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With another big birdage of 8,535 for this race it certainly looks good for a high birdage for the 2010 season. Our chief Convoyer Trevor Cracknell had his work cut out with another very hot day ahead. Trevor watered the birds at Caen docks on arrival. Arrived on Liberation site at Messac at 2:30 am. Birds were fed and watered and topped up again until released. The birds cleared well into a light south easterly wind. All went well, thanks to a good team.

A fine dry sunny day was the forecast for the NFC race from Messac. This proved to be the case as most of northern Europe was under clear blue skies except for the extreme north western area of France. Analyzing the incoming data the previous evening the only concern was the development sea fog over night as the temperatures dropped. I was pleased to report on Saturday morning that the flight path from France to the south coast of England was found to be clear. This was confirmed by the Met Office duty forecaster. Having said that some coastal mist/fog had developed along some coast lines which soon burn off. An early liberation was advised to take advantage of the cool of the morning as temperatures were forecast to risesignificantly. Winds were light and direction difficult to determine, in fact variable is the correct description. At 11:00 hours they were recorded light at 9 mph from the south over the Channel Islands, whereas in mid channel they were 14 mph from the east. (See wind flow chart) This situation would of course create a level playing field and is borne out by the early pigeons arriving at locations all over the country. Temperatures reached maximums of 28 C by the afternoon, very warm. Visibility was good which attributed to this excellent race.
Steve Appleby

1st Section F – 1st Open Messac – Mr & Mrs M & C Brown
“Dreams do come True”
Mark and Clare’s section winner is a 3yr old dark Cheq Gaby Vandenabeele cock now named “Destiny 5006” was racing home to 5 day old eggs, he is a previous winner and bred down from their foundation birds which were brought in 2002, his dam being “birthday girl” who since 2003 has fast become the mother of the loft breeding generations of club, fed, combine and now a National winner, an example of this potency when paired to “birthday boy” is “33” (son) 2 x 1st combine, “62” (Grand Daughter) 3 x 1st federation, “08” (Great Grand daughter) 2 x 1st combine etc She is bred by Paul & Jayne Newbold of PJ lofts and was bought as a birthday present for Mark by Clare in November 2002 shortly after they first got together. The sire of“Destiny” is a Blue cock “60” that is bred out of direct M&D Evans birds and was brought in to supplement the Gaby Vandenabeeles which the Brown family had decided to concentrate on since 2002. This pair was first matched together in 2004 when Mark was still in the North West racing with his father Bill and bred their good cock “63” who was consistently scoring high accolades for the loft, ie 2nd club 4th fed, 2nd club 5th fed, 3rd club 5th fed during 2005 & 2006 and was a most consistent performer.

Mark moved to his present location in October 2006 due to work commitments after many years successful racing in the north west with his father Bill as W & M Brown, St.Helens were they had a lot of success winning many firsts in clubs, federations and combines with the final year as a racing father & son partnership winning 30 x 1st prizes during the 2006 season which including 6 x 1st federations and 3 x 1st combine (Bill still races extremely successfully now in partnership with wife and Marks mother Patricia in the north west), and as testament to this on the same day as wewon the National, mum & dad were achieving 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th Earlestown FC and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th in Haddock to demonstrate the ability of this family of birds.
After the move, it was decided initially that Mark would take the stock birds with him, which the father & son had build up over the previous years and start to build a southern division of their already highly successful family of birds, so a loft was constructed by Mark, Clare and the children Mia (6) and Ben (5) during the early months of 2007 and a small young bird team bred to start developing the racing team in Hungerford. It was obviously at this point that Mark used the previous records of the stock team and re-paired “Birthday Girl” to the old “60” cock and bred the first round of youngsters which were sent to mum & dads as the loft wasn’t ready as yet, part of these was “27” cock bred from “birthday girl” & “60” who went on to win the federation. 2nd round was soon moved into the new loft, of which contained “5006” now Destiny and his nest sister “5005” who as a yearling scored 7th section from Saintes with the NFC and who bred 2 x youngsters in 2009 “3101” & “3102” which were sent up to our friends in Warrington Andy Noon who went on to both win 1st club, 1st fed & 1st combine as youngsters. Also mother of our yearling “29” cock who won 1st club Carentan on 22.05.10.
All birds are vaccinated and treated for the usual ailments pre-season and weekly supplements, Cider vinegar, garlic & multi vitamins are used as required. For 2010 we had looked around

