BHW/JOE MURPHY SPORTING CHALLENGE PRESENTATION 2011

by Joe Murphy

Andy Miller with A R Bowes Trophy winner Dr Phil Lynch

Margaret and I picked up Alex Wight from Lochgelly on the way to the Hillcroft hotel in Whitburn for the presentation; we arrived just after 3 pm and once booked into the hotel we entered the main hall that was our venue for the evening. It was displayed with 10 tables for fanciers and guests and 2 tables for the trophies (one for the SHU). The hotel also provided a microphone & stand and everything was just perfect. We arranged the main trophies and the glass trophies. Each fancier taking part in the sporting challenge received these which had the individual bird's name engraved on it. They were beautiful and my personal thanks go to Owen Shaw of Tyne on Wear who supplied these trophies; everyone who saw them commented on how wonderful they looked.

Fanciers arrived throughout the evening and just after 7pm we had 74 people in attendance (some people cancelled during the day with some others not turning up, which was disappointing). We once again had a lovely meal and everyone commented on it being served hot and the excellent service and we were having our coffee within an hour of starting the proceedings.

I opened the evening by welcoming everyone present and thanked them for their support towards the sporting challenge and the SHU presentation. We then had a 2 minute silence in respect for the war dead and fellow fanciers who had passed away over the last year with our thoughts on dear pal George Rankin who was cremated a day earlier. I then went round all the 10 tables and introduced everyone present, saying a few words about each individual. Then I asked our guest of honour, Andy Miller of Edinburgh to come forward to present the trophies to the sporting challenge participants. Andy has had a great year having won 1st open SNFC Ypres, 15 SNFC diplomas and a Bronze Award in the SNFC with his pigeon Red Aspect, proving what an excellent fancier he is as well as a terrific worker for the sport having done a wonderful job as press officer for the Pentland Hills Federation. Andy has always been a great supporter of the sporting challenge and has not missed one of our presentation nights. He received a wonderful ovation from the fanciers present. Unfortunately our outright winner could not attend the presentation which was a pity as Mr & Mrs Little from Eastriggs had the only pigeon in race time on the open result to win 12 region A 12 south section 36th open SNFC Messac 385 member’s 1159 birds. The other prizes went to the following fanciers who were present namely

Willie & Barry Kinnear of Edinburgh

Tom Blakely of Irvine in Ayrshire

Charlie Cameron of Arbroath

Dave Pirie of Aberdeen

Ronnie Wilson from Keith

Maskame & Mackie  of Peterhead

John Boyd from Broxburn

Eggy & Angela Jamieson of Galashiels

Mark Doran of Broxburn

They all received a very warm reception from the company. Andrew Dewar of Bonnyrigg and Frank Lawrie of Renfrew were not present to receive their awards and I thank fanciers for taking these to them.

Fanciers participating into the sporting challenge for 2012 are as follows: Region A: Mr & Mrs C Little of Eastriggs; R J B Renwick of Creca Annan; RSR & RJ Rome Annan; Region B: Andy Miller of Edinburgh and Brian Kelly of Chirnside. Region C: George & Brain Hunter of Dunfermline & Dan McNeely of Oakley. Region D: Lumsden & Corrigan of Stoneyburn; Sandy Watson of Laurieston Falkirk Region E: Martin Hilley of Plains Airdrie; Region F: J Lannigan Thornliebank Glasgow; J B Smith of Dalry Ayrshire; Cuthbert & Cree of Ayr  Region G:  Maskame & Mackie of Peterhead; Jim & Ann Donaldson of Peterhead & D Hay of Peterhead. I once again inform the above fanciers I do not require the details on their birds taking part in the sporting challenge until after Blackpool show 2012.

