WITHOUT DOUBT THE BIGGEST ONE LOFT RACE PRIZE IN EUROPE 

RACE DAY 10 & 11 IN Tenerife    

Its race day 10 of the series of  eleven island training races for the arona Tenerife one loft race and with   the 2,299 pigeons that returned safely from race 9   making the journey to the north of the island they were soon on  site at the small village of B.Hondp approx 50 klm from the lofts   we waited till 11am  with a temperature of 24 degrees and rising and with an assisting 23klm tail wind in a north by north easterly direction when we received  confirmation  of the liberation as we all sat patiently to witness the first sightings 

Nemphys 1st position race 11 for team flor (gran canaria)

it wasn`t long after the liberation ,we heard that the first batch of pigeons were upon us as the total journey took just over 25 minutes to cover the journey home, taking the top honour is the local gran canarian partnership of team flor with their grizzle entry Nephtys recording an arrival time of 11.27.15.60 this pigeon come consistently within mid table positions up until todays race as we congratulate them on this performance and the honour of 1st international derby arona race 10 ,by the narrowest of margines in 2nd position is the Hungarian syndicate of Team Fenyvesi Balazs & Norbert with their entry top guy at 11.27.19.75 yet another entry which has performed well over previous weeks and has appeared in the top 100 on numerous occasions ,

Team Fenyvesi Balazs & Norbert (Hungary) with pigeon top guy

in 3rd its the belgium and the father and son  partnership and hardworking belgium coordinators  jacky and jelle creemers with pigeon lolita on 11.27.26.55,for 4th we have marton  j&l representing  solvakia on 11.27.27.10,in 5th with stay with northern europe as the team Norwegian team ray and svein`s pigeon miks racer arrived at 11.27.27.50 in 6th position its team Switzerland as pigeon named peter for simon wolf timed in at 11.27.29.50.just ahead of pigeon  janneke for team borger pigeons syndicate in 7th on 11.27.29.95,8th goes to pigeon named octopusy for team Germany and team michael zeug on 11.27.31.05,as 9th goes to a second arrival for team Netherlands with team rien van oss en zn at 11.27 .31.45 and to round up the top ten positions we have team romania and maude for iulian duica with a time of 11.27 .32.55,

jacky & jelle creemers belgium 3rd international race 11
as for the uk and in todays race it was yours truly as team tom & gaynor who recorded the first uk & ireland arrival representing the welsh contingent with boomerang 3 taking 31st international  as you can again see by the times of the returns the main batches of pigeons came in their hundreds as batch after batch arrived at the lofts this is shown in the arrival times as there`s very little time between the first 150 pigeons to return with  all timing  in less than a minute,this sequence continued with others over the next few minutes as over 2,000 had returned prior to 12 oclock ,  with quite a few more arrivals throughout the remaining hours of daylight and a large number the following morning the arona team were pleased to acknowledge a returns average of 95.21%
so following on from race ten we see ourselves at the last inland liberation point for training race 11 from the port side of santa cruz ,with the 2.189 birds looking out over the port onto open waters Abel ledesma once again had no hesitation of releasing the pigeons at 11am into another north /north easterly wind with broken cloud and a warm canarian temperature of 22 degrees and with 180 watchers on livestream waiting liberation news we were informed that on liberation whilst a large bunch had made their way south clear of the liberation site there was still a considerable number still circling around the port orientating a direction to head for ,