for a different choice of corn and after many hours looking at websites and brochures, and some lengthy discussions with local corn supplier and friend John Draper, it was decided that we would use Garvo corns and John would become a local agent for the company. So after changing to the Garvo corns straight after racing in 2009, we moulted out and bred on the Garvo range and then went onto the racing mixes. This was a very brave decision at the time to change a winning system as the youngsters had won 4 x 1st and a 1st federation using Gem corns but Mark is not one to stand around and lives/dies by the sword so to speak.
The race team are prepared for racing in the conventional way, with normally a good dozen training tosses before racing commences. But this season after only 3 training tosses all of which were smashed by the ever increasing hawk problem the partners decided to put the training baskets away for the season as it just simply was not worth the risk, and that the team would simply be exercised around home and raced each week to get themselves fit. The first race is always flown sitting eggs to take away the stresses of the first race, after that the partners race widowhood cocks & hens. After the race on the 22nd May which was another tough affair similar to the previous 3 races of which the birds did well but with consistent races in the 1200’s & 1100’s, Mark decided to leave the birds together to recharge their batteries and would let them lay & sit out before putting back on widowhood for the latter races, this was done with the hens & main NFC candidates being left at home last week 29.05.10 for a rest as the cocks were driving and the hens were laying.
So to the National winner, who has been a consistent racer over the last few years and was entered into the NFC arena as a 2yr old last season after racing with the Wilts fed as a youngster & yearling. He had 4 x races with the NFC in 2009 were he excelled winning 5th Section Fougeres (206mile), 7th Section Alencon (220mile) and then 11th Section Saintes (397mile). Up to date now and he is 3yr old now and after going to the Wilts fed early land races he was prepared and sent on widowhood to the federation Falaise race on the 8th May, which was an horrendous day and visions were that this would be a black weekend for racing due to the forecasts, but “Destiny 5006” didn’t hang around and simply would not be deterred and came home bang on line like a rocket absolutely dripping wet to be timed to finish 1st Club & 1st Federations with a velocity of 1207 with 2nd federation achieving 1189ypm, two weeks later he was sent to the NFC St. Malo race on the 22.05.10 were he returned home well from a westerly direction due to the Easterly wind to achieve a very creditable 6th Section and then was re-paired to be sent to NFC Messac sitting 5 day old eggs.
The day of the race we were expecting a 1500ypm day, so we were at the loft awaiting the birds arrival when we spotted him racing like a bullet with wings back, he was down & in being recorded at 12.00.36 from the 0700hrs liberation with a velocity of approx 1470ypm. He hit the landing board rocking before running in, the poor sole stood by the drinking fountain for over 5 minutes before going to his box and onto his eggs.
To be honest never really gave it much thought at this point, we were pleased he was home as he is an honest bird who will always give his heart & soul in his races, we then waited a few minutes to see if any other of the 3 x yearlings we had entered would put in an appearance. At 1215 we decided to verify as we had to get ready for the Wessex combine birds as they had been liberated 30mins after the national from the same race point. So a quick calculation based on our time for the National would require us to be ready for approx 1230hrs, a few minutes later we got a text on the phone “Many Congratulations on your excellent bird in the NFC race, Steve”, well I didn’t know a Steve but texted back to say thanks, and told Clare.
We decided that we must be up there in the section at the minute but as we fly against some fantastic flyers that fly 10/15 miles further than and then they had an hour to verify their birds this would probably change. Anyhow back to the combine race and where were they, it was now 1235, 1240 and we knew the birds were well but to be honest was watching the clock tick by minute by minute as we knew we had to be in now as the NFC bird had done 5hr dead so the combine would do the same, we eventually got a yearling cock drop at 1244 for 5hr 14mins so at least we had one.
Clare then went inside to have a look at the website, shortening the search and typing in section F, she was soon at the window shouting we were in 1st section and the fantastic Crowley & Green were 2nd section. Well we were over the moon with this and a quick work out saw that the other section lads still had half an hour to verify and knock us down into 2nd, then 3rd etc. Who is winning the open (as I predicted section G), a few minutes of silence and then a shell shocked face reappeared at the window and shouted …us.
What….a quick trip to the house to have a look at the screen, unbelievably there it was, currently showing 1st section 1st open, well a quick scroll down and some good big names were in and behind us. Well that was it, on the phone to mum & dad, quick have a look before it changes, quick text to our mate Pete in Crewe who was competing in the race, and oh it went manic. This was now about 1pm, calm down, a quick work out and with the lads further up country flying further and a south west wind it was on. Well the next hours passed like the longest of your life, checking the computer every 5 minutes, were we still there, had they started verifying yet. We were buzzing, tingling, every time you checked the computer, you didn’t want to look but you had to.
Well at about 4.30pm Paul Kendall came down to verify the probably winner of the NFC, unbelievable, what a feeling, what a day the phone then started with many many calls of congratulations I still cannot describe the feeling.
To round off a perfect day for us, at the club that night everyone turned up to wish us the heartiest congratulations with the National and our yearling cock we clocked in the club Messac race finished 1st Club and looks likely to achieve a very high position in the combine, dreams do come true.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their calls of congratulations; many who we had never spoke to before, thank you very much.

