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L&SECC CARENTAN YB & OH CLASSIC 2011

by Keith Mott

I must start this week’s article by saying that I was a bit pessimistic, as were a lot of people, when the London & South East Classic Club members voted to hold both the two young bird Classics from France in the 2011 season. History tells us that many young bird races from that side of the English Channel have finished in disaster over the years and of course the weather condition on the day makes all the difference, but as President, I’m highly delighted to report that both events were an outstanding success, birdage and race wise.

 

The last L&SECC race of the 2011 season was flown from Carentan in early September and the convoy was liberated at 09.00hrs in a South West wind. The convoyers reported that the 1,500 birds cleared the site well in a Northerly direction and the returns were brilliant, with some member getting all their entries home on the day. 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! She was bred out of a son of Champion ‘Shadow’ when mated to Ken’s good M. & D. Evans blue hen, ‘DE 008’, and she is the nest sister to his 2011 L&SECC Tours winner Champion ‘A3’. ‘DE 008’ has some good form her self racing and recorded 1st SW Section, 4th open L&SECC Guernsey as a young bird in 2010. What a brilliant winning line of Gaby Vandenabeele pigeons these are? The Carentan Classic winner, ‘DE 006’, flew the L&SECC Vire and NFC Fougeres races to eggs, being over due for the National, so Ken gave her a big baby five days before she was marked for Carentan. In that week before the Carentan Classic a young blue cock moved into the nest box and started to feed the youngster, so three birds, including ‘DE 006’, were competing for the box and youngster. She was clocked to win the Classic and the blue cock came a minute after her, with another bird to provisionally win 5th and 6th open. The Wise loft’s 100 young birds go on the ‘darkness’ system from weaning until the 21st June each season and says his birds are not in total black out when on the system, but maintains the loft is light enough to read a news paper. The babies are trained ever day as soon as they begin to run and are still on the ‘dark’. Training is intense for the youngsters, but once they start to race, training is kept to three regular 30 mile tosses per week and they race the full young bird programme, as Ken thinks they need races to educate them for later life.

 

Ken and Lyn’s first L&SECC win was flown from Tours in late May and this event incorporates the annual Yearling Derby. Their winning pigeon was their yearling Gaby Vandenabeele blue chequer pied hen, ‘DE A3’, and this game celebrate hen won it all, 1st open Classic, 1st open Yearling Derby, £500 Jackpot and the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’. Brilliant pigeon racing! She was sent to Tours paired to Ken and was so keen; she fell over when she hit the landing area on the loft. Ken tells me she wasted a lot of time composing her self after the tumble, but still managed to get on the ETS to record her L&SECC win. ‘DE A3’ has been raced un-paired all this season, flying the Alencon Classic two weeks earlier and has been trained off the south coast, plus one north road toss from Stevenage. Her sire is Ken’s outstanding blue Gaby Vandenabeele stock cock, ‘DE 195’, which has bred several premier racers for the Isleworth loft including: ‘DE A3’ winner of 1st SW section, 1st open L&SECC Tours, her nest mate ‘DE 008’ winner of 1st SW section, 4th open L&SECC Guernsey (young bird) and ‘DE 130’ winner of 1st Three Borders Federation Yelverton (993 birds). This fantastic stock cock was bred by M. & D. Evans directly from there champion breeder, ‘Benneton’ and he in turn was bred from the very of Gaby Vandenabeele’s loft. The dam of the Tours Classic winner was ‘DE 159’, another M. & D. Evans / Vandenabeele, bred by Dave Hawkins and she is a daughter of his great breeder, ‘One So Wonderful’. Outstanding pigeons breeding outstanding pigeons! The main families kept are the Willy Thas and Busschaerts from Gerry Clements, Gaby Vandenabeele from M. & D. Evans, Ray Horton and Dave Hawkins, and the old family form Ken’s good friends, Ries and Gerard Schalkwijk of Holland. One of Ken’s best stock birds is the blue hen, ‘DE 238 Stock Hen’, and she was a gift bird from his good friends, Ries and Gerard Schalkwijk of Holland, and she has bred winners with different cocks every season for the Isleworth loft. Congratulations to Ken and Lyn on joining a unique band of fanciers who have won the L&SECC twice in one season. Brilliant pigeon racing!

 

The Wandsworth based brothers, David and Jimmy Cook, won the Old Hens Carentan Classic with a game little yearling hen. She won 1st club Messac this season and flew the Saintes National as well as taking cards in the inland programme. She contains the very best Gaby Vandenabeele bloodlines from Bob and Danny Carter of the Esher club. She was sent to Carentan paired to a white fantail cock with a pair of young birds in the nest. Congratulation to David and Jim on their great L&SECC success!

 

The Vire Classic in August was one of the most puzzling events I’ve ever known! You must say it was a very good race with some members clocking seven and eight birds in just a few seconds, but after that initial surge the birds seemed to stop coming and returns were quite poor in the final count. But why? Apart from a few showers in mainland England in the afternoon, the weather condition were perfect for racing young birds out of France. Derick Packer rang me on the Monday morning and he had really bad returns! He informed me that there were eleven liberations at Portsmouth on that Saturday and he had a bird reported up in the North of England, so you can draw your own conclusions from that bit of information. How about we have our young bird Classics on Sundays next season?

 

That’s another season over, it just seems like we start a couple of weeks ago! I can be contacted with any pigeon banter on telephone number: 01372 463480.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT.