"The Cobbler"
Northamptonshire
Ramblings
December 2009
Ramblings
December 2009
"The Cobbler"
Any views on Pigeon Racing in Northamptonshire to
Tel: 01933 410322 or
Email: russellbradford@talktalk.net
Copyright, all rights reserved, Russell Bradford 2008
Ramblers Itinerary Racing Pigeon Post RPP Index to Articles
Any views on Pigeon Racing in Northamptonshire to
Tel: 01933 410322 or
Email: russellbradford@talktalk.net
Copyright, all rights reserved, Russell Bradford 2008
Ramblers Itinerary Racing Pigeon Post RPP Index to Articles
It is some six months or so since I last wrote a column, which given that I retired last March, after more than two decades of advising people about their investments and finance generally is surprising as I thought I would have more time to spare. Almost the exact opposite is the case and I am now starting to understand what so many of my clients who had already retired used to tell me ~ that they never knew how they managed to find the time to actually work. I’ve also managed to spend just over eight weeks, with two visits to Australia within the last eleven months, so finding time to write about pigeon matters in Northamptonshire has not been top of the agenda. I have been writing Northamptonshire Ramblings for nearly five years, and the content seems, when I look back at some of the previous articles, to have often “strayed” (excuse the pun) to many things outside the county. I doubt this missive will be any different, as I must include some notes about Narbonne amongst other comments.
NFC I wonder if the 2009 vote by members of the National Flying Club, to mandate the committee to join the International scene for the Tarbes Grand National in 2010, will be remembered with the significance it deserves. It was drummed into me from an early age that one can learn a lot from level-headed discussion, and very little from outright argument, and yet it would seem that opinions are very ingrained on the subject of National versus International. On the one hand the argument is that there is a club already formed for International racing ~ i.e. The BICC, but they seem unwilling or unable, or maybe even resistant to increasing the birdage for the Internationals, whereas on the other side of the argument is the notion that the NFC are capable of bringing a considerable increment to the number of birds. I have heard that the National should be kept National, but as a ‘National’ result will still be created, and a National winner declared, I personally believe the International element will enhance the race and make it both harder and even more prestigious to win, and surely that’s why it is known as The Grand National? For me it is sad that the only NFC delegate for section ‘H’ is wildly against the concept, of the International option, but even more of a shame that the NFC have decided to close down Cambridge as a marking station, and a 150 mile round trip will be necessary to get the birds marked. I can’t see that decision swelling the membership numbers in and around Northamptonshire, but as always economics will dictate the eventual outcome. May I offer very belated congratulations to Richard Howey on winning “our” section from Tarbes this year, and an East Midlands RPRA Award to be presented at the AGM in early February. I am sure he will be back in result again in 2010 regardless of any potential International drag.
Narbonne Open It already seems such a long time ago, when back at the beginning of 2009 I was asked by Paul O’Leary to join him and John Clements in organising an Open International, and of course we decided on Narbonne, as the BICC didn’t want to race from there; considered it a non viable proposition and hadn’t raced from there for years! We really kicked off with lots of enthusiasm and no money, and being insolvent at the outset is always going to be a bit of a problem to any organisation. It was John Clements who suggested the idea of an auction, and so we all approached fanciers we considered at the top of their game to give us a bird to auction. It is a credit to some of the best fanciers in the UK, who must constantly be asked for gift birds for all sorts of causes, that people like Jim Peters; Mark Gilbert; Geoff & Catherine Cooper; Dennis Ford; Jimmy Wearn and many others (sorry not to mention everyone), all unhesitatingly gave a pigeon, and we raised a little over £1,500 via some frantic telephone bidding.
It’s surprising and disheartening how quickly that sort of money can vanish, when whole page adverts, and various other expenses are required, but the BHW kindly provided a bit of discount so thanks must go to them as well for supporting the cause. The biggest expense was transporting the birds to Brussels, but Dianne Bonney did a quite fantastic job. I’m not going to report on the race all over again as this has been done admirably by Paul O’Leary and can still be seen on www.pbosolutions.co.uk or via another excellent web site, focusing on distance racing run by Nigel Lane ~ i.e. www.racing-pigeon-post.org. As a quick aside his article about exclusion from the BICC makes for enlightening reading, but so is his introduction to the terrain over which the birds had to race from Narbonne. What I will say however is to confirm what I said in an article before the race, which is to get a pigeon (or in my case both of my two entries) from 650+ miles, makes the whole year worth while. I can remember Trevor Bull saying to me that when he got a pigeon out of Palamos many years back, he finished up doing cartwheels down the garden, and I well understand the emotion. It is the only race I can ever recall where the hold-over declared was because the wind was felt to be too strong ~ blowing from the North and the birds went up on the Sunday after five days in the baskets. Just the one day bird to a fantastic flyer, namely John Ayling, and I had the great pleasure of sitting next to him at the House of Commons Dinner. He said that he’d actually shut up the loft and taken his clock inside, and was walking back up the garden when a flutter of wings just caught his eye in near darkness. What a pigeon, and what faith in the pigeon to still be outside waiting for the bird in near darkness. I make absolutely no apology for including a photograph that may well have already been seen, of John Ayling receiving his award from Lady Stratford at the House of Commons Dinner in November. He also said he doesn’t enjoy trips to the big city, but I’m pretty sure he enjoyed this occasion.
NFC I wonder if the 2009 vote by members of the National Flying Club, to mandate the committee to join the International scene for the Tarbes Grand National in 2010, will be remembered with the significance it deserves. It was drummed into me from an early age that one can learn a lot from level-headed discussion, and very little from outright argument, and yet it would seem that opinions are very ingrained on the subject of National versus International. On the one hand the argument is that there is a club already formed for International racing ~ i.e. The BICC, but they seem unwilling or unable, or maybe even resistant to increasing the birdage for the Internationals, whereas on the other side of the argument is the notion that the NFC are capable of bringing a considerable increment to the number of birds. I have heard that the National should be kept National, but as a ‘National’ result will still be created, and a National winner declared, I personally believe the International element will enhance the race and make it both harder and even more prestigious to win, and surely that’s why it is known as The Grand National? For me it is sad that the only NFC delegate for section ‘H’ is wildly against the concept, of the International option, but even more of a shame that the NFC have decided to close down Cambridge as a marking station, and a 150 mile round trip will be necessary to get the birds marked. I can’t see that decision swelling the membership numbers in and around Northamptonshire, but as always economics will dictate the eventual outcome. May I offer very belated congratulations to Richard Howey on winning “our” section from Tarbes this year, and an East Midlands RPRA Award to be presented at the AGM in early February. I am sure he will be back in result again in 2010 regardless of any potential International drag.
Narbonne Open It already seems such a long time ago, when back at the beginning of 2009 I was asked by Paul O’Leary to join him and John Clements in organising an Open International, and of course we decided on Narbonne, as the BICC didn’t want to race from there; considered it a non viable proposition and hadn’t raced from there for years! We really kicked off with lots of enthusiasm and no money, and being insolvent at the outset is always going to be a bit of a problem to any organisation. It was John Clements who suggested the idea of an auction, and so we all approached fanciers we considered at the top of their game to give us a bird to auction. It is a credit to some of the best fanciers in the UK, who must constantly be asked for gift birds for all sorts of causes, that people like Jim Peters; Mark Gilbert; Geoff & Catherine Cooper; Dennis Ford; Jimmy Wearn and many others (sorry not to mention everyone), all unhesitatingly gave a pigeon, and we raised a little over £1,500 via some frantic telephone bidding.
It’s surprising and disheartening how quickly that sort of money can vanish, when whole page adverts, and various other expenses are required, but the BHW kindly provided a bit of discount so thanks must go to them as well for supporting the cause. The biggest expense was transporting the birds to Brussels, but Dianne Bonney did a quite fantastic job. I’m not going to report on the race all over again as this has been done admirably by Paul O’Leary and can still be seen on www.pbosolutions.co.uk or via another excellent web site, focusing on distance racing run by Nigel Lane ~ i.e. www.racing-pigeon-post.org. As a quick aside his article about exclusion from the BICC makes for enlightening reading, but so is his introduction to the terrain over which the birds had to race from Narbonne. What I will say however is to confirm what I said in an article before the race, which is to get a pigeon (or in my case both of my two entries) from 650+ miles, makes the whole year worth while. I can remember Trevor Bull saying to me that when he got a pigeon out of Palamos many years back, he finished up doing cartwheels down the garden, and I well understand the emotion. It is the only race I can ever recall where the hold-over declared was because the wind was felt to be too strong ~ blowing from the North and the birds went up on the Sunday after five days in the baskets. Just the one day bird to a fantastic flyer, namely John Ayling, and I had the great pleasure of sitting next to him at the House of Commons Dinner. He said that he’d actually shut up the loft and taken his clock inside, and was walking back up the garden when a flutter of wings just caught his eye in near darkness. What a pigeon, and what faith in the pigeon to still be outside waiting for the bird in near darkness. I make absolutely no apology for including a photograph that may well have already been seen, of John Ayling receiving his award from Lady Stratford at the House of Commons Dinner in November. He also said he doesn’t enjoy trips to the big city, but I’m pretty sure he enjoyed this occasion.
