National Forum With Keith Mott
'The Racing Pigeon' Nantes National
The National Flying Club got the 2003 season off to a brilliant start when members
entered 8,638 birds into the club’s first event, ‘The Racing Pigeon’ Nantes
National. On the Saturday, with adverse weather conditions in the English channel, our
convoyer, Colin Bates, with the back up of our brilliant race advisor team of Ray
Barrington and Roger Sutton, decided to hold over, when many others were liberating in
France. Full credit to these gentlemen. By holding over, they produced one of the best
races out of France that weekend, with fanciers getting all their birds home within
minutes of clocking their first arrivals. The Sunday morning produced good weather
conditions, right up through the race course and Colin Bates liberated the National birds
at 07.25hrs. in to a south west wind.
The Mr.& Mrs. Eric Corkett & sons of Leighton Buzzard partnership are no
strangers to winning premier positions in the N.F.C., but this time they hit the jackpot,
by recording 1st. and 3rd. open and won ‘The Racing
Pigeon’ motorcar nomination. Eric, Margaret and their two sons, Garry and Glen,
previously won the Vire old hens National in 1999, with a Frans Van Wildermeersch blue hen
flown on the widowhood system. The partners clocked at 13.29hrs and 13.37hrs, flying in to
Bedfordshire and their first two arrivals were both yearling hens, flown on the widowhood
system. The Corkett’s Nantes National winner, now named Champion ‘Special
Lady’, was a blue Staf Van Reet and this game hen had two channel races on her build
up to her National win. The second bird on the clock, to record 3rd. open, was
a blue chequer Wildermeersch. The main family kept are Frans Van Wildermeersch from Waters
& Broadhurst, with a few Staf Van Reet pigeons and their Nantes National winner was
bred from a hen purchased at the Van Reet clearance sale held at Doncaster.
The Corkett family have an 80ft. ‘L’ shaped loft, with six sections and
trapping is open door for the widowhood racers, and super traps for the young bird team.
The race birds are paired up in late January and 40 cocks, and 16 hens are raced on the
widowhood system. The racers rear one pair of youngsters and are put on the system at ten
days, on their second round of eggs. Eric breaks the birds down when they are sprint
racing, but feed to the conditions, with the feed getting heavier as the races get longer.
The racers see their mates on the marking night and spend an hour together on their return
from the race. The Corkett family like sprint to middle distance racing best, but have
recorded some good performances in the long distance Nationals. Although they race on the
widowhood system, they do train their birds during the season, with the sprinters going to
25 miles once a week and the channel racers getting regular tosses off the south coast.
The partners keep 20 pairs of stock birds and these are paired up in December. They race
70 young birds and these are housed in two 9ft. sections in the loft, with half being put
on the darkness system and the other half being left natural. They are allowed to pair up
if they want and race the young bird programme, after getting a lot of regular training
from 30 miles.
Eric Corkett has been in pigeons most of his life, starting racing in 1967 and he
introduced the Wildermeersch pigeons from Waters & Broadhurst in 1986. The Corkett
family have enjoyed a brilliant 2003 season, as well as winning the Nantes National, they
have won the Federation a wonderful nine weeks on the trot and 1st. and 2nd.
open combine Picauville. The combine winner, a little dark hen, was the third pigeon on
the clock from the Nantes National. Eric and his family have recorded some real quality
performances in the N.F.C. through the years including, 4th. and 5th.
open N.F.C. Nantes, winning the motorcar in 1998, 5th. open N.F.C. Saintes and
have clocked on the day from Pau and San Sebastian. The Corkett family are great workers
in the sport, with Margaret being the Mid Shires Federation secretary and Garry is the
hard working secretary of the local club. Congratulation to Eric and the Corkett family on
their wonderful season and Nantes National success!
Second open in ‘The Racing Pigeon’ Nantes National was another yearling
owned by Ron Ball of Northchurch and he is another fancier with an outstanding record,
having won many premier positions in National and Classic races, including 1st.
open London & South East Classic Club Guernsey, and 5th. open N.F.C.
Guernsey in the 2002 season. The base of Ron’s loft is Busschaert and he brings in
outstanding pigeons of a family to cross with them. He says he is not interested in
strains of pigeons, just good winning bloodlines! The loft is raced on the widowhood, with
24 cocks and 12 hens on the system, and these birds are raced through to Pau (581 miles)
without being paired up. Ron’s previous performances in the National Flying Club have
been outstanding, including 3rd. open N.F.C. Pau (£2,500), 4th.
open N.F.C. Nantes, 4th. open Saintes, 3rd. open N.F.C. Vire (old
hens) and 4th. open N.F.C. Herstal. Ron says he is only interested in National
and Classic races, and his whole loft system is geared to these events. His loft measure
80ft., including stock flights, and he has six sections set aside for the widowhood
racers. The loft is paired up in stages, starting at Christmas and finishing in March. The
birds are fed on two sorts of widowhood mixture, only being broken down on the day of the
race. Ron has 12 pairs of stock birds and, when a new one is introduced, it must be from
top winning pigeons.
Section winners in ‘The Racing Pigeon’ Nantes National were: (A) P.A.
Rennison 1530 : (B) Mr. Mellis of Portsmouth 1520 : (C) Hann & Lee 1443 : (D) Mr.&
Mrs. P. Naum 1275 : (E) Mr.& Mrs. E. Corkett & sons 1573 : (F) E. Smith & D.
Baker 1488 : (G) J. Raeburn 1431 : (H) G. Peto 1508 : (I) G. & D. Croxall 1482 : (J)
John Groom 1440 : (K) M. McGrevy & co 1451 : (L) T. & W. Duffy 1456.
Congratulations to you all!
Nantes race point change.
At ‘The Racing Pigeon’ Nantes National race, the N.F.C. convoyer was
informed by the officials of the liberation site, that after the one day hold over they
had to move to a new site in Nantes. The new site is reported to be 2 kilometres east of
the original race course site. The R.P.R.A. have now received information regarding the
disallowing of liberations on a Sunday on certain dates and times. The National Flying
Club is getting the new distances for the new Nantes race point and there shouldn’t
be any delay in the publication of the result. The provisional result produced from the
web site, and the N.F.C. computer program may have differences, once the new distances are
installed. We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause and would like to say that
this problem was beyond the National Flying Club’s control.
Please note : The Whyteleafe (Croydon) clock station is listed in the handbook, but is
now in fact closed down. I received a phone call, to say that some members were turning up
there, to get their clocks set for the Nantes National. I also received a phone call from
Tommy Firmager, to tell me that the address of his Bromley clock station was printed wrong
in the handbook and should read, 33, Great Elms Road, Bromley, Kent. Doreen Kneller
contacted me to say that they had two unclaimed raffle prizes at the Cambridge marking
station and the numbers were: blue AH405 and yellow AF830. Our Doreen, says the fanciers
with the winning tickets can pick up their prizes at the Saintes marking.
I would like to finish this week’s ‘NATIONAL FORUM’ by congratulating
once again the Corkett family on their wonderful performance in the Nantes National and
also, Colin Bates, for some outstanding convoying. If you need to contact me with any
N.F.C. news, please phone me on: 01372 463480 or email on: keithmott@btopenworld.com
Text
by Keith Mott (N.F.C. Press Officer)
