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CORNISH WARRIOR TAKES 1st NATIONAL St. MALO
FOR
NOEL MOUNCE
Once again we have an excellent birdage of over 8,700 birds for the first race of the season.
Our chief Convoyer Trevor Cracknell and his team of assistants made sure the birds were looked after in this hot weather.
The birds were liberated at 8.30am into a clear blue sky with good visibility all birds cleared well.
1st Open; 1st Section D – N Mounce
1st Sect D, 1st Open National Flying Club’s Malo 2010.
Noel is a life long pigeon fancier who has raced with the National Flying Club for almost 40 years. At last he has fulfilled one of his ambitions in winning first Open in a National Flying Club race having previously put up some notable performances from his home at Kehelland on the outskirts of Camborne.
Noel’s winning pigeon is a 2 year old cock of Southwell bloodlines that was sent sitting overdue eggs, having been prepared for the race having spent 9 hours on the wing the previous week and being built up on a high carbohydrate diet with added peanuts for the National race.
Noel has enjoyed many years of National racing having been influenced many years ago by the late Clive Pollard who was a stalwart to the cause in Cornwall. This was a proud day for Noel and one he will never forget.
1st Section A – Mr & Mrs T & C Welch
Tony started racing in 1969 with the Chichester North Rd FC flying races as far as Thurso. A few years later he joined the Bognor South Rd Flying Club with a view to fly the Channel and the Nationals. Over the years he has enjoyed club racing but since his retirement he is more selective and concentrate on National Flying. The bird he clocked from ST Malo was a Blue Bar Janssen cock he came with his loft mate which Tony clocked about a minute later. These birds are flown on the widowhood system for the last two years. They have flown all inland races this year along the coast with the South Coast Fed and then prepared for the National. Tony and Carol his wife fly as a partnership she has been very supportive over the years by helping to train the pigeons, taking them off to marking stations when needed and she is a dab had with the scraper and Tony tells her that she cleans out the lofts better than he can? The Pigeons sent to St Malo will be rested with some light training and prepared to send to Messac with The NFC on the 5th of June.
1st Section B – Mr & Mrs M S Gower
Mark’s pigeon is an apple bodied blue Vandenabeele hen, bred in 2005 she has always been a very consistent pigeon.
She is from an M & D Evans hen of the Benetton X Devon lines when crossed with a Woodlands Farm Stud cock of Remus X Limoges Princess lines. 
This pair are parents to numerous winners Inc 1st Open CSCFC Guernsey. 1st sect 87th open NFC Cholet, 9th Open CSCFC Cholet, 3rd Sect 6th Open NFC Saintes, at least 3 x Fed winners and now a 1st Sect NFC St Malo. The grandchildren are starting to do well as one was 1st club, 1st Fed & 5th Combine Saintes last year and a son of the St Malo section winner was 1st club 9th Solent Fed this year.
She is raced on a loose version of the round-a-bout system as are all his birds, work does not give Mark the time he would like with the birds.
The cocks and hens get around 40 minutes exercise in the morning and evening on most days, Mark says he is lucky his wife Julie and daughter Bethany help by letting the birds out and shutting the darkness young birds away while Mark’s at work (he says he could not do it without them).
All birds are fed on a standard widowhood mix with added Gerry plus at the start of the week and he will alter amounts and additions subject to the wind and race distance.
Mark has tried showing and not showing the birds to each other before racing and do not find it makes a huge difference however time does not permit me to be able to choose so the birds usually get from 1 minute to 30 minutes together before each race.
The section winner has been raced all her life and will probably go to the NFC Nantes race next as she excels in big races where she can sort herself out. She is in the clock on 95% of the times Mark says she is his most dependable pigeon that never lets him down (He wishes he had more like her)!!
Here are some of her NFC performances,
2007 1st sect B 87th open NFC Cholet
2008 27th B 112th Open NFC Angers, 15th Sect B 135th Open NFC Saintes.
2009 10th Sect B 18th Open NFC Alencon
2010 1st Sect B St Malo
She also was 7th Open BBC Vire two weeks ago
I would also like to say a big thanks to Gordon Emm who helps with early training and getting the birds to race marking.
