1^st Open- 1^st Section E - D Heywood & Son

Dave Heywood and Son Gary first started racing pigeons in 1968 his son Gary joined the partnership when he was 11 years of age. They flew North Road for 31 years successfully, where they won many feds along with the London North Road Combine.

They returned to South Road in 1998 looking for new challenges, where their main aim was channel racing where we found success also.

The BICC National has been won three times along with a number of top places within the top ten. Dave and Gary have also won the London & South East Classic again with a number of top ten finishes within this classic. Also winning the London & South Coast Combine out of Tours.

The main families that we fly are as shown below; John Gerrard; Herthogs; Brasspennys;

Janssens; Norman Flint Venner x Jan Harden and their our own family of Verhey’s &

Busschaert’s.

The pigeons on the traditional widowhood system and their young birds on the darkness system, feeding them on Geri Plus and Super Widowhood.

The National winner is a John Gerrard Herthog x a daughter of our BICC National Winner Tours Lad.

They have named their National winner "Celebration Lass" as it was on Dave’s 45^th Wedding Anniversary.

1st Section A – Crammond & Langstaff of Fontwell

The winning bird for this partnership is a blue Vandenabeele hen, her sire is bred down from Maverick and Mercedes bought from the show of the year at Blackpool donated by Mr & Mrs King of Blandford, sire Hermes the dam Leda. Since this pair has been together they have bred a lot of top performing pigeons.

This young hen hatched in February was put straight onto darkness when first weaned, she as well as all the other young birds was reared on Country Concorde for the first six weeks, then they are gradually changed over to Marrimans Super Winner and Marrimans Junior Super Power Fed, fed at a rate of 50/50 once a day in the evening.

Training begins four weeks in advance of the first young bird races every day at the start from 12 miles increasing to 40 miles two – three times per week. Once racing begins.

This result concludes another successful season for Crammond & Langstaff in Club; Fed; Classic and National racing.

1^st Section B – Mr & Mrs L Cross

This is a real family partnership while Les is at work, his wife Dawn and Son Luke do most of the work at the lofts.

Les and Dawn started out in the pigeon in 1998 with a pigeon named Shoefayre, Les and Dawn were out on a shopping trip and they came across a young pigeon in the High Street, it had rings on so Les caught it Dawn went into the shoe shop to ask for a box (hence the name Shoefayre). They took the bird to a local fancier and he informed them how to find out whom the pigeon belonged to.

They were soon to find out that this great bird belonged to Graham Matthews of Titchfield, he let them keep the pigeon and they soon got him a mate the same way bred being a Delbar from the same fancier. Les and Dawn got another young bird from the Solent Fed Breeder/Buyer; this was a Van Der Bosche from Robbie Jones of Southampton. The birds were crossed and this has formed their family today.

They breed about 30 young birds; they tried the darkness system this year taking them off on June 9^th.

The young birds are fed Gem young Bird Mix with Gemthapax also putting garlic in the water

1^st Section C - Mel & Sue King with a B.CH cock bred from their longer distance lines being blended together to race 500 miles plus. He flew Lamballe with the British Barcelona Club two weeks ago taking 30thh Section, 194^th Open.

Sire is a son of 1^st Open Central Southern Classic Young Bird Ramsgate, lines of Vereecke, Jan Aarden & Gaby Vandenabeele. Dam is daughter of 1^st Open British Barcelona Club Poiters, lines Gyselbrecht, Jan Aarden & M White & Son. This is the second year running Mel & Sue have topped Section C in the Young Bird Race and their second National Flying Club section win of the season previously scoring in the Messac Race. This is also the second week running Mel & Sue has won their section as they were 1^st Section C Central Southern Classic Young Bird from Guernsey last week.

Mel & Sue breed around eighty young birds; all are on the darkness system from weaning until the first week in June. All the first round young birds bred from stock and race birds are housed in one loft and second/third round bred from the stock birds are housed in a second loft/section. No separation of sexes, nor fancy food and water programmes are followed here. Versele Laga young bird plus with Gem G10 pellets added, on occasion multi vits or probiotic added to clean water. The darkness youngsters are allowed to pair if they wish in preparation for Classic and National races from the channel. The young birds pair amongst themselves. They are not encouraged by pairing them with old birds. The young birds will race every week or fortnightly following a hard channel race, some young cocks will be stopped after the 100 mile stage and some are selected for the longer channel events with the bigger clubs.

