| Author: Les.J.Parkinson | Title: BICC - Falaise I 2005 |
| Date: 2005-05-05 23:01:57 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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“Wriggler” wins the first BICC race of the season.
The first race of the season for any new secretary is always going to be hard and with the ever-increasing numbers at the BICC Jan was never going to have an easy christening into the job. However as with all good sec’s she got stuck in and took up the challenge with ease ploughing through the endless work of the first race day and what a long day it is. The entries were well up on last year, which goes to show that the continued work done by the officials past and present is paying off. 219 members for this first race of the season entered a total of 2464 birds, broken down by marking stations are as follows. Ash 329, Basildon 440, Grove 287, Higham 456, Horndean 305, Norwich 143, Rugeley 99 and Stowmarket 208. In the sections there are broken down to 106/1225 in East, 98/1035 Centre and 15/204 for the western members. This is a great start to the season with nearly 600 birds extra meaning an increase of 25% from an extra 39 members who are going to be on the phone at some time during the day. As always with these races you see the ever-present names such as Geoff & Catherine Cooper, Bartlett & Jones near the top with names, as with this race Barry Corbin seen on the fringes, we are all aware that Barry has been around the top of the results for many years. On the day race controller Brian Long was a bit concerned with the number of holdovers that there were around the country or in fact later than usual liberations. However the race went well so Brian got the facts right and had the birds away with a good result for the club. This report is based on a provisional 1st bird result and may change when the final result is published. Jan was telling me that a few did get their messages mixed up and advises that fanciers write down the info before making their phone call. Another point raised was that if you are on a hands free set do not keep walking about because the reception does get cut and the message does not come through clear enough and may be missed off the initial result which helps no-one. Jan would also like to thank the connections with the lib-line because problems arose and they were quick to help. A few calls and everything was sorted and back on track, the help was very much appreciated.
1st West section 1st open goes to the newly formed partnership of Geoff & Catherine Cooper from Peasdown St John. We are all aware that they are not actually a new partnership but the pigeons have been flown under Geoff’s name but because of her in depth commitment to the pigeons Catherine has been added to make everything official. Wriggler wins Falaise! Geoff and Catherine clocked their 2y old late-bred called “Wriggler” to win first open BICC National from Falaise. This cock was hatched in June and had the last two young bird races with the West of England south road combine, and then flew up to Nantes NFC as a yearling. This year he had two 30 mile training tosses with Geoff Bracey and two inland races, Poole and Fareham. He is a brother to "Jumpy" 7th open Saintes NFC and is bred from a bird gifted to Catherine by Bernard Deweerdt, which was a brother to his top International pigeon Zania. The Dam was bred by Harding Bros from their "Thurso Cock" twice West of England N.R. combine winner, who is a brother to "Ashgrove King" 1st Open NFC Pau, which was bred from Geoff's birds. The "Thurso cock" was paired to a granddaughter of Deweerdts "Emiel" 1st International Bordeaux. "Wriggler" earned his name due to the fact that he doesn't like being handled. He was paired the first week of December and reared one youngster and repaired at the end of March and has now been on widowhood for three weeks. After many years of trying to win a National Geoff and Catherine were genuinely surprised to win 1st open. They have had two seconds BICC Perpignan and one 2nd BICC Pau. This was the first time they have entered into one of the BICC's non-International races, although back in 1984 the BICC held a young bird National from Guernsey where Geoff won 1st, 2nd and 3rd open. Geoff and Catherine would like to thank Jan Deacon for her hard work over the weekend, having such a large entry on her first race and then the late liberation gave her a lot of work to do in a short amount of time, and she appeared to cope with patience and good humor.
2nd sec 2nd open go to Jason & Mark Barnett of Longton in the Potteries, which is a great result and highlights those fanciers from different parts of the Country, can get in amongst the winners. Jason was telling me that they entered 20 birds but only had 6 on the day with all being clocked, when talking to fanciers this was the general trend. The remaining pigeons were turning up bright and early next morning and no doubt will remember their night out because there were a lot of thunderstorms about. They have decided that they want to have an extended go at National races so are more than pleased with this their first attempt and when I spoke to Jason they were still on a high. Although Jason was saying that they are still learning about racing pigeons they have done well in the local clubs and federations. Even so they are learning well because in 2003 they were highest points winners in the North Staffs fed and won 3 out of four channel races competing with the Staffs & Moorlands fed. It was these performances that prompted them to have a go at the bigger races and against the whole of the country. What about the pigeons they clocked, the first is a 4y blue hen raced on the natural and sent on chipping eggs. She is no stranger to the winners enclosure having won 1st club 2nd North Staffs Fed Saintes, 1st club 16th Staffs & Moorlands fed Chale. A few seconds later they clocked a 5y blue hen racing to 10-day eggs and a previous prizewinner from Saintes but was sent to this race because has always been reliable in the many channel races that she has been sent to. The pigeons are from Mick McGraw & Son and based on the lines of Osman/Delbar/Busschaert, the second in the clock being bred by Mick.
