L.J Parkinson.

The start of the channel races has been a mixed bag, but I think this is down to the lack of them and fanciers have been spending most of their time with sprint races. There is no doubt that they will get it all sorted and back to as near to normal as possible. I had a call from Alan from the southwest and he was saying at 78yrs he is not going to change now and is parting with his birds. He has kindly donated his stock birds to the charity sale that we are currently doing on Elimar with over £2,000 already in the kitty, with plenty more promised.  

Moths.

The moths are still a talking point with various opinions coming this way. “Hello Les. Just notice you have mentioned the use of mothballs in your latest BHW article. I have missed any previous references to their use and there may have been comments about the chemicals being used. At a visit to a National Trust property a few years ago and I was speaking to someone who was monitoring insects in the building. She informed me that in the past blanket storage boxes were either made of or lined with cedar wood as this is an excellent moth repellent and a natural product. Since then, I have use cedar wood blocks in the loft and it keeps the moths away. I have used cedar wood with coat hangers which are for use in wardrobes, and I obtained them from Wilkinson’s. They last forever and only need a wipe down and a sandpapering to refresh every now and again. Graham”

North West Classic

The NWCC Guernsey race was rather fast with the first 43 on the result all topping 2000ypm. 49 members entered 508 birds flying for £1,111.35 prize money and £821.83 in pools. For some reason members of the club appear to not want details on their winners included, makes it hard work for scribes. In this race there were 23 pigeons that earned money for their owner’s.

1^st & 2^nd section and open go to one of the north west’s leading lofts, G Holker & Sons from Swinton who like to compete in these races. Over the years they have won in all types of races including a 1^st National. The team collecting a total of £691.94 in prizes and pools.

3^rd & 5^th section and open are the Oldham partnership of Bennett & Cain picking up £166.40. The first in the lock taking 3^rd position is a hen, see photo, her sire was purchased from J & S Ward in 2019 while the dam was bred by Sam Whitworth out of is 3^rd Central Lancashire Combine winner. The hen in 5th place, se photo, is bred from a pair purchased from J & S Ward, these are proving to be good lines for the partnership.

3rd & 5th Open

4^th & 8^th section 4^th & 9^th open sees Oldham’s J Wood & Son have another good race picking up £60 after being 2^nd section and open in the first race. In this race they clocked a 3yo blue hen, which was sitting 12 days on eggs. This one was bred by their good friends John Blackman and Dave Marshall, which has been a consistent pigeon over the years, and they would like to thank them for the bird and well done to the winners.

J Wood & Son

6^th section 6^th open was won by Congleton’s Kevin Tagell collecting £133.58 pool money. “My first bird from the second Guernsey race in the Classic was a blue cock raced on widowhood who arrived from the north with a loft mate they both trapped well, and they were on the same second on the clock. One was a NWCC bird while the other topped the Wrekin fed, they were from the same liberation. The blue cock was bred by Ron Dodd of Chester from his very good team of Vandenabeele stock birds, two weeks previous he was 1st club 9th fed Newton Abbot and the week before the classic he was 3rd club 8th fed from Frome beaten by loft mates after a bad trap”

Kevin Tagell

7th open 1st section B goes to Jimmy Hinchliffe from up there in Bury winning £75 prize money. “First of all, can I say well done to the Holker Brothers Geoff and Tony and also to the Section C winners. My section winner is a yearling chequer hen flown on the chaos system. It's a granddaughter of my best ever hen bred by John Wolfenden from the Hagen Brothers' bloodlines. She won as a young bird and as a yearling and I clocked her as an old bird from the NWCC Saints race of 550 miles on the day. She has bred me children to win and now a granddaughter which has won 1st Section B with the NWCC. Some pigeon that is; thank you John!”

7th Open for Jimmy Hinchliffe

8th open 7th section is won by another of the Oldham partnership’s, this time P & l Brennan.

10^th 11^th open 9^th 10^th section A go to Slawek Tomczak from Macclesfield and showing his mate Rick how it should be done, might, and I only mean might buy him a drink out of his £240.40 winnings. This is what Slawek had to say about his racing. “I started racing with the Macclesfield FC in 2016 and it took a few seasons to learn the methods and feeding systems. The base strain of my birds are Leo Heremans from Curtis, Wall and Lunt, and local fanciers, who kindly gave me birds off their stock pigeons. I race on the roundabout system and keep about 20 pair. I have had a few good performances since starting up including several good positions in the North West Classic Club. The first pigeon I clocked is a Leo Heremans yearling blue hen from the successful partnership of CWL. My second pigeon in this race is the same one I clocked in the NWCC Guernsey race three weeks earlier. The sire of the cock is Leo Heremans off stock from Alan Curtis and Gary Wall when paired to a Bosma off Ray Lunt” From the photos Slawek looks to have a good set up above the garage he runs. 

