| Author: Les.J.Parkinson | Title: BICC - Dax International 2004 |
| Date: 2004-09-09 06:56:36 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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The Dax race was always going to be the big question of the year would it or wouldn’t it, well the fanciers did and better than ever. When you get to these distances many fanciers are on the natural system and for this race there were 13 hens in the top 30 of the open result. This was a great race for David & Joshua Posey with their Dordin hen known as “Dave’s Girl” winner of 1st International hens. Whenever I write about the winners I very often hear of different ways that fanciers have won, how they have prepared their candidates everyone tries their own little ways, some work some don’t. In the case of David & Joshua they played on motherly instinct and won the day because she made the effort and made her name to go down in the history books of pigeon racing after all this is quite some achievement and they are the first to do it. What makes it so much better for them is that they only have a small loft so have made the decision to go for the specialist races as opposed to the hard week in week out graft of club racing where the rewards do not justify the effort required to win. Many fanciers have put this family aside as birds of the past, many have also put the Dordins to one side but these lads proved that it is not the case because as they say “When the going gets tough the tough get going”. The Dordins were first introduced in 1997 so have not taken all that long to make a name for themselves. Since then they have tried other pigeons but they have not come up to standard so did not last. The art of getting everything right always relies on their half dozen new introductions whenever they feel it necessary. The last introductions were the Bricoux/Sions in 2003 when six youngsters were introduced, there are still a couple left so we shall have to wait and see what they throw when paired to the present day established birds. Their loft is an interesting one because they are not racing a big team on the conventional w/h or any other way, they are purely and simply fanciers who race the birds on a natural system, more natural that most. I say more than most because the young and old stay in the same section all summer and are only parted when a partition is pup in for the winter months so that they can start a fresh period for the following year. They do not compete in the club races at all and train their birds with the Kiddlington and Cartaton flying clubs. However to give their birds experience they do send them to the inland races but don’t have the clock set. The only clubs that they are members of are the NFC, BICC and CSCFC and I am told that they will probably only be competing in the BICC next season. Space and birds are very limited so concentration of less clubs makes life that much easier.
As always I ask for info for these articles and this is what Peter Amour had to say. “You asked for a few details following my luck at the Dax International race this year; I've been racing Pigeons without a break since 1972. Inspired by Guy Barrett's short book on Pigeon Racing I started racing with Oxford Central. I won my second ever race with a young hen bred off a nest pair I brought from a School Friend for 50p each. He had bred them from a couple of strays. I must have had some luck then as well as I lost 12 minutes clocking this hen and she was still 3rd Upper Thames Fed. I had also been gifted a pair of Belgian strays from a good friend, Eddie Goddard a very successful Fancier from Kidlington. The strays had been caught in the Morris factory in Oxford. 1972 was a good breeding year for me as the very first nest pair from these birds clocked up 16 firsts in local clubs between them. I can still trace back to these birds in my current family. I was a founder member of Kidlington Pigeon club in 1974 and raced there until getting married and moving to Reading in 1983. I lived close to Ted Cox, a well-known fancier who lived for the Pau National. This is when my interest in distance racing was fired. Racing in Reading Premier club in the BB&O SR Fed I focussed on the three races a year where you could nominate into the Reading 2-Bird club. I still enjoy racing in the 2B club today. I then moved to Winnersh and then Wokingham and have raced in Emmbrook club since 1989. I had my first success from Pau in 1990 with a hen decended from my Kidlington birds crossed with a Kirkpatrick, 68th Open. The following year I managed to gain 64th Open with a similarly bred bird crossed with a hen from John Horler. I considered stopping with Pigeons in the early 90s due to demands of a young family and my work but I couldn't lose the bug and just didn't get around to making the break. Onto my Dax Pigeon. She is a two-year-old Hen and the most she has achieved before is 3rd Weymouth but her mother was a club winner from Sennen Cove and took lots of other cards. She was bought at the club breeder buyer sale