1st section A - Tony Baughen
Tony is from Liss who races with the Godalming and Districts Pigeon Club. Tony's 2 year old Blue White Flight hen "478" was sent sitting 14 day eggs and has always been a consistent pigeon having previously featured in the results from the YB National and Old hens National. 478 is out of the original Honeysuckle Janssens he started with in 2004, Tony has also done well with pigeons from fellow club mate Wally Cable who he says hasbeen a great help him. Tony races from an 18ft 3 compartment Blakes loft and feeds the same Gem Royal mix all year round with a little Homoform added. Tony is meticulous with his management, the lofts being cleaned daily and fresh water given daily, he treats with a wormer before racing starts but nothing else and apart from preseason training from the south coast, they only get tossed at most once a week otherwise they are just loft flown twice a day.

1st Section B – Raymond Murray
Ray and his wife Pauline and started racing again in 2000, since then they have had their fair share of success over the recent years, this two year old hen is a Van Loon a bit on the small side, but is the best in their loft by far they tell us, and is the top pool choice.
She is bred by their good friend Morey Collins top flyer in sholing club.
She is bred down from Ray’s Vanloon hen, 2nd national 2005 and Moreys hessian stock cock.
Ray and Pauline have flown natural this year due to the cold snap in January, no breeding until late February. The feed used is Versa - Laga all round mixed with Jerry plus. The bird is duly named “Birthday Girl" as it won on Ray’s Birthday on 5th June 2010.

1st Section C – Spracklen & Thomas
Neville Spracklen and Darren Thomas formed the partnership in 2002 with pigeons from their good friend Roger Lowe of Reading, their main family is Janssen De klak. They have recently introduced some long distance

pigeons from Mark Gilbert (of Windsor). This year Neville and Darren decided to fly just Widowhood cocks but after several bad training tosses the falcons injured five out of a possible ten cocks in one section of their loft, so they decided to remove these cocks and put some hens in their place, these are flown on roundabout and the first section winner is one of these. There are no secrets here as anybody who knows them will inform you, they feed Versa Laga widowhood and depurative with Hilton herbs as a natural tonic, these were recommended to them by their good friend Mike Staddon. The breeding of the winning hen now named ‘Laura’ after good friend Mick Wiffens daughter Laura Wiffen who got married this Saturday. Is the granddaughter of Bartoli and was their first pigeon in the young bird national last year; this was her second race this season. This family of De Klak’s have proven themselves time and time again for them and others and they are absolutely delighted with this win.

