L J Parkinson

The story continues, a bit like reading about a soap story that eventually appears on the TV, I suppose there are a lot of fanciers who could write a good story or two about their life in racing pigeons. We all have experiences that could be of interest to others because they have gone through times of their own when things have or have not gone according to plan, or even going ahead of plan, it does happen. Even the fanciers who leisurely go along enjoying their pigeons for their own personal satisfaction and not because they must win races, have years when they don’t know how their birds put up better performances than in previous years. As Alan Woodcock once said, “Win or lose, it doesn’t matter, to compete is what matters” this is your hobby so enjoy it. Right, where are we up to? Well Ebony has her own two sections, which for this year will both be used for her young birds so we are hoping she can get 6 decent pairs at the end of the season. To achieve this, she will have a few extra young birds for this year only, don’t want her having a bad time with them and not having enough to make up the 6 pairs. If there is a shortage, we will probably make the 6 prs up out of the other side of the lofts, of course that’s if we still have them, you never know with young birds. Pigeons are in the blood of the Wilkinson side of the family because Craig’s two youngsters are keen to be with the pigeons and as mentioned last week at his young age Kieran’s son Archie is also showing a keen interest in being around the pigeons. 

Training

I must be getting slow on the uptake in my old age, with these broken pigeons I have been training them from less than a handful of miles down the road, initially thinking we need to get them home. I wasn’t thinking about how I trained the old birds; I was not giving them credit for their homing instinct. With their training toss on the 7^th May Steve called to say they were in the air and they had batched up for the first time on liberation. Elizabeth and I sat there in the sunshine waiting, thinking a few minutes and they would be home. Not the case, I started to get agitated and was walking around the garden instead of sitting there patiently. It was only as I walked past the end of the house that I caught sight of pigeons coming out of the north. I could see they were heading my way, as they got nearer, they started clapping and dropping down towards the loft. There were three of the 9 I had sent training, they started gliding around the loft and eventually dropping down, crowing around as if they had just been for a fly around the loft. Even at my age a lesson learned, that lesson being, no matter what you do with racing pigeons, even if they have been locked up for 12 months, they still have their homing instinct and need to be given credit for that. You cannot take away the natural instinct of our racing pigeons that are bred to fly and naturally have their home to come home to. You know the occasion when you miss them arriving home, well we sat for hours waiting for them, day after day. Then on Wednesday 10^th I looked at the clock thinking they wouldn’t be home yet, so I went into the house for a few minutes. When I went out to watch them homing, I could hear a cock crowing so went to have a look, they were all in the loft. Have they now made it, realized what they are supposed to do, I asked Steve when he dropped the basket off. He said he let them go and they went across the field altogether. They turned and one moved ahead of the rest, so they followed and caught up with them. Straight away the thought was in my mind, can I get them into this week’s race. Well, I had the chance to increase their distance, but then I thought I will give them another chance at the same point. I have now increased the distance and they are marking in 36hrs for Mangotsfield 120mls, will I send?

National FC

I have joined the National FC again and have received my yearbook and see the changes that have been made in recent years. I remember talking to the late Brian Stansfield about the National book many years ago, it was a good idea and works well, he worked hard on it in those early days. It will no doubt take me a year or two to get a team together to compete, but I will try, mind you I don’t think time is on my side to get an established distance team together. Like everyone else, the older we get, the less we can do, the days seem to get shorter, no doubt because it takes us longer to do the jobs that we sailed through with ease in our younger days. Yes, even at this late stage of starting again, the NFC will be the races that I would like to get my best results with. Will I be able to improve on my best result of 1^st section L 3^rd Open St Nazaire, I hope so. Thinking about it, can I improve on my top 50 results in the NFC at Tarbes or Pau, the latter still sounds better than Tarbes for my near 700ml race. Pau was always the race that Joe Shore from Comberbach used to talk about and that was a race he very successfully flew his birds in. There are a lot of names over the years that have been made on their achievements in the Pau/Tarbes races.