1^st Section D – B & S Parkhouse

The winner for section D Brian "Ringo" Parkhouse is no stranger to section wins as he has had many in the last 10 years. Ringos winner a Clive Lister Gabby Vandenabeele, from original stock purchased from Clive in 2003.Ringos blue cock sent paired and sitting eggs, returned in excellent condition, testament to the new transporters. The bird has been privately trained, on Ringos old established regime, which perhaps he has neglected in the last couple of seasons. The birds have responded to training by Ringo and the trainers the birds have had with Exmouth club. Transported by Kingsteignton RPC. Ringo sends his gratitude to these guys. No racing has been undertaken with the young birds, proving they are better, sent well schooled and fresh and stress free. This proved to be a very tough race for many in section D, although once again the quality and motivated birds have found there way home.

1^st Section F – Gordon Seeney

Gordon races with his two local clubs, Wantage and Didcot & Hagbourne, over the last few seasons Gordon has been almost unbeatable.

He has been involved with racing pigeons for the last fifty years. His old family of film star pigeons had gone a bit stale, so he decided that he needed some new blood, talking in the pub after one of the races with the late Mark Kidby he said that he fancied bringing in some Soontjens. Mark said that he thought that the best Soontjens in the country belonged to Brian Clayburn. Gordon contacted Brian and went up to his loft in Pontefract, Yorkshire; he bought seven late breds from him, and discussed the darkness system with him and the roundabout system for the old birds.

He crossed the Soontjens in with his own Belengie Delbars. For the last four years he has let the basket do the talking. He has been pairing the best pigeons to the best pigeons; each season this has improved on the one before.

He sent ten pigeons to the young bird National this year, timed in three, pooled two, and his first two pigeons home were his pooled pigeons, who were also first and third F Section. These two pigeons have been over the Channel five times, one of them taking second place in the Dorset Guernsey Open Race also scoring in the Southern Classic. 

The same family cross gave him his first section, second open in the BICC open race from Falaise also one of the first two pigeons was second Open in the Dorset South Road Fed Guernsey young bird open race, beaten only by decimal seconds, winning £152 pools. This family seem to be improving year by year. 

Gordon loves young bird racing because the birds are naturally fit and all they need is a little guidance.  

The birds are fed on Jerry Plus once a day and they are treated for paramixo, paratyphoid, one spot and canker.  

Gordon says that he is looking forward to next year!!

Angela and I fly with The Didcot & Hagbourne club and if Gordon keeps getting better we will all have to up our flying just to stay with him. Well done Gordon.

Geoff and Catherine Cooper timed a light chequer hen to win 1^st section G, called Fleur after their twenty month old granddaughter.  They have lost count now of how many 1^st sections they have won, but it is well over 25 in Nationals and Classics.

 "Fleur" is bred from the best of Geoff and Catherine’s National winning family, and has already won 2^nd Bristol Fed Seaton and 127^th National BBC Lamballe. She had every club race up till she went to Guernsey with the Dorset Fed open race then Lamballe and into the National.  All the young birds are flown separated and exercised twice a day, with no basket training after racing has commenced, unless they do not go to a race at the weekend, then they will have a training toss of about 25 miles instead. All the young birds were fed on Willsbridge Red Star Plus, a new mix for this year.  So far Geoff has been very pleased with his results racing young birds on this mixture winning many top fed positions.

Her Sire is a son of Farm Boy who won 7^th Euro Diamond Ace Pigeon,   3^rd Euro Diamond Ace pigeon Dax International,  12^th  International Dax,  2^nd section, 3^rd NFC Dax , 475^th International Dax, 2^nd section, 7^th open NFC Dax , 7^th section 49^th open BBC National Nantes, 56^th open NFC  Saintes,  17^th section, 132^nd NFC Pau.   Geoff and Catherine were also second section old hens with a hen who is out of a full brother to Farm Boy.

