News from secretary Richard Green

Blackpool Show – saw me and members of the committee, namely Nigel Rigiani, Richard Blackburn, Richard Spooner, Anne Sandalowycz, Allan and Anne Follows taking stints on manning the BBC stand at the Blackpool Show. It was a pleasant experience meeting many current members, old friends, new friends always trying to encourage new members to join. Hundreds of applications to join were handed out most to fanciers in the North who were excited by the recent announcement of a new marking station at Penkridge in Staffordshire. So far I have only received 22 applications back but there is plenty of time before racing commences in early May. For those readers who did not attend Blackpool and may be interested in joining this progressive club then an application form can be downloaded from www.britishbarcelonaclub.co.uk or alternatively ring me with your name and address and I’ll pop a form in the post.

 Its amazing some of the comments one hears when in conversation at the show one I heard was that the only reason the BBC had a stand at Blackpool was because it gave the secretary and committee a free weekend away. Some member having seen the balance sheet had incorrectly assumed that we were all having our hotels and travelling expenses paid for when in fact the £721 spent attending the Blackpool show was broken down as follows £289 for a 3m space with two trestle tables, £284 To hire the Shell Scheme Stand and £148 for one power point and two spotlights, which as you can see makes for quite an expensive weekend helpfully offset by the club offering birds for sale bred from its long distance breeding stud. With us covering our own travelling expenses and accommodation expenses we try to find a cheap deal which for us was The Norbreck Castle Hotel which at £81 for a single room for two nights Bed, Breakfast and evening meal is excellent value. The food is good, as much as you want the only disadvantage being that the hotel is located on the far side of Blackpool which means a £20 return taxi fare if you wish to go out in the evening. But with beer at £1.80 a pint why go out?

We are lucky with the BBC to have a dedicated committee who put themselves out over and over again for the benefit of the club one member jokingly referred to us as the Mr & Mrs committee as there are five couples on the committee: Jim & Hazel Hooper, Allan & Ann Follows, Brian & Sarah Adamson, Richard & Anne Spooner and Clive & Jill Rogers it makes for quite a humorous meeting on occasions when the couples disagree and vote against one another. Perhaps here we have five willing couples to participate in the Mr & Mrs competition at The Fun Night for this year’s presentation at The Wessex Hotel, Bournemouth the date for your diary being Saturday the 20th Nov reserve your tickets with the secretary now.

BBC Race Programme - at our January meeting we were very careful to formulate a programme that had the minimum of clashes with other major organisations. In the case of our Messac race with the dates available to us we could not avoid clashing either with the CSCFC or with the NFC. As we share the same marking facilities and markers with the CSCFC we had no choice but to clash with the NFC on the 22nd May, which although not ideal was unavoidable. To avoid additional clashes, at this meeting we also made phone contact with members of the NFC committee to clarify the dates of their young bird nationals. Despite our efforts at the Blackpool Show we realised that our young bird national planned for the 28th August clashed with the NFC for that reason for the benefit of our members we have agreed to change our date to the 4th September. I can therefore confirm that the BBC race programme for the 2010 season is now: 8thMay Vire, 22nd May Messac, 12th June Poitiers, 2nd July Barcelona International, 31st July Bordeaux and finally 4thSeptember Fougeres for the young birds and old hens.

Marking Stations – as mentioned in my last report a new marking station at Penkridge in Staffordshire has been approved which met with great approval with fanciers at Blackpool similarly I received many adverse comments regarding the club not opening the new marking station at Walkern near Stevenage in Hertfordshire. Personally I am in favour of the idea and will be submitting a proposition to do so at the next committee meeting in mid March whether or not the rest of the committee are in favour we will see in due course. Whatever the outcome I hold great belief in majority rule, that’s democracy and the verdict will be accepted by me and the rest of the committee with out complaint because even though we do not always agree recent meetings have shown that decisions are accepted gracefully with no falling out which apparently has not always been the case, some you win and some you lose.

AGM vote - needless to say there were some fanciers at Blackpool who complained especially with regard to the outcome of the Barcelona v Palamos vote, in some cases quite vehemently. All I can do is count the vote and report on the outcome. However to avoid confusion I do think that the committee should lead on this vote next year and just allow members one vote (either for Barcelona or for Palamos) and not allow the issue to be confused by having a vote for a race from the Barcelona area. Anyway this year we are going with the Barcelona International and let’s hope once again that we have a good race last year the performance put up by John Halstead’s “Untouchable” was truly amazing 264th Open from 26,400 pigeons entered. I hear at the Curregem Centre’s Presentation evening this performance was lauded as magnificent but it hardly got a whisper over here.