Paul O’Leary, John Clements and I, have all been asked if we are going to run the race again in 2010. The BICC have however dropped Marseille, which of course has implications concerning the Europa Cup, and decided to run with Narbonne for next year. How quickly some things in pigeon racing change, whereas in other areas, change is regarded as a complete No No! One of the original concepts I found attractive in being involved with the Narbonne race, was that any fancier could send as it was an ‘Open’ race, without the necessity of having to belong to a specific club, but it looks as though anyone wanting to race Internationally from Narbonne in 2010 will have to join the BICC. I’m inclined to reproduce word-for-word, an ‘e’-mail received from one of the entrants in this area (but it’s a bit too long), namely Paul Stokes, but the gist of his comments were that as a North Road racer, who had sent birds to Thurso & Lerwick, he would never have sent to Narbonne had the race not been an ‘Open’ as he would have had to join a club for just the one race. He bravely turned his birds to fly close on 675 miles, and got one just out of race time. He commented that he was pleased with his achievement which proved good quality birds will return from what-ever direction if they are good enough. We seem to hear with regularity that the Belgians can organise these massive International races, and are the only ones capable of doing so. I just don’t think this is necessarily so, and I wonder if one of the specialist clubs might like to entertain the idea of a “Home” International ~ by which I mean Wales; Ireland; England and Scotland (although that may be a stretch) to race from (say) San Sebastian.
Northamptonshire Championship Club I am very late in reporting on the club success and winners in 2009 and apologies to those members, as they deserved recognition far earlier in the year. However I have the opportunity to rectify this now. The club has reached the end of its second year and goes from strength to strength with just £47 shy of two thousand pounds paid out in prize and pool money at the prize presentation in November. Top prize winners were Barry & Troy Hobbs winning Falaise; 2nd at Merville, 2nd at Saran, plus the Averages and quietly pocketing close to £700. They added insult to injury by also cleaning up on the raffle on the evening staggering out under the weight of a bag of Versele Laga breeding mix plus a £25.00 voucher kindly donated by Grahams Pet Foods ~ more of them in a minute. Beaten into second place by just one single point in the averages competition was Rodney Oakes, but he still managed to bank £360 with podium finishes at Falaise, Saran, Merville and Poitiers showing terrific consistency across the Channel. Graham & Jackie Groom won the longest race from Poitiers and a further red card for Merville and a cheque for £285. Andy Smith, who swept all before him in 2008, had to contend with a slightly quieter year by his standards but was still ‘in-pocket’ with £165 to collect. The ever present Albert Farrow won Alencon and £132, whilst others not mentioned all collected prize money to a greater or lesser degree. Andy Smith has presented a handsome silver trophy for the averages winner in memory of his Late Mother, and with two years racing has at least got his name on the cup ahead of the Hobbs partnership, having won the averages in 2008.
Throughout 2009 the NCC has transported the birds with the aid of Northampton South Road’s trailer, but this was unlikely to continue into 2010, so we set about building a brand new trailer. It has taken many months with some sterling work put in by many of the members, and we now have a trailer with 42 brand new crates, each holding around 13-15 pigeons, so there is the capability to carry over 500 birds. Smallish crates are so much easier to handle and of course with fewer birds in each crate, there is also the potential to cut down on any infection being transmittable to other pigeons.
Much discussion has taken place at a couple of meetings, and although still to be voted on at the AGM (Jan 19th,) it is highly likely that the club will offer a second tier membership to new members who wish to join, although not be part of the main prize pot. This will be £75.00 >> half of the full subscription, but with the distinct probability of eight inland trainers, plus the normal five Channel races it should be extremely attractive both economically and as a way to train birds for the longer Channel events. I am sure every one can do the simple arithmetic but to highlight how attractive the price of joining is, think of sending (say) 15 birds through your club at (say) 60P for eight inland races. It comes to £72.00 but that figure does not include club subs and Fed dues, or any levy. I am sure there are fanciers who send more than fifteen birds each week and they will be welcome to join the NCC for £75.00 with unlimited birdage. Of course if you want part of a two grand prize fund it’s going to cost you £150, with a potential race programme of Falaise; Alencon; Saran; Poitiers & (maybe) Bordeaux. Given that we call ourselves a Championship club, the programme needs to be testing, much like the NFC incorporating an international, so we as a club should be adding a 500 mile race to the programme at Bordeaux, and for the likely cost of just £3.50 per bird. The other very important aspect that is likely to change (still needs a vote) is that for inland races we will go mid week on a Wednesday.
