sponsored by Lewis Taxis of Abergavenny

A BUTTIGIEG & SONS 1ST WELSH NATIONAL FC YEARLING NATIONAL

sponsored by Mr & Mrs holpin

After the past weeks of inland racing and experiencing the first channel race from Fougeres two weeks ago the Welsh National Flying Club were preparing to liaise with the Solent Federation once again for another outing across the channel to Messac a distance of approx. 260 miles into Wales, but unfortunately due to a dramatic twist in the weather conditions in the days building up to basketing both the Welsh organisations and the Solent Federation officials after close consultation made a dramatic decision to cancel any ideas of taking the birds overseas on the forthcoming weekend due to high winds and electric thunderstorms sitting over the French coastline and South toward Messac not only on the day of the planned liberation but in the days that followed.

Following such decision the WNRF and WNFC along with the race advisory committee came up with an alternative race inland from Folkestone which not only gave distance and time on the wing for the pigeons for the future channel races, but also enabled the WNFC to stage a race on the date as planned, with the usual drivers and convoyers having made alternative arrangements over the weekend thinking their services were not required, we called upon Howard Owen the WNR Federation chairman and Dean Roper as driver to take the hot seats and convoy the pigeons to the South East coastal town of Folkestone

Sandra and Chloe Upham with 1st and 2nd open winners

Following an uneventful trip the birds arrived on site during the last few hours of darkness and after allowing the birds access to water and time to settle after the journey we were all setting our thoughts on getting them in the air around 6.30 am for their journey home way home, however on reviewing the line of flight and after various discussions with other organisations in front of us, and the early morning calls to fanciers who come to our aid at various points on route we were disappointed to discover that once again we were hampered by a line of early morning mist and fog over the Seven Oaks area of the M25 and therefore we had no other than alternative than to wait another hour or so before reviewing the situation
with the sun rising and the mist lifting the strings were cut at 07.30 hours and the birds were again homeward bound in a light North Easterly wind, taking the top spot for the second time in 2018 we have our Folkestone 1 Welsh National winning loft of Mr & Mrs K Upham from Newport with a 2yr Dutch Cheq hen flown on roundabout and comes from the loft of Vertrum Van Zuiden flown on roundabout taking the honours on a time of 3 hours 16 min and a winning velocity of 1560.06, the partnership also had a second arrival on the heels of the winner to second open with another pigeon which originated from the same source being another 2 yr old Dutch hen a blue white flight we believe that the Janssen bloodlines is dominant through both of these leading pigeons which were purchased on one of the past weekend trips to the Dutch spring fayre, Kevin and Sandra are overwhelmed with their performance again this week as Kevin dedicated the win to his wife and partner Sandra and daughter Chloe who are the one that have put the time in with the bids over the past weeks.

Andy Kidd 3rd open Folkestone

for 3rd open we stay in Newport with Andy Kidd who has experienced a good domestic season at club level so far in 2018 on this occasion timing in a 4yr old roundabout Cheq hen based around the Sootjen cross galaxy lofts pigeons, this hen is no stranger to top flight performances over the past years of racing as she already has 4 x 1st clubs and a 1st federation to her credit.
For 4th we again stay in the Newport area as A Buttigieg and Sons timed in a yearling. Geerinx blue cock on a vel of 1535 which comes down through the premier stud pigeons, previous performances includes 1st club from Guildford a distance of 118 miles as a young bird and has flown consist during 2018.

A Buttigieg & Sons 4th open Folkestone 2 and 1st yearling National Folkestone 2018

for 5th and 6th we head to the Rhondda Valley high up in Treharris to the loft and partnership of Mathew and Joseph Hughes who timed in two of their entries both yearling hens on velocities of 1527 the first over the pad was Cheq which is bred from a son of Belgium 46 lines from Andy Kidds Carlo Bourguionnon pigeons again purchased on the annual pilgrimage to Antwerp and Belgium crossed with the dam of the partnerships previous Tours Nat winner. The second arrival was a Cheq pied Lambrechts bred front Peter and Linda Clarke from Norfolk, in the build up to this race both hens were flown on the roundabout system and have scored on numerous occasions at club federation and national level.

