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Report by Les J. Parkinson & Cameron Stansfield.
Chale Young Bird National Report
This was always going to be a tough race for some after the holdover with the strong winds and showers around the country. The section vels were considerably different from the 2000 plus ypm to the winning loft down to the 800ypm plus vels of the section winners in sections C, D&G. Congratulations go to all winners in the final race in what has been a very trying National season.
1st section E 1st Open goes to the partnership of Alan & Gary Young and their star of the moment “Louisa”, their provisional winning pigeon in the Chale YB National. The sire was bred the well known multi-National winner Geoff Kirkland while the dam was bred by their good friend Davy Hunt of Dagenham. This was “Louisa’s” sixth race of the year and she was a quarter up on her fifth flight. Unlike many of the paired, darkness or any other modern day system this is a natural winner racing to the perch that has been a very consistent pigeon in her first season on the road. Unfortunately due to time and the e-mail system we have no more information but we would like the partnership to forward more on their system, birds etc and a couple of photos for a future article.
1st Open NFC Chale YB for Alan & Gary Young
Winning 1st Section A is the very successful partnership of Ian Crammond & Nigel Langstaff of Fontwell in Sussex who clocked within 32mins of liberation at 2.57pm, recording a vel of 1886ypm. The partnership were less than pleased with the decision to race from Chale so just entered their “A” rung pigeons and topped them up with a few N rung birds to make a team of 12 for the race. The section winner is a darkness hen flown celibate and was bred from a pair of pigeons gifted to Ian & Nigel by the well known Barber & Hilson partnership. George Hilson is a good friend and they regularly exchange pigeons from their best lines. George joins them from time to time when they go on their annual visits to Holland and Belgium. The bloodlines of this winner originate from Bill Bailey via George and are essentially Maurice Mathheeuws. This section win follows a run of Classic wins this season including 1st & 2nd open BICC Exeter1966 birds. 15th & 16th open BICC Yelverton 2509 birds. 1st 2nd 3rd LSECC Wadebridge 2698 birds. 5th open BICC Wadebridge 1320 birds. 2nd sec NFC Sennen Cove 5350 birds.1st 2nd 4th 6th Solent fed Yelverton 2407 birds. 5th sec 574th open St Nazaire NFC 4483 birds. 8th sec 269th open BBC Messac 1781 birds. 1st sec A 409th open St Malo 4073 birds. 3rd & 4th sec 140th 159th open NFC saintes 3144 birds. 4th 6th sec G 8th 21st open BBC Bordeaux 1654 birds. 16th sec 106th open NFC Bordeaux 2810 birds.
1st Section B is won by Lee Willett who was away in Wales at a loft waiting for a friend’s pigeons while giving me this information so enjoyed two big races on consecutive days. I very often say that pigeons don’t need a lot of races before going into the big ones, well in the case of this pigeon he had none, that is apart from a few training tosses. The reason was that this one as one of Lee’s special rings on so he didn’t want to lose it before the big one, in fact he kept all his nom rings back because they were not sure what route they were going to be racing. When I say didn’t want to lose it the reason is that Lee finds that these pigeons can soon go down as young birds but after that they are fine. Every year Lee brings in pigeons from Mr & Mrs Hoad of Woking because they have always won for him. In the case of this pigeon the breeding is out of the SMT Messac combine winner. The young birds are raced on the darkness but this loft is strictly a channel loft as over the water is where he likes to race his birds.
Lee Willett
1st Section C goes to F & J Halstead where the birds had to fly into a strong head wind and this is the first young bird section winner to these lofts since John moved from the Midlands to Dorset 4yrs ago. This adds to the impressive record of 5 NFC young bird section winners in the last 11yrs for John. This section winner, in line with 4 of the previous winners, contains some Busschaert bloodlines but this time crossed with a good Vandenabeele hen being direct from M & D. Evans stock. The sire to this “A Rung” chequer cock is the “Dorset Dart”, winner of 6 x 1sts and twice 1st Staffs & Moorlands Federation and now sire to a 2nd NFC section winner, the other being the Old Hens National winner of 2004. All John’s young bird section winners have been raced on the darkness system, which has been fine tuned over the years to enable the youngsters to perform to the best of their ability. John says many fanciers have good pigeons but fail to get the best out of them through sticking with the same old ways. Starting the season with 35 young birds on the darkness, only 3 have so far been lost racing and 5 training. This season cocks and hens are all in together, several having nests and eggs but at the time of basketing, this cock was driving a young blue hen to nest. He also had a young chequer hen showing to him whenever the blue was away.