Farm Boy was paired to Ibana, a daughter of Deweerdt’s Iban who won 57^th International Dax, 179^th National Bordeaux, 616^th International Dax, 1^st Prov. 4^th National and 10^th International Perpignan, 39^th National, 153^rd International Perpignan.

The dam of "Fleur" is a full sister to Geoff and Catherine’s National winner JW.  She won as a young bird 13^th Fed Exeter, 85^th BBC National Lamballe. The dams sire is Titch, one of the best breeders they have ever owned, he was a very good racer – always there, one you could rely on but it is as a breeder he has excelled.  Besides being the sire of JW he is grandsire to many top pigeons including George who won 1st Grand National Tarbes.  Titch is bred from Geoff’s old family, going back to ’53 and August who were part of his excellent 1984 team of pigeons which included John and Bulldog.

This was one of the hardest Young Bird Nationals for many years but sometimes it helps to sort the birds out. It was notable that all the birds Geoff timed on the day, young birds and old hens were all down from Titch and the Farm Boy.  Geoff has been thinking about what hen he was going to pair next year to George their Tarbes National winner and while they were waiting for the National birds Catherine said, "wait till later, we might find ourselves a new stock hen after the race" as it happens they did, the dam of "Fleur" is now going into the stock loft to be paired to George.

"Fleur" is going to be raced again next year as Geoff is  reducing the size of the stock loft to make room for some hens to race,  so Geoff and Catherine are having an auction of birds at Didcot on January 2nd to make room for the new racing section.

This will be the 7^th Section win for G & T Harris since racing Nationals from 2001, they are proberly one of the best flyers in Norfolk and Suffolk at this level based on The NFC Averages, they are 7^th best young bird flyers in the U.K. and after this result they should go up higher.

They were hoping for a good result and that is what they got, at 13.50 they saw a blue cheq hit the loft and knew it could be a good one; it was timed in at 13.53.27 then the anxious wait until confirmed as the Section Winner and proberly 13^th Open.

The bird is a Louella Pigeon World; Willy Van Houtte a Granddaughter of Polstead, come back king winner of Section H; 12^th Open Fougeres NFC 2007.

After not getting any section winners in 2008, they had one in 2007 and three in 2006 so this was a nice result.

The birds are feed the best corn and given treatment when need. The birds go every week to club races.

The partnership is looking forward to the 2010 season to see if they can go one better and win a National.

Their winning blue check Sootjen cock was rung on the 15^th January and put on the darkness system straight away and remained on it until June 19^th.Once racing began he was still trained twice a week from distances up to 35miles.He flew the majority of the Burton & South Derbyshire young bird programme including two races of 156 miles. His feed in the early part of the week is Gerry Plus with a diet mixture which is then strengthened for the last two days before basketing with Versele Laga Super Star Plus I.C.

This Sootjen cock’s sire is off Frank Sheaders stock and was purchased at Jim Magees clearance sale. His dam was purchased from John Salt of Kimberley.

Although they try to pair their young birds and then race them on a semi-widowhood system this young cock did not show any inclination to pair until three days before basketing. On the morning of basketing for the National they handled him and put him on one side believing that they had better birds to send. However on completion of basketing Ian and Margaret was one bird short of the number entered so they looked at this cock again and decided he was good enough to fly 300miles and so in the basket he went and thank goodness he did.

Ray and Son Ian have been a member of The National Flying Club for approximately 30 years. During this time he a string of minor success and have been delighted to win the award of 1st Section K of The National Flying Club with his Soonjens cross Busschaert’s bird.

Versele Laga Gerry Plus is the main mix with Carrs on the corn when racing.

All young birds are on darkness and are trained twice a week at 20 miles

What a tremendous performance by Peter, he has won Section K and is 3^rd Open as well. He has also won 1^st Open Old Hens it does not come much better than that on one weekend.

Peter’s Section K winner comes down from the same lines as his National winning hen. This young bird is raced on roundabout; this young hen only gets the young cocks on a Friday afternoon. Training consists of 30 to 50 mile tosses three times a week. Peter meets his good friend Colin Dixon from Bilsthorpe half way, and then Colin takes Peter’s South Road birds back with him, while Colin’s North Road birds with him, so both sets of birds get long tosses at half the petrol cost.

