LONDON & SOUTH EAST CLASSIC CLUB

TOURS CLASSIC (28th May 2011)

Provisional First Bird Result: 154 members sent 1,444 birds that were liberated at 6.30 pm into a no wind at the liberation site, however en route the birds would fly into westerly wind crossing the channel to find an increasing west / south west wind. As the provisional first bird result shows, although the wind has an impact it will not deter good pigeons from getting home quickly. It was great too that the all the section winners were in the first 12 open positions and congratulations to them all. I must add it appears to be a Gaby Vandenbeele day with 1st, 2nd and 5th open; however mine are still coming home!!

1st Open 1st South West Section: Winning the Yearling Derby and nominated in the Brooker Gold Cup, and pooled heavily within his maiden classic club win was Kenny Wise of Isleworth, with a yearling hen now called ‘De A3’. This celibate hen, whichis actually taking a liking to Kenny, came like a bullet but really low, hit the top of the young bird loft, before tumbling over and regaining her composure before entering the loft to win the race by some 15 yards. Ken is rightly over the moon having been 2nd and 4th Open previously in classic racing. The parents of this hen are a direct son of M. and D. Evans' ‘Benneton’ when paired to a daughter of Dave Hawkins' ‘One so Wonderful’, who in turn is from 'Solitaire' (a midland National Winner himself) when paired to ‘Band of Gold’. ‘De A3’ parents have also bred 1st SW Sect, 4th Open Guernsey in the L&SECC, and a  sister also topped the Three Borders Federation from Yelverton. The nest mates of this pair are also paired together and they have bred 7th open NFC and it was one of their youngster that was in the top 12 positions when Kenny had four birds from the High Littleton Tours Open Race over 275 miles. What a great two pairs to have at stock!

2nd Open 1st North East Section were Packer and Clarke of Grays. Derik’s first bird was a yearling Gaby Vandenbeele of ‘Shadow’ bloodlines. She is raced on the roundabout system and this method of racing has consistently brought success to the loft over the years, including 1st section 8th Open in the recent BICC race again a Gaby Vandenabeele. If  this loft had won the Open from Tours, it would have of been their fourth L&SECC win, which would have been a classic club record, which I’m sure will be broken in the next few seasons. As Derik explained, the Gabys are very new in the Packer & Clarke loft, but already showing great promise.

3rd Open 1st South East Section were the top partnership, who won the section in the previous Classic race from Alencon, Mr and Mrs Streatfield of Snodland in Kent. This winning pigeon was a chequer yearling widowhood cock of their old Staf Van Reet family when crossed with a Ton and Jan Deraff of Holland bloodlines. Classic racing is now over for this partnership as the first two classics were what they were targeting and with two section wins, it’s a job well done!

4th Open, 2nd South East Sect were W. & J. Cheeseman and Wesley told me, ‘our 4th open Tours classic pigeon is a Busschaert x Janssen yearling cock. He has not missed a weeks racing all year and over the last couple of weeks I have fed him on the Versalaga widowhood mix. His dam is a full sister to my 2010 Bergerac L&SECC winner ‘Summer’s Boy’ and the sire is off John Merchant’s old Busschaert lines.'

5th Open 3rd South East Section were Gladwin and Jarvis, and they told me, ‘this pigeon was bred by Joe Raeburn for me last year being direct from his 1st open BBC national winner in 2009 which is a Gaby, which was bred from a pigeon he brought from us (Formula 1 lofts) when paired to a pigeon from Mr & Mrs King which also is a M. & D. Evans Gaby’. This young cock, which John calls ‘JR’ has raced well inland as a young bird and won 26th open L&SECC as a young bird in his only channel race. Again this year he had flown ok inland and had scored for John, but again showed his best form across the water when he was 11th sec 25th open BICC 2 two weeks ago. Now this result means he has had three good results from France in three attempts. Being bred direct from a national winner himself makes him a very special pigeon. John would like to say a very big thank you Joe Raeburn for being so kind to bred me one direct from his national winner. I would also like to say thank you to John’s wife Theresa who without her extra help this year john would not even be racing as since starting a new job in January, has had very little time with the birds. Also to Johns Mum, Dad and John Cowlin who timed the birds in for John and sorted them out as he was at a wedding last Saturday.

