| Author: Les Parkinson & Cameron Stansfield | Title: BICC - Marseille International |
| Date: 2005-07-28 16:44:48 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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The 14,041 strong Marseille International convoy came under starter's orders at 7.45am (GMT) last Saturday, and in this field were 83 birds representing fanciers from the UK. This is widely held to be the most difficult of all the Internationals as far as the UK is concerned because Marseille is the furthest east of all the International points and the terrain favours birds flying into Germany then on down into Holland.
Indeed in this renewal the winner was once again clocked into Germany, at 7.11pm on the day of toss, the winning fanciers being P. & H. P. Brockamp, flying 785km on a velocity of 1144mpm. Second, 4th, 5th, 6th and 10th positions also went to Germany, whilst 3rd went to France, 7th and 8th to Holland (one of these being to the well-known loft of Wijnands & Son of Masstricht) and 9th to Belgium.
As far as the UK birds were concerned, they were in a different race and they had no chance of matching these velocities. How well the British birds would do would depend on how early they managed to break away from International convoy and whether they would be prepared to fly solo. To add to the difficulty facing the UK birds, they would have to contend with heavy rain in northern France, the Channel and England.
Marseille, remember, was the race dominated by the late Jim Biss, with it being the testing ground for numerous of his great birds, including the fantastic duo of Natrix and Lama who won the race five times between them. Jim was the undoubted master of Marseille and it is fitting that the 2005 British Section has been won by the brilliant partnership of John and Spencer Nicholson of Rochester. These two fanciers are putting up performances at the distance, which simply take the breath away. They have had another brilliant year, beginning at Palamos and continuing through Tarbes and Dax, and now they have done it again – in fact they clocked two of only three birds to make it home by nightfall on Sunday. This is what they have to say on winning 1st & 2nd Open Marseille 2005: “Our first bird home is a 3y late-bred chequer hen. She was unraced as a young bird but worked well as a yearling, flying 5 Channel races. As a 2y she was our first bird from NFC Pau, winning 56th Open, and was doubled back to NFC Dax International were she gained 127th Open. This year we originally planned to send her to Palamos but she had a sticky prep race from Saran and did not make condition. We decided to hold her back and prepare her for the Marseille International. Her sire is a van Zelderen cock who is also sire of our Little Dorrit, Bumble and Starsky. Her dam is also the grand dam of Kate, a Spanish Diploma winner, and a cock who flew Pau, Marseille and Perpignan in one season. Following hot on her heels was our 3y red chequer cock, Plum. He had 2 Channel races as a young bird and 8 Channel races as a yearling, finishing with the Dax International. As a 2y he went to Pau International, followed by Marseille International. This year after a few short Channel races he went to Barcelona International, arriving just out of race time with an injury that had healed. He was in such good condition from Barcelona we decided to enter him in Marseille 6 days later. He arrived back from Marseille in absolutely superb condition. Plum is the sire of Damson, our 2nd Sect E, 4th Open NFC Dax pigeon last weekend. Plum's sire is Smarty Pants, who was one of the Magnificent Seven we clocked from Palamos in 2002 and his dam is Emily, who was 17th Barcelona, who in turn is the daughter of Little Nell, our BICC Pau winner when paired to Barnaby, who is a full brother to Webby. This win from Marseille completes our ambition of winning from all 5 of the International race points.”
F. Knowles & Son came next so I once again rang Simon to get the info on this latest performance from the Malibu pigeons. He clocked a blue hen sent sitting 7 days, bred from Geoff Hunt bloodlines, mid-afternoon on Sunday. The sire has not been far away in the longer races having achieved 5 th Marseille and 9 th Barcelona. The dam flew Barcelona twice and also Marseille. This hen was sent to the hard Tours race earlier in the season so had been up against it already this season, which has stood her in good stead. It is hard work getting info out of Simon because he is rather a quiet man who doesn't push himself forward too much, but he obviously knows what to do with the pigeons because he has a steady flow of good results. I did manage to get a few bits out of him including the feed, which is made up of Bucktons mixed with peanuts and seeds. Training is via the local club racing which means if they don't go to a Channel race, they go to the Saturday Fareham race and the midweek 60-mile races. This means that even though Simon is not a fan of training they do get plenty of roadwork.