1st Section C – M R Staddon
Mike Staddon takes 1st Section with a late Summer YB from 2009, she went to St Malo carrying 7 nest flights, only had 2 x 50 mile club races as a YB from Minstead in the New Forest, and has flown Bedhampton 80
miles, Littlehampton 100 miles with the combine this year. Always early, she was paired up at the beginning of February 2010, along with all the race team. Some reared young birds, some did not. She was allowed one pair of eggs and then parted from her cock bird and has been on widowhood ever since. She is quite a small hen, but most of the Aelbrechts are like this, hen’s small, cocks medium size, typical long distance pigeons. Marcel Aelbrecht was the long distance champion of all Belgium; a record better than most, only racing 18 cocks until all his race birds were stolen. The sire of “Miss Aelbrecht” is a 08 blue cock, a present from his good friend Sheldon Leonard. This pigeon is a half Janssen Arendonk from the line of “The Showman” and half Marcel Aelbrecht, from the lines world famous “Crack 308”. The dam of “Miss Aelbrecht” is a direct Marcel Aelbrecht, an 06 hen, again a gift from Sheldon, from the lines of the famous “Small”. Mike says he is lucky to have such a great friend in Sheldon Leonard, who has supplied him with such fantastic bloodlines. He has never had a bad one; they have all either won or bred winners. Mike thanks Sheldon. All his racers are flown on pure widowhood, rear one pair of ybs or sit one round of eggs, but are not re-paired. This is to hold the moulting of the flights, which is very important. All his hens that went to St. Malo have not yet dropped any flights. He sent 20 and got 18 on the day in what appeared to be a difficult day. He feeds “Endurance Plus” and “Concorde” corn from A E James & son of Bristol, which he mixes himself, different mixes for different distances, always with barley added. Mike also uses “Hilton Herbs” all the year round which he finds a great aid. Mike practice natural immunity and never treat for anything.
1st Section E – M Gilbert
Mark’s winner is a two year late bred which only had one race as a youngster, he was taken steady as a yearling; Although he was 2nd Open Lion 
Brewery Guernsey Open 550birds dropping with the winner as a yearling.
This year he was Mark’s first bird from The BICC Vire race winning him over £300 in pools and then he was second bird all pooled in the LSEC were Mark thinks he will be 10th open.
He was Mark’s number one fancy in the National and is all pooled open and section.
He is also a half brother to Mark’s section winner in the BBC the same, the mother that bred both the section winners is a direct from Van Elasker of Jepsen. She won 1st Salbris 412 birds and was 2nd Salbris Provincial 1837birds at 350miles as a youngster for Van Elsaker. She is bred from Fenomenale 9999 who is a direct son 1st national Ace pigeon middle distance when paired to a daughter of Elsaker Indiana Jones.
The father is son of Tips from the famous Aladdin and Last lady of Koopmans, when paired to a daughter of Golden lady the mother of Koopmans Kleine Dirk. Tips has bred 1st Peronne 28332birds, 1st Chantilly 21892birds, 1st Chantilly 10589birds plus many other winners and is the father of the famous Farh Dibah and Resa.
1st Section F – Crowley & Green
This partnership had an excellent race from St Malo timing 5 widowhood cocks in 9 minutes to provisionally take 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th Section F which was a superb performance but how lucky they were. To explain 
at 13:05 they had their first bird arrive from the BBC Messac National only to find that their ETS system was not working. A frantic 10 minutes 
followed and more birds arrived whilst they checked the power supply (OK), the pads (OK), the connections (OK) but no ring would register. The last resort was the spare base station in the house which once connected saw their first BBC bird timed at 13:15:35 hardly time to recover before the St Malo birds arrived with “Snapper” their two year old blue white flight Maris cock diving from the sky to clock at 13:17:21 followed by others at 13:18:07, 13:19:15, 13:22:29 and 13:26:16. This Maris cock is really something special, he has won a 1st, 2nd and 3rd in club racing and as a yearling he won 1st Section 3rd Open CSCFC Lessay, two weeks ago he was 20th Open BBC National Vire and now 1st Section Messac with the NFC.
They sent their sprint team to this race which consists of 9 widowhood cocks all of whom returned safely on the day. This was their fifth race of the season having been to Minstead, Portsmouth and Littlehampton with the West of England South Road Combine, Vire with the BBC and now St Malo. Their programme has already been planned out for the rest of the season as they will now be raced fortnightly and will be aimed at NFC Messac, NFC Poitiers, Help for Heroes Fougeres Open National and finally Saintes once again with the NFC.
Flown on conventional widowhood these cocks were shown the hens for the first three races just to get them used to the system again and for the last two races which were Thursday marking then it was just 30 minutes in the bowl and the hen on their return. Only the best food is fed with the base being a mixture of Versele Laga depurative, breed and wean and super widowhood supplemented with Hormoform, Jersey Gold and Picorin one horlicks scoop per bird in the morning and two at night. Grit and minerals are given daily to the birds after morning exercise and the exercise consists of one hour + free flying morning and evening. No clean water in this loft the birds are athletes they are raced hard and need a strict regime of supplements containing the important vitamins especially C, E and B12 with probiotics added as required.