We hope to do an article on Peter later in the year which will make good reading.

Their winning bird is a blue pied hen now called Little Emily after our two year old great granddaughter.

Bred from a long line of exceptional channel winners. she is in fact a half sister to their section L winner of 2008.the dam of these two hens is a full sister to our good cock iron man. He was

an exceptional winner for them, winning year after year in classic completion including three times first in the Lancs. & York. 4 bird championship club from 450 miles a record as no bird has ever won it twice, he was presented with a unique gold award for his performances .Iron man was bred from stormer among his many channel wins was 3rd. Open NFC .from Nantes 450 miles from 10,000 birds. Closely related to stormer was cruiser himself a prolific winner from across the channel including 2nd. Open NFC from Nantes 450 miles, so it was no surprise when this game little hen turned up after nine hours on the wing, she looked immaculate and was commented on by the NFC representative on verification.

The credit for this must go to Brian’s wife Sandra as she takes care of the young birds. Brian sometimes goes in and pokes about a bit and he explains in great detail what needs to be done to bring the birds in to tip top condition, to this Sandra listens intently and then does it her way. What can he say after 60 years in pigeons the buzz is still great?

Wednesday: Left home 0600 to meet Brian at Frome, to deliver empty crates up through to Sheffield. Rain most of the way up and windy. Over night it rained very heavily, I had to sleep in the aisle in the back of the lorry where the birds go in the crates. I did not sleep very well at all due to rain and wind all night.

Thursday: Raining again, but we got the baskets loaded and we were on our way. All drinkers were filled where there were birds. Some drank very easily. We picked up all the way down and met the second lorry at the docks. We watered all the birds.

Friday: Morning checked the birds were all in good order. We then left for the race point. Three hours later arrived at race point. All the birds’ water was topped up and left to settle till 1500, when all the water was drained off and the birds were fed. All the birds had a good feed as my photos will show. After they finished their feeding they were watered again on all three sides.

Saturday: 0500 hours, up and make sure all the birds were well watered and they looked fine. 0545 we started to get weather reports, before ringing the NFC race controllers so as to get a full picture of what was happening. At the race point we had broken cloud with light West wind. At 0645 they sun was getting better all the time. After getting a full weather update from race advisers and a good line of flight, there was going to be liberation at 0745. The liberation went very well. All the birds cleared in one lot, straight North, one or two odd birds did not want to leave the baskets, but that’s no different than any other liberation. I was very lucky at the liberation to have some relatives of an English pigeon fancier who were there on holiday, they saw the birds being fed and watered, the extractor fans working in good order. They were impressed with the way that the birds were looked after on the transporter.

P.S. I would like to thank all these that have helped me this year, Brian Palmer, Trevor and Simon. Thank you very much, I very much hope that Brian Palmer gets the job next year, as he drive the birds very steadily and no one else knows the trucks like he does. Well done Brian. Paul Pym. Chief Convoyer.