from Don Bird. A fancier who I have had several good birds from Jim Biss and A. H. Bennet lines. Her Sire won at least 4 races including Bergerac before being lost at Pau. The Grandsire took a second and third from Bergerac and had two positions at Pau with the NFC. He is an Eric Cannon Don Bird Cross. The Grand-dam was also a winner of three races up to Nantes. As you can see I prefer to mate performance pigeons together. In this case it worked as my Dax winners nest mate also scored this year. I don't have as much time as I would like to spend with the pigeons and so in order to get them to exercise at home better this year I tried a modified roundabout system. They were then paired up aimed at Pau in early June. My Dax hen lost her mate and paired up to a late-bred cock so was not right for Pau. She had flown the channel three times with the BICC Falaise, NFC Nantes and the BB&O Fed Messac and was a potential candidate for NFC Saintes. I wasn't sure about sending to Dax; last years race was a bad one despite the British success. Returns were poor. One of the big advantages of the BICC is that you can enter on the day and my hen was beginning to look good. I didn't decide to send her until basketing day but she was shining and very keen on her youngster. I was concerned that she would be in egg if I kept her for Saintes so she went and I nominated her in the Greater Distance Single Bird club. I love watching races develop on the NFC website and was pleased to see Mark Gilbert and Brian Sheppard clock their champions. Although sending in the BICC I ended up marking the NFC pigeons at Ash due to a lack of volunteers and I had put Mark's pigeon's through. It was getting late and returns were slow looking at the web site. Dax has not been a good race point for me in the past and I had some jobs to do so I offered my youngest son the £35 he was short to buy the mobile phone he was after if he watched for a pigeon. He would only get paid if a Pigeon came home. I figured that given the odds of getting a day bird my money was safe and if I did get one (I had sent two) it would be worth every penny. My wife had taken the young birds training earlier in the evening and so when after just 5 minutes my son came to say that a pigeon had just landed I assumed it was a late returnee. I was wrong and my son thinks that pigeon watching is a nice little earner. She didn't seem to have lost any weight and went straight back on her youngster. I often find that when a pigeon has done well in a long race they look good when they go but they look even better a few days after returning and this hen was no exception. Maybe I was just looking at her a bit more! Having verified the pigeon and being told that I was the second to verify I was intrigued as to where the other bird was. I phoned Jayne Bennett back to discover that David Posey, a member of my old club in Kidlington had won the BICC. His loft is no more than 2 miles from my first loft in Yarnton. Well done Dave, I’m sure that you beat me in my last race at Kidlington, 20 years ago now! Peter amour” Thanks for that Peter.
The western section could not have been won by a nicer couple when Dave & Barbara Kennett came away with 1st sec 3rd open flying 607mls, as Barbara would say “Not us the pigeons”. As always there has to be a name and painted toes with their pigeons with this mealy pied section winner being called "Surprising Pied". Going back to 1999 when they won Dax Michael Massarella gifted them with a hen which he called "Babs" she was out of “Invincible Spirit” and "Blue Sapphire" on the sire’s side and “Invincible Spirit” and “Lady Wegen”, A Van der Wegan on the dam’s side. She was gifted to go with their winner but as can be the case he would not look at her. So at the Blackpool show in 2000 they purchased a Hen at the bargain price of £25 but there was no pedigree which turned out to be a cock so they called it the "The Cocky Hen” This was one of their first offspring and thoughts were that they were no good because they made very strange grunting noises, how wrong can we be. Barbara you would be surprised how many soon part with grunters; I wonder how many have got it wrong. Barbara asked Dave to dispose of them but he wouldn’t (brave man) he said there was nothing bodily wrong with them so they stayed. Thank goodness he did and for a change was in a position to remind Barbara of that when they timed in on the second morning. He also did well at Saintes last year and this year has only been trained and sent to La Ferte Bernard but both Dave and Barbara knew he could do it as he was in such good condition and hopefully would not get too old headed. Their aim is to help the birds build up their own immune system so there are no medications used at all; they believe that this will strengthen the birds for the longer races.
News to Les.J.Parkinson. Elimar, 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire. CW10 ONJ. Tel; 01606 836036. Mobile 07742 072731. e-mail: elimar.pigeons@btinternet.com
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