1st Section G – S L Bale
Sonny Bale wins section G with a two year old blue Janssen, Sonny is no stranger to winning top prizes, he has won the Central Southern Classic twice from Guernsey and Messac. Corn used is Versele Lager Super Widowhood and Gerry Plus, no additives to the water other than vitamins. Sonny has bought some long distance blood as he would like to have a go at the Tarbes International
1st Section H – Richard Holmes
Richard (Dudley) Holmes restarted with pigeons in 1994, flying NR, when living at Stamford, Lincs. He moved to Spalding, Lincs in 2000, and joined the local north road club. He now flies both north and south in local and national clubs, having pioneered south road racing in the area.
Dudley has a racing loft with 7 sections and uses the Unikon ETS. He has 18 widowhood/ roundabout cocks, 12 yearling celibate cocks and 36 hens, also flown widowhood/ roundabout. Cocks and hens are allowed to exercise each morning for 1 -2 hours, separately. They are all trained once a week from 80 miles and birds stay together until he can separate them on my return from training. Cocks and hens do not see each other again until they return from the race.
Dudley feeds Natural Depurative, Diet Special and Widowhood corn.
His Section Winner is a two year old cock flown on widowhood having been raced weekly in the club (140 miles) and trained weekly from 80 miles. His sire won 1st section NRCC Dunbar in 2003 and is bred from a Hagen Bros cock and SVR hen. The dam was purchased from a breeder/buyer sale and is from A Parkinson/J Bellerby stock.
1st Section I – J D Fretwell
John’s winner is bred from a cock given to him by a good friend of his, Rodney Greer; he is a grandson of "Tom Thumb", out of a hen direct from Marcel Sangers, whose birds are the base of all John’s family of pigeons. He has always been flown on widowhood, and is a very consistent pigeon; he was good enough to be 1st Club, 8th Federation from Portland - 110 miles last year, also 17th Open, and 2nd section MNFC - Bergerac - 514 miles, and 56th Open MNFC - Tours. His 2 year old full brother had 2x 1st and 1 x 2nd in club races over the channel last year as a yearling, and was John’s first pigeon home from this week's MNFC, taking provisionally 43rd open and 5th section. John feeds Versele Laga and Bamford's Widowhood mixes.
1st Section J - Mr Jones
Arthur Jones lives in Stourton, a small village near Stourbridge. His winner is a Blue 3 year old cock it was bred by Colin Lloyd of Cannock and purchased as a young bird being of Cattryse origin. Arthur’s best previous performance was in 2009 when he entered 7 birds in NFC Saintes, timed 5 in 9 minutes, the other two later with 'Lefty' his Blue Cock second bird to record 15th Section J 152nd Open. In preparation for St Malo he had a race from Exeter and Kingsdown both occasions being 8th Club but unfortunately beaten by a loft mate. Arthur flies his cocks on Widowhood starting the season with 28 but two suffered broken legs early on. As a member of the NFC, MNFC and the MCC plus his local club he takes great pleasure selecting a small number of entries for all the Channel races finding this is his challenge in life, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Arthur has been racing well in excess of 50 years starting his brother, always Channel minded, 4th Open Bergerac MNFC 540 miles only 6 on the day, 9th Section Tarbes on the day 646 miles are a couple of performances that spring to mind, this Section win now means he has achieved this in the 3 organisations he competes in and when he looks at the quality of fanciers at each marking, it makes him feel very privileged. The base of birds are Jan Arden, Roland De Keyser, Imbrecht plus more recently the Cattryse of Colin Lloyd.