 

Young Bird Exchange

Maxwell & Bethune - winners of the Young Bird exchange

Joe Murphy with John Campbell - YB Exchange breeder winner

 

Within the sporting challenge event I have a young bird exchange with this year 40 fanciers participating this again turned out to be a great success with £750 given back in prize money to the fanciers who took part. The outright winners received the annual Young Bird Exchange Racer and Breeder trophy for a year with another lovely trophy to keep as a souvenir as outright winners of the event.  All 40 fanciers received a diploma in recognition of participating in the young bird exchange they are very happy with this format. This year’s winners are as follows:

                            Racer                                                                       Breeder

 

1st          Maxwell Bethune & Scott Glenrothes           John Campbell Greenock

            £150 prize to each of the breeder and racer winners.

             

Race Point	Members	Birds	Mls Yards	Position Won	Velocity
Morpeth	7	154	92-1560	17	1163
Ripon	8	154	159-18	9	1121
Ripon Fed	Don’t know	Don’t know	159-18	10 Sect Fed	1121
Leicester	5	58	263-445	12	1590
Leicester Fed	Don’t know	Don’t know	263-445	46 Open Fed	1590
Leicester SNFC	384	2393	263-445	227th Open	1590

 

2nd         D & D J Liddle Forfar                         Paul Thomson Forres Morayshire

              £100 each to the breeder and racer.

 

Race Point	Members	Birds	Mls Yards	Position Won	Velocity
Ripon	7	143	182-857	1st	1083
Ripon	31	430	182-857	1st Fed	1083

 

3rd          Alan Ritchie of Banff                           Jim O’Hare of Stevenston Ayrshire 

              £75 each to the breeder and racer;

 

Race Point	Members	Birds	Mls Yards	Position Won	Velocity
Consett	10	160	197-812	23 Fed	977
Ripon	7	58	249-631	5th Club	1377

 

 

4th          Maskame & Mackie Peterhead                        George Anderson Wick

              £50 each to the breeder and race winners;

 

Race Point	Members	Birds	Mls Yards	Position Won	Velocity
Arniston	72	1341	124-82	14 Fed	1532.98

 

Unikon Yearling Trophy

 

This year 2011 we have a new ovation to the challenge this was presented by Dougie Bald from Balerno who donated a prize to the Yearling breeder and racer with the best performances from the remaining 2010 birds in last year’s young bird exchange. Obviously now yearlings in 2011 and abiding on the same rules with the best accomplished yearling judged on PERFORMANCE/S ONLY being the outright winner; the winner is as follows; 

Racer                                                                                        Breeder

 

1st          D & D J Liddle Forfar                                       Dougie Cunningham Methil

 

Race Point	Members	Birds	Mls Yards	Position Won	Velocity
Leicester	9	82	288-1014	9th Club	1115
Leicester	37	505	288-1014	10th Fed	1115
Leicester	71	988	288-1014	17th Combine	1115

Dougie Bald also gave a trophy for the racer of the yearling prize and this was won by D & D J Little of Forfar and listing to feedback from fanciers throughout the night they are happy with the young bird and yearling ventures. Some fanciers who have previously not taken part wish to participate in 2012 with some fanciers even paying their £25 entry money at this event. So it looks like these Young Bird and Yearling competitions will continue as a permanent fixture of the sporting challenge calendar my thanks to everyone who took part in this young bird & yearling exchange.

David Liddle - Yearling Trophy winner

Fancier of the Year 2011

Fancier of the Year Richard Combe with Andy Miller

Runner Up Fancier of the Year - Jock King of Kirkcaldy with Andy Miller

For this award Margaret & I went over the SNFC results to obtain my Fancier of the Year Award; we discovered that only 4 fanciers who timed in ALL the 4 SNFC OPEN race results from the channel namely; Richard Combe of Elphinstone; Jock King of Kirkcaldy; Willie Grey & Son of Coldstream and Angus Simpson of Lauder. As the Fancier of the Year is judged on the coefficient system that I have used for years as I think it is the fairest going on the OPEN results with the winner and runner up in the Joe Murphy / BHW Sporting Challenge Scottish Pigeon Fancier of the Year 2011 Award are as follows: 

 

Winner was Richard P Combe of Elphinstone with the following performances:

Race                                  Birdage             Position Win                  Co efficient           

Ypres                                 2347                    102nd open                       4.34

Messac                            1159                    46th open                         3.96

Tours                                   236                      2nd open                         0.84

Claremont                       1741                    32nd open                         1.82                           

Total                                 5483                      1                                 10.97

 

Richard received an excellent ovation from the company as true pigeon men they appreciate the achievement Richard has won.

