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LONDON & SOUTH EAST CLASSIC CLUB
CARENTAN CLASSIC (10th SEPTEMBER 2011) The final race for the London and South East Classic Club took place from Carentan last Saturday and the birds were liberated at 0900hrs into a South West Wind. A reasonably fast race was expected and judging by the majority of the fanciers spoken too most had good returns.
Young Birds
1st Open 1st South West Section with his second classic victory following his maiden classic win from Tours earlier in the season was Kenny Wise of Isleworth with the blue hen now named ‘De 006’ on a velocity of 1820. Ken actually had two youngsters come together only for the blue pied cock to fly around for over a minute. ‘De 006’ is a Mark & Dick Evans / Gaby Vandenabeele. The sire of the Carentan winner is a direct son of Champion ‘Shadow’, the number one breeder at Myrtle lofts and her dam won previously 1st South West section, 4th Open Classic and is a full sister to Ken's Tours Classic winner this season. An interesting story to this win was Ken pooled three youngsters right through and they were the first three home. They were pooled through because of the unusual relationship these three birds have. Ken slipped a youngster under a pair when they left the yb either for a fly or food and a cock jumped in and sat the baby. The situation got to the stage that they almost sat on top of each other and fought for the right to sit the baby. As it turned out, when officials turned up to verify the winning pigeon, Ken opened the loft section to door and there they were fighting! Ken got 41 birds out of 44 sent home on the day.
2nd Open 1st North West Section was Kenny Wise's club mates Bellchambers Brothers of Brentford with a velocity of 1816 and they had three youngster drop on the loft together. The first bird through the ETS was a chequer of Koopman x Ganus Fox bloodlines bred by their good friend John Porter of Liverpool. She is in fact the same way bred as Bellchambers' previous 2009 5th Open NFC YB Winner. The other two young birds are a nest pair from the Bellchambers’ 2010 L&SECC Ace YB pigeon, winner of 1st Sect 3rd Open and 1st Sect 14th Open in the two races and this season he was 28th Open NFC Nantes. The dam is a winner of 40th Open Carentan and both are from the old successful bloodlines matured over the last 30 years. The Bellchambers also had a super race sending 15 birds and all were home on day.
3rd Open 2nd South West Section were the very consistent Trussler Brothers of West Moseley with a Blue Gaby Vandenabeele cock on 1799. This young cock is from the same bloodlines as last week's Three Borders Federation winner which are from D & J Hawkins of Doncaster. This young bird has flown almost every club race and again the brothers were delighted with their returns of 22 birds home from 25 sent.
4th Open 2nd North West Section was Peter Sabba and Daughter from Hillingdon with a youngster on 1772. At the time of writing this report I have no further details to hand.
6th 0pen, 1st North East Section were Martin and Watts with a velocity of 1746. Mick and Jack were delighted with their returns and the fact this is their fourth 1st Section wins this season. Their winning hen is M. & D. Evans / Gaby Vandenabeele bloodlines and again the partnership were delighted with their returns having 15 drop on the loft together. Jack explained that the partnership turned South this season after a successful time on the North Road winning many prizes. Jack races the old birds and breeds the youngster and his neighbour and partner Micky races the youngsters before they are returned to old bird loft. Micky trains the youngster weather permitting every day at 35 miles before starting work 0600hrs, if the weather early is not good enough then he takes them training after work! This is dedication and I’m sure that in a short period of time they will have an open classic win.
23rd Open, 1st South East Section was A. Jackson of Tilbury on a velocity of 1664. This pigeon is the nest mate to the 1st SE Section winner from the first L&SECC race from Vire. The bloodlines are Gaby Vandenabeele / Robert Ritton and was sent flying to the perch. This was his second channel race, having been the fifth bird to the loft from Vire three weeks earlier.
1st Open 1st South West Section were brothers David and Jimmy Cook of Wandsworth with a game little yearling hen on 1752. She won 1st club Messac this season and flew the Saintes National as well as taking cards in the inland programme. Bloodlines are Gaby Vandenabeele from Bob and Danny Carter of Esher. She was sent to Carentan paired to a white fantail cock with a pair of young birds in the nest. This was her first old hen's race of the 2011 season.