Section D once again sees A & D. Hodge in pole position. This win follows their 1st Section Saintes and 2nd Section, 2nd Open St Malo this season. The events leading up to thiswin were amusing. On arriving at the Exeter marking station his basket opened and all his birds got out. Andy at first decided not to send but Nobby Henley and Andy Cridland persuaded him to go home and get them back. Another twist of fate is that this pigeon was given to Andy by Andy Cridland after enteringAndy’s loft on a couple of occasions from joint training tosses. Andy’s birds have had 2 build up races with Devon & Cornwall Continental FC, from Chale, again proving that this club is amust for tuning up for the NFC. He would like to thank Nobby and Mike Henley on the dedication they both show in supportingSection Dmembers and alsoPaul Naum for his sponsorship of Section D this year.The pigeon is aClive Lister Gaby Vandenabeele, with its nestmate being 2nd Section D for Andy Cridland. This race was extremely difficult for all Section D fanciers, a howling southwest wind proving extremely testing. The two Andys both had 9 out of 10, proving the new transporter is a major factor in keeping the young birds in excellent condition, the birds looking great on their return. Well done Andy and Denise, a great season, thoroughly deserved by dedicated fanciers. Thanks to Andy Cridland for these details.
Andy Hodge
1st Section F is won by Peter J Campbell who used to race his birds up north in Carlisle and decided to move down to Basingstoke in December 2001 to fly in the nationals and classics on a much more level playing field. When Peter moved down he decided to purchase birds from Louella and obtained his Silvere Toye pigeons in kits of 10 and 12. These birds have served him well winning many club firsts and some decent classic and national positions. Last year Peter decided to buy some of their performance Janssens, again from kits of 6 for £99. Two of these birds were paired together this year and bred a Red Chequer hen, which is the bird which was clocked on Sunday in the YB National. She has been a consistent little hen, always arriving just after the first couple of birds and on one occasion actually pulled out of a large batch of birds directly above the loft, which had just been released from Basingstoke with the wind pushing them over his location without following them a single yard. Peter was pleased to see her do this because it showed him that she had the brains and ability to pull out of a large batch. Peter named her Little Red Niamh after his 9-month-old daughter. Peter was also 3rd section Old hens with a 2yo Dark hen who was stitched up as a yb by club member Dave Hawthorne’s wife Gill. This hen is his tame hen who thinks Peter is her mate and always shows to him when he goes into the loft. She is a Toye x Janssen At the end of June Peter had to move the birds out of the garden to their present location because they moved house due to all the problems they had from their neighbours over the previous 12 months.
Peter campbell
1st section G were T J Cocks & Son with son Simon sending the following information. ‘The winning pigeon is a blue white flight Barker cock, bred off of stock purchased from Mike Owen of Wales. He was sent driving a hen and has previously won 1st Minstead in the Bath South Road Club. Young birds are fed 50% Versele Laga Gerry Plus, 50% maples. They get electrolytes in the water on return from racing and garlic and vitamins during the week. We tried the darkness system this year for the first time and after this result will probably try it again next year. The winner’s dam is pure Barker from Mike Owen and last season took 14th section, 52nd Open from San Sebastian in the British Barcelona Club. The sire took 2nd Club Saintes last season. Both birds have previously bred winners. The photo is of Simon, son and partner of Trevor Cocks & Son, holding the successful bird. Trevor, who does all the work with the birds, unfortunately went on holiday before the photo was taken. The champagne will be in the fridge for his return! Winning the section has been the highlight of what has been one of our most successful seasons in our 20 years of racing pigeons. May we also take this opportunity to congratulate all the other section winners of this race.’