 

The same can be said about the Runner Up who was Jock King of Kirkcaldy:  

Race                                  Birdage             Position Win                  Co efficient           

Ypres                                 2347                    97th open                         4.13

Messac                            1159                    14th open                         1.20

Tours                                   236                      6th open                         2.544

Claremont                       1741                    58th open                         3.33                           

Total                                 5483                             1                        11.20

Once again our congratulations to both Richard and Jock on having an excellent season.

Annie Ross Bowes Trophy 

Fanciers Fancier of the Year Award

 

This trophy is for people who undertake promoting our sport in some cases over many years as this year’s winner has proved he was nominated by Linda Brooks’ secretary of the SHU who wrote follows;  Dear Joe; I would like to nominate Dr Philip Lynch for the 2011 A R Bowes Award. As you state in your column this week, it is the unsung hero you are looking for and not necessarily the champion pigeon racer, however, in Dr Lynch I think I can safely say you have both. You more than I, will be aware of his pigeon’s performances over the years and his utter dedication to the sport despite his busy and often hectic work, social and family life, but it is when he wears his ‘other hat’ in his role with the British Fanciers Medical Research Team that he really pulls above his weight.  A founder member of the team, his enthusiasm for this very vital research work has never wained.  He is there, often with coerced family members, each year at Blackpool, drumming up support in the form of blood samples from pigeon fanciers which are then analysed before the information is recorded in what must be one of the largest pieces of blood research work in the world today.  His efforts and those of the team have put pigeon fanciers on the map, raising our status and profile both in medical circles and with the general public. Phil also steps up to the mark in pigeon officialdom chairing one of our largest clubs and in the past he has been a steadying hand on the helm of the Scottish Homing Union Save our Sport group.  More recently he was tireless in his attempts to gain protection for our pigeons and his tact and diplomacy was put to great effect during scores of meetings all over Scotland with SHU members as well as at the Scottish Parliament, all done in his own free time and with no thought of thanks for his efforts.  He is an avid supporter of any new pigeon themed enterprise and his dedication enthusiasm and love for all things ‘pigeon’ is apparent for all to see.  He is a true ambassador for our sport in every sense of the word and I think would be an extremely popular winner of the Annie Bowes Trophy. Kind regards, Linda Brooks SHU Secretary’ As with all the awards these are forwarded to a judge who picked Phil from the 4 nominations i.e. Rosie Armit; George Kelly & Carlin Brothers. The ovation Phil received nearly took the roof off the hotel and it was a proud man who stepped forward to receive this wonderful trophy.

 

Conclusion

SHU Trophy winners was the next part of the evening however I will cover this in a separate article as I feel these worthy birds deserve their own individual publicity.

The remainder of the evening was then left as a ‘get to know each other’ with fanciers mixing with each other throughout the night. Everyone I spoke with said how much they enjoyed the evening with some phoning me on the Sunday to say how good a night it was and they are looking forward to next year when it will be held on Friday 2nd November 2012 in the same venue. I once again thank all the fanciers for taking part and supporting me in these promotions for the sport up here in Scotland. We had people travel from Keith in the north and Harrogate in Yorkshire to attend this presentation, which speaks volumes for their efforts and I very much appreciate it THANK YOU. 

 

Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or email address   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  PLEASE REMEMBER THE J BETWEEN MY NAMES;

Or log onto www.elimarpigeons.com  www.Pigeonportal.com or www.racingpigeonsuk.com who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland.

 

© Compiled by Joe Murphy