2nd Open 1st North East Section were the inform loft of J. & J. Brady of South Benfleet with a yearling hen on 1720. This hen had previously won 23rd St Malo National with the NFC and is from the very successful cock ‘55’, which bred ‘02’ the winner of 2nd Open NFC. ‘55’ was paired to ‘08 Pocahontas’ winner of 6th NFC young birds 2007. The winning hen was having its third old hens race of the season having been sent to the BICC on sixteen day eggs and then the NFC on three day chicks, before the Carentan Classic on ten day old youngsters. She also won 4thOpen from the BICC Guernsey race when this inform loft won the first six in the Open result.
3rd Open 2nd South West Section was a previous winner of the top L&SECC ‘Fancier of the Year’ award, Johnny May, now helping his grandsons Josh and Samuel May. They clocked a German Grizzle x Van Reet to record a velocity of 1720, which was sent sitting. The loft had another pigeon on the ETS a few second later and this was bred by John’s good friend, Martin Ali of Ali Bros from South Shields, she is off their Busschaert bloodlines.
4th Open 2nd North East Section was Patrick Kelly of Harlow with a two year old hen recording 1703. Patrick until two years ago completed only North Road and his wins included a 1st Combine Lerwick and 2nd Combine Lerwick. The winning hen is bred from a cock bred by Bob Finnek of Epping of Coolemans bloodlines and the dam was bred by Johnny May and is of his ultra successful Van Loon bloodlines. This chequer pied hen was sent sitting on five day old eggs.
5th Open 3rd North East Section was John Cowlin on 1683. John is the partner to John Gladwin in the successful Formula 1 lofts. At this present time I have no other details to hand.
7th Open, 1st South East Section were Barnes Bros of Swanscombe racing a celebrate hen on 1670. This being their second L&SECC South East Section win this season. Her breeding is Janssen (Johnny May) / De Klak from Holland. Other bloodlines kept at the loft and the same as the previous winner are Van Houtte Schorryse.
DARYLL LUXFORD (L&SECC PRESS OFFICER)
PRESIDENT’S COMMENT - KEITH MOTT
I would like start this my last ‘President’s Comment’ of the 2011 season by stating that racing wise, with increased birdage on most races this year, we have enjoyed a good season of Classic racing! Low birdage seems to have been a general trend throughout the Classic and National racing fraternity in recent seasons, but this season has seen a marked improvement in that area. Brian Doick, the Classic Chairman has had a meeting with the Central Southern Classic Flying Club recently to secure our transport amalgamation for the two longest old bird races in 2012, which is a major financial factor for both Classic Clubs. I personally think this arrangement is paramount in our financial agenda, as with out this annual amalgamation both the Classics would loose thousands of pounds. We are very lucky to have the continuing services of Brian Doick and I have said it many times before and make no apologies for saying it again, he is one of the best and is totally dedicated to the L&SECC. Brian’s pigeon racing partner, Russell Broad, passed away only last week after a period of bad health and it has left his dear wife, Rosemary, and his family devastated. Russell had been a dedicated and successful long distance pigeon racer for over 50 years and was a great worker for his local Worthing club. I met him on several occasions and found him very enjoyable to talk pigeons with, as he was very knowledgeable about our sport. Sincere condolences to his family from the members and committee of the L&SECC.
A special thanks to our secretary, Terri Hoskin, for all her good work this season. I can’t praise Terri enough, she has been just brilliant! Two years ago she took on the job, with the admin side of the Classic in a bad state and was thrown into the ‘deep end’ with no real experience of being a pigeon club secretary. Here we are two years later and she has sorted out the Classic administration, and with that experience behind her, is shaping up to be one of our best ever secretaries. Thanks also to our marking station I/C’s; Derick Packer, Allan Cecil, Brian Doick and Terri, and all the many workers who come to grafter week after week. The classic could not function with out you all!
