Falaise race flown Friday 21st July 2006

For the last old bird race of the season the 428 members entered 2039 birds into the Falaise national with a breakdown as follows: section A 57 members entered 230birds, section B 81members 408 birds, section C 125members 765birds, section D 46members 208 birds, section E 64members 248birds, section F 10members 17 birds, section G 45members 163 birds so you will notice that there are nearly a 1000 birds from north of the Firth of Forth which is quite staggering considering the losses incurred this season. There was fog at the liberation site which held up the release of the birds however this took place at 08.05 hours with Matthew Boyle reporting that the sun was out and the birds cleared very well. We anticipated birds would be home on the day and I thought it could be possible to have birds up into this area on the 13 hours mark. My son Kevin entered 2 birds into his first national since moving to Arbroath so was very excited about the prospects of the race.

Weather Report

I received the following weather report from Steve Appleby on Friday morning:

The Weather over France this morning is fine with clear skies but early morning mist and fog has been located along northern French coastlines including some inland areas. This over night development has delayed liberation of the SNFC pigeons from Falaise but the mist/fog at the race point should burn away as the sun climbs in the sky. Winds over northern France are difficult to determine as they are so light but the influence is from the north or northeast. More clear skies over the English Channel and any mist or fog over the sea again will soon disperse. Visibility in the channel is between 3 and 8 miles as reported by the Greenwich lightship at 06:00 hours this morning. This will improve as the morning progresses. When the SNFC pigeons approach the south coast they will then pick up an assisting light south westerly wind force 1 or 2 about 3 to 7 mph. Weather conditions from southern England to Scotland are fine with the possibility of an isolated shower developing during the day. Winds over England will continue to come from the south west but will change to west or north westerly across Scotland. Some showers have been forecast for eastern Scotland this afternoon. Temperatures in the south will reach 31c but conditions will become slightly cooler the further north the birds race reaching a maximum of 23c in Scotland

Steve Appleby my thanks to Steve for his contribution and efforts on behalf of the SNFC membership and my own personal thanks for all his help in allowing me to update the SNFC web page.

Section Winners

1st section C 1st region east 1st open is the Fife partnership of Gilmour Brothers of Leven who consist of brothers Ian and Robbie. They are steeped in pigeon racing as they have had pigeons most of their lives with Ian the main authority as the loft is in his back garden. Robbie is a long distance lorry driver and is away most of the week so depends on Ian to carry out the loft duties and attend to the birds. Ian was a very successful business man who has now retired and is a full time ‘Doo Man’ so to speak. The partner’s have had a torrid time of it lately as their 95 year old mother Mary died during the week and they buried her on Friday the day of the race. So therefore a pigeon race was the last thing no their minds, however as fate would have it 21 years ago the partners won the Fife Federation open race from France with a pigeon Young Dennis and 2 days prior their father Jock had died.

 

Robbie’s Boy 1st open SNFC Falaise & 1st open Fife Federation

Ian casually remarked on this during the day and wondered if fate would place a part in their lives again now that Mary was looking down on them. Little did they know that she was encouraging their 4 year old chequer cock to keep up his blistering pace to lead the convoy of 2038 birds and win the race by a clear margin of 14 yards a minute? The winner is now named Robbie’s Boy and was sent to the race sitting 10 days on eggs his 3rd flight was ½ way up on one wing when I verified him and he is a medium sized cock with a full yellow iris and a yellow circle of coloration. Robbie’s Boy has been a very consistent pigeon over the years and as he does not have an F in his ring was know in the local club as the no F cock as he won his share of prizes and pool money.

Last year he won 6th open in the Fife federation duplicate race with the SNFC where he won 31st open Falaise. This year due to the late start on racing here in Fife because of the Avian Flu outbreak he was entered in nearly every race he had Otterburn 1 & 2 a distance of 84 miles, then Ripon 155 miles, Wakefield 185 miles, Leicester 260 miles winning 9th club and he was also on the federation open result.

