STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

BLANDFORD & CARENTAN - MAY 2012

Well as I write this the sun has finally made an appearance and it has been a super week with warm sunshine every day. The forecast says it will be like this for a bit yet. Just a pity it has taken so long to come out as we could have done with some heat like this at the start of the season because so far there has been nothing but cold north east winds or just east. Every weekend we have been frozen waiting for the birds and because we live so high up it is a lot colder. Up till now it has not been very pleasant waiting but we knew we must be due a warm day at some point or else we might start having to cross in some penguins with the racers to try and get them acclimatised to the cold.

With the sun full blast on the front of our aviaries, the young birds are absolutely loving it. We are well behind with our youngsters this year, partly because of the operation I had and partly because of the horrible weather we have had as sometimes they would be lucky to have been out once a week but they are catching up and over the last few nights they all seem to be flying in a tight kit. Last night a few started to range and if this heat keeps up they will all start to go farther and farther. They all have our phone number on them in case any go astray. So far this year we have had at least a couple of old birds come in which have not had a wing stamp or any phone number, which I thought was illegal so maybe if we get any more in we shall report them, as we always do, but we will also inform the RPRA that they have no means of identification and see if they will inform the owners that their birds should either be wing stamped or have a telephone number. There has also been an instance when we phone the RPRA and they will give us a telephone number but in this instance the owner only has a mobile phone, which we refuse point blank to call, not just in this case but in all instances. We will not call a mobile number from home as why should we pay a fortune to call a mobile. My wife and I think it is very inconsiderate of anybody just to have a mobile then expect us to call them on it. I mean who in this day and age does not have a home telephone? I know some of these folk think they are on to something cheap with a mobile on a contract and they think they are getting lots of calls and texts for free and a free phone but if they had the brains to sit down and work out how much they pay a month and take it over a year well, if you actually bought the fancy phone and put in a cheap pay as you go sim card the yearly total would be a lot less than the "free calls and phone". Nothing in life is "free".

Back to the race, which is our longest inland race, and it is the penultimate race before the water races begin. The race was from Blandford and the fed had, well I was going to say about the fed results for this race, but as I went to get the information off the fed website there is nothing on about the Blandford race now so we will just have to skip the fed information for this race and give a few club details starting with Ipstones and 11 members sent 123 birds. Taking the red card was K Champ on 1311 with a yearling cock and he was also 3rd with a 2 year old cock on 1278, second was D Glover on 1285 with a 5 year old cock, R&J Goodwin & son were 4th on 1272 with a 2 year old cock.
Packmoor now and T Woolrich & son took the first 4 cards on 1308 for the first 3 and his 4th was on 1307, good flying by this member. All these birds plus the two he had at the top of the fed last week were in Jeff's words "at the bad Tewkesbury race and it never did them any harm". Agree with you on that Jeff, it never did the birds any harm that managed to make it home. The first share of the pools went to Roberts brs winning £9.75, second share went to A Cliff winning him £6.45 and the nom went to M/M Roy Taylor winning them £14.90. This partnership are having a good season flying in 2 clubs and doing well in both.
Blythbridge now where 8 members sent 144 birds and taking the red card here were M/M A Hargreaves on 1317 and also 2nd place on 1306, K Pettitt was 3rd and 4th with both birds on 1302.

Mr & Mrs Andrew Hargreaves

Meir now and 8 members sent 125 birds and taking the first 4 places were Adams brs on 1304, 1303, 1290 and 1289.
Macclesfield now where 12 members sent 149 birds and taking yet another red card were Rick and Simon Geary on 1303 with a yearling cock they bred and it is a Vandenbeele x Soontjen; this cock showed lot of promise as a young bird. Stuart Goldstraw carries on his good season in second place on 1299 with a yearling cock which had won for him earlier, club secretary Bernie Barratt was 3rd on 1294 with a Braspenning x Soontjen cock which was having only its second race of the season, and another card on 4th place went to Rick and Simon Geary on 1293 with a Soontjen x Van Den Bosche; the sire was Hollins Boy which was a multi prize winner for the lads which included 1st Middlewich 2 bird, 1st Cheshire 2 bird and 1st in a North West Classic race. This race was sponsored by Kev Moore
Hayfield now and 6 members sent 106 birds and taking the red card yet again was sprint king J L Gibb on 1280 with a 5 year old cock and Jim also took second on 1259 with a yearling cock. Next two cards went to Chris Mourne on 1252 with a 3 year old cock and then on 1250 with a 2 year old cock. So that rounds up the last inland race and we now move on to our first water race which is Carentan.

J L Gibb

The weather for the Carentan race looked about the best it has been all season especially over the water as it was showing a south wind from France and over the water and was only changing as the birds were moving up country. It looked as if the birds would get quite a good start which should help them on their way. The 5 bird yearling classic which was meant to be for this race was previously cancelled because of a very poor entry of only 19 birds, but the 742 birds were liberated at 08-30 in no wind and having a fantastic season were T Woolrich &son from Packmoor taking the first three fed places on 1412 with 3 birds together, which is no mean feat when flying from France. Next fed place went to Rick and Simon Geary from Macclesfield on 1404 closely followed by clubmates Stuart Goldstraw on 1393 and Kev Bowers on 1385,W Burgess from Packmoor was next on 1384, then N Kelly from Newcastle on 1382, then A&J Pike from Berryhill on 1381.9 and also taking the 10th fed spot were T Woolrich & son on 1381.7. A lot of close times here in the fed’s top ten.

A bit of news from the clubs now and again starting with Ipstones and 14 members sent 98 birds and on pole position was D Glover on 1369.7 with a 3 year old cock. Narrowly behind in second were R&J Goodwin and son on 1369.3 with a yearling hen and taking the next two places were Burton & Jones on 1318 and 1313.
Packmoor now where T Woolrich & son had 3 birds on 1412 within 2 seconds which is a great achievement after flying 263 miles in over five hours, in fact Jeff thinks that must be one of the best results in the country this weekend and I would be inclined to agree with that. W Burgess was 4th on 1384. First of the pools went to A Cliff winning £8.38 and W Burgess cleaned up the 2nd share of the pools and the nom which won him £26.84. T Woolrich and son are certainly having a season to be proud of by anyone's standards.
Hayfield now where 6 members sent 78 birds and having a fantastic race were old codgers David and Jean Ashby who took first place on 1263 with a three year old cock. I have to say Liz and myself could not have been more pleased for them winning this race as they are having it tough just now with David not doing so great health wise and with Jean having to help a lot with the birds so it could not have gone to a better couple [and Chrissy says thanks Jean for the horses, at least these ones do not need mucked out]. Somebody else who had a great race was Mr Nanny himself Steve Warhurst who took the next 3 places on 1239, 1209 and 1180 and Steve, like ourselves, dropped quite a few birds in this race so we are both struggling a bit now to have birds for the rest of the water races still to come.

Unfortunately at the time of writing this I do not have the club results that I usually have but will include them at a later date when they arrive. Again that is it for now but as usual if you have anything to send it then it can reach me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you can give me a call on 01663 733317,all the articles can be seen on the web at wwwmoorlandsfedpigeons.co.uk, www.pigeonsglossop.co.uk and Elimar pigeon portal.

I have to say all these sites as well the BHW do a brilliant job in publishing and displaying the articles, I just wish a few more photos would come and be included as they all look a bit better with a photo or two. I have two for this week and first one is of M/M A Hargreaves of Blythbridge and the other is of Hayfield's own master of disaster, sprint supremo the one and only J L Gibb.

Bye for now from TG.