1st & 3rd Section D – Mr B. Reene & Son
Brian’s winner is a 5yr old checker cock, known to all his club mates as ‘36’. He has decided to name him ‘True Grit’ as he is never far behind and worthy of his name.Brian’s second pigeon winning 3rd section is from

the Weymouth ‘Ponderosa Stud’ and is a ‘Van Wanroy’ bred from a double Grandson of the ‘Black Giant’.
A previous N.F.C. performance for ‘True Grit’ was 7th Section D – Saintes, but he has been clocked several times in Channel races as 2nd or 3rd bird so Brian feels he fully deserves the 1st section position he has acquired from Messac.
‘True Grit’ is a Busschart/Soonitjen and is a full nest mate to ‘35’ a blue hen called ‘Little Paula’ who won 1st Section D – Saintes 2009 by 100yds a min.
It was ‘True Grits’ 4th Channel race this year, being Brian’s 1st pigeon from
Vire with the B.B.C, then he was the 2nd pigeon from Messac with the CSCFC
and also the 3rd pigeon with N.F.C. St. Malo prior to the N.F.C. Messac.
This year Brian paired up his breeding couples at the end of February. He then opened up the doors in the loft and allowed the remaining race team

to select their own partners. ‘True Grit’ was slow off the mark and ended up being one of the five cock birds without a mate, however he vigorously defends his nest box and obviously has his eye on somebody, but Brian doesn’t know who. YET!!
Brian mixes his own food, usually 2 weeks supply in a dustbin and he’s quite prepared to try all different sorts of mixes – ‘Garvo Spirit’, ‘Top Flight,’ widowhood,’ Breed and Wean’, ‘Versele-Laga’ Gerry Plus immunity concept.

All that Brian purchases is from: - Twyford Farm Supplies, who kindly sponsor all N.F.C Section D races. Brian also purchases locally grown beans, peas and barley as his winter feed and he’s not afraid to add cheap chicken corn to his young bird mix, or large dog tooth maize to his old bird racing mix.
In the water Brian adds ‘orego-stim’ natural supplies from which he seems win 2 bottles every year. (Many thanks to the sponsors!) Brian really appreciates all the phone calls from fellow fanciers congratulating him on race days, who may not be having the best of races themselves but go to the trouble of phoning.

1st Section E – Mr & Mrs Hayward
Tony’s section winner is a slatey yearling cock, it’s had three races as a young bird 2 Portland’s and a Guernsey 2 x2nd club beaten by loft mates. This race was its 3rd race this year, first race was Guernsey with lion

brewery, a very hard race, and was Tony’s lst bird. One inland race and Messac with National Flying Club. The Sire bred by Walt Zoontjens & Son, grand sire is a son of the favourite of Joop Koch, which in turn is a son of the blue favourite which is 1st ace national vit Holland, and 3rd ace national midfond Holland and 3rd ace WHZB Holland, dam of sire is a Dtr of the donker As and vivian of Walt Zoontjens. Dam direct Dtr of casino pair from john Gerrard.
Unfortunately this year Tony snapped his achilles tendon early February which made him all behind as he was in plaster for 12 weeks. Tony’s wife, Averil, the other half of the partnership fed and paired pigeons (thrown together love matches!); Matt Brazil of Aldershot helped him a lot, and my good friend John Wills of Frimley trained the birds for him because Tony was unable to drive. So Tony would like to say a big thank you to all those who made this section winner possible.
Tony races 18 widow cocks which are fed on Versele Laga super widowhood and Garry plus, he doesn’t break down, birds are fed in boxes, Traverna lugol Plus is added to water 6 days a week and Sunday fun day. No training after 1st race, unless he thinks they need it. Cocks fly hour in the morning and hour in the evening.
Going back to the race Tony had 8 out of 12 on the day, and 2 on loft at 6am next day.
Tony’s says the pigeons arrived in excellent condition from the race; the birds were clocked on Unikon ets system.