 

Ian & Rob Gilmour showing wing of 1st open SNFC Falaise 2006

Then the comeback race from Ripon again on the club result, he was then sent to Maidstone the federation open race and he won 30th section 80th open. He was then given 2 training tosses from Crail on the Fife coast line and one from Berwick on Tweed prior to going to the national Falaise race. Now for details on his breeding he was bred by Ian McLaren of Largo Ward in the east of Fife. Sire was purchased at the late Gordon McCaw entire clearance sale and was bred by Dennis N Dall of Ladybank. Dennis gifted this bird to his friend Gordon who was a little down at the time and Dennis said to him ‘Here this will put your name back up in lights’. This cock was bred in the purple and anyone who has followed the SNFC results over the years will know the name of Dennis Dall for the performances he achieved while flying with the club winning 1st open Niort 2nd open Tours winning a SNFC Gold Award it goes on and on. Sire of the gift cock was a half brother to Rowena 1st open SNFC Niort (she also won 3 SNFC diplomas) being from the same sire as this blue cock was an exceptional breeder as 3 children from him won at Nantes 630+ miles. The blue cock bloodlines go back to the famous Morgan and Cooke of Wales being direct from the Iron Man. Dam of the Gift cock was Barbara who scored 5 times from France for Dennis and was in the first 100 open on each occasion and of course won the coveted SNFC Gold Award.

Dam of Robbie’s Boy was purchased by Ian McLaren from Mr & Mrs Woolis of Grimsby she is grand daughter of Lona when paired to Ambition. So you will see that Robbie’s Boy is bred for the job and he will win Ian & Robbie the federation French trophy for the 3rd time as they won it with Young Dennis (another bred by Dennis N Dall) in 1985 then in 1994 they won it with their Black Krauth hen and now 2006 with Robbie’s Boy they also topped the federation and were 6th open from Falaise in 1978 with John Boy whom I wrote an article on all those years ago. It is not until you start going over these detail and you wonder where all the years have gone. In fact when I was about 15/16 years old I used to pal about with Robbie Gilmour and like a lot of friendships once you started to work and get married then you drift apart however it was good to meet up with Rob and Ian and their wives when I verified their winner. Congratulations to the partners on yet another outstanding win I said during the day that we could have birds up in Fife on the 13 hours mark and Robbie’s Boy was right on time. Fife have done exceptional well at the SNFC races these past few years with Frank Tarnawski winning the Gold Cup race from Alencon last year now Gilmour Brothers winning Falaise. This year alone Fife fanciers have been 4th & 5th Tours, 7th & 8th Newbury and 13th & 14th Alencon to name just a few with the top spot going to the Leven partnership. When you look at the birdage in the SNFC then this is the club you want to win in and we take our hats off to the above fanciers who have proved without doubt if their pigeons are fit enough then they are good enough to win and we can hold our heads high in any company especially within the greatest club in Scotland the SNFC.    

1st section B 2nd east region 2nd open are the Mr & Mrs John and Ella Lindsay of Dalkeith partnership they timed in a 2 year old blue cock who has been over to France 3 times in his short racing career. John said ‘I have named the blue cock Mackie after my big mate and fellow club member Gary Mackie he collects our pigeons every morning and takes them to Joe Allan for training. Gary is also a great help as he looks after the birds and dogs when we go away on

Mackie inside his next box - winner of 1st section B for Mr & Mrs J Lindsay

holiday etc and I want to thank him and show my appreciation of his friendship. Can I also take this opportunity to thank my wife Ella who often takes the birds a training toss and supports me with my pigeons 100%’. Mackie was bred in March 2004 at the families former loft location in Niddrie Marischal in Edinburgh and was raced by their son twice as a young bird. John & Ella’s then had 2 house moves to Tranent and then to Joppa in Edinburgh for short periods as the neighbours did not like pigeons. Their son raced the season out and gave his mum and dad 12 birds when he finished up racing and the blue cock was one of them. John & Ella moved and settled to a new location in Newcraighall (no neighbours) and restarted with 30 birds including Mackie and only lost 2 from the 30 within the month of breaking these birds to the new location. In 05 as a yearling Mackie was raced all races in the club being a consistent pigeon and was 3rd bird home from the federation Maidstone race. He was rested and then tosses twice from approx 50 miles and sent to the last SNFC Falaise feeding a big young bird winning 22nd Section B 81st open velocity 826.40.