What a weekend! As I have always stated, all you can do as a pigeon convoyer is produce the best race possible with the conditions you are presented with on the given weekend. With the Carentan Classic last Saturday I think I’m right in stating that our convoyers and race advisor got it spot on! It was another game of chess and before we had even put a pigeon in the basket I knew it was going to be a hard job. Although the Saturday was predicted to be a fair day with very few good options, the liberation had to be that day, as the Sunday and Monday were predicted to be a complete washout and no chance of racing from France.
It was nice to see my good friends Ken & Lyn Wise of Isleworth win the young bird Classic and record their second winner in the L&SECC this season, after winning the Tours race in May with their good Gaby Vandenabeele hen Champion ‘De A3’. Kenny popped over to my home in Claygate on the morning after the race so we could include his winner’s photo, now named Champion ‘De 006’, with this report. She is yet another M. & D. Evans / Gaby Vandenabeele and a granddaughter of Champion ‘Shadow’. What a family of pigeons, they are winning every where! Congratulations to Ken and Lyn and we will have full report on their latest win the fancy press in the next couple of weeks. Ken’s good friends Bellchambers Brothers of Brentford won 2nd open in the Carentan young bird Classic, after winning the L&SECC Breeder / Buyer in the Vire young bird Classic in August and lifted £500. The winning pigeon was a dark chequer cock donated by Dom McCoy of ‘Gladiator Lofts’ and Dereck Bellchambers have since score in the NFC Fougeres young bird National with him. That was £52 well spent Dereck. Congratulations to D. J. Cook Brothers of Wandsworth on their wonderful win in the Carentan old hens Classic!
A great end to our 2011 young bird Classic season, with our members enjoying a great race with good birdage! Well done to our convoyers, Rube Johnson and Ian Mead, and to race advisor, Steve Appleby, for producing some great Classic racing this season!
WEATHER REPORT - STEVE APPLEBY
Examining the forecast Friday evening for the L&SECC race from Carentan on Saturday it was all doom and gloom. But as we all know our weather has a habit of changing outside the predicted forecast which proved to be the case this time. On receiving the radar rainfall images direct from the Met Office Saturday morning they showed just a few light showers affecting the channel but not of any concern. With blue skies over Carentan and excellent visibility in the Channel the weather had developed to produce good race conditions. Winds were mainly southerly quite fresh over the open sea in the morning but veered to south westerly during the afternoon. Another good race for the LSECC members borne out by the provisional result. Well done to our convoyers Rube and Ian for all their good work for the club.
CONVOYER’S REPORT - RUBE JOHNSON (L&SECC CONVOYER)
I would like to start my report by saying what a great liberation site it is at Carentan. The Cattle Market car park liberation area is very spacious, with no obstacles and gives the birds a great fly out from the transporters. The site has a good water supply for the pigeons, nice clean toilets for the convoyer crews, but no showers. The lady agent, Brigitte Outrequin, came down to the site early on the Saturday morning with her two young daughters and her husband, and brought us down breakfast and coffee. A brilliant lady!
On the Friday marking day we did our usual pick ups in Essex and Kent and arrived at the Leatherhead marking station at about 13.00hrs, with all the birds being watered at the marking stations. After loading the last lot of crates we drove out of the Leatherhead car park just after 13.45hrs and arrived at Portsmouth docks at 15.30hrs, where we watered the birds. We sailed for France at 22.45hrs, docking at Caen at 06.15hrs to over cast weather conditions and drove through France with the conditions improving and sun braking through. We arrived at the car park liberation site at 07.15hrs and I must say the birds looked really well in the crates! We watered the pigeon on arrival and after resting them we liberated at 09.00hrs in a South / South West wind, with sun on the baskets. The 1,500 birds cleared the site well in a Northerly direction and the weather was perfect on our drive back to Caen docks. Thanks to Ian Mead and Steve Appleby for all their good work this season!
COMPILED BY KEITH MOTT (L&SECC PRESIDENT) |