1st Section G – B Ferris
Brian Ferris 1st section G with a yearling cock flown on widowhood his last race a trainer from lessy a week before Messac ;breeding is Houben x Janssen v D Bosche the Houbens coming from a Deiter Schneider

Germany coming through Tony Cowen [thank you Tony] in 1994; one of them is an ace breeder; sire of many combine fed and open race winners Brian call him Houben 13 earlier this season another of his sons topped the West of England South Road Combine from Bedhampton 4, 000 plus birds; The sire of section winner is a son of Houben 13 and was a top race cock for Brian winning 2nd combine Nantes 3,213birds; 2nd open Nantes 942 birds; 13th combine Messac 2,720 birds ;16th Combine Cholet open 885 birds and 26th combine Cholet 3,058 birds plus his wins in club; Dam of section winner is a daughter of Comet winner of 1st Combine Vains 4,088 birds [Comet another son Houben 13] when paired to a daughter of Polaris who won 1st combine 6,278birds; 2nd Combine 6,549 birds and 17th Combine 5,318 birds; now Brian must mention the bloodlines of Janssen V D Bosche the Janssen lines come from a son of Janssen Brothers famous Oude Rocketman of 73 a winner 10 x 1st for the brothers which he was lucky to purchase in the 80s; when he also purchased a top pair of V D Bosche from Gerhard Schlepphorst; Germany which carried the bloodlines of Prins; Oude Saelen; and Bourgeske; from these bloodlines came some brilliant pigeons for Brian like Premier Astronout 2nd open 11,436 birds 2nd section Nantes National Cosmonaut 3rd open 9,785birds; 1st section Nantes National and Apollo 10th open 12;027b 2nd section Nantes National. Brian started in 1966 and has had various strains over the years i.e. Van-Neste; Clerabauts; Boeykens; Vandenabeele all which has produced winners; one of these which he would like to mention is one of the Boeykens strain a pigeon he called Jubilant who in the 70’s won section G twice also winning a silver medal from the National F in the year of the queens jubilee;(hence the name) now back to the present day and his hopes the future. He has just brought in some long distance bloodlines from Belgium Jos Thorne x Brockamp pigeons to see if he can win Tarbes with the National Flying Club (we all must live in hope) Brian Ferris

1st Section H – G Pugsley
Graham is a 63 year old Electrical Engineer and has raced pigeons since 1960, always flying the North Road and concentrating on Lerwick. Graham started flying South Road in 2002 and won the Nevers race with a

Blue Cock that had flown north as a young bird.  This cock was 2nd Saran the next year, flew Bergerac and Bordeaux and crossed the channel 23 times
before going missing at Falaise.   He is grandsire of the pigeon that was 4th sect H, St. Malo and is the sire of 1st sect H, Messac. They are of his old original Lerwick family which are Joe Shore (Northwich) x Albert Bennet (van Braune) and were responsible for many good NRCC Lerwick positions.   The birds are mostly flown on widowhood with a few pairs of naturals, Graham says that he keeps far too many pigeons but is slowly cutting his numbers down as he has found them too difficult to manage due to ill health. The rest of his birds are from Mr and Mrs Bates of Gravesend, Jimmy Shepherd, Jan Arden and a few Van Reets. Graham races in The South Holland (Lincs) Flying Club, Fens South Road Fed, Midlands National Flying Club and The National Flying Club, Club racing is used as
training now, his satisfaction coming from timing in the Nationals. Corn is obtained locally from Waldon Farm Foods at Dunsby and is their own widowhood mix.   Pigeons have always been in the Family, his father, grandfather, uncles and cousins all had pigeons and raced in the Maindee Champ Club before the War.
My thanks go out to Dudley Holmes for taking my birds to the marking station and also congratulations for his 1st sect, H St. Malo.

1st Section I - JT Winstanley & Sons

Howard has been involved in the sport for 40 years and has been a member of the NFC for almost as many. He flew in partnership with his father and brother as JT Winstanley & Sons in Shropshire and since 1996 has been in partnership with his two sons Adam and Craig, although it’s a family affair with his wife Lin involved as well. They timed 2 year old cheq hen which has been flown natural and goes back to the old Krauth lines flown by his father.
She was raced as a young bird and yearling up to the coast being very consistent but always beaten by loft mates. She was paired in mid-March and sent to the race on a one day old chick. This was only her 2nd channel race, the 1st being NFC St Malo 2 weeks ago where she finished 2nd section I and 144th Open.