12th Open, 1st Section North West Section was the ultra successful Gary Inkley of Hillingdon. This two year old Blue Pied widowhood hen is from a direct Dirk Sepers cock when paired to a grand daughter of Kannibal, Van Dyke bloodlines. This hen was also in the top 50 position from the Alencon Classic. She comes from a vey successful line of pigeons for Gary as one brother has won Fougeres and was 3rd Combine Carentan this season and another was high in the result fro the Saintes NFC last year and has four times 1st to date.

DARYLL LUXFORD (L&SECC PRESS OFFICER)

PRESIDENT’S COMMENT - Keith Mott

It’s always a great pleasure to see any of our members win a London & South East Classic Club race, but in the first two races of the 2011 season, the pleasure has been a little bit special. In the first Classic race from Alencon we saw our Transporter Manager, Clive Turner, win the race by a ‘country mile’. He also took 4th open in the final result and they say the workers never win anything! Last week’s Classic from Tours saw two more workers at the top of the result sheet in the form of Kenny Wise and Packer & Clarke. Ken wins the Classic from Tours in great style and he gives a lot of his time to attend committee meetings in the winter months, and marks all the ETS birds, with myself, at the Leatherhead marking station. Ken and his wife, Lynn, have been friends of mine for many years and Lynn has devoted several months of her time recently to her dear mother, who has not enjoyed good health for quite some time now. This Classic win will be a big boost to the Wise family. Well done mate, congratulations from Betty and myself! Packer & Clarke of Grays recorded their third L&SECC winner from Alencon a couple of seasons ago and to see Derick Packer back at the top of the classic result sheet again is brilliant, as he is one of the really worker in our club, being I/C and clock setter at the South Ockendon marking station. This station is our second biggest, sometimes processing over 500 birds and he has run it since it started up about seven years ago. Derick has been on the classic committee for many years and has a hell of a journey from Essex to Leatherhead to attend meetings in the winter months. Articles on these great fanciers to follow in a couple of weeks. Well done to our convoying team, Rube and Ian, for their good work so far this season!

WEATHER REPORT - Steve Appleby

After advising Rube our convoyer on Friday evening with the forecast for Saturday looking favourable, an early liberation was planned. Early Saturday morning generally cloudy skies prevailed all day over the south east of England but it remained dry.  As all of France was under clear blue skies from first light, on this occasion the flight path for the LSECC pigeons racing from Tours was relatively easy to access.  The channel was clear with high thin cloud and visibility excellent up to 11 miles as recorded by the Greenwich Lightship moored mid channel. The most important factor was as usual the wind direction. Although winds were very light and variable over France the pigeons on reaching the French coast line encountered a fresh west south westerly air flow which at times gusted up to force 5 over the open sea. Overall a good day for racing borne out by the provisional result.

CONVOYER’S RACE REPORT TOURS (28/05/2011) - Rube Johnson

I must start my latest convoyer’s report by saying that the Tours race weekend was as perfect as it could be, with marking at all stations being very slick and finishing on time, which is full credit to the great team worker we are lucky enough to have in the L&SECC. Well done to every one concerned! My assistant for the Tours classic was Ian Mead and it’s always a treat to have him come along, as he is good company and a great worker. On the Thursday marking day we did our usual basket pick ups in Essex and Kent, and arrived back at the main marking station at North Leatherhead Community Centre at 12.55hrs. All the birds were watered at the marking stations. We were on the road to Portsmouth docks at in quick time and arrived at the Portsmouth booking office at 17.30hrs, where the birds were watered on the dock. We sailed at 23.00hrs, with the convoy having a restful channel crossing and we docked in Caen at 06.00hrs.

From our arrival in France and run through to the liberation site the weather was good, with a little cloud cover, but plenty of sunshine. We arrived at the Tours liberation site at 11.30hrs and the birds were watered on arrival, and fed at 12.30hrs. On the Saturday morning we awoke at 04.30hrs to a clear sky, with it being one of those days when you knew it was going to be brilliant weather. I rang Steve Appleby and he gave me a good on line weather report, with blue sky and plenty of sunshine all the way to the French coast. A Dutch organization liberated 23,000 birds at 06.00hrs and the clearance was immediate. We cut the strings and liberated the 1,500 Classic birds at 06.00hrs in a no wind situation. The birds formed one batch and cleared the site very quickly in a northerly direction. The weather was very good on our journey back to Caen, with blue skies and sunshine, and on our arrival back at the Ferry Port we found the English Channel was nice and clear, with strong west wind.

COMPILED BY KEITH MOTT (L&SECC PRESIDENT).