MNFC Tours: A real Tough Nut to crack.
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On the race marking morning all competitors especially the more experienced ones could see that the forthcoming race was going to be a very stern test for the pigeons.
On the convoy’s arrival at Ancenis the local police advised that a race the following day would be impossible as there was to be a road race around the area on the Saturday. So the birds were moved over to Tours. I do wonder who was at fault for not making the Club aware that the Ancenis liberation site would be unavailable that weekend.
The 3000 plus birds were set on their way at 7.15am into blue skies and a light Easterly breeze. This would turn into a baking hot energy sapping day with a stiff North Easterly wind especially over the open sea channel. At the home end predictions were being made for the expected times of arrival for the intrepid leading birds. The more experienced knew that under the present conditions of heat and a North East wind that 40 mph was the bench mark and any bird that achieved this would be a ‘cracker’. This proved to be the case with just 19 pigeons recording in excess of this velocity of 1173. Conditions clearly favoured the Western side of the country but having said that the race was a stern test for all of the entrants. Proof of this statement is underlined by the fact that first four birds on the Provisional result are from four different sections. The plain truth of the matter is something that I learned as a young fancier that only a very small percentage of pigeons can perform in East and North Easterly winds. This was something that the often maligned ‘Old Hand’ aka S W E Bishop’s advice to build a family of birds that lead the way under these severe conditions. This I’m afraid is easier said than done as the plain truth is that this type of bird is normally well down the result on easier days and so the temptation for the majority is to keep these quicker birds and eliminate the East wind stars.
I must say that though I thought that the winner could well come from the Merseyside area I was more than a little surprised to see that the Provisional winner belonging to Liverpool’s Terry Kirman recorded a speed in excess of 42 mph a fine effort on a real testing day. On making contact with Terry and his son Tony I was told that the likely National winner is a bird known as ‘Treble 6’ and this magnificent 4 year old Blue Cock is now a three time MNFC West section winner only on this occasion he has really ‘hit the bullseye’ with 1st National. The bird is of de Rauw Sablon x Van Loon breeding with the base birds coming via the World renown Dutch Eijerkamp stud and as many will no doubt be well aware the Eijerkamp’s are famed for their Van Loon stock as they believe them to be the best crossing birds in the World and who can argue as they have been used to great effect with the many other strains that they have been paired too over the last three decades. It was poetic justice to see the Kirmans win a national race as they have supplied so many fanciers with pigeons to score at club, fed and national levels. Yes this win is just reward for a very generous and big hearted partnership.
'That's my boy' Terry Kirman with his super racer 'Treble 6' (surely this 3 times 1st section winner deserves to be on the front page.)
Obviously I will report on the other star performers in the full report but to do this I need the information so as ever if your name is in the first four section places send your info to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To sum up I consider all of the pigeons that ‘clocked in’ on the day are birds that are well worth their perch and are made of the ‘stuff’ described by ‘Old Hand’ to shine in such hard racing conditions.
Finally readers will have noticed that this season’s birdages are well down on previous years. This has not only affected the Midlands National but all organisations. What is the reason? Well the tougher than normal racing this year has no doubt played its part but for the real reason in my own opinion is too many organisations fragmenting the entries of us all. Believe me no one is coming out of this one as a winner and the organisations who are holding races with only two weeks interval between favours no one other than those with large teams and even larger pockets! As one old veteran commented to me ‘’The sport is shrinking in size yet there are more races?? It’s plain crazy’’ Yes I agree 100% Fred owd lad. I will write more on this topic later. Not in my position as Press Officer to the MNFC but as a very concerned pigeon fancier.
Mike Lakin