1st Section J – David Bills
Patrick Nally (the breeder of the winning bird) is 52 years old and fly’s with the Wantage & District PFC, BICC and the National Flying Club. Patrick has been racing for about 19 years and says that he has had more

downs than ups but to breed a section winner in The national Flying Club has put him on cloud 9.
R.P.R.A. One Loft Race enters the NFC Messac race under the flying name of David Bills under the loft management of Tim & Jeremy Davies who took 2nd Section J, 31st Open 8,700 birds 2 weeks ago. The idea of the Yearling race is to compete over the channel and set them up for a 400 mile race this year it was decided to go for the one of biggest & most prestigious clubs in the country being the NFC. The Yearlings have had 4 Hot Spot races 2 on there own from 76 miles then 98 miles they then had 2 racing against the Severn Valley Federation from 130 & 101 miles the later being Portland and they took 8 positions in the top 20 from over 2400 birds. Jeremy wanted to get the Yearlings into tough competition and chose to race them against the NFC Messac race, it turned into a hard but successful race with the first Yearling being entered by Drimnagh Lofts with his R/C Cock coming 1st One Loft Race winning £1000 plus 1st Section J , 3rd Open 8200 birds. The Team are on roundabout and they are conditioned on Bucktons Feed , Flightpath etc, The next race will be with the NFC from Poiters 394 miles and Tim & Jeremy will be looking to take the No 1 spot. The next 3 pigeons look high up in the open these being Entered by P & R Stokes followed by 2 from Ashtrees lofts.

1st Section K – J J Booth
John has kept pigeons all his life. He flew at Normanton with his Dad, the late Harry Booth. John joined the National Flying Club when he moved to his present address in 1994. John has had a bit of success in the

National Flying Club. This will be the fourth time that he has won first section K having won first at Pau, Sennen Cove and Guernsey old hens.
The bird that wins first section K Messac is a four year old blue cock; he has always been a consistent bird from being a youngster. He was three times in the first ten in the combine 2,500 bird as a young bird.
Scored at Falaise three times and was 19th section K last year at Alencon.
He is bred from John’s good blue hen which was first section K open Guernsey fourth open. The sire is a chequer white flight from Luc van Hoeke of Bruges Belgium. This pair has bred winners from 60 mile to 407. At present John fly’s in Brotherton flying club, Pontefract south road club, the Northern classic and the National Flying Club. He prefers National and Classic racing because the local clubs are all getting smaller and you don't get the same buzz.

1st Section L – Mr E G Mackay

Graham Mackay tops section L flying 395 miles, Graham has always been a keen sportsman playing rugby for Salford as a young man. He has had pigeons since he was a young lad, flying with Farnworth flying club where approx 500 birds per week are sent. Graham is also a member of the Lancashire Social Circle where there are some of the best flyers in the north of England. His birds are fed Countrywide Feeds and also BGF feeds; they are broken down until 4 days before the race and then fed hard with some peanuts thrown in. He trains his birds hard, they go 30 miles south most mornings, then 40 miles north in the afternoon. He loves channel racing, especially open racing and the Nationals. The bird he timed first is a Rietvink through Piet Valk and Galaxy lofts. Graham races approx 32 cocks and 14 hens on widowhood

Section                No Of Race Entries                 Number of Members
A                           470                                                              63
B                           730                                                              88
C                           287                                                             34
D                           645                                                           122
E                        1,261                                                            127
F                           448                                                              44
G                       1,140                                                            118
H                          317                                                              45
I                            626                                                              63
J                           743                                                              83
K                          789                                                             102
L                       1,079                                                            144
Race Totals      8,535                                                          1,033

Welcome to the second report this year on pigeons that scored well in the latest NFC old bird race (based on provisional timings only) and which have also previously taken very good Section and/or Open positions with the NFC. As usual I have limited my database query to look at the top 50 pigeons in the provisional Open result, plus the top 10 pigeons in each Section thereby hopefully giving a good spread across all sections. Please note that if a fancier has verified more than one pigeon into the provisional result I will probably only have picked up on their first Pigeon only. Apologies in advance to you if I have missed a good pigeon of your’s because a fancier in your Section saw fit to verify more than one pigeon and then squeezed you out of the Top 10 in your section, but there’s nowt I can do about that I’m afraid except perhaps ask all fanciers to verify just one pigeon which is all they are required to do in any case. As per usual, I have found plenty of excellent and consistent pigeons:-

