North West Classic Club
The quality of the club is reflected in the result.
As the Saintes open race finished I was being asked if we were having any more open races but as I said unfortunately not. We only had this one race as an open and I think the club should stay as a member’s racing club plus this one off to introduce other fanciers to this club and that is a good specialist race from Saintes. This race means that fanciers from the North West have a chance to compete amongst themselves at 500mls plus race which are few and far between. The club has done the open land races and all the rest of it and after talking to many of the members and the sponsors it is considered the way forward for the club is to look after the members. As I pointed out when I took over I would do the job for channel racing and that we should move back to the specialist club that the NWCC used to be. Don’t get me wrong there is plenty of money to be made in sprint races but I don’t consider them to be specialist races for a club such as this one and with so many races it was losing its identity. There is a lot of interest in the club now and with a good series of channel races for the club in 2018 this club could benefit by sticking to this year’s format. The problem this year has been the excessive losses in the early National races therefore fanciers have not had that many birds that they can send to this club which is a shame when everyone has put so much work into it. Anyway, that’s another story this report is for the club’s young bird race incorporating the Gold Ring Classic. As with all the races we did not know what to expect and I spoke to the President Mark Smith on several occasions about the expected numbers. I was looking at 300 plus and as I said I would be happy in this first year back with the club. That figure was reached so we have achieved our goal for the season which I for one am very pleased with. Just sorting out the paperwork for the marking night and looking out the window wondering what the weather is going to be like come Saturday morning. From what members have said it is not going to be an easy race but as with all races we shall have to wait and see. On the morning of the race I spoke to race controller Roger Sutton just after 8am and he was telling me that the conditions were good on the channel and in the UK but the race point was not clear. My next call from Roger was at 9.15am to say the birds had been liberated at 9.10am with no wind. Roger went on to say that the conditions were good all the way and that we should have a good race. With young bird channel races into the North West we are never always going to get everyone on the clock but we did get just over 80% with some clocking as many as 7 so it turned out to be a good race for the club and the members who entered. The sponsors for this race were Phil Brown Transport Mr & Mrs Brian Fisher Vanneste-Rigole British Homing World. Including the Jane Lee Gold Ring Classic also sponsored by Tom Howarth & Mark Cliffe.
Now onto the result itself where the top spot plus 3rd open go to G & M Greenwood from Macclesfield, they also had birds further down which helped to make up their prize and pool money of £620.94p. Their winner is a blue chequer hen racing to the perch and is bred out of a cock gifted to them from the maestros, Curtis-Wall-Lunt from their Heremans family when he was paired to a Lambrecht from stock off Leyland’s Steve Foster. She has flown all races in the programme including the Bamfords Gold Ring and has scored several times, twice beaten on the trap by loft mates. Younger member of the partnership Mark commented when they were basketing for the race that she was in great nick so they pooled her accordingly. Their second bird is a blue hen sent nodding to her cock she is a Sootjen bred by fellow club member Alan Senior from stock off Paul Stobbs and was purchased at the feds breeder buyer (result not yet to hand). She also has flown all the race programme down to Portland so she is no mug when it comes to racing.
George & Mark Greenwood and their NWCC winner
When the birds were being marked on the Thursday night I walked down the line and said how well the F & M Hough pigeons looked and they did finishing 2nd section A 2nd Open plus £190 prize money.