Mathew of M & J Hughes partnership 2nd and 3rd yearling national

with the major race highlighted behind the scenes we were also holding a yearling national sponsored by our chairman and his wife Mr and Mrs Holpin as they presented a trophy to the WNFC for annual competition back in 2017,  with 407 pigeons duplicated from the main race into this event all the pre-race preparations are the same as the main race regarding the liberation etc, and with these winners also appearing in the previous race report it makes this part of the report unavoidably minimal in the fear of repeating ourselves, however the top honour of 1st Open Welsh National Folkestone yearling goes to the Newport loft of, A Buttigieg and Sons with their yearling premier stud Geerinckx blue cock doing a vel of 1535, Mathew and Joseph Hughes takes the 2nd and 3rd positions with their two hens which we also covered earlier in the report on 1527.9 and 1527.4, whilst Andy Kidd waited for his second arrival to recorded his first yearling on a velocity of 1524, which takes 4th open with a vel of 1524, for 5th open we go into the heart of the Rhymney Valley to Bargoed to the loft of Hall and Mccullum who claim the 5th open with a fancied yearling blue hen which he pooled through to £5 open and therefore taking a lions share of the pot.

At nightfall when clocks were checked there was a pleasing report from fanciers who had experienced a good race and returns although there was still a few unaccounted for at some loft lofts the overall feeling was yet another successful event for the WNFC over the past weeks we have been pleased to welcome some outside interests into the WNFC in our 10th anniversary year celebrations from local businesses and in return they have offered an additional £100 bonus for the winners of our races during 2018 in prizemoney, this added to the usual payout has on occasions given the winning loft in excess of £300 per week plus pools and nominations, this is clearly showing an impact as we accept more members now on a weekly basis into the organisation

For the next outing for the WNFC we are once again under the umbrella of the Solent Federation as we head out to Poitiers a distance of approx. 400 miles to most, and although we have had to overcome some major obstacles regarding racing we are still committed to providing some distance racing to our membership whilst we leave you with some dates for your calendar to remember such as the annual presentation on sat 8th Dec and the annual general meeting on sun 27th Jan 2019

1 95 Mr & Mrs Upham,. 1560.066 3:16:37 174,495 NL16 1123371 £150.00
2 95 Mr & Mrs Upham,. 1549.428 3:17:58 174,495 NL16 1123365 £100.00
3 54 A Kidd,. 1535.439 3:20:2 174,899 W14T05185 £75.00 ABCDEF £146.25 £221.25
4 137 A Buttigieg & sons,. 1535.217 3:24:15 178,288 GB17P19542 £50.00
5 47 M & J Hughes,. 1527.952 3:40:25 191,626 NW17T7174 £40.00
6 47 M & J Hughes,. 1527.490 3:40:29 191,626 NW17T7171 £30.00
7 54 A Kidd,. 1524.641 3:21:27 174,899 GB17V61807 £20.00
8 38 Hall & Macullam,. 1522.930 3:37:32 188,408 NW17S0346 £15.00 ABCDEF £77.25 £92.25
9 41 T Hawkins Family,. 1522.654 3:25:45 178,6 NW17D1402 £15.00
10 152 Mr & Mrs Murphy,. 1522.171 3:38:48 189,411 NE16EC3121 £10.00
11 69 J Newbury,. 1520.606 3:29:39 181,235 NW15B2272 £10.00
top 10 yearlings
1 137 A Buttigieg & sons,. 1535.217 3:24:15 178,288 GB17P19542 £100.00 plus £25.00 £125.00
2 47 M & J Hughes,. 1527.952 3:40:25 191,626 NW17T7174 £75.00
3 47 M & J Hughes,. 1527.490 3:40:29 191,626 NW17T7171 £50.00
4 54 A Kidd,. 1524.641 3:21:27 174,899 GB17V61807 £40.00
5 38 Hall & Macullam,. 1522.930 3:37:32 188,408 NW17S0346 £35.00 ABCDEF £91.75 £126.75
6 137 A Buttigieg & sons,. 1519.102 3:26:25 178,288 GB17P19506 £30.00
7 39 P & S Hares,. 1517.740 3:38:53 188,1328 NL17 112658 £25.00
8 39 P & S Hares,. 1516.932 3:39:0 188,1328 W17N00347 £20.00
9 35 P Goodright,. 1512.879 3:32:50 182,1671 W17T04758 £15.00
10 31 D Flowers, 1511.353 3:30:10 180,836 W17N03245 £10.00