Simon Cocks
It was a great day at the Polstead lofts of G. & T. Harris, with them winning Section H with both Young Birds and Old Hens. This is what Trevor had to say: ‘I have taken a lot of flack for saying what I am going to achieve but I have self-belief and belief in my pigeons, without which you will never achieve anything. The birds went up at 2.25pm and, flying 136 miles,I expected the race to be very fast. Just in case, my father and I sat in the garden from 4pm waiting for the birds to come home and at 16.34 we saw 2 birds coming. They went straight into the widowhood cocks’ loft. One was an old hen and the other a young bird. I lost no time and clocked the old hen at 16.36.05 and the young bird at 16.36.11. The old henis a 2002Louella Jan Aarden and was my first pigeon home from Bergerac in the BICC race of 500 miles in July. I kept her flying with the babies and sent her to a race the week before the National. She is always trouble to get in and had paired up with 3 different cocks in the last 2 days before marking as I had to let her in the cocks’ section all the time or she would stay out all day. When she came home she had a choice of 3 mates so no wonder she was quick. The young bird is also a Louella JanAarden hen and has been to every young bird race but she was not one of my fancied pigeons. As I sent 40 to the race I could not pool them all so had to choose a few to back.’ Trevor says he keeps his birds healthy by using Travipharma products and that you will never win if the pigeons are not right. This has been a great season for the Polstead lofts with 3 Section wins in the no 1 club in the UK and also he has had some very good results in the BICC. Not surprisingly, he says ‘roll on next season’.
Trevor Harris
1st section I were Gary Daykin & Son & Evans, a very well known top National winning loft from Carlton, Nottingham. This year the pigeons have not been worked as hard as Gary would like, the main reason being that Gary does not race in the weekly clubs and feds, consequently they have only had a limited number of inland races, mainly with the MNFC. For this season the pigeons are being raced on the roundabout with a team of between 60/70 being available. The system is working quite well even though there is more work involved. Knowing how many good performances Gary has achieved I asked about the best of them all. It didn’t take too long before he told me that it would be a toss up between Picauville and Chale, which were both fantastic results. The next question was what does it take to be a winner? “Good fanciers and good pigeons will always win whether racing on the north or south routes. You need the right tools for the job and the right pigeons for the management system that you have in place.” Gary finished by telling me about the Soontjen family and in his opinion they are something special, particularly if you have the right lines form the originals that came over.
1st section J sees Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw add to their good performances to date at National level having won 2x2nds and 1x3rd section and this first section win tops off another good season. This is a red hen flown on the darkness system and feeding a four day old youngster. She has previously won the Audlem HS from Exeter and been 7th in the Market Drayton 2B. This hen was lucky to have a 1st section to her name because she was the second to the loft with the first not trapping until 43 seconds later. The section winner is a Jan Theelan hen bred by Nigel’s good friend Richard Windsor from R.Windsor & Sons. These last few years Nigel has had a real good spell at National level with many top performances and is a real dedicated fancier who never knows when to give up. Nigel works hard in his building business and expects the pigeons to work hard to earn their perch.
Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw
1st section K is Peter Hagland who said that he is having the kind of season you dream of having but doesn’t come around as often as you would like. He is really on a high and wonders when the bubble will burst. Peter’s section winner is a Janssen/Herman chequer hen raced on the roundabout and he did have a good race with 9 in the clock. The sire is out of Peter’s 2nd Open Saintes cock when paired to a daughter of the Herman cock, winner of 18 x 1sts so there are plenty of winning genes in the breeding. The young birds have been racing well as a team all season and nothing is stopping them. It is never a fluke when pigeons are flying well and Peter puts it down to them being happy and content around the lofts. They have been in such good form that Peter has not even trained them for over a month prior to this National race as they have been exercising so well around home. Peter is like a growing band of National flyers because he sends only in the Provincial as a means of experience for the National races. There are more and more fanciers going onto this system because of the time required to get pigeons right for the weekly racing. Peter did say that a lot of credit must go to his wife who is a real treasure and does a lot of work and he would have a problem without her.
1st section L goes to Eric Taylor who is one of the most consistent young bird flyers I know and a hard worker with them. Eric was telling me that they go in the basket that much they settle down for a sleep straight away. This winner is a pencil-pied cock from the Verheye/McDonald lines that have been winning for Eric for many years. For this race this big strong cock was driving a hen to nest, Eric has been playing around with them to keep them interested. He is in fine form having been 1st club, 2nd fed the week before so is on a roll and no doubt Eric will be sending him on for another race or two, that’s if he can find them. The sire has won a few prizes including 1st with the dam also doing well and finishing around the top 50 in the National as a young bird. The winnings go even further back to the grandparents, so a good line kept going.