This should resolve the old perceived problem of the club taking members away from the Fed, which in truth was never ever anything major but blown up to suit a few individual arguments. It will allow fanciers to train and race mid-week and still race with the Fed at the weekend if they don’t have a National to compete in. If you want to race and pool for the inland races, then basketing will be Tuesday evenings at Ringstead, or if just training we can pick up Wednesday mornings (probably at Six Fields football car park). The other attractive aspect is that weather permitting; we will release the birds at the coast around 1.30/2.00 pm, so a 2-3 hour fly should see the birds back into Northamptonshire around 4 to 5 o’clock. With the Government about to slap on ever more fuel tax, training in 2010 is going to become a serious expense, so give thought to saving your self some money.
Grahams Pet Foods At the beginning of 2009 Graham Tysom went into receivership, which was hardly a surprise to those who had suffered months of frustration with virtually no stock of pigeon food in the place. Tysom must have lost dozens of customers over that period searching for food suppliers elsewhere. How that has changed since Colin Wright bought out the business back in April, with a well stocked and comprehensive range of pigeon food and accessories constantly available. The warehouse is now even open on a Saturday morning, and I feel sure the local fanciers will support Colin in all that he is doing to supply the fancy with their needs.
Throughout 2009 the NCC has transported the birds with the aid of Northampton South Road’s trailer, but this was unlikely to continue into 2010, so we set about building a brand new trailer. It has taken many months with some sterling work put in by many of the members, and we now have a trailer with 42 brand new crates, each holding around 13-15 pigeons, so there is the capability to carry over 500 birds. Smallish crates are so much easier to handle and of course with fewer birds in each crate, there is also the potential to cut down on any infection being transmittable to other pigeons.
Much discussion has taken place at a couple of meetings, and although still to be voted on at the AGM (Jan 19th,) it is highly likely that the club will offer a second tier membership to new members who wish to join, although not be part of the main prize pot. This will be £75.00 >> half of the full subscription, but with the distinct probability of eight inland trainers, plus the normal five Channel races it should be extremely attractive both economically and as a way to train birds for the longer Channel events. I am sure every one can do the simple arithmetic but to highlight how attractive the price of joining is, think of sending (say) 15 birds through your club at (say) 60P for eight inland races. It comes to £72.00 but that figure does not include club subs and Fed dues, or any levy. I am sure there are fanciers who send more than fifteen birds each week and they will be welcome to join the NCC for £75.00 with unlimited birdage. Of course if you want part of a two grand prize fund it’s going to cost you £150, with a potential race programme of Falaise; Alencon; Saran; Poitiers & (maybe) Bordeaux. Given that we call ourselves a Championship club, the programme needs to be testing, much like the NFC incorporating an international, so we as a club should be adding a 500 mile race to the programme at Bordeaux, and for the likely cost of just £3.50 per bird. The other very important aspect that is likely to change (still needs a vote) is that for inland races we will go mid week on a Wednesday.
This should resolve the old perceived problem of the club taking members away from the Fed, which in truth was never ever anything major but blown up to suit a few individual arguments. It will allow fanciers to train and race mid-week and still race with the Fed at the weekend if they don’t have a National to compete in. If you want to race and pool for the inland races, then basketing will be Tuesday evenings at Ringstead, or if just training we can pick up Wednesday mornings (probably at Six Fields football car park). The other attractive aspect is that weather permitting; we will release the birds at the coast around 1.30/2.00 pm, so a 2-3 hour fly should see the birds back into Northamptonshire around 4 to 5 o’clock. With the Government about to slap on ever more fuel tax, training in 2010 is going to become a serious expense, so give thought to saving your self some money.
Grahams Pet Foods At the beginning of 2009 Graham Tysom went into receivership, which was hardly a surprise to those who had suffered months of frustration with virtually no stock of pigeon food in the place. Tysom must have lost dozens of customers over that period searching for food suppliers elsewhere. How that has changed since Colin Wright bought out the business back in April, with a well stocked and comprehensive range of pigeon food and accessories constantly available. The warehouse is now even open on a Saturday morning, and I feel sure the local fanciers will support Colin in all that he is doing to supply the fancy with their needs.
Russell with John Clements
John Ayling receiving his award from Lady Stratford