The Enterprise Consultancy

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Derby Arona Tenerife One Loft Race

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Fougeres National

 

1st Open D & G Bruton

 

After overcoming the two inland nationals which attracted a lot of new interest the Welsh National flying club, were set to adventure across the channel for the first of their overseas races from Fougeres in Northern France, an approx.. distance of 240 miles.

 

With basketing going swift considering the need to bring basketing times forward by 2 hours this was needed to ensure the liaison time with the Solent federation who were transporting our Welsh entries over the next few weeks. 

The lorry on its way South with approx. 800 Welsh National pigeons on board they arrived in Portsmouth in ample time for the handover and boarding the early morning ferry across the English channel.

 

With birds on site early evening Friday we were hopeful that although the weather forecast showed some unsettled weather over the coming weekend we would get ample time to get the birds away and hope before the conditions worsened

sat morning and with everyone up and about early we could clearly see on the charts that the winds on the channel had increased to a strong North Easterly and heavy rain was also coming in sooner rather than later and with no signs of relenting, the decision was made to call it off for the day and protect the welfare and safety of the convoy.

 

Sunday morning

 

 

D & G Bruton 1st Open WNFC Fougeres

 

and with clear skies over France and a more relaxed breeze over the English channel in a South Easterly direction the Solent conveyors made the decision to cut the strings at 09:00 and release their convoy shortly after being airbourne it was reported the convoy had made their way North towards the French coast

with the news of the liberation coming through we anticipated that with a tail wind arrivals should be in or around the five hours onto the Welsh soil, however at such time in the Welsh regions heavy rain and thunderstorms were brewing but during the flying time these would have moved further North well ahead of any arrivals

 

Jones and Pagett 2nd Open and winners of the single bird free nom

 

Taking the top honours we go to some of our most Northern lofts as the partnership of Dean and Gerald Bruton from Rhymney flying 254 miles recorded their arrival which was later shown to be declared the winner on a time of 13.51.41 with a vel of 1538.49, the winning pigeon is a yearling cheq hen which was bred down from the Koopman lines originating from Steve Foster whilst crossed with A & I McFenton of Swansea family being a late bred she has only experienced the four inland races of 2017 prior to this race which she was flown on the roundabout although she had made her mark two weeks earlier being 6th section from Coutances, when the news was reported to Dean on the day of the race on the possibility he was overjoyed on hearing such news and with Gerald away on holiday he couldn't wait to make the call and spread the news to him.

 

H & M Pullen & Llewellyn 3rd open WNFC Fougeres

 

We stay in the North of the Rhymney Valley as we go to the loft and partnership of Jones and Pagett in 2nd place with a vel of 1521.19 also winning the enterprise consultancy free single bird nom with the arrival of their entry a 4yr old Wildermersh cross Staff van Reet blue hen coming down from the Ore and Woodwood lines from Cheshire a family that was introduced back in 2005 this hen has been flown on widowhood for the past two years accumulating a few positions in her racing career including 5th National Messac and 59th Open Folkestone

again we stay in the area as another partnership of H & M Pullen and Llewellyn takes the third open position with a 2 yr old Cheq pied cock on a vel of 1509.17 coming through pigeons of local fancier Ray Lambert of Abergavenny and the well known Welsh partnership of Scammell and Peploe of Pontypool, he is flown on widowhood and has  also made his mark in the loft with 2x 1st club along with 30th National Ramsgate

 

For fourth we head to EBBW Vale and the loft of Carl Powell timing in on vel 1505, with the arrival of his yearling blue hen consisting from a cross of pigeons from Kris Cleirbaut Had-Schaerlaeckens, Maurice Hassandondks chossen for Karl by Alan Maul for the future, Carl flies his old birds on natural due to a time consuming work pattern resulting in this hen being flown sitting seven day old eggs

taking 5th open we head South to Newport as Andy Kidd who has had a good start to his 2018 season within the WNFC, timed in a yearling blue hen coming through his Peter and Amber Clarke Lambrechts pigeons on a vel of 1471

 

Solent Federation Transporter

 

as it clearly shows the leading birds were recorded on the time most fanciers expected however from there on it seems to be a drawn out affair for the rest of the afternoon and by clock checking at 7pm that evening there was still a fair number of pigeons disappointingly unaccounted for, which we hoped would come through the following day as a good forecast was expected.

 

Over the past few weeks we have been celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Welsh National F.C and have welcomed into the fold some outside sponsorships from various outlets who have had great pleasure in supporting our anniversary celebrations by donating some additional cash prizes for our winners of £100 and some free single bird nominations for our members, so much so some have offered to continue to support us in 2019 along with this we have also seen an increase in membership due to the prize money which is being flown for by our members

 

The luxury and comfort for our entries on their journeys through France

 

Convoyers report

Finished loading at 01:20 arrived at Portsmouth at 01:40 and watered birds. Friday arrived at Fougeres at 17:00 fed/watered birds topped up water at 19:00. Tony phoned at 20:00 and said 50/50 chance tomorrow he said that he would call at 06:30. Saturday Tony phoned at 06:30 and said the channel was no good, also on site was no good. Tony said that he would call later, but I was to call him if there was any improvement on site. We topped up the water at 10:00 still no improvement on site. 100% cloud cover. Tony phoned at 11:30 and said that the weather is not improving, and it wasn’t improving on site. So, we both decided to holdover, and hope for a better day tomorrow. We fed/ watered the birds at 13:00. And at 18:00 we had heavy rain and thunderstorms. We put fresh water on at 18:00. Sunday Tony phoned at 06:00 and said the channel is improving all the time, on site the sun had started to break through with no wind. Tony called us back at 08:00 and said the line of flight was good, on site was improving all the time, we said to that we would wait until we had full sun. We could see the blue skies coming, we said we would get ready to liberate. Phoned Tony at 08:45 we have got full sun and very light South wind.

 

Liberated at 09:00 into a very light wind birds cleared site very well

 

This weeks top ten

 

Fougeres on 27/05/2018 at 09:00 hrs

 

1 D&gBruton,. 1538.494 4:51:41 254,1713 NW17S6205 £200.00 plus £100 sponsorship

2 Jones&Pagett,. 1521.190 4:53:4 253,530 GB14X12274 £150.00 plus £100 ingle bird nom

3 H&mPullen&llewelyn, 1509.177  4:54:26 252,832 GB16R15810 £100.00

4 CPowell,. 1505.894 4:56:15 253,841 W17N03987  £75.00

5 AKidd,.1471.759 4:45:17 238,1011 GB17V71080   £50.00

6 Theophilus&Richards, 1469.798  5:1:48 252,65 NW16B8339 £40.00

7 H&mPullen&llewelyn,.1469.175 5:2:27 252,832 NW17R4919 £40.00

8 J.jWilliams&son,.1459.751 5:0:23 249,245 GB16N37932  £35.00

9 J.jWilliams&son,. 1459.185 5:0:30 249,245 GB17N04725 £35.00

10 MBevan,. 1457.421 5:8:1 255,110 NW16X4257 £30.00

 

Tom Harris