2nd Section J – T & J Davies
1st Section J is won by the father and son partnership of Tim and Jeremy Davies, who have been in the sport for 21 years. They clocked a Yearling Natural Light Cheq hen that was sat on overdue eggs at basketing. When the birds are inland they are fed on Bucktons- 50% Widowhood & 50% depurative, then a week before their first channel race are put on 100% Bucktons Widowhood mix, which they stay on for the rest of the season. The birds will not be broken down then and when they get over 300 miles they get a handful of peanuts after their main feed. The Partnership use a lot of Natural Products in the water and on the food and find that the probiotic Flightpath has kept their birds in top health. They use it every fortnight on the food mixed with a touch of oil. They also use Products from Syndicate lofts; all birds are treated Canker & Worms. Their winner is bred off their old family of Janssen De Klak’s, which over the years have bred many winners. Tim and Jeremy have blended this particular family for the last 15 years and the locals are calling these birds TJs so this is the start of their own family. The Partnership in 2008 won Section J the opening race with NFC plus winning the Tarbes Section J in 2008 flying 617 miles on the day!!!! 2nd section bird was given 4 inland races this season up to 130 miles. She took inland prizes as a young bird in the club and then her final young bird race over the channel she won 2nd club 8th Fed Lessay in a Hard NE Wind beaten by a loft mate that day. Returns here were 28 from 30 sent on Sunday and would like to congratulate the NFC on the condition the birds returned from the race with it being very hot , those missing being yearlings having their first trip across the channel. Over the years this loft has won the Section in the NFC & CSCFC and taken many open positions in the top 100. They have also won the Glos Fed, Severn Valley Fed and the Black Country Fed, taking hundreds of fed and club prizes. Tim and Jeremy are also R.P.R.A. One Loft Race Managers and are no strangers to success. Tim & Jeremy say that they look forward in competing in the next NFC race.
Note: Unfortunately T & J Davies were told that they had won their section, as they had sent all their information over to us only to find out that they were just Beaten into second section so under the circumstances we feel this write-up should still go to press
1st Section K – S Harrison & Son
Steve Harrison’s winner is a 2 year old blue widowhood cock .The preparation for this race was as follows .He was paired up on April 1st he did not allow him to rear any youngsters but let him sit eggs for 12 days and then removed the hen and eggs .Steve decided to try Garvo corn this season so he put half my team on Garvo and the other half on his usual corn the cock that came for him was on the Garvo corn they were started on this 4 weeks before the national race .The pigeon was home bred and his breeding is the Farther Eijerkamp - Muller and the mother is Wal zoojen and she was bred from birds that Steve acquired from his very good friend the late Roy Gillman .Steve clocked the blue cock at 16.57 he was the first of 5 home on the day of 6 sent, Steve hopes other fanciers get their birds back.
1st Section L – O’Hare & Woodward
The partnership of O’Hare & Woodward has been successful from the start and both fanciers are in another phase of racing pigeons. Mike O’Hare first raced on his own before moving abroad to work and when he 
returned he rejoined the sport racing his pigeons in the Middlewich clubs. At this time Ron Woodward was racing his own team of pigeons and had a preference to the longer specialist races. Then they decided to join together in 1999 and race as the present partnership that is now probably one of the best all round racing teams in Cheshire. For several years they concentrated on club racing but once they had built a team of reliable racing pigeons they moved up a gear into National and specialist racing where their pigeons have proved to be most competitive. Their current team are mainly from the Vandenabeele and Staf Van Reet lines but they are always prepared to bring in a few pigeons to try against those already established. Both Mike & Ron are highly delighted with this latest performance at St Malo when they clocked 10 pigeons in what was not an easy race on a very hot day. Their first entry will finish 1st section L and on first birds is 25th open but as they are aware that will change when the full result is published. On these excellent times they should have others in the first ten of section L. They joined the N.F.C. in 2005 having immediate success in our first race the Y.B. National from Fougeres when we finished 1st and 4th Sect L 4th and 11th Open. Since then our best positions have been 2nd and twice third Section. The section winner is a 2yo Gaby Vandenabeele hen flown on the roundabout system and prior to this result she has only won minor cards to date. She is a small bird but is beautifully proportioned. Her
sire is an M&D Evans Gaby bought at their sale at Tipton in 2004. He is a son of Trade Secret when paired to Destiny. Trade Secret is from Jester and Belle and Destiny is bred from Jester and Carrie. The Dam of the Section winner is from a pair of Gaby Vandenabeeles bought at Blackpool in 2000 from the sale by Vandeghinste Romain and are from the lines of Bitjer and Rambo. The dam won several 1st prizes racing and was 4th Open Northwest Classic Club, Falaise 312 miles before being put to stock where she has been outstanding. Brothers to the section winner have won 1st Mid- Cheshire Fed, 2nd Mid Cheshire Fed for ourselves and 1st 
Wrekin Fed for Mr Roger Sutton. We timed a 2nd pigeon one minute after the Section winner who will in all probability finish 2nd Section L. He is a 2yo cock flown on widowhood. This bird as a yearling was 5th North West Section, 2nd Elite yearling in the M.N.F.C.