Martin Hough holding his 2nd open winner Martin Hough's 2nd Open winner
“Firstly, I would like to congratulate my Macclesfield club mates George & Mark on winning the Classic it’s a fitting end to the tremendous season they`ve had. The North West Classic YB Carentan has largely been a successful race for me winning 1st,6th,7th & 10th in 2013,2nd & 9th in 2014,4th,7th & 8th in2015 but not timing last year. My pigeon is an April bred blue pied hen bred by Steve Knight of Tipton of Van Den Bulck breeding, she was later bred and therefore was not on the darkness system. She had 6 club races down to Portland and has been consistent each race, she was showing to a young cock prior to basketing and arrived in good nick she looked as though she could have gone further”
Roger Sutton had a good race with 4th & 6th section and open plus in the Gold Ring race 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 6th & 7th plus total winnings of prize and pool money totalling £1016.86p. Roger’s first in the clock finishes 4th section 4th open 1st Gold Ring NWCC Carentan. He was saying a few years ago he had a blue hen to win 1st section L NFC from St.Nazaire and in the same year won 1st section L from Saintes. The following year, after a good result at the 400-mile race she failed to return from Saintes. Roger immediately moved all her offspring from the race team and put them in the stock loft. This proved a very good move as they have produced a number of very good channel pigeons and now one of her sons is the sire of the Gold Ring winner. The dam of the youngster was bred by the late Derek Woodward from his Golden Couple which came from Syndicate Lofts and responsible for generations of winners. She was also a great racer in her own right winning Cheshire Two Bird and 3rd section L NFC from Saintes and many other prizes. This hen has been a very consistent youngster all season. In each race, she is always in the first few back to the loft and in this race, she was sent sitting 10 days and to make it a good day she was also duplicated back into the Cheshire 2 Bird which she won.
Roger & Pat Sutton
Gerry Clements ended up 5th section and open plus £33. Gerry is a past National winner and one who prefers the specialist races as opposed to the local club racing. He has done well in all types of racing for as long as I can remember taking many top positions including 1st National. He has had some really good individual pigeons over the years, the best being one he called “Tracker” a top pigeon all round.
Gerry Clements
1st & 3rd section B 8th & 16th open go to Dave Pritchard plus £304.55. This is Dave’s first full season racing as he has not race for some 22years and decided to start up again last year with young birds. After moving to the area 10 plus years and watching the Pete & Mike Child’s birds racing each Saturday he got the bug again, as they say it never leaves you. Dave would like to thank all the members at Moulton and Rudheath for their kind support and making him welcome to the sport again. Dave really has had a good season and is no doubt one to watch for the future where I expect him to be the one to beat.
Dave Pritchard
Colin Lindop is 2nd section B 13th open collecting £150.10p. A fancier known for his hard training regime. This is a blue hen flown to the perch and was bred by Colon’s fellow club member’s Mr & Mrs Richard Young out of their stock birds. Colin said that she has not been one of his most consistent birds but was never too far away. A mentioned Colin is a hard task master when it comes to training and for their first toss he takes them to Market Drayton where he gives them time to settle and then away they go. He then goes home and waits for them and he said they never come in a batch as he can be waiting all day seeing them turn up anything up to 4 at a time. It is a known fact locally that they are trained from the first young bird race point well before the first club race. He went on to say he likes to go down the road early in the morning and is on his way at 5am, a training system used by the late Brian Beardmore many years ago.
This race paid out £2589.77p which goes into the 5 races total pay-out of £10,534 for the season which I am confident will be increased in 2018.
The NWCC presentation will be held on the 11th November at the Kinderton Hotel Middlewich and not the original proposed date of the 4th November. We have been assured that we will not have the excessive noise that we had for the 2016 presentation. I have also discussed the menu with the manager and we are going for more tradition food that will be discussed with the chef shortly. The full details will be on the web site in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye open for the menu and then you can print it off and book your meal to be forwarded to the secretary with a cheque to cover the same. If you want to stay the night there are 12 rooms available so book early. What is more pleasing in these times of seeing problems at hotels and restaurants, the Kinderton has been awarded a 5 Star merit.
On behalf of the members I would like to thank all sponsors whose generosity has helped the club to get back to somewhere near where it used to be. This club is once again heading towards being the best independent specialist club’s in the North West. This year the club have paid out over £10,534 in prize and pool money over 4 old bird and one young bird races plus the Gold Ring race of £600. We are already having calls from North west fanciers wanting to join the club for next year so that figure will no doubt increase considerably.
I have to thank Kim Crowley who has been in the office early on the morning after each race to put all the details into the computer and produce a result by lunchtime the day after the race. I will be nominating her as joint secretary for the 2018 season. Having said that I think all those who have worked for the club this year must be thanked because it has been a good team effort. Plus of course the BHW who have produced the results the week after each race and presented the articles so well. So, thanks to everyone.
Will those who have trophies for the NWCC please return them to the secretary asap.
Les J Parkinson.
11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel:01606836036 Mobile: 07871701585.
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web site www.elimarpigeons.com