Open	Section		Member	Comments
1st	1st	F	Mr & Mrs M & C Brown of Hungerford	Previously 5th Section Fougeres 2009 and 7th Section Alencon 2009 … doubtless Ron Crook will have given us good coverage of this outstanding pigeon in the main report on the race.
14th	1st	A	A J Baughen of Liphook	Previously 10th Section Fougeres 2009
17th	2nd	G	Janet Wilcox of Bath	Previously 64th Open 6th Section Saintes 2009
22nd	6th	L	G Bowyer of Congleton	Previously timed on another 7 occasions flying a minimum of 336 miles, scoring 9th Section Fougeres 2007 and again 9th Section Alencon 2008
34th	8th	L	Barber & Hilson of Bury	Previously 7th Section St Malo 2008
36th	2nd	C	W Woods of Shaftesbury	Previously 7th Section Messac 2009
63rd	9th	B	M Waters of Salisbury	An astonishing 8yo pigeon is this, with 13 previous clockings with the NFC where on only 3 occasions has it been beaten by a loft mate, along the way scoring 8th, 4th, 1st, and 7th Section.
68th	3rd	E	Chitty Bros of Kings Langley	Previously 38th Open 18th Section Messac 2009
71st	10th	B	Wearn Bros of Ramsdean	If memory serves correct Wearn Bros won the Messac race in 2009, where their first timer this year was 24th Open 10th Section.
91st	1st	D	B P Reene of Honiton	Previously 9th Section Saintes 2006 and 7th Section Alencon 2007
124th	5th	E	M Gilbert of Winkfield	Previously 9th Open 8th Section Fougeres YB 2009
144th	9th	I	K L Enstone of nr Rugeley	Previously 104th Open 2nd Section Messac 2009
150th	2nd	D	H Franks of Tiverton	Previously 1st Section Angers 2008 when racing for the Franks & Baker partnership
199th	4th	A	Mr & Mrs Brian Wall of Havant	Previously 26th Open 6th Section Fougeres 2007
209th	7th	F	Crowley & Green of Compton Bassett	Previously 64th Open 3rd Section Alencon 2009 and 185th Open 6th Section Messac 2009
244th	4th	D	K Loversidge-Jenkin of Wiveliscombe	Previously 2nd Section Alencon 2008
335th	10th	D	Mr & Mrs P Naum of Watchet	What a good pigeon to finish on! Previously 25th Open 6th Section Saintes 2008, 13th Open 9th Section Fougeres 2009, and 55th Open 4th Section Alencon 2009.

Future Changes
I feel that I perhaps need to tweak the format of this report slightly, to better reflect the disparate Section sizes. By this I mean that the current system means I am looking potentially at 10 pigeons in the smallest section and also the same number in the largest section. This is great for the smaller sections, but I feel as though I’m not doing fair justice to the pigeons in the larger sections where achieving a Top 10 position is of course, statistically speaking, so much harder. So, I propose still looking at the Top 50 in the Open, regardless of Section, plus all pigeons from all Sections that have previously achieved one or more top 2% segment position in their Section. So, if a Section is a race has 2000 entries you’ll need to have a pigeon that’s made the top 40 in that Section in that race. If your section had 400 entries in the same race then you’ll need to have a pigeon that’s made the top 8 in that Section. Pro-rate, I believe I’ll be looking at balanced numbers across all sections and that can only be a good thing?

There has been some concern

regarding the Tarbes International Form with not being able to understand

the language so we have transferred this into English as Follows:-

There would be many more payouts in the 1 in 4 pool than there would be in the 1 in 100.

Please note verification only applies to your first bird
Clocks
Both rubbers must be timed within 10 minutes. Before clocking the second rubber a note must be taken of the rubber number. This number must be given when phoning your verification with the National Flying Club.
ETS
The rubber must be clocked within 10 minutes of timing. Before clocking the rubber a note must be taken of the rubber number. This number must be given when phoning your verification with the National Flying Club.

2010 SEASON

Mr & Mrs M & C Brown, 1st National Messac

There has been some concern

regarding the Tarbes International Form with not being able to understand

the language so we have transferred this into English as Follows:-

Press Officer

RON CROOK