Midlands National Latest Update

‘Remember to Pay Your Subscription’

  Folks if you are a member of the MNFC then please make sure that you have paid or act promptly to pay your 2018 subscription fee otherwise you won’t receive your handbook in a few weeks and in its place you will have a reminder drop through your door which will have had a £5 extra surcharge on it as per the rule on late payment. So if you don’t want to pay £35 then please, please get your subscriptions in pronto the form is in the 2017 handbook or you can download it from the Club’s website. Failing this simply put your name, address and membership number (if you know it) on a piece of paper along with your cheque.

  Whilst on this topic if you know of someone who has either past away or left the sport please let me know on 07917060002 because we have no desire to pester people at this sad time for them. It doesn’t matter if I have already been made aware because I would rather be told twice rather than not at all and run the risk of upsetting their family by chasing them for money because all we want to do is to keep our membership figure up to date.

2018 Birdage charges

 I have heard that there have been grumbles from a few members in regard to the announcement that there will be a 25p price increase on most of the races in 2018. Let’s now take a little closer look at this one shall we? First of all how long ago was it since there was a price increase imposed by the Club? I’m not 100% sure but it must be close to 10 years ago. During this period how many price increases to ferry and fuel costs have the Club absorbed? I can assure members that there has been quite a few but the Committee has held the price down and declared ‘No price increase’ yet during this period how many price hikes has there been in pigeon corn costs to name just one example. I constantly hear a small percentage of our members complain about the cost of pigeon racing but largely ignoring the fact that the Mid Nat’s prize pot has seen a significant rise which dwarfs most if not all of the other National or Classic pigeon organisations.

I would like to put a couple of examples of why the complaint that the pigeon sport is becoming increasingly expensive quite simply ‘doesn’t hold water’. First of all when I first started to race as a 13 year old in 1966 the entry fee in my local club was 2 shillings (10p) to equate this figure to reality a pint of beer was also 2 shillings. How does this compare to 2018? Well most local clubs charge 60-80 pence per bird but a pint of the amber nectar is now between £2.50 and £3.50 ! If you are still not convinced then look back to 1965 when the Midlands National in its infancy charged a Guinea (£1.10p)per bird. If that price was to then be projected up to the present day the cost of entering a MNFC race would be over £25 per bird. Yes your eyes aren’t deceiving you £25. With all of these facts in mind surely the complaints are unjustified.

MNFC One Loft Update

The number of entrants is growing quite nicely and the prize money that will be on offer is going to be £ for £ and pigeon for pigeon the largest One Loft reward in the U.K. The most pleasing thing is the positive comments that are being made by the people who come over to deliver their birds for both the nice comments about not only the purpose built lofts but the reception that they receive from the management team who offer the visitors a welcome cuppa and the chance to have a chat and good look around the set up. Obviously visitors can’t go into any of the occupied sections but they can have a peep into one of  few identical empty sections and take a look at the birds in the aviaries and be shown how the trapping and clocking area works.  

There is still time to get a couple of birds entered as the closing date isn’t until the 30th April and the One Loft race is open to all fanciers and not just MNFC members. This is a fact that I’m told has put a number of fanciers off sending with us as they believed that it was only open to Midlands National members. Please remember that for every 12 new entries the money on offer is swelled by an extra £1000. So if you feel that your birds are good enough contact the Manager on 07507302614.

Mike Lakin