10th Open for Slawek & Loft Setup

2^nd section B goes to Graham Mackay from Swinton picking up a total of £191.16. Graham is a keen member of the club and doesn’t miss many of their races with his very competitive team. Graham is a bit short on information for this race but the pigeon he clocked is a 3yo blue cock.

3^rd section B goes to Dave Pritchard from Northwich collecting £90. The cock that was the first to the loft he called the ‘Showman’ and is no stranger to the classic. 

3rd Section for Dave Pritichard and Loft setup

In 2018 he was part of the team sent to Carentan and if my memory is correct, he finished around 6^th open give or take and since has never been able to show his full racing career on the channel. In 2019/2020 Dave had to relocate the loft and as you can see from the photos it is still work in progress, and there has been no channel racing. The “Showman” has had many prizes on the land and the most consistent last season and finished 3rd in the LSC. His breeding is one I am developing with the origin being Flor Engles x Stichelbaut x Vandenabeele. They are fed a light mixture through the week of depurative x Gerry x diet and a basic corn towards the end of the week, nothing special. Dave went on to say that he would like to send his congratulations to G Holker & Son’s on their great results and all that are supporting NWCC.

1^st 2^nd 3^rd section C are all won by Mr & Mrs DW Cox from Warrington winning a total of £58.30, they were 2^nd 3^rd 4^th section 11^th 12^th 13^th open in the first of the Guernsey races. Some fanciers struggle to spend the time they need with their pigeons because of work pattens that are quite often not 8 until 5 jobs. Darren’s is one of those fanciers whose work does not allow him the time in the morning so is heavily reliant on Joan who does a good job with the pigeons, and without her he would not be able to competitively race pigeons. The pigeon bug left a generation here because Darren’s dad William was not a pigeon man, but his grandfather was, amongst other things, some people have a love of animals and must have them around, I suspect as an added interest, it quite often runs in the family.

Results.

The latest race with the South West Cheshire Fed was from Frome when 32 members entered 390 birds that were liberated at 15-10pm in a light south west wind. Middlewich’s “King” Billy Wilson tops the list with a 2yo chequer cock on 1534ypm. Also, from the same club we have Mark Smith who is 2^nd club 5^th fed with a blue cock on 1524ypm. 3^rd club 9^th fed after clocking a chequer cock with a velocity of 1503.9ypm followed very closely by a yearling blue hen on 1503.04ypm, making it a good race for Mark. Over at Hankelow Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw had another good race taking the first three positions after clocking two yearlings and a 2yo with vels of 1527/1525/1516ypm, Dave Beeston & Sob take the next two positions in the club. Greenbanks Charlie Peel is still firing on all cylinders with another red card in the club and 3^rd fed on 1526ypm, cannot fault Charlie on his racing he is doing well collecting the red cards in the club. Still with Greenbank we have Mick Stockton 2^nd club 6^th fed on 1518ypm and another of 1486ypm and Tommy Wright 3^rd club 7^th fed on 1517ypm. The Crewe West End winners are Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw who had a good day with fellow club members Mr & Mrs Richard Young 2^nd, S&T Soper 3^rd and Mr & Mrs Keith Lovatt 4^th. In the Winsford club Marcus Rigney takes the first 3 with Richard Ormandy being 4^th. In the Mid Cheshire Fed 106 members sent 1,534 birds that were liberated at 14-45pm n a light south west wind. Wrinehill long time winner Joe Glover had a good race with 1^st 2^nd club section and open with two 3yo recording vels of 1607/1590ypm. I must say Joe has been winning for the last 7 decades and he never seems to get fed up with the hard work he must put into the pigeons to make them win. 1^st 2^nd Acton Bridge 1^st 2^nd north section 3^rd 4^th open with two yearlings recording vels of 1543/1542ypm are Curtis-Wall-Lunt. From the same club we have Ray Lunt who finishes 3^rd 4^th club & section 5^th 7^th open also with two yearlings on 1536/1515ypm. Middlewich fanciers M & H Smith are flying a good pigeon and getting results in both the local feds, in this race Mark is 1^st club 3^rd section 6^th open also with a yearling clocking up 1522ypm. Nice to see Rudheath’s Keith Herbert in amongst the winners taking 1^st club 4^th section 8^th open clocking a 2yo on 1491ypm. Martin Williams from the Greenbank club is 1^st club 5^th section 9^th open after seeing home a 6yo on 1491ypm. In 10^th open we gave D & P Whitfield who also clocked a 6yo on 1487ypm.

Les J Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive. Middlewich. Cheshire. CW10 0NJ. Tel: +44 (0)1606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
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Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com