Chale Old Hens National Report
The honour of winning 1st Section E and 1st Open goes to 37 year old Jaimie Clarke of Chesterfield in Kent who clocked a celibate hen at 4.04pm and had 19 of his team of 30 celibate hens home by 6pm. These hens were started off about two months ago and have been sent as trainers in the young bird programme with his local organisation, having had three races through to Lyndhurst, 121 miles, last weekend. They have also had about ten tosses from 30 miles on the line of flight and have been exercising once a day for up to two hours. Jaimie says they have been coming really well but he was surprised by how well they shaped in the National because they are going through the moult and were in pretty poor feather. They are just given a basic feed and to stop them pairing together and laying he keeps a couple of cocks in with them at all times. He says basically they fly just to the perch and he can’t explain why they do so well. None of these hens has ever been paired and his first in the clock is a 3y hen who has always been consistent. Jaimie says he does not get too close to these hens but he keeps things regular and works hard with them. He added that he races hens celibate because for reasons he can’t explain, he has always raced a better hen than cock. However, his ambition is to get a good team of widowhood cocks together so these hens will act as their mates next year before being brought out again for the Old Hens National.
Dave Wells of Borden rounded of a good season by winning Section A by 55ypm with a 3y hen, her sire being a Busschaert and her dam a Lier Market purchase, believed to be a Janssen. She is in the clock just about every time she is sent, though Dave did say that whenever he puts some money on her it slows her up a touch! With this race being so short for him, he sent for a bit of fun really though he did expect her be intelligent enough not to overfly the loft. She was given a 50-mile toss a few days before this race and was sent feeding two 14-day old youngsters, which he is rearing for a friend. For the record he timed his other hen twenty minutes later but his single young bird entry did not show up. Next year his winner will be raced out to Bordeaux or another race of similar distance; he won’t being sending her any further than that as he feels that her breeding suggests that would be her limit.
Dave Wells
The best bird in Section B was recorded by Derek Human of Petersfield who told me he only sent to prove a point to other local fliers that such short flying birds wouldn’t necessarily be swept up in the general convoy and overfly their loft, and indeed the second of his two old hens arrived ten minutes after the first. His Section winner is a very good natural hen, in fact next season she will be going for a NFC Certificate of Merit having previously been twice in the 1st 100 of the NFC’s longest race. In 2004 she was 11th Section Pau and this year was 6th Section Bordeaux, which was her most recent race prior to this one. She had done nothing since, then last week Derek gave her a short toss from Lee-on-Solent before being basketed with her just looking at her cock. She is of Catrysse lines which go back to birds from Norman Bishop and Les Davenport. These have served Derek very well and are good all-rounders, as performances such as 1st & 2nd BBC Nantes, 1st CSCFC Avranches and 1st CSCFC Lamballe (by over 100ypm) illustrate. Derek is now 65 years of age and started with pigeons as a 12 year old. He says he’s happy to win from anywhere be it Exeter in the local club or on the National stage and his ambition is to win the Grand National. Perhaps this hen will be the one to do it for him next year.
Following on from his 1st Section Old Hens in the Central Southern Classic a fortnight ago, John Halstead wins Section C. John was confident his hen would battle against the wind as in terms of condition she had superseded his Central Southern winner in the last week or so. His National hen was an hour behind his Classic Section winner in that race a fortnight back and was sent here on her fourth flight. Whereas his Classic winner had been a widowhood hen during the old bird campaign and had only been flying out for a month before her success, his National hen has been raced in the old bird programme and was in fact 1st Club Messac in June in his local Gillingham club. She is one of only four hens raced in this manner and when you consider John started 2006 with 14 widowhood cocks it shows that he is by no means a big team flier. John’s winning hen came in as a young bird stray. She was only in his loft for 24 hours before being given a 50-mile toss, from which she returned so he reported her to her owner, Ivan Jones of Rhymney in Wales. Duly transferred, she was sent to the CSCFC St Malo YB race, only to return to her original Welsh home, arriving just 5 minutes after Ivan’s 2nd Section winner. Since then though she has behaved herself and she was set up for the National by being basketed on a 5-day youngster. Known as Welsh Mel, she is of Haelterman lines.