Brian Williams of Westmarsh verified the fourth bird early on Monday morning and clocked another one later in the day for probable 4th and 6th Open. Brian was sat in his conservatory on Monday morning as it was raining heavily, when he saw his 7y hen approaching over the field. She is natural hen of Tillman lines, gifted to Brian by Stuart Knowles. The Tillman pigeons, by all accounts, are suited to 400-500-mile type races but this hen has shown undoubted stamina to reach home. She has been in the result of other long races but this is the first time she has been so near to the top. Brian's second pigeon is a cock who had 2 x 140 mile races and 3 Reims races as preparation. The sire is an Eric Fox of Bakewell pigeon purchased from Alan Maull of South Wales and the dam is a dark hen from John Wills of Frimley. Brian flys natural, adopting an open loft and a hopper of beans, then as the big races approach he uses peanuts and sunflower seed. He prefers natural to widowhood as he feels that for the real distance the birds want to be in a steady frame of mind and not revved up, though he stresses that this is only his opinion and acknowledges others would disagree. His hen was sent on a 10-day old baby, her first of the year, having sat dummy eggs since being paired in March. Brian was saying that this has been his worst season for 10-15 years, indeed this was the first time he has clocked in a race of over 450 miles this year. He puts this down to now being retired which saw him get stuck into his birds earlier than normal. As a result he has been winning from 200 miles, something that he hasn't been doing over the last decade, but it has proved counter-productive in the long ones. Now he is back on track he is looking for a good show at Perpignan. I asked Brian what conclusions he had come to after flying the distance for so many years and he replied that it gets harder and harder and that you must never think you have it sussed. As an example he cited the last two Barcelona races. Last year he sent six, clocked four and was 6 th Open. This year he sent six, including two from the year before, and felt very confident because he thought they were in better condition. The result? It was 15 days before he saw a pigeon! He said he has also leant that bloodlines are everything and that pigeons won't fly the distance unless they are steeped in the right blood. Brian's preferred type is a pigeon with balance, not too big, narrow-tailed, and wide gulleted (a wide open throat). He keeps about 180 pigeons and would like to be able to say that 20 of them are good ones - but he can't! It was a pleasure to talk to someone with such refreshing honesty. Good luck at Perpignan, Brian.
Fred Buckingham of Rochester clocked a dark chequer cock on Monday afternoon to gain probable 5th Open, and he pointed out that this pigeon is a double of Jim Emerton's Barcelona Dream. These pigeons are nearly all from Fred's brother Brian who breeds the pigeons each year for both lofts. The Emerton pigeons have done well since they were first introduced and to them they have added the distance stock of Paul Woolliss of Grimsby. This cock has now had 14 trips to the continent and this was his second time in the clock from Marseille. Earlier in the year he had races from Alencon, Saran and the hard Tours race, after which he was given a three-week break before going to this Marseille race. Brian got a half-brother to this cock out of Barcelona so the breeding once again shines through. Fred is very pleased because he only sent the one and it has delivered; mind you there are only 16 pigeons in Fred's loft so he doesn't have many he can send. The BICC is the only club that he is a member of and he is pleased to be associated with the club where he has made so many friends. Fred uses the BICC National races to prepare for the Internationals. He is another of those fanciers who have clocked at Thurso on the North and turned pigeons round to race an equal if greater distance on the south route.
Congratulations to all who have recorded birds home from these very testing races. Will members please remember that the marking for Perpignan has changed to the 2nd of August as per the information sheet sent out on 28th June 2005.
Report compiled by Les Parkinson & Cameron Stansfield
For more Info & Results see: http://www.pigeonbasics.com/clubs/bicc/
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