The subscription forms are still coming in as I’ve received about 400 out of the 875 members. As they come in the gold rings go out, so far 900 out of 1,500. If it carries on at this rate some members may be disappointed so if you want to participate in the Gold Ring scheme then get your subscription forms in straight away, over £4,000 was paid out last year.

Do not forget The BBC Pigeon Moot being organised by fellow committee man Eamon Kelly; due to the Solent Fed commencing racing early in April the date has now changed from Friday evening  9th April to Monday evening the 12th April venue Didcot Football Club.  I know the change of date does not suite all especially those amongst us who have to go to work on the Tuesday but surely one late night will not hurt.  Master of Ceremonies for the evening remains , despite some complaints, as the maestro Tony Cowan who will be putting your questions to Geoff Kirkland, Mark Gilbert and Jimmy Wearn with the addition of Brian Shepherd. Sometime during the evening there will also be an auction of young birds donated from top fanciers and the BBC’s long distance breeding stud. Entrance restricted to 200 fanciers, tickets available now from the secretary, reserve your place at £7.50 each which will include an evening meal. Advance questions also being accepted by the secretary – not received any yet which I cannot understand as now is the opportunity to extract useful information from them which may assist you to win a National or International in the future, do not be afraid to ask the most pertinent questions which can be asked anonymously.

The birds in the BBC stud are bred down from Spanish Diploma winners who have proved themselves again and again from the distance. If you want to win these races then you can improve your chances by having the right blood to start with. The Stud birds have now been paired and are laying as I pen this article. You will soon be able to view and purchase birds bred from the stud direct from www.britishbarcelonaclub.co.uk . Some fanciers have already placed advance orders at the show so if you want to order youngsters for racing this year then I suggest that you contact me asap.

Since Blackpool I have been quite busy preparing this year’s handbook the draft of which is now in the printers hands. I actually took a day off on Friday which I spent visiting two of the countries top fanciers with Nigel Rigiani the first was the long distance specialist Ken Hine of Hayes who is the only fancier living to have won the BBC’s Blue Riband race twice. The main reason for the visit was for Nigel to troubleshoot Ken’s pedigree programme which kept Nigel busy for two or three hours and gave me plenty of time for a guided tour of Ken’s lofts (see pictures). The set up is very similar to my own not luxurious but functional, a winning loft and full of distance birds, slightly overweight which is to be expected with birds that will not be paired up until March but in excellent condition none the less. I was really impressed with the birds in the 05 loft, these pigeons 19 in total are Ken’s Barcelona candidates. In 2005 Ken bred 41 youngsters which were only trained in the year of their birth there are now 19 left all have flown Tarbes twice and one Barcelona last year. This season they will all be prepared and sent to Barcelona some with the BBC and some with the BICC. Will Ken be the first fancier in history to win three Blue Riband races with the BBC? With the quality of birds being prepared in the hands of this top fancier I would not be surprised. I was not only impressed with the quality of birds but also with the hospitality shown, my cup was never empty you cannot beat a cup of hot tea on a cold day and the ham sandwich was succulent.

Leaving Ken’s after lunch the next port of call was to our club patron Mark Gilbert my second visit here the first was several years ago since when Mark has replaced his range of lofts. I was impressed on my first visit but now absolutely gob smacked you can see why from the photographs of the range of lofts a pigeon fanciers dream. What followed was over two hours of handling quality pigeon after quality pigeon bred from the best in the world, no expense spared and what was also impressive was Mark’s impeccable knowledge and memory as he informed you of the breeding of each bird you handled. A gentleman, undoubtedly one of the top fanciers in the country, dedicated to his sport who gave up his time to show us around having ordered some late breds I can’t wait to return later in the year. 

Do not forget the club’s Annual Young Bird Sale will be held on Sunday 25th April at the Salisbury Livestock market, birds on view from 1100 hrs, sale commences at 1300hrs. So far we have 50+ birds offered by the members and are expecting to have in the region of 100+ by the date of the sale.

Well I think that’s enough for now – my contact details are Richard Green on Tel: 01249 760198 or mobile 07747 444196, E-mail rdgbbcsecretary@aol.com .Do not forget I’m in this job to serve you so any problems or advice then do not hesitate to contact me – good racing to all.