This year he was paired in late March and raced natural being a reliable pigeon he was the partner’s first bird home from federation Maidstone race being 2nd club. He was entered into the SNFC Gold Cup race from Alencon feeding 2 young birds and was the fancied bird. He was timed on the night winning 10th Section B 35th Open timed at 20.33.03 with a velocity of 1117.9 and £650. He was in fair condition on his return and it was decided the following day to foster his youngster to give him a rest and re-pair him with the last Falaise in mind. This was done and he was entered into this last old bird race on 10 day eggs. Two week before the race he was tossed 9 times along with the partners young birds, the furthest being Berwick on Tweed which is approx 50 miles. On the day of Basketing he was let out the loft for 20 minutes and a 10 day young bird was slipped in to his nest for his return, he was very reluctant to come off the nest and looked and handled excellent.

After I heard the arrival times down in the south section I put his hen in the sputnik trap at 2000hrs. Mackie came over the cornfield and dropped on to the board showing to his hen, previously he arrived from the same direction he had done on the previous two occasions.  

Breeding is as follows his sire is a 94 bred blue bar cock who himself scored from Messac in 2000 he was timed the following day at 16.49hrs winning 46th region 118th open velocity 571.93 flying 563miles. The grand sire was a 91 bred red cock (still in the loft and filling his eggs). The old red cock was a very consistent pigeon for the partners and has bred some good birds over the years he was a gift from Jim Flemming who lived Danderhall, one of Jim’s neighbours informed John that the red cock was bred from a Louella Kirkpatrick bloodlines. The dam of Mackie is a 96 bred blue bar hen who is a grand daughter of the late Davie Rose of Aberdeen’s Bon Accord Debbie which John purchased at the SNFC late bred sale in 1996. Our congratulations to John and Ella on winning the section with Mackie who has proved to be a very good pigeon in his short racing career and we will read more about this pigeon in the future my thanks also for supplying a photo of their winner to go with this article.

2nd section B 3rd east region and 3rd open are the partnership of Mr & Mrs Andrew and Joyce Kerr of Danderhall club in the Pentland Federation. Andrew has kept pigeons since he was 9 years old and is now retired and enjoys his hobby and that is the point he stressed to me while on the phone that pigeon racing is a ‘Hobby’. The partnership timed in a 4 year old red hen that was sent to the race feeding 2 x 4 day old youngsters with her 2nd flight ½ way up and she dropped her 3rd flight in the basket. As a youngster the red hen was flown out to Newark 216 miles then as a yearling to Maidstone 353 miles. As a 2 year old she was entered into the Falaise race and the partners timed in a blue hen to win 15th open SNFC however as Andrew drove out of his street to go with the clock the red hen landed and was not therefore timed in. Last year she won 172nd open from the inland SNFC race from Newbury. This year she has gone into the race basket every week from the first race through to Newbury again with the SNFC from were she won 18th section 125th open. She then went to the federation race from Maidstone a distance of over 350 miles and was then given 4 x 32 mile training tosses from Selkirk with the young birds and was then entered into the Falaise race. Andrew obtained 3 pairs of stock birds from ex club mate John Smith who originally obtained them from Ford & son also club mates. These birds were bred down from the late Tommy Little of Creca which is just outside Annan (I remember visiting Tommy Little many years ago Joe M) Tommy won 1st open SNFC Avranches in 1966 and these 3 pairs are descendants of this winner. As a matter of interest these same bloodlines won 1st open SNFC Avranches for Andrew when he flew in partnership with his son as A Kerr & son of Danderhall in 1973 so they have proved their worth to Andrew and Joyce over the years. Andrew enjoys his pigeons and likes to win the same as anyone else but it is not the be all in life and he has some good fun with his close friends Ian & Irene Hunter and Willie Kinnear & son Barry and they have good banter every week. I know that these other 2 partnerships will be over the moon for Andrew and Joyce win and we also would like to congratulate then on winning 2nd section 3rd open well done.

1st section D 4th east region 4th open is Scott Gibson of Avonbridge who timed in a yearling cock at 12.08 hours on the day to keep up his fantastic record in the SNFC. Scott has now won the section D in all 3 races from France in 2005 and 2006 which has never been achieved in the history of the club and we marvel at these

performances Scott yearling cock was purchased from Mr A Kerr from Troon last year along with another seven. He says ‘These pigeons have been winning for other fanciers and I was willing to try and see how they would fly for me. This cock has been flying well for me and I had no problem asking him to fly 500 miles, he has been on a roundabout system

Scott Gibson 6 x 1st section D in 6 old bird races from France in 2 seasons

along with one or two tricks. I would like to thank Alan Darragh and Ali Hogg for their support in helping me decide to go to this race after all the events of late, hope this is of some help to you Joe’. We must congratulate Scott on yet another outstanding season he has achieved more in 2 years than what many fanciers can only dream about in a life time of keeping pigeons.

1st section A 1st south section 5th open is the father and son partnership of Graham Dalgliesh and son Steven’s with a 3 year old hen blue pied hen bred by John Crooks of Wattston in the Scottish Midland federation. John reported one of the partner’s youngsters and at that time John was very disillusioned with his results and Graham bred him a team of youngster to race the next year. Graham then wanted to concentrate on the distance races so gave John the stock pigeons and they have become good friends over the years and obviously they exchange pigeons every year.

Graham has now named his Falaise section winner Bryony-Ellis after Steven’s two daughters. As a youngster she had 6 races to Newark then as a yearling again 6 races to the same race point. Last year she had 8 races to Wakefield and then this year 8 races out to the inland SNFC Newbury race winning 69th open. She was then given 5 tosses with the youngsters from a distance of between 17 and 35 miles and was sent to the Falaise race sitting 13 days on eggs day of basket ting and her second flight half grown.

 

 

 

A very proud Steven and Graham Dalgliesh of Ecclefechan with their 1st south section 5th open SNFC Falaise winner

Her sire is bred off a pair of Bert Hessian Staff Van Reets and her dam is an Ian Axe Hofkkin. The grand dam of the section winner has already bred 3 x 1st section winners in the SNFC and the dam is also the dam of John Crooks Champion bird of the year in the Scottish Midland federation. My thanks to Steven for sending me the email and photo to go with this report and again my congratulations to him and his dad on winning the south section

2nd section A 2nd south section 6th open is another father and son partnership the famous Robbie Rome and son Robert of Annan who timed in a 4 year old blue widowhood cock who has been a good racer although at times a little injury prone. He had one race as a youngster from 70 miles and then every inland race as a yearling winning 4th club Newark 164 miles 560 birds, 25th section 251st open SNFC Newbury 265 miles. 10th club Huntingdon 220 miles 259 birds he was then sent to SNFC Reims and returned the following morning with no tail and only half his feathers in one wing so was therefore stopped for the season.

As a 2 year old he won 6th Ripon 92 miles 649 birds was entered into the SNFC Newbury race being just out of the prizes. He then went to Le Ferte Bernard and returned injured with his chest split wide open again his season was over. As a 3 year old he was injured at the start of the season and was therefore left to recover and had the season at home. This year he has carried more luck and been injury free which has been a blessing to the Rome

Robert Rome of Annan

partnership as they have reaped the benefits of having patience with him. He was entered into his first race of the season from Leyland and won 2nd club 387 birds 2nd federation 2100 birds, Appleton 116 miles he won 3rd club 365 birds, Shap 40 miles 2nd club 216 birds, Worcester 198 miles 1st club 303 birds, Cheltenham 220 miles 7th club 173 birds, SNFC Newbury timed at 14.40 too late to make the result. He was then entered for SNFC Gold Cup race from Alencon 475 miles and he won 16th section 28th open 3 weeks later into Falaise and he will feature well up in the open result.    

Sire is a 99 pure bred Silvere Toye being 100% Gaby Vandenabeele being direct from Libelle who won 1st national Bourges in 1998 when paired to her own sire who was known as the Major, he won 2 x 1st 2 x 2nd for Gaby while racing and was a direct son of the famous ‘Wittenbuik that won 3 x 1st provincials. Dam of the 2nd section winner for the Rome’s was also bred in 1999 by Bearsmore Brothers of Sandbach in Cheshire. The bothers had purchased pigeons from the Rome’s and they came back for a hen to go with their 1st section L 11th open NFC Saintes 550 mile winner. They gave the bothers a hen to pair to the section winner and the 99 bred hen is the result. As a matter of interest the Bearsmore winner is from Superstar who won 2nd open SNFC Sartilly in 1982 for the Rome partnership when paired to a sister of Silvere who won 1st section 7th open Rennes in 1989, Silvere was a grand daughter of Peter Pau the 1st national winner my thanks to Robert Rome for supplying me with the details of their pigeon and once again my congratulations.

1st Section G 1st north section is John Williamson of Aberdeen with what can only be described as an extraordinary very special pigeon. This 2 year old chequer cock had every race as a youngster out to the SNFC Cheltenham race a distance of 363 miles from were he won 6th north section 46th open from an entry of 2557 birds. Then as a yearling he won 7th club Maidstone 420 miles being John’s 4th pigeon when he took 1st 2nd & 3rd in the club. This year his first race was from Northallerton 200 miles

and then into Hastings when he was timed by the Unikon ETS system at 23.15hours in the dark. John had 11 birds home on the day from his entry of 19 and when he opened the loft up in the morning he was surprised to see the chequer cock in the loft as it was thunder and lighting he checked the ETS and noticed the time of his arrival home and John could not

 

Nightshift 1st north section 9th open SNFC Falaise flying 580 miles

believe it as it was dark at this time. As a matter of interest John had 5 birds home during this thunder storm and ended up with 17 of his entries home not bad going. The chequer cock then had 2 training tosses on the Saturday from 40 miles and then on the Sunday from 60 miles the weekend before basking for this Falaise race. He was then sent to the race feeding a single 8 day old youngster with his 3rd flight ¾ grown, he is of medium size with a lovely apple body and good balance. John phoned the lib line service at the close of the race at 10-45pm and he heard me say that I would update the lib line again at 06.00am the next morning. His loft is on an allotment so he kept looking and hoping that his pigeon would come as he thought he might make it on the day. Saturday morning he awoke

to find the whole city of Aberdeen covered in dense fog so much so that he had to drive with his head lights on the car till he arrived at the allotment at 05.00am. He opened up his and his near neighbour Colin Rae’s lofts and proceeded to put on the kettle for cup of tea. When he looked out and saw his chequer cock coming over the trees and down onto the sputnik, he was soaking wet and did not move while John opened the trap and let him in. John was so excited and could not believe he had timed in and asked me if this came over when he phoned the lib line service within minutes of timing him in. John wanted to phone right away as he knew I would be updating the service and this would allow the north lads to know that the birds were not far away.

 

A proud John Williamson with his 9th open SNFC Falaise winner

In fact John told me that he spent over £20 in his mobile, phoning all his pals to tell them about his pigeon. Sire and dam of the section winner now named Nightshift were gifted to John from George Smith of Newbury in Aberdeenshire who gave up the birds at the time due to having a new house built and he did not have time to devote to the birds. You would never believe me but 2 weeks ago John Williamson gave back 24 birds to George Smith who has just restarted back into the sport including the sire and dam of Nightshift. Bloodlines are Joe Padziorek of Stonehaven who was a top distance and dedicated SNFC man at the time, and I must thank my fellow scribe Round O for his assistance in the spelling of Joe’s surname. Congratulations to John Williamson on a wonderful performance and given the right day and conditions who’s to say that Nightshift would not have been a 580 mile day bird. It is obvious from the weather conditions that he was not far away on the night and only the late liberation and hours of darkness stopped him from making it home on the day.

