East Down Combine News
with Clifford Browne
60 BIRDS PERISH IN DUNDRUM FIRE
The residents of Church Avenue in Dundrum, which is situated just a few miles from the scenic Mourne Mountains ,will long remember Christmas 2017 when in the early hours of Christmas morning a devastating fire broke out in what is understood to have been a vacant house and it quickly spread to several other homes , sheds and oil tanks as well as the two pigeon lofts belonging to Sammy Foster who races with the Dundrum club in the East Down Combine as the partnership of S Foster ,Connor & Parry and sadly this saw the death of 60 pigeons belonging to Sammy . Club members have rallied round and they and other fanciers from further away have vowed to get Sammy restarted .
This was a very serious incident which saw 52 fire fighters in attendance ,the vacant house was destroyed and 3 additional houses were badly damaged with a total of eight properties having to be evacuated but thankfully no-one was injured ,at present the cause of the fire has not been ascertained . We all hope to see Sammy being able to continue in the sport he loves at the earliest opportunity .
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BALLYLESSON NEW YEAR SHOW
The Ballylesson Club results from their show held on New Year’s Day saw the partnership of C& D Smyth & Sons win 6 of the 7 classes as well as BIS & BOS . The judges were Jack Hogg, Brian Foulis and Roy Irwin and the club extends their thanks to them for giving of their time on New year’s Day
Y/B Handled Y/B T/W
1st C&D Smyth & sons 1st C&D Smyth & sons
2nd C&D Smyth & sons 2nd J Kirk & sons
3rd J Patterson 3rd J Kirk & sons
4th J&S Albert & sons 4th Mackey & Lockhart
Reserve J Patterson Reserve J&S Albert & sons
v.h.c Mackey & Lockhart v.h.c J Patterson
h.c J Kirk & sons h.c J Patterson
commended J&S Albert & sons commended Mackey & Lockhart
O/C T/W O/C Handled
1st C&D Smyth & sons 1st C&D Smyth & sons
2nd C&D Smyth & sons 2nd Massey bros
3rd J Kirk & sons 3rd J Patterson
4th J Patterson 4th J Patterson
Reserve P &C Johnston Reserve J Kirk & sons
v.h.c Massey bros v.h.c K&B Mc Conaghie & son
h.c P&C Johnston h,c J Kirk & sons
commended P&C Johnston commended Gillespie bros
O/H T/W O/H Handled
1st C&D Smyth & sons 1st C&D Smyth & sons
2nd C&D Smyth & sons 2nd Massey bros
3rd Mackey & Lockhart 3rd C&D Smyth & sons
4th A Crawford 4th C&D Smyth & sons
Reserve J Patterson Reserve C&D Smyth & sons
v.h.c C&D Smyth & sons v.h.c J Patterson
h.c A Crawford h.c Mackey & Lockhart
commended J Patterson commended A Crawford
Eye sign
1st P&C Johnston
2nd P&C Johnston
3rd J Kirk & sons
4th J Kirk & sons
Reserve C&D Smyth & sons
v.h.c Mackey & Lockhart
h.c J&S Albert & sons
commended C&D Smyth & sons
Best in Show C&D Smyth & sons
Best Opposite Sex C&D Smyth & sons
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Harper & Young’s Champion “23”
The Cloughey partnership of Drew Harper & Martin Young have over a number of years produced many outstanding performances and many outstanding pigeons and one such bird is one of their 2017 young birds, a blue cock “Champion 23” .This outstanding Young cock won in this year’s young bird races with the EDC -5th open Navan , 16th open Mullingar ,4th open Thurles ,3rd open 2nd Skibbereen Derby , was -1st Open Gold Ring , EDC Young Bird of 2017 , was E.D.C 2 bird club Bird of the year and won the YB average on its own . The breeding of this cock is ;
Sire Blue Cock (gift from Steve Gore), Full brother to Hen that bred 3 x 1st Open + 4 x2ndOpen .
Dam Blue Hen that won Skibbereen Derby (EDC) for us, when her sister came with her to finish 2nd Open. She is of Bob Donaldson Van Dorp cock (Sire of Loft) of Bobs Hen, bred 50 Fed Winners in N.EAST.
Dam Gore' Hen that bred 3 x1st EDC + 4 x2nd place finishes in Combine. Also Van Dorp. My thanks to John Adair for this info ,John is a great friend of both Bob Donaldson and Steve Gore and the partnership again thank these men for there friendship and birds over the years ,not forgetting John himself who is instrumental in the training of the race team of Harper & Young .
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Next week I’ll be reporting on the AGM .
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