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BARCELONA CHALLENGE RACE FROM ST JUNIEN

After having successfully flown Chateaudun, Blois and Tours in consecutive weeks, the  Barcelona team were in fine form when basketed for the last big race prior to being sent to the 2010 Barcelona International. This year, after talking to some top Barcelona fliers, including Steve Patrick, it was decided that the team would have a 319 miles race from St Junien on the 6th June, giving 3 clear weeks' rest prior to the big event. John and Linda Tyerman came out for the St Junien race as John wanted to see  the condition of the birds and how the team performed. With east winds forecast and with temperatures of 28c, it was not going to be an easy fly from St Junien back to the lofts in Northern France.

A total of 158 Barcelona Challenge birds were basketed at our local St Pol Club and thanks to a complete overhaul of the Bricon timing system, there were no hitches at the marking and all the birds went through, so thanks to Francis Nolman's and the Bricon team who had  recently spent all day at the lofts changing rings and doing a complete check of the system. We joined the St Pol Club this year and the members are very friendly and helpful  and have made us feel really welcome. It is not easy when you are not too fluent with the language, but our son Connor is very good and is always on hand to help, and comes to the Club with us. Out of interest the birds travel to the races in wicker baskets which are lined with fresh straw, and I must say they do look well and with a maximum of 20 birds there is plenty room.

At  6-30am on Saturday the 5th June, 2010, the birds were liberated at St Junien, into a south east wind along with approximately 3000 birds from the Nord Pas De Calais Federation. The weather forecast was good but throughout the 300 miles plus journey home  air temps of  around 28C were shown on xc weather so very hot and testing flying conditions for all birds racing.

It was estimated that the early birds would take just over 7 hours for the 316 miles and at 13-35 hours a cock entered by Phil Rawson dropped and was timed on the Bricon ETS system.  This is the 2nd time recently that this cock has shown good form and I am sure Phil will be on tenterhooks when his pigeon is sent to Barcelona in a few weeks' time. Well done to Phil. The second pigeon was clocked at 13-46 and was bred and entered by Bernard J. Smyth of Northern Ireland - again this pigeon has been very consistent, and clearly a good contender for the big event. Bernard has been a good supporter of the Barcelona Challenge and knows this is a great way to test his distance stock against the finest in Europe. Third bird dropped at 14-47 and is a Jan Thelan entered by Paul Rennison of Worthing , so well done Paul. The fourth pigeon timed at 14-04 was a chequer cock bred  by John Tyerman and entered by  Richard Withall of Chichester, again this pigeon has been very consistent and was 11th open in last year's Barcelona Challenge.  Fifth spot went to Kenny Abbot of Brighton and his bird was clocked at 14-04.  Sixth bird home was clocked at 14-05 hours and is owned by John and Sue Donovan from London.

 It remained very hot and oppressive all day and not and easy conditions for birds racing but the team plodded on for most of the day and by nightfall 102 pigeons had been recorded home on the Bricon system and all this information was sent out via email to all our competitors. Some other early times were:   7th Rose Yates at 14-10 with a bird bred by John McGee. 8th Karen Newcombe at 14-17. 9th Karl Gunther and Thorsten Daum also at 14-17.  l0th Barcelona McGee, at  14-18. 11th Mathew Buret at 14-21. 12th K evin Rennison at 14-21. 13th Karen Newcombe 14-28  (Watch for these Newcombe birds at Barcelona). 14th, Owen and Wilson at 14-32 with a bird bred by John Tyerman. 15th Ron Dodd at 14-35 again with a bird bred by John Tyerman. 16th, Ian Gill of Northern Ireland at at 14-45. 17th Crammond and Langstaff at 14-47. 18th Jordan Moore at 14-48 with a bird bred by John McGee. 19th Garry Inkley at 14-51.  20th Ian Gill at 14-57.  21st Crammond and Langstaff at 14-57, 22nd Farr and Withall also at 14-57 with another bird bred by John Tyerman. 23rd Symmonds, Spencer and Eason at 14-58.  24th  Terry Johnson at 15-02.  25th Ray Bullen at 15-07.  26th  Joe and Kevin Murphy at 15-07. 27th Brian Holland at 15-15.  28th Ray Bullen at 15-22.  29th Les Parkinson at 15-27, and 30th Ray McIlroy at 15-28.

A total of 102 birds made it home on what can only be described as a very testing day and the last one  clocked at 21-56 was a red Carmichael hen owned by John and Linda Tyerman so it had hung in well  for over 15 hours. Overnight it rained very heavily at Hernicourt with thunder  and lightning. Despite this, there were some early 2nd day arrivals in the rain and another  47 birds were home on the second day, making a grand total of  149/158 sent, so very good returns despite the  hot conditions and heavy rain on the 2nd day. With the Barcelona International only a few weeks away the team have now had  four races of between 150 and 319 miles in preparation for the big one. The team have had approx 1000 miles preparation racing. Some fanciers have already booked accommodation and are coming out for the big event on 3rd July. John and Lou can be contacted on  0033 321 49851 or email thebarcelonachallenge@googlemail.com