Ron Crook: E-mail: roncrook@virgin.net

Telephone 01491 613477

In an absolute first for any National or Classic club we have worked on the provisional result of the Langstone Gold Cup, to give an insight and clue to the winner and runners-up. Please note that these averages are PROVISIONAL and UNOFFICIAL and rely 100% on correct flying distances and arrival times in the YB race from Fougeres. They also assume ‘dead’ clocks in the Fougeres race. They also rely on there being no material changes to the published Alencon and Tarbes race results. Caveats fully declared, we can look at the 67 members who have timed into all three qualifying races for the Langstone Gold Cup, surely the most prestigious averages trophy in the UK? Pride of place appears to lie with Mr & Mrs E Corkett & Sons of Leighton Buzzard, who have had a terrific season with the NFC and other clubs, the highlight being 2^nd Open 1^st section from Tarbes. They were lying 5^th after the first two races and the YB race saw them leapfrog the top four into 1^st place. Roger Sutton, 11^th after two races, has had another terrific season way up in Section L including 3^rd Section Alencon and 2^nd Section Tarbes. Wearn Bros 1, 16^th after two races, had a phenomenal season being one of only two lofts to time in the top 100 of the Open in all three races and remember Jimmy and Kenny also won the Messac race which doesn’t form part of the LGC averages! Brooks Bros were leading the LGC averages after the first two races with 107^th Open Alencon and 5^th Open Tarbes and have of course had a great season, but surely the West wind in the YB race cost them the LGC averages but that’s pigeon racing I guess! Mark Gilbert, 31^st after two races, is a previous winner of the LGC and has had another great season with 55^th Open Tarbes and provisional 9^th Open Fougeres. Mark Dorrington, 6^th after two races, like Brooks Bros surely had his chances of winning the LGC averages hampered by the Fougeres wind but Mark has been thereabouts in every race this year and has just missed out on several of the averages trophies. Crammond & Langstaff, 29^th after two races, like Wearn Bros made the top 100 in the Open of all three races including 2^nd Section Alencon and 1^st Section Fougeres. Bert Shepherd, 24^th after two races, has had another consistent NFC without hitting the absolute highlights of previous years but still made 2^nd Section Tarbes and 3^rd Section Fougeres. Gary Inkley, 27^th after two races, was also very consistent, and like Wearn Bros won his first NFC race this year from Saintes which doesn’t form part of the LGC averages! Geoff and Catherine Cooper, 20^th after two races, were 2^nd Section Alencon and 1^st Section Fougeres. I’d love to comment on all 67 lofts but I’m afraid time doesn’t permit. Well done to everyone listed!

Open   Sect.          Name                                                Town                                       Av. Velocity

E&OE … remember this is NOT the OFFICIAL result just an indication of the LGC averages based on the PROVISIONAL result from Fougeres.

Paul O’Leary

Firstly birdage was 5231 young birds, sent by 647 members, and 1260 old hens sent by 263 members.
Now race advisors report:

With 5231 young birds and 1260 old hens entered for the Fougeres National both transporters were required and following the various collections both vehicles met up at Portsmouth for the overnight ferry crossing to France. Very strong west to North West winds had dominated the weather along the south coast for several days but this was forecast to reduce to force 4 in time for Saturday’s race, and our weather man Steve Appleby predicted good flying conditions on race day.  Chief Convoyer Paul Pym rang through on Friday evening to report they had arrived safely at Fougeres and all birds had been fed and watered.  Early Saturday morning Steve rang with full weather details and again confirmed good flying conditions with excellent visibility on the channel. Winds remained WNW in the channel  and at Guernsey  the  strength  was given as force 4 (between 15/17mph)  Convoyer reported an excellent morning at Fougeres with blue skies and no wind on site, and birds were liberated at 7-45a.m. clearing immediately.  Here at Bracklesham Bay on the Solent it was a fine morning with blue skies and excellent visibility across the Channel, and the wind remained WNW until mid afternoon.

Flying 351 miles they timed in a yearling hen to take 1^st Open.

Peter started racing pigeons when he was just 13 year old, his first race completing against 40 members, he was 1^st and 2^nd club. This was in 1970 and he is still showing that he has lost none of his talent he has got for the sport, going from club racing to the highest stage winning The National Flying Club.

His winning hen comes down from Houbens on the sire side and Herman Beverdam on the dam’s side.

 Peter has had many top wins including 2^nd Open from Saints twice flying 530 miles he has been 1^st Section 10 times with seven of these birds still in his loft all the birds are raced on widowhood.

He mixes his own corn which consists of Gem Young Bird Mix, no maize 50% plus 50% Gerry Plus which is fed to all race birds. Orego-Stim is added to the water once a week and cider vinegar once a week. The birds are treated for canker and cocci yearly also treated once a fortnight when racing with a weaker mix for canker.

The loft is a small back garden loft consisting of one widowhood hen loft 12 x 8; one widowhood cock loft 16 x 8 and two stock lofts 8 x 4 and 10 x 8.  57 young birds being bred.

Peter has not only won 1^st Open Old Hens in this race, he is also 1^st Section – 3^rd Open young bird National not a bad days work.

Peter would like to say a big thank you to his wife Cynthia as without her help none of this would be possible.

His winning pigeon is a blue bar white flight hen of the Mr & Mrs Romani bloodlines crossed with Janssens from the Old Merx and Bange of 51 lines. She was prepared with three Guernsey's, Messac, Tours, Saintes with the NFC; she has been very reliable timing on several occasions and always being in race time.

Arthur targets the channel races, flying in the Shoreham club and Brighton 5 bird club, his birds are mainly Jansen based and raced mainly on widowhood with a few spare hens left with the young birds. This is Arthur’s first section win after several near misses; he has also won the London and South East Classic club with these bloodlines.

Derek’s winning Cattryse frilled hen won mirror positions in CSC FC and BBC but Derek has always thought she would do well. Derek has had great success with his Cattryse family and this is the icing on the cake. This is Derek’s third Section C win with the NFC, once with “Any Distance” and once with “Rose 2”. He thinks that this hen could go on to greater things as she is only two years old and his Cattryse pigeons get better at 3 – 4 years old.

He feeds Versele Lager Irish mix and Gemthapax.

Derek would like to thank Sid Barkel and his family and all the helpers who make these races possible.

Winning section C for the third time in 4 years are F&J Halstead of Kington Magna. Their winning pigeon is a 3 year old Blue Vandenabeele hen which has previously won 3^rd Section 11^th Open CSCFC Truro 1265 birds as an YB. This season on 2 May she was 5^th Club 18^th Dorset Fed Picauville 1559 birds, then 10^th July flew 12 ½ hours to take 50^th Open Classic Bergerac 1065 birds at 444 miles. This pigeon has a lot of ability but John has recently discovered that when she has a youngster in the nest she increases her water intake and completely loses condition. New tactics have been tried to avoid this and she was sent to the Fougeres race sitting for 21 days on 2 solid plastic eggs, one large pot egg and a golf ball!!

This is the 12^th NFC Section win for the Halstead’s and the 7^th one since moving to Dorset in 2002. They have enjoyed a very good last 14 months winning 2 Nationals; Bordeaux and Barcelona, and also 2^nd Barcelona last season. Success has also come in the RPRA one loft races this year winning 3 second prizes in short hot-spot races, demonstrating that they have birds for all distances.

Section D Winner of Fougeres Old Hens is Mr Cliff Colwell of Carhampton, Nr Minehead, Somerset. Cliff races a small team of birds from his garden, keeping a team of just 7 pairs of stock pigeons, 20 Old birds for racing and a young bird team of approximately 50 birds.

He has always proved himself to be a strong and worthy contender and races well over the water. Having dominated the local Club races for some years, Cliff needed a challenge and dedicated himself to the NFC National races to further test his racing squad. He firmly believes that the basket is the absolute test of the birds and trains very hard for the race point due. 

The hen that he nominated for this race, was a 3 year old hen bred from a Janssen x Delbar cock bird and Janssen x Marceus hen pairing, the Janssen pedigree from both sides having been bred by close friends, Paul & Gillian Naum of Watchet, Somerset.  

This 3 year old hen was highly favoured by Cliff for this race point as was proven by his sole entry status; he entered just the one bird. She was primed for the race and was sent sitting two youngsters at seven days old. Her scores to date are 14th Section Saintes - 860th Open NFC 2009, 5th Section St Malo NFC 2008 with her sister taking 4th Section in the same race. 

Her brothers have also performed well, one brother scoring 12th Open, 7th Section and the other scoring 112th Open, 56th Section from the BBC Messac race in 2008; her half brother (cheq), scored 6th Section Alencon 2008 and also 18th Section Angers 2008, reinforcing the bloodline quality. 

We must mention at this point that there is a strong arm helping Cliff, who deserves a mention, and that is his wife Mary who is very hands on with the birds, (loft manager), she is an equally keen competitor, is a tremendous believer in eye-sign and good bloodlines; and is always fully supportive of Cliff.

They are a fantastic team - just watch this space; this Section win has been long awaited and has fuelled a fire for more! 2010 racing season here we come!

The father and son partnership of J & J Brady have competed in Channel racing for the past nine years with fantastic results in National races for young birds and old hens. The period from August 2008 to September 2009 has been quite exceptional with the partnership winning 1^st and 2^nd National N.F.C. young birds, 2^nd National B.I.C.C. old hens, 2^nd National B.I.C.C. young birds and now 1^st section (3^rd National) old hens.

