STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

Well it has been a little while since I have had the time to write about the last old bird races as I have had my mother down from Scotland for a brief holiday. It is her first visit to our home and we also had a couple of old friends down for their summer vacation, Sammy and Barbara Stewart who hail from Coatbridge. They also brought their little whippet Zac but for some strange reason my wife Liz thought he had got a name change from Zac to Acer. It was just a language problem but Sammy intends to race his whippet in Scotland and has now given it the racing name of Acer, so Liz has probably named her first racing dog. We also have two ex-racing greyhounds which were rescued, one from Stoke on Trent dogs' home and the other I brought from Scotland with me because I knew for certain she would have been shot, as is the case with lots of greyhounds who are seemingly past their sell by date. There have been lots of well documented cases of extreme cruelty to these poor animals after they become a burden and can't win any more money but I have to say there are also a lot of caring owners who either keep them as pets or try to re home them. If you are interested in having a really sad article to read about the cruelty to greyhounds then take a look at this site. It certainly brought tears to my eyes. Some folk are just despicable but here is the link and you can judge for yourself: http://www.greyhoundmuses.com/index.htm

We spoil our dogs rotten and they want for nothing as we intend to make sure they are happy for the rest of their life. We try to take them on a holiday once a year, sometimes twice, and they absolutely love going somewhere different. Both seem to know when they are going as they watch their vast array of coats and jackets being packed in the car. They have a lovely coat for whatever the weather can throw at them. Rain, wind or snow, they have a jacket to match the weather and now they even have a jacket to keep them cool when it is very hot, which is not that often here but they are called swamp coats which you soak in cold water and as they dry they keep the dogs very cool. They were created by the Army for the working dogs who are shipped to the extremely hot countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and they certainly work, which I am glad of because they cost over £100 for the pair. But the dogs need them when we do occasionally have a hot day.

Our greyhounds in their pyjamas

Back to our other "pets" the pigeons and for this race the fed were at Messac. Coincidentally our neighbouring fed North Staffs were there as well but we were there with the other convoyer who took us to Le Mans so we were going it alone. The convoy of 413 birds were liberated at 06-00 hours, which is not a particularly large convoy because I know of a few clubs that did not send any birds. For us and some of our clubmates it turned out to be an extremely bad race with a lot of our birds being lost but looking at the fed result, a lot of the southern flying clubs had some birds in on a good time as did a couple of the northern clubs. My clubmates and a few others I spoke to had another bad race and we in particular lost 75% of the birds we sent. Three birds that were lost were three that were in the first four of our birds a couple of weeks previous at Le Mans including the grizzle that won that race for us so they were not all duffers. My feeling was that the birds were up a bit too early because when I looked at the forecast for that day it was showing rain in the channel and the south of England early on and was blowing from west to east. It showed it improving a lot early morning. The first birds made it on the right time but this happens no matter what the race conditions.

Congratulations must go to Challenger and Collett from Meir who took the top spot on 1416 and another on 1407 and they were followed by Mcgraw, Clegg and Preece from Berryhill on 1407, Lomas and Shuufflebotham also from Berryhill on 1403, then A&J Pike from same club on 1400, G Hallam from Longdendale on 1388, J Woolrich & son from Packmoor on 1387 and 1384, followed closely by my club member Steve Warhurst from Hayfield on 1385. Next in tenth place was W Burgess from Packmoor on 1382. Well done to these fine performances on a hard day.

I only have information on a couple of clubs as the other clubs that usually send results, Macclesfield and Blythebridge informed me they were finished for the season so I will give you the Ipstones result where 6 members sent 35 birds and almost taking a clean sweep were R&J Goodwin and son taking the first three on 1345, 1335 and 1334 then Burton & Jones were next on 1329. Looking at their club result some of their members found it a hard race as well. The only other club I have a result for in this race is Hayfield and taking the honours here was Steve Warhurst and it was a well deserved win for Steve who puts more work into his birds then anybody else I know so this win was well and truly deserved. Congratulations mate. Steve's winning bird was on 1385 but he had to wait almost an hour for his next pigeon which reflects the type of race we had up here and this bird was on 1185, which is a considerable drop in speed. Second was hard working club member Chris Mourne on 1301 which was a good half hour after the winning bird. Third were lovely couple David and Jean Ashby, probably two of the nicest people I have met since coming down here and they deserve every bit of success they get. Their bird was on 1288 which is also way behind the winners but that takes absolutely nothing away from any of these birds. Our first bird was miles behind the winner and to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

David and Jean Ashby

Chris Mourne

Liz, Chrissy, Jim & David

After this race the fed had a short comeback race from Hullavington. There were 912 birds at this race and they were liberated at 08-30. At the top was W Burgess from Packmoor on 1554, 1538 and 1537, then J Woolrich and son on 1551 and 1541, then Walley and Wilkinson took the next three on 1548, 1546 and 1542. I have noticed some very unfamiliar names cropping up in the recent fed results which in some ways is good for a change. D Yeoman from Milton took the next two on 1539 so well done to those top flyers.

Ipstones had 5 members sending 48 birds and again the first 4 places were between R & J Goodwin and son, first and third on 1454 and 1420. Second and fourth were Burton & Jones on 1427 and 1419. Well done folks. After missing Messac Macclesfield had 8 members sending 127 birds to this short race and taking the red card was a worthy winner Alan Senior with a yearling cock that was second at Blandford previously and it was a Lambrecht x Herman. Rick and Simon Geary were second and fourth on 1502.6 and 1501 and their first bird was a 4 year old Staf Van Reet cock which was a multi first prize winner for the pair and their fourth placed bird was a Soontjen x SVR and this bird was previously first bird at Carentan and 4th Fed there as well. In third place was club PO Kev Bowers on 1502.4 with a yearling cock which Rick and Simon Geary bred for him. The club would like to thank Dave Williamson for sponsoring the race. Another club that usually sends a report is Blythebridge but they have just been sending some birds as trainers and some other of the club members have been sending with North Staffs and apparently been doing well. Lastly Hayfield where only 3 members, also known as the three musketeers, sent 19 birds and taking another red card was JL Gibb. I think this bird now has 15 firsts and Jim has offered me the bird again but now the price is £1,500 as every race it wins it goes up by £100; an incredible feat by any bird and it was on 1425. Second and third were David and Jean Ashby on 1387 and 1371. In third place was Chris Mourne on 1382. We never risked any birds at this race for various reasons.

Onto the last old bird race of the season and it is the most challenging and also by far the most rewarding race in the fed and that is the race from Saintes. This time we were along with North Staffs and we were having a joint liberation, which was really beneficial to us as our fed only had 222 birds which would have made it an even more difficult race than it did turn out to be as there were very few birds home on the day as the wind was not the best it could have been. You hope for some south in the wind for a long race like this but it was mainly west, but I suppose it could have been a lot worse if it had been the usual north or north east we have had for most of the year and I think the bad weather contributed a bit to the bad season we have had. All the birds were basketed on the Tuesday night for a Friday liberation but unfortunately the weather was not suitable for a Friday race and because it was Bastille day on the Saturday there were no liberations in France no matter what the weather. We were hoping they could go on Sunday as they had already been in the baskets for five nights and I was a bit relieved to see the liberation had been posted on the website saying the birds had in fact been liberated at 06-10 on the Sunday morning. It looked like a long hard race was on the cards because of the unfavorable wind conditions en route. When I say unfavorable I do not mean they were bad but just that they would have helped the birds along a bit if there had been a touch of south in it, but at least at our home it was not a bad day for a change as normally we are sat in the rain. It was dry, not warm as you would expect in mid July but at least it was dry and our friends from Scotland came in to join us that night in the hope of seeing us time any birds. Alas it was not to be this time as like most others in the fed we did not have any birds home at bedtime so it meant an early rise for us. Well it is normal for me at that time anyway so it made no difference really.

I have to congratulate the fed members who did manage to time in a bird on the day and I wish to extend my sincere congratulations to fellow club members David and Jean Ashby who were one of the lucky timers on the day, a nicer couple you could not meet anywhere and once we knew they had timed in and were obviously club winners we could not have been more happy for anybody than we had timed the winner ourselves. I have included a photo of David and Jean sitting on the wall at our club enjoying the sun. I think this must be the first time I have seen David without a hat [just shows you how little we actually see the sun]. I also took another photo of a few of our club members and I have also added a photo of hard working club member Chris Mourne but unfortunately, as Chris has to do a lot of the work inside, his photo had to be snapped quickly as he was basketing birds in the club room.

Returning to the race itself, there were in actual fact only 14 birds timed on the first day and taking the prestigious first place and second and fourth were the partnership of Challenger and Collett from Meir on 1243, 1231 and 1163 so they had a fantastic race so well done to them. Third in the fed were Burton and Jones from Ipstones on 1200. Fifth place went to Paul Beck from Longdendale on1142. I think Paul may be the longest flyer in the fed [if not somebody feel free to correct me]. Paul's bird flew 538 miles on the day but that is not unusual for Mr Beck as he is without doubt one of the top flyers in the fed at the longer races and his results over the years speak for themselves. Next were Need Brs from Berryhill on 1138 and they were closely followed by Hayfields Golden Couple [or should I dare say Golden Oldies] David and Jean Ashby on 1124. They were followed by Lomas and Shufflebotham from Berryhill on 1078, then next we have W G Norton from Buxton [who also had a fantastic race timing 4 birds, 2 on the day and 2 next morning] and his first bird was on 1073. Tenth fed place went to D & W Keeling from Alton on 1068. Congratulations to everybody who managed to time from this difficult race.

I have very little club news for this race as a few of the clubs that send results did not send. Macclesfield had finished channel racing after Le Mans as did Blythe Bridge [but some members here sent to this race with North Staffs] so we will move on to my own club Hayfield where we had M/M Ashby being the only members having a bird on the night which was a 5 year old cock which flew the 531 miles in just under 14 hours. There was no need for them to have an early rise unlike the rest of us. There were no early birds about for any of us but we were elated when we timed our first one at 09-51. It was our grizzle hen which was our second bird from the same race last year and she is a 3 year old hen. We were just calming down when our second of our three entries arrived a few minutes later and she was a three year old chequer hen who dropped in just before 10-00 am. We were over the moon with that but we were hoping for our other bird which had been there last year but unfortunately she has never turned up as yet. Unfortunately there were no more birds in the club that day and it was the morning of the third day before the last bird in the club was back and that was another bird to David and Jean. The only other club I have any info on is Ipstones who always send in their results and taking the first 4 places were Burton & Jones with velocities of 1200, 688, 505 and 404.

Well I think that about says it all for the old bird season and I for one am glad it is over. It is now on to the young birds and am I looking forward to it? Well the honest answer is no. Every member will know about the changes to the young birds and also the treasurer resigned and for the rest of the season Jill Smith is taking on that position. Also the entry forms for the 5 bird race from Carentan race on 8th of September have Jill's name and address on them for the entries but as yet there have been no entries submitted. You can submit up to 5 birds with entries being charged at £20 per bird. I know we will not be sending any young birds to Carentan. We will be happy if we get ours out to about the 4th race and hopefully end up with a team for the following year. That is it for now from TG.