Sue White of Honiton notched up her third 1st Section win in the NFC having previously won the Younng Bird Section twice and she described herself as ‘well excited’ as her game yearling hen was really up against it flying into a gale force wind. The hen in question was bred by Jack Hackman of Sidmouth and was bought for £5 in a breeder/buyer. She was unraced as a YB and began this year in a stock section but she escaped over Sue’s head having not paired and went awol for two days. Sue decided to keep her flying out and trained her with the young birds through to 25 miles. She was coming well so was sent to two Isle of Wight races with the Devon & Cornwall Continental Amal. Sue had contact with pigeons growing up on a farm when her family used to sell the youngsters bred off strays at the local cattle market. She always harboured ambitions of one day racing some birds herself but it was not until she took over a pub in Honiton where the local club met that things came together. Now with more time on her hands, she plans to have a go at roundabout and darkness for the first time next year. She describes the birds she has as mongrels and they comprise birds from Martin Rickman of Derbyshire, a Natrix hen through Jim Biss and birds from Scottish friends. Additionally she has a young bird team made up of birds from the many West Country fanciers who rallied round when a fox killed all her own-bred youngsters earlier this year. The plan now is to continue racing her Section winner next year and, who knows, she might one day fulfil Sue’s ultimate ambition, which is to fly Palamos with the BBC.
Sue White with Nobby Henley.
Paul Stowell of Basingstoke had the best bird in Section F. He clocked a hen bred out of a pair of gift birds from Machiel Buijk of Hoogerheide in Holland, the lines being Jan Aarden/Van Geel. These are very inbred and Paul says in terms of type they are like the Ko Nipius which have served him so well, with rich eyes being a particular feature. His winning hen has been through to Bergerac in the past but this season has been hardly been anywhere in terms of races, though she has had loads of short tosses with Paul’s youngsters and was sent sitting 10 days. It is surprising to find that this was Paul’s first ever 1st Section win in the NFC when you consider his CV includes 1st Open BBC Bordeaux and being top prize winner 13 times in his local Basingstoke club and also 8 times runner up. In Paul’s own words he has been through a lean spell in recent years so hopefully this success signals a return to form. His ambition is to win the Grand National. If you want to know more about these birds, visit www.magiclofts.co.uk
Paul Stowell’s 1st Section F winner, ‘Dedication Dolle’.
Seventy-one year old Brian Henley of Bradford-on-Avon wins 1st Section G with a 2y unpaired Busschaert hen. She is bred down from birds bought many years ago from Mr & Mrs Clare of Boston, Lincs, this being a line which has served Brian well. In addition to never having been paired she has never been trained. She was unraced as a youngster but was raced a yearling, and this year went to St Malo. She is one of 11 hens which race to a spare section but when asked what the idea behind this was Brian replied: ‘No idea whatsoever other than that I don’t have much nest box accommodation and they were too good to get rid of.’ Brian sent 5 hens to this race and had two on the day and 2 the next day. He was keen to see his fifth one home safely for as he said, ‘I don’t just like my pigeons, I love them and I don’t care if I win or lose as long as I see them come home.’ Having said that, he missed his winner’s arrival as he had popped into the house to put his dinner in the microwave. Brian is helped greatly by his son Kevin (who races to his own loft nearby) and says his aim is just to enjoy his pigeons and carry on in the same way. He feeds Gerry Plus all year round having had it recommended to him by Brian Sheppard, with whom he grew up.
Section H was won by G & T. Harris of Polstead near Colchester, who also won the Section in the Young Bird race, the two Section winners arriving together. See the report on the Young Bird race for further details.