Their only disappointment this year was that their young bird team was depleted by the loss of their 2^nd and 3^rd round youngsters through sickness. Their vet and expert pigeon specialist Mr Ian Cameron advised the pair not to race this season. However, with a lot of hard work and his expert treatment they managed to get the old birds through the illness. But the young birds never quite found the form the Brady’s would have expected in time for the National.

Most of the pigeons owned by the Brady’s are from their very good friend Jos Thone, but in this case their winning hen was from their own Jannsen based stock (Van Herpen/Scheffer lines). This hen together with fourteen others was raced early in the season in two club races from Poole to regain fitness. They were then all sent to Falaise to judge their form, but after two more club races they were stopped and rested while the partnership raced the cocks. In July the fifteen hens were put back into training and on the 3^rd of August paired to the cocks. They were then sent to the B.I.C.C. Falaise on the 22^nd of August sitting eggs. This time the hens returned well and they then realised that they had something to work on for the National. The hens were treated for canker and with emtryl for respiratory, then trained hard and sent sitting youngsters to the National where they have improved yet again.

The duos food system: Sat: Birds return to Gerry Plus + Brewers yeast. Sun: Gerry Plus + small seed added. Mon: Gerry Plus + racing oil and minerals  Tues: 50% Gerry Plus + 50% Bosmolem Variamix.         Weds: Same as Tuesday, Thurs: 50% Verse Laga Super Widowhood + 50% Verse Laga Prestige Fri: As much Gerry Plus as required before noon.  Obviously fresh mixed grit each day

The Brady’s are happy to have finished the season with a good result in the N.F.C. National after the disaster they experienced in the February. It’s surprising how things can turn around.

The pigeon was brought from Jutla bros as a young bird. She is a Vandenbeele. Two weeks ago she was third section 11th Open Falaise BICC old hens. She was sent to this race sitting 18 days. Our second pigeon GB 06 N 66931 will be third section and was 1st section old hen’s national racer last year. 

In the Forest of Dean on high ground between the rivers Severn and Wye.

The hens are raced to their own section on the celibacy system. The dark chequer yearling hen has only been raced to the coast. The same loft also won 1st G Old Hen Section in 2008.

The dark chequer pigeon is of the Wilf Reed and Jim Biss line out of my long distance pigeons which also did well up in the Tarbes National in 2008 and 2009.

Three more birds were clocked in on the day.  The second pigeon clocked also won 3rd Old Hen G Section.

Philip restarted in the sport last year after a three year break from racing; he helped his son John with his show pigeons.

He acquired some late breds from Mr George Bowyer of Congleton, R & B Smith of Warrington, D & J Hawkins of Dunsville and L & L & J Barrow of Blackpool.  He started the year racing nine yearling late bred cocks which took him several club cards

The winning pigeon was a yearling blue Gaby Vandenabeele racing to a three day old youngster having a great season racing young birds winning club and federation several times. Feds Versele Laga and Gerry Plus, and use Travipharma Animal Health products.

The birds are housed in a 30’ x 9’ loft

John has raced to his current address in Haughton near Stafford for 14 years, having previously raced with his father Harold Hamplett. He races in the two local Stafford clubs and would like to say a big thank-you to the secretary Stan Stopka for all his help in setting up his Benzing M1 ETS.

He has got about 90 pigeons in his old bird race team and these are fed with a mixture of Gem and Versele Laga corn combined with various Comed and Gem supplements. He sent 12 hens to the race and had 10 on the day. The winning pigeon is a yearling hen and it was her first time over the Channel. She was sent to the race sitting 10 day old eggs. Her breeding is a combination of Kellens and Venus  Stock that he has had for many years.

Robert and his mother Joan have been racing mainly Janssens for the last 10 years, flying them on the roundabout system inland then paired for the channel.

The section winner was trained to 20 miles twice a week and excised round the loft for one hour a day by silent partner Hadge Frost, they are happy to send their Janssens right out to 500 miles. This hens nesting conditions was sent sitting 16 days, she was raced through the clubs programme inland and has had two channel races prior to The National  she has been a very consistent bird.

Ron Crook - Email: roncrook@virgin.net – Tel: 01491 613477