002. Bill told me that the grandam of their national winner, ‘Nelly Bell’, won 12th. open St. Milo young bird national in 1994, for the Brentford loft. They race 20 cocks on the widowhood system and pair them up in February each season. The cocks rear a pair of youngsters and are on the system at 12 days on their second nest of eggs, when the hens are taken away. The widowhood cocks are not trained, just exercised twice a day around the loft and are not broken down, being given as much corn as they want. The birds are fed on Versele-Laga super widowhood and Bosmolen corn, and the widowhood team race through to 300 miles. The main family they keep is Van Reet and the eight pairs of stock birds are put together at the same time as the racing birds so that their eggs can be floated in the racing sections. Bill says he likes latebreds for the stock loft and the partners national winner, ‘Nelly Bell’, was bred from two latebreds. Congratulations to the Bellchambers family on their wonderful Guernsey national win!

National Database.

I had the great pleasure of meeting, for the first time, Paul and Jackie O’Leary of P.B.O. Solutions Ltd., on the N.F.C. stand at the Blackpool show, where they were demonstrating their new N.F.C. Racing Statistics and Information Database. This great new C.D. has a lot to interest the members of the N.F.C. It shows 20 full and detailed N.F.C. race results for seasons 1998, through to 2002, including the full open result, selected section results, listing of section winners, and listing of members sending and timing their single entry. The Database goes back into the history of the N.F.C. and has a complete roll of honour, from the very first N.F.C. race from Bordeaux in 1898. The item, which I thought was the best, was the personalised member summaries, which shows a listing of all pigeons timed, plus performances, by any selected member in all races, in seasons 1998 to 2002. This brilliant new Database, at only £12-50, is a must for any member with a P.C.

In our next ‘NATIONAL FORUM’ I will be doing the first of my profiles on the N.F.C. officers.

If you need to contact me, please phone on 01372 463480 or Email address: keithmott@btopenworld.com

Text by Keith Mott (N.F.C. Press Officer)