L.J.Parkinson

The North West Classic club has had another good year, and all is looking rosy for the immediate future with £1000 per race already in store for the 2019 season, then of course we have the addition from the entries. During the 2018 season the club paid out good prizes which is always a help to cover costs. Does prize money have that much to do with why fanciers compete in clubs, I don't always think so because there is always something more important to most fanciers. What could be more important than money, some may think nothing but for many fanciers that is not the case. Competition and winning against the best competition in the area is more important because that is the challenge. The North West Classic has some of the best fanciers in the North West competing and that is why fanciers compete in the club. In the last two racing seasons we have seen some fanciers there for nearly if not all races because they are looking for good competition. I was once asked about racing in specialist clubs and why I preferred National or specialist racing as compared to channel racing with the local club's and feds. My answer was, in the club and fed racing no matter where it is fanciers tend to mostly empty their lofts. That is not the case with the specialist clubs because fanciers prefer to send their best, they are more selective because the competition is strengthened. When it comes to channel racing into the North West that is the way forward and the way I see channel racing going. Fanciers do have spells of where they are racing their pigeons no matter what distance they are racing at. As we all know most pigeon fancier's change their mind from one year to the next as to where they want to race their pigeons. Anyway, specialist racing has to be the way forward, racing where fanciers make a selection and race their pigeons against other fanciers who are doing the same thing. This is racing in comparison against emptying the loft for one race where a bad race can ruin the season, and future seasons, and that has been proven very many times.

Anyway, let's get back to the North West Classic who recently held their AGM which last 24min, one member said that's the quickest AGM he had ever attended. The minutes from the last AGM were read out and passed. Balance sheet was a quick few seconds and all the officials were voted en-bloc and with their being no propositions everything was soon over. After a spell away through ill health Dave Healy could not fulfil his position as auditor but said he would like to resume that roll for the coming season with the reserve being the 2018 stand in Mike O'Hare.

There was an ordinary meeting after the AGM when we discussed racing and where we were going but at the moment it is all up in the air for channel racing, we shall see come the New Year. However, as I understand some organisations are putting their channel programme back two week's which is a good idea, but it does put organisations in a position where they are trying to juggle between the major club races. I have made my views on this subject known in a recent article so there's no point in going into it again. A subject that did come up during this conversation was how early the clubs start racing. As always there are varied opinions, but I am sure far too many birds are lost early in the season because they have not been prepared properly for the job. Fanciers need birds to go well into the season so why lose them in early races through not giving them a chance to be in the best condition. We need the pigeons to be right for most of a 12-week OB season, so an early bad start will set them back straight away.

Mike O'Hare presenting to Bruce Darbyshire the Saintes race winner

Brian and Gary Smith          -          Brian Lee and Mike Ohare          -          Connor Littler m OHare

Dave Pritchard          -          George Pendleton and M OHare          -          Leon Bebbington and Mike OHare

Mike OHare and Les J Parkinson          -          Nigel Shaw and Les J Parkinson

We then moved on to the presentation which was held at the Sandbach Golf Club when 50 members and friends gather to see how well the members had done. This was a hastily changed venue that was sorted by Mike & Rita O’Hare who are keen golfers so knew the facilities available. As secretary of the club I welcomed those present, this was a job that Mike was going to do but little did he know he was presenting the prizes. I spoke to people on all tables during the evening and afterwards I thought to myself, we are all getting older because the feedback was that there was no loud music and fanciers could talk. In many cases fanciers just want to sit down and talk but when I look back the presentations saw a lot of younger members of families but that doesn’t happen so much now, I suppose this is all part of them wanting to sit at home on the Ipad. We had a good raffle that was run by Rita, Allison & Marie so thanks to them. The club had a good array of trophies, but they have not been looked after as well as they should have been and need a lot of care to bring them up to something that will make a presentation much better. It looks as if fanciers don’t want them anymore, we shall have to look into that one. Anyway, that does not take anything away from what was a good night. We were talking about results and for the 2019 season we have asked the people at Mysoft to add the Gold Ring race so that we can produce a separate result and then have prize cards as well as them being used in the full young bird result. This will be a good race in the future as I see more and more becoming interested. As always there are a few photos of a few of the winners who attended the function( see above), we had our Chairman Mike O’Hare to present the prizes, he didn’t know until the time came to get off his chair. I have also added one of myself with Nigel Shaw who is trying hard to get into the club but is a few miles short of the southern boundary. Well that’s it for another year in the life of the North West Classic, we are now starting on the stationary for the Blackpool Show and the Gold Rings are already going out.

Les J Parkinson presenting the flowers to Rita O'Hare who did such a good job organising the Golf Club event.

All the very best to everyone.

Mr Les J Parkinson. Mrs Kim A Crowley.

11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire,

CW10 0NJ.

01606836036 Mobile 07871701585.

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