I wrote last year of Jeremy Wright’s fabulous sequence of four successive 1st Section wins in the Old Hens’ race (including a 1st Open) and lo and behold he’s done it again, which must be a record. In the past five years his methods have not changed at all, the only difference being that this time he won it with a 2y whereas his four previous wins were with yearling hens. The common denominator is that all five hens were racing to their first youngsters of the year and, in the case of the yearlings, the first youngster of their life. Jeremy sent 13 of his 15 hens to this race, but there were only three yearlings amongst them on account of losses in the young bird programme of the year before. These hens were paired mid-February then parted after sitting 4 or 5 days before being re-paired in April and sent to the first race sitting. After that they were raced on widowhood through to Tours at the end of July before being set up for this race. After Tours they were given an open loft whilst being driven and, once having laid, were trained from 30 to 40 miles more or less every day, with Jeremy believing frequency of tosses to be more important than distance. Once their eggs hatched no more training was given and they were basketed on 5 or 6-day old babies. Jeremy had 10 out of 13 home on the day and his Section winner had been 4th Section MNFC Portsmouth earlier this season when the loft also won 1st & 2nd Section. Her sire is a Haelterman which won the Warwickshire Fed Championship Club from Plymouth and her dam is out Chris Raes stock. Can Jeremy make it six in a row?
John Fretwell had a great day last Sunday, winning Section J in the Old Hens, 7th Section Young Bird National plus 8th Open MCC Yelverton and 1st & 2nd Club Exeter. He gets a thrill from all races but said that clocking in from the National is just something altogether different. In the Hens’ race he clocked a yearling blue w/f Smit Van Winkel (direct) x Houben (Ken Whitehouse). A consistent young bird, this year she was used as a widowhood hen then was given a couple of trainers in her local club. John said it was blowing a gale so he was surprised to clock when he did, but then fifteen minutes later he had another old hen and his first youngster and by nightfall he had 6 out of his 10 old hens home. John has wasted no time building a strong team having only re-started with pigeons on his move to Pershore in 2004. He only buys from the best but said that even then you need some luck. He races mostly Marcel Sangers and Janssens. This year he has won the old bird average in his local club racing a team of 18 widowhood cocks, many of which flew through to Crieff on the north before being turned around and then scoring 1st & 2nd Club Picauville. Feed here is Bamfords Fast & Fancy and a widowhood mix. His winning hen will be given a toss on Wednesday and if she pleases him he will send her to the MNFC race on Saturday.
John Fretwell’s Section J winner.
Vinnie Wilkinson fulfilled his long term-ambition by winning Section K and was thrilled when I phoned him with the news. He timed a yearling Janssen x Busschaert hen through stock from Mick Thompson of Grimsby. She has been consistent this year having won 217th Open BICC Falaise and 156th Open BICC Alencon. For those races she was raced on a celibate system, just being let through to the cocks’ section prior to the races, however for this race she was sent on 4-day old chicks. She went straight back on them on her return and Vinnie is toying with the idea of sending her to this weekend’s Midlands National event; he’ll make his mind up after tossing her on Wednesday so watch this space. Vinnie says despite her moulting he fancied her, but he didn’t pool her because of his unfavourable loft location. Incidentally, Vinnie put up a great performance from Bergerac with the BICC earlier this season, clocking on the day at over 600 miles. This pigeon was a 2y late-bred cock and, remarkably, as a nine-month old late-bred yearling it homed in race time from the Pau International, which is one heck of a fly into Grimsby. He was bred by Mick Thompson out of a Busschaert x Delbar cock known as Crackerjack and a hen which went into Mick’s loft as a stray when coming home from Palamos. She belonged to Neil Bush of Amcotts near Scunthorpe who has a long distance record second to none so Vinnie’s Bergerac pigeon was certainly bred for the job.
Section L was won by Graeme Marskell of Leyland near Preston who clocked outside of the hours of darkness which kicked in at 8pm, his bird arriving at 8.13pm, at which time he said it was just getting dark; he actually had a young bird arrive from a local club race later still. His Section winner is a Staf Van Reet and is a gift bird from Maurice Jackson, his club secretary. This is a very good hen as she has previously been 1st Hereford, 1st Bath, 1st Portland, 3rd Hereford and 6th Bath, and she has also bred a 1st prize winner fromLudlow this year. All this and she is still only a yearling. She wassent sitting a 6-day old youngster, as she was when she had her other 1st prizes. With the amount of west in the wind and the late liberation time, the further flying Section L birds were really up against it, as a perusal of the top 10 in the Section shows. Graeme’s bird was one of 5 which were clocked during the hours of darkness and three others were timed between 6.30 and 6.57am the nest morning, the only two birds in the top ten to be timed on the first day being to Barber & Hilson and Roger Sutton.
Graeme Marskell, 1st Section L.