Fougeres Race, 3rd Taylors Choice Club, Kingsdown and 8th Cheshire 2 Bird Club, Fougeres. He is also one of our 2 birds nominated into Eccles 2 Bird Club from this N.F.C race. The breeding of this cock is from a 10 year old Meuleman cock that won 7 x 1st club and was 1st open North West Classic Club, Portsmouth when paired to an M & D Evans Gaby hen g.d. of Mclaren, National Fideel, Joe Jones and Hillcroft Fantasy. Another bird was timed 5 minutes later who could finish 4th Section L. and another bird 3 minutes later who could finish in the 1st 10 of the section. In all we timed 10 pigeons within 40 minutes of the Section winner (5 cocks and 5 hens) and recorded 23 of our 29 entries (15 Cocks and 14 hens) on the day. The cocks last prep race was the N.W.C.C. race from Portland on 3rd May which was 182 miles into a strong North wind, since then they have been exercised around the loft with 3 short training tosses the weekend before basketing. The hens went to the same
N.W.C.C. race and have also flown the two club races since then as we find that they are less likely to pair up if worked hard. Our feeding system is traditional widowhood build up mix with fats added during the last 3 days before basketing. Our racing mixtures are bought from Roger Sutton at Astbury and this year on Rogers’s recommendation we have changed on to
Vanrobaeys corn. Ron and I would like to thank Roger for the help and advice which he readily gives in spite of the fact that we are one of his great rivals in many of the Pigeon clubs in the Midlands and the North West and also to those fanciers who have rung to congratulate us on the Section win. Also to Bill Glynn our technical advisor who handed his notice in 30 minutes before the arrival of the N.F.C. birds when he found out that we were behind in both of the local clubs that day, we accept your apology for your hasty decision and will allow withdrawal of the notice but with loss of your winning bonus.
Don’t’ forget to have a fiver on the bird raffle at your marking station you could win one of the fantastic birds offered by some of the best flyers in the U.K.
Some members may not be aware we have a new marking station at Ipswich with good road links from the north and south. There is plenty of parking – tea, coffee and bacon rolls will also be on sale. Any questions or quires please contact Trevor Harris on 01206262286.
Well that is it for our first National for 2010 National
|
SECTION WINNERS | |||||
| 1st A | Mr & Mrs T & C Welch | |||||
| Flying | 165 Miles | |||||
| 1st B | Mr & Mrs M S Gower | |||||
| Flying | 165 Miles | |||||
| 1st C | M R Staddon | |||||
| Flying | 164 Miles | |||||
| NATIONAL WINNER | ||||||
| 1st D | N Mounce | |||||
| Flying | 191 Miles | |||||
| 1st E | M Gilbert | |||||
| Flying | 206 Miles | |||||
| 1st F | Crowley & Green | |||||
| Flying | 199 Miles | |||||
| 1st G | S L Bale | |||||
| Flying | 184 Miles | |||||
| 1st H | Richard Holmes | |||||
| Flying | 301 Miles | |||||
| 1st I | J D Fretwell | |||||
| Flying | 245 Miles | |||||
| 1st J | Mr Jones | |||||
| Flying | 269 Miles | |||||
| 1st K | S Harrison & Son | |||||
| Flying | 359 Miles | |||||
| 1st L | O'Hare & Woodward | |||||
| Flying | 320 Miles | |||||
| Weather Report | ||||||
| A large high pressure system centered over northern France was responsible for a fine dry sunny day, for this time the | ||||||
| first NFC race from St Malo. Using the NOAA satellite looking down from the sky the only cloud indentified was located | ||||||
| over the southeast of England. The remainder of England and northern France was under clear blue skies. Several coastal | ||||||
| areas and the centre of the channel were affected by early morning fog which soon burned off. The race controllers took | ||||||
| this over night development into consideration before deciding on a liberation time. Having spoken to the Met Office | ||||||
| forecaster early that morning I was informed that the fog patches in the channel were only shallow reaching a maximum | ||||||
| height of about 250 feet. Any fog that did persist did not present an obstruction to the NFC pigeons as they were racing | ||||||
| at heights well above it. Winds came from the east or north and were light in strength over land, but over the open sea | ||||||
| they were stronger reaching force 3 gusting force 4 at times. At 11:00 hours the Greenwich lightship positioned centre | ||||||
| channel recorded wind speeds at 21mph from the east northeast (See large arrows on wind flow chart) As we all know the | ||||||
| dry air created by this wind direction is not very pigeon friendly which resulted in a race not that easy. Visibility was good | ||||||
| outside any mist or fog. The main weather factors attributed to the race was the wind direction and temperatures. | ||||||
| Well done to all winners | ||||||
| Steve Appleby | ||||||
Red Kites, Pyrton, Nr Watlington, Oxfordshire, OX49 5AP
Tel. No. 01491 613477. Mobile 07775 898937.
E-mail: roncrook@virgin.net