1st section E 1st west section is John Clark of Airdrie in Lanarkshire who timed in his 4 year old chequer hen at 06.52am flying 514 miles she was sent to the race sitting 14 days on eggs with her 2nd flight ½ way up. She is a small hen well rounded with good balance and she has a warrior temperament as she chases every bird from the loft floor or landing board when out.

John Clark 1st west section 33rd open SNFC Falaise 2006

As a youngster she flew out to the 114 miles mark then as a yearling she was raced out to Maidstone 368 miles winning 4th club and being on the open federation result winning over £100 for John. As a 2 year old she was raced out to Le Ferte Bernard winning 11th section E 39th open SNFC Gold Cup race. Last year she was entered from the last SNFC race from Falaise and she won 13th section E 147th open. This year she has been raced from Appleby 105 miles, Strafford upon Avon winning 4th club 15th open and over £140 into the bargain. She then went to the comeback Appleby race and was then trained for 5 consecutive mornings from the Ski slopes at Edinburgh at 06.00am and she took 45 minutes each time.

Happy and Proud John Clark with his 1st west section winner from Falaise

Sire was purchased direct from Jim Donaldson of Peterhead and is from his ‘good doo’s’ as John put it. Dam was purchased from Stewart Bowman of Fife being from Dennis Dall bloodlines grand dam was Barbara (see report on the SNFC winner) One thing about me is that I don’t mind giving credit to the breeders and winners regardless of which club or federation they fly their pigeons in as far as I’m concerned it is the pigeon who has done the work and deserves every piece of publicity.

2nd section E 2nd west section is Norman Orr of Larkhall who with this performance has won the Lanarkshire Social Circle Gold Cup which is not an easy thing to do as this club like the SNFC is full of top quality pigeon fanciers and pigeons. Norman timed in his 2 year old blue cock sent on the drive and there is quite a story to this pigeon. As a youngster he was sent to the young bird national and returned the following year during the old bird racing so was left to have a moult and obviously did not race as a yearling. Norman has found over the years that pigeons who return like this never forget their mistake and turn out to be good pigeons for example his 11th open Rennes winner another was a hen who won 4 times in the SNFC did exactly the same thing. This year the blue cock was raced from Scots Corner then Newark 190 miles and into the SNFC inland race from Newbury 318 miles. As he was mated to a yearling hen both were Norman’s nominated entries into the LSC Gold Cup race from Falaise with the Lanarkshire federation which was a couple of weeks ago. Norman timed in the yearling hen on the day to win 3rd section 7th open and the 2 year old cock was timed 2nd morning at 08.00am and won 15th section 40th open from an entry of 722 birds. They were then allowed to rest up and go back to nest and the cock was just starting to drive her hard to the nest when Norman entered him for the SNFC Falaise race.

 

Norman Orr of Larkhall with his 2nd west section 40th open Falaise winner

Norman told me that he has never trained old pigeons for the last 7 years because of hawk trouble and in fact he has had numerous birds killed round about his loft than any other place. He never set’s birds down for races now as he learnt a long time ago when he won his 1st SNFC Gold Award with a pigeon who won 5 times in the national in 5 different conditions. So for him setting birds down in a certain nest condition is a waist of time. If they look right and by this he means the birds head is right – as clean as a mirror, also the tail has to be as one feather like a ‘whip’. Norman’s advice to fanciers is to observe the birds in and around their lofts this will tell you everything you want to know about your pigeons. Sire was a late bred cock who was killed at the loft by a sparrow hawk when Norman lost 5 pigeons within a week. Sire of the late bred was from a 32nd section Le Farte Bernard when paired to a 15th section Reims and 32nd section Portland winner. Dam of the 2nd section winner was lost at the channel she in turn was bred from Norman’s own family of distance winning pigeons who have proved over and over again that they can hold their own in the best of class and this does not come any better than in the west section of the SNFC. The nest mate to the dam of this 2nd section winner bred Norman’s 5th west section 52nd open SNFC Alencon 2006 winner. The last time Norman was 2nd west section in the last old bird race of the season he was beaten by a decimal which was in 1971 by the late Sam Owens when they had 1300 birds entered in the west section. He won 1st west section in the last race in 1976 when the west section had an entry of 2100 birds which shows you the decline in members and birdage within our sport and (my own personal opinion is we in Scotland are too small a nation to have 2 national pigeon clubs and this is not helping improve the competition or our sport Joe M). As you can see Norman has been in pigeons a long time and we can learn from fanciers of his quality as he has a vast knowledge in pigeon husbandry again my congratulations on this performance and I hope to meet up with Norman during the social evenings later in the year.