goku 1st position race 11 for team zeolita syndicate gran canaria 

with the last remaining birds reported to have cleared the site and the lorry heading for home ,at the lofts we were patiently awaiting the arrivals to see how much of a gap we were going to witness as time went on there was a moment of optimism in regards to the first arrivals and with the arona team anticipating around 45 minutes flying time and as these people are the most knowledgeable in regards to racing under these conditions all eyes were fixed on the loft once the 3/4 of and hour approached .   it was only five minutes after the expected time that to everyone's relief the first birds hit the loft  and trapped ,taking the top honour on a time of 11.50.08.70 was once again a gran canarian entry by the name of goku for the team zeolita syndicate, the winning pigeon is another grizzle this time a hen which is no stranger to top positions as its previously scored highly in past training flights inc 58th and 79th plus numerous positions in the first hundred ,in 2nd place by just 0.02 of a second is the welsh syndicate, welsh hopefuls with their entry roadhog herbie continuing to improve after its 24th position in training race 9 and also takes  1st uk/ireland  with a time of 11.50.08.90,

roadhog herbie 1st uk/ireland 2nd international race day 11 for welsh hopefuls
in 3rd its yet another consistent pigeon and named highlighted in past results as pigeon top guy for the Hungarian syndicate of Team Fenyvesi Balazs & Norbert timed in at 11.50.10.65,whilst the 4th and 5th places go to team Germany and the syndicate team schnellin timing in two together with pigeons named the secrets out and bronco on the clock at 11.50.12.05 & 11.50.13.05,for 6th we stay with team Germany with team golden ladys german entry the first lady at 11.50.13.30,7th goes to pigeon by the name of spud for Team Slawomir Pluta from poland at 11.50.14.35 whilst 8th and 9th positions go to team England as brian clayburns entry little big cam  clocked in at 11.50.16.00 just holding off the fellow team syndicate of david hinkel  pigeon batman which has been coming consistently timed in at 11.50.16.90,for the 10th position its team B.O. Zaolzie from the czech republic with pigeon asnyk recording its return  at  11.50.16.9

pigeon top guy 3rd international race 11
once again during the day pigeons were returning up until nightfall and when the sun went down 2.044 of the initial liberation were safley perched and with anther 60+ the following morning the returns average finished at a respectable 96.29%

team tom & gaynor (wales)             1st uk/ireland 31st international race 11
with all the training and loft duties going on as usual on the island  ,at the annual shows around Europe its business as usual in regards to promoting the race to the pigeon fraternity and a world wide audience for the next years event ,  with  gladys and the arona promotional teams once again present at the olympiade show in Brussels assisted by the creemers family  over  the three day event , looking at the photos over that  weekend it seems  the stand and the arona race gathered a lot of interest as fanciers admired the guaranteed prize of 120,000 euro for the winner of the final race at the end of march and the overall prize fund and cars on offer ,this prize pot clearly  indicates  that the derby arona has set a bar and a standard matched by no other olr in Europe, and  a leading force in  one loft racing  worldwide,

DERBY ARONA REPRESENTATIVES AT THE OLYMPIADE IN BRUSSELS

so our next few training events will see the pigeons go out over open waters to several distances as we once again adventure into our  mid Atlantic phase of the training programme , this is unknown territory for the pigeons and will hopefully give them the courage to head out over the Atlantic for home once we reach the island of gran canaria ,from where the first of three hot spot races and major prizes will be held   ,during this stage its a nervous time for  the pigeons the entrants and of course  the organisers as once liberated it  comes down to the mind and courage of the pigeons to face the challenge ahead of them so good luck to all competing from here on in  at the time of going to press the ace pigeon averages has been moving around quite a bit however at present leading the race for ace pigeon is 1st Austria Les Paul  Alois Wiefler  28043 2      Ireland Celtic Capall Team Highway Lofts 27734 3 Norway Wonderduk Team Gebert & Iura 27318 4 Rumania Transilvania Boy Class 888 26536 5 Gran canaria Goku Team Zeolita 26407 6 Belgium Martha 3 Team Leyen-Segers-Paloma Racing 26371 7 Rumania  prva   Noni i Radulescu 26334 Romanía 8 England Eddie Team Casey & Rainbow 12 26302 9 Gran canaria Harry 555 Team Daniel & Papi 26200 10 Germany Octopussy Michael Zeug 26187

Tom Harris