MNFC Latest News

At the Club’s latest meeting the Committee has listened to the thoughts of the majority of their members and the recommended race programme for 2019 was agreed as follows: 25th May Carentan, 8th June Fougeres, 29th June Ancenis, 20th July Vire and Bordeaux and it was decided that there will only be one young bird race which will be on the 14th September from Carentan.

Readers will notice that the Semi National races for both Old and Young birds have been ‘dropped’ has quite simply because if the support isn’t there that it could be a financial disaster. Personally I think that the idea was a good one but members seem not to realise the fact that these races wouldn’t have been included in the Averages and so members could have decided whether to support these races or not.

The plain truth of the matter is that to hold any sort of race whether it is a full blown National race or Semi National is very expensive with both numerous Marking Stations and the need to employ several vehicles and drivers to enable the birds to get down to the coast in good time to feed and water the birds whether they are actually going across the channel or not.  All of this brings us back to support and finances. So though the majority of the Committee feel that a ‘race’ with a separate liberation for the East and Western sections from the coast would have been a great idea to let birds sample being convoyed in the comfort of the MNFC’s transporters it would only work if it was well supported by the membership.

This brings us back to the decision that the Committee have made to not hold a short young bird race from either the coast or the Isle of Wight. This is once again due to the fact that that in recent times the necessary support hasn’t been there for a race that the members feel especially down the Western side of the country is both too expensive and the fact that Western fanciers feel that they are at a distinct disadvantage and looking at the past results few can argue with this opinion. The continuing problem in regards to the heavy losses of young birds in recent years certainly hasn’t helped but at the moment there is no genuine reason why we can expect the situation to improve as things stand at this present time.

One thing is for sure that in the future the Committee won’t ever again change the dates of any of the race like we did this year with the young bird races. Without a doubt the decision was made with the very best of intentions but it hadn’t been thought through properly and the entries for both of the events when they took place were the lowest that I can remember. So in the future the Committee won’t tinker with the race dates that are printed in the handbook

All of this highlights the fact that the Club’s Committee has an often thankless task in making decisions, being damned in certain quarters for whatever decisions are made while other members think that the correct decision has been reached. All we realise is that it is very costly for members to stump up £3.25p for what after all in reality is an inland race. It is not because the Club wishes to fleece her members but simply because to have any chance of decent prize money and to pay expensive ferry costs the cost is necessary but in recent times especially the entries have been poor and so the prize pot has drastically reduced in size.

Members must realise that the only way that good prizemoney can be achieved is governed by the number of birds that are in the transporters. The plain truth of the matter is that until a certain entry figure is achieved the prize pot is empty and is only filled up as the transporters reach to a good healthy capacity. The solution is a simple one ‘support us and we can then reward you with good prizemoney’. To highlight this fact and convince readers that Lakin is talking claptrap let’s look as recently as 2017 when for the first race of the year from Coutances we saw nearly 9,000 birds entered and the prize money paid out was in excess of £14,000 compared to the opening race of 2018 when largely due to heavy losses early in the season in domestic clubs the entry was less than 5,500 pigeons and so the money on offer was decimated to just £4,200. That sounds incredible but a quick check on your calculators and you will clearly see that the 3,400 drop in entries equates to a net loss of over £11,000!  Once again we can only succeed with good support.

Forthcoming Shows

The Club will be in attendance at all of the major shows within our radius including Liverpool on Sunday the 18th November. Offering the opportunity to pay your subs and order your rings early these will be posted out on the 1st December.  So come over and have a chat with us as we always welcome sensible suggestions.

2018 Presentation

Bookings are coming in steadily but there is still just time to book a couple of tickets for the celebration night for all of the Club’s prize winners and remember all section winners receive an impressive trophy to mark their bird’s fine performance, so come along collect your award and get your photo taken.

2018 MNFC One Loft Race

The principle prize winners will be at the Presentation to receive their  cheques and well done to them all. Though the exact figure cannot be revealed at this time until the final sale of the birds has been taken place the series of races will have not only paid out well over £35,000 in Prize and Pool money but   also made a nice profit for the Club. Many thanks to all who supported the event and much credit goes to Snooker and Alan and the people who helped to make it a success and also to achieve the best figures returns wise of all the U.K One Loft races. Well done lads.

Apology

In my final report I made a mistake regarding Williams & Wilks excellent winner when I incorrectly credited the bird for winning 1st section J in the NfC  race a couple of weeks previously. She actually won 3rd section. Thanks to the boys for pointing this out to me.

Mike Lakin