1st Western section goes to the ever-present partnership of Bartlett & Jones with a 2y blue cock Van Reet that was 1st Wiltshire fed aprox 2000 birds two weeks before this BICC Falaise race. Robbie Jones races the pigeons on his own system that he calls “Natural Hood” and the birds are fed on Robbie’s own mixture that is made from Versa Laga, Vanrobayes and Marrimans. He is half a brother to Robbie’s double 2nd open BICC Falaise cock and half brother to the sire of his 1st open Falaise 2004. His sire was bought at the Baxter sale being a brother to “De Centenary” and winner of over £7500. Robbie was saying that he was trying very hard to win Falaise again and make it a fantastic third week of racing as he won the Solent fed aprox 4300 birds with his hens the week before the BICC to make it two fed wins on the trot. Due to losing his Uncle Fred five weeks ago who was his partner Robbie has dedicated these races in memory of the years they have spent together. All birds are trained twice a week aprox 40 miles against the wind at the crack of dawn weather permitting with another club mate that takes turns on taking them. The Bartlett & Jones team have put up many excellent performances over the years and Robbie has promised me that he will fill in the questionnaire?
4th open on the first bird list is a pleasure to write about because we bred this pigeon for a friend of ours Nigel Shaw who races in the Mr & Mrs Shaw partnership who have had quite a bit of success with these pigeons. The sire is a blue Meuleman/Janssen cock while the dam is a grand daughter of the excellent breeding and racing cock “Olympiade Gran Canaria” whose positions include 42nd, 64th, 70th, 78th, 91st in National races through to Perpignan form the 68 prizes won. He is also the sire & g-sire of numerous pigeons to win in National competition including 1st International Dax. 1st Belgium National 3rd International Dax 2004 is also the line of this great breeding cock on both sides.
Last year I wrote about the partnership of Legge & Legge more than once because they had a good season with the BICC and this year has started off in similar fashion. This is a husband & wife partnership who prefer the name rather than Mr & Mrs. This blue w/f Verheye cock is very well bred being out of a son of “Grandees Boy” when paired to a daughter of “The Maverick” both being top pigeons and breeders of many winners in specialist races. The son of “Grandees Boy” was 1st sec 12th open Falaise in 02. John & Jaqui have built up a good team of racers that are producing winners year after year, the only blip being 2002 when the youngsters were not up to the usual high standard. John was saying that he was pleased that the liberation took place on the scheduled day and not held over when others were undecided.
Trevor Cox is a fresh name to write about even though he had a fairly good year with the club in 2004, you can be on the fringes but can just as easily miss out on the top spots. For this race Trevor clocked a blue bar cock that he races on the traditional widowhood and was on his fourth race having had three coastal races prior to Falaise. This pigeon started to show promise last season when he was 1st club 19th fed Seaton followed by 1st club Newton Abbott, 1st club 9th fed Portand, 2nd club 17th fed Seaton. Trevor bred this bird in his own loft from birds off his good friend Pat King from Grove near Oxford, the parents being on loan from Pat at the time and are from the Grooter lines. Through the breeding this makes Trevor’s winner a half brother to Pat’s Pau winner, so the blood tells again. Trevor has got a winning system which is based on both corn and products from Brian Wall’s Gem supplements that have worked well keeping the birds in top class condition at all times. Trevor had a good race with 5 out of 6 on the day with the other dropping early next morning so in comparison with others that was good flying.
1st sec E goes to Mr & Mrs Kevin Gray from Greenhithe who clocked a w/h cock that has flown well winning both inland and on the channel, the best performance being 2nd South West England Combine Alencon in a race where the partnership took the top three positions. At the time of talking to Kevin the actual Combine winner, which is the section winner’s nest, mate had not returned. The family are based on the Ron Hillcoat Janssen’s and the Staff van Reets of Bert Hession, so once again the Janssen/SVR cross is paying dividends. Kevin also pointed out that on the day the returns were not what he has been used to because he has always preferred to race the land programme and leave the channel alone, so like many more just had a sprint team. So when he only had 8 on the day he was a little surprised but now knows that when it comes to channel arcing things are never the same, it is a different ball game. However when we were talking Kevin did say that the birds were nearly back up to full strength. I am sure that Kevin will get used to having birds out overnight if he continues with the channel racing and why not after such a good start. Both the race and stock teams at these lofts were reduced last October when Kevin was having health problems with his chest. What he is happy to say is that he didn’t get rid of all the birds but now has just 4prs of stock to go with the 22prs of racers on the w/h. Perhaps the reduction and change of heart is what the doctor ordered Kevin who knows what the pigeons will be capable of with your new enthusiasm.
I took a look through the list to see what changes there were from last year on the way the pigeons arrived. The partnership of Derek Smith and Brian Hatherley are a new team racing into the North West and for this race are 22nd on the 1st birds but obviously that will change. Brian was telling me that it was going dark when they clocked their bird as it was not the best of nights for a pigeon to cover 338mls from a 1pm liberation at this time of the year but the pigeon proved that the race controller was right and the birds could do the job. Brian was also telling me that they have both raced successfully on their own so it makes life a bit easier now that there are two of them to spread the workload.
Les.J.Parkinson.
Elimar, 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 ONJ.
Tel/Fax; 01606 836036.
elimar.pigeons@btinternet.com
web-site www.elimarpigeons.com
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