3rd section E 3rd west section Martin Hilley of the Plains my thanks to Derek Hay for sending me these details and the photos of John Clark and Martin with his grand daughter.

 

 

Martin Hilley showing his grand daughter his 3rd west section 44th open Falaise

Martin’s 3rd section winner is a 2 year old hen bred by his friend Raymond O'Donaghue she is a Janssen crossed the late Andrew Deans of Bothwell bloodlines. She was sent on 12 day eggs her first eggs of the year and she had just thrown her second flight before going to the national she flew 4 races to Fareham a distance of 365 miles and she then had the following training 3 x Dunbar 1 x Haddington 2 x Peebles and 1 x Johnstone Bridge on the Monday before basketing again my congratulations to Martin and many thanks to big Derek.     

1st section F is Andy Davidson of Ayr who timed in at 11.16am on Saturday to record a velocity of 673. I phoned Andy’s mobile and he was out driving so said he would contact me when he arrived home unfortunately he has not done so prior to me sending in this report however I will update this onto the www.snfc.co.uk web page once I have the details.

Conclusion

There are a lot of pigeons missing from this race and it could be a combination of many things firstly we have had the most tremendous heat wave for years with the hottest July day ever recorded. The pigeon would not enjoy the heat in the transporter and being in baskets for 3 days can take its toil on the birds and many would have become dehydrated. This has always been a concern of mine hence the reason I prefer we have less birds in each basket so that the birds can move about and reach the drinkers. We will soon have legislation which says we must have drinker on 2 or 3 sides of the basket which is for the benefit of the birds and this ladies and gentlemen is the most important issue as far as I’m concerned the birds must always come first. I am not having a go at any convoyer because he or she cannot make the birds go to the drinker however the more access available then the better. I stated in my introduction that we had nearly 1000 birds north of the forth at this race and when you think we had only 2 bird into Fife and the Aberdeen bird on the day. The majority of the 2nd day pigeons recorded on lib line was between 07.00 and 12.00 noon which tells you that the birds were maybe in the north of England area on the first day. Still this does not take anything away from the winners who put up some outstanding performance again right on the time expected. To all the winners again my congratulations and also for their efforts in assisting me compile this report for the pigeon press. I have to say that I was more than a little disappointed with the amount of pigeons NOT recorded on the lib line service. Many people have stopped phoning in their arrival and I know that it is not a rule however it allows me as the press officer of the club to give the members a service they deserve. It is the same with supplying information on their pigeon this is the right and choice of the individual fancier and like in my last report I will highlight that fanciers have not supplied information This way it proves to the readers of these reports that I’m not biased against anyone or individual and all I wish to do is give the credit to the winning pigeons.

I can now have a rest until the young bird national race and I wish everyone every success with their youngsters which at times can be heartbreaking. In closing can I ask all the fanciers who won in the first 3 in each section of the 4 national races if I have not given you publicity could you please contact me. I have put out a plea after every report and have not received one piece of information on these winners so please help me compile a comprehensive report in an analysis update on every old bird national thank you once again.      

Please view the full result on www.snfc.co.uk results column Falaise 2006

Joe Murphy SNFC Press Officer