North West Classic

A club that has, like all clubs had its ups and downs over the years but is still a favourite with many fanciers. The 2023 Old Bird race programme is: 20th May Guernsey marking Thursday 18th May. Then on the 3rd June Guernsey with marking  on Thursday 1st June, They stick with the same race point for their third race on the 24th June, marking on the Thursday 22nd June. The trio of races from Guernsey is completed when they go again on the 15th of July, marking Thursday 13th July. The 2023 Marking stations: Cheadle 5.30 till 6.30 pm at the Cheadle Heath Club and Institute, Hoylake Road, Cheadle Heath SK3 0NS. Middlewich 6.30 till 8.00 pm at The Boars Head, Kinderton Street, Middlewich, CW10 0JE. Please note that the birdage charge is £3.50 per bird plus a £3 administration fee. Also please note that the £20 pool and jackpot have been removed from the race sheet. Anyone who has not paid their £25 subscription can send it to. When attending these marking stations, why not give a hand, any help is always welcome, and it makes life easier for those who are working to get your birds to the races.

Results

Don’t know what happened with the first result this week, I was about to ask why I hadn’t received one when I thought I would check the spam folder and there it was, never seen one from Steve go in there before. Anyway, the result was for the Mid Cheshire Fed Worcester race held on the 29^{th of} April when 115 members entered 2,306 birds that were liberated at 9.30am with no wind. The list is headed by Jones Bros & Karen Jones from the Acton Bridge club taking 1^st club 1^st South section 1^st open with a vel of 1704ypm. 1^st club 1^st North section 2^nd open goes to Mr. & Mrs. Carl Hickman racing with the Kingsway club recording a vel of 1699ypm. Still with the Kingsway we see Mr. & Mrs. J Jones 2^nd & 3^rd club and section 3^rd & 4^th open on 1699/1698ypm. Mr. & Mrs. Sylvester 4^th club 6^th section 7^th open clocking up 1691ypm. Sankey Bridge winner S Cooke is 1^st club 4^th section 5^th open with a vel of 1693ypm while fellow club member M Magee is 2^nd club 7^th section 8^th open on 1689ypm. Newton FC winners are B & D Hooper also collecting 5^th section 6^th open on 1692ypm. John Hankey wins the Ashton-in-Makerfield club plus 8^th section 9^th open with a vel of 1687ypm. Steve Carroll tops the list in the Lymm FC recording a vel of 1686ypm. Other club winners within the fed this week are D Risley & Shaw who top the list in the Cheshire FC on 1666ypm while R & B Smith with the Earlestown club recording a vel of 1685ypm in the process of taking the top three positions. The Frodsham HS saw Geoffrey Warburton come home with a vel of 1536ypm to win the club while Martin Williams took the top three with his first on 1638ypm racing with the Greenbank club. In the Leigh & Atherton HS T Adamson clocked up 1650ypm to top the list with Peter & Dawn Latham doing likewise in the Middlewich FC on 16652ypm. Kenny Burke wins in the Rudheath club on 1693ypm with AJ Morris winning the Runcorn DHS on 1664ypm. R & D Gaskell take the top three in the Tyldesley IC leading the way with a first vel of 1683ypm. That leaves Wrinehill HS where this week’s winners Mr. & Mrs. Nigel Shaw on 1670ypm. Mangotsfield was the next race point for the South West Cheshire Fed when 57 members entered 944 birds that were liberated at 11.45am in a light west south west wind. The Crewe West End club had a good race taking 6 of the top 8 positions. Leading the way is Colin Lindop with 1^st club 1^st fed recording a vel of 1630ypm, unusual for Colin, once he gets his first, they are normally one after another. Mr. & Mrs. Richard Young are 2^nd club 2^nd fed on 1629ypm with Mr. & Mrs. Keith Lovatt having a good race taking 3^rd 7^th 8^th fed with vels of 1628/1622/1621ypm. Also from the same club is Bob Humphries on 1627ypm to take 4^th club 4^th fed. Middlewich 5B winners Mr. & Mrs. Dave Healey are 1^st & 3^rd club 5^th fed on 1625/1601ypm followed by Jones Bros & Karen Jones clocking up 1610ypm. 4^th club on 1598ypm goes to M & H Smith with Mark having a busy schedule and missing the first races but had a good weekend in both clubs. John Peever wins the Greenbank club with a vel of 1624ypm also finishing 6^th fed. Turner & Son are 2^nd & 3^rd with two on 1593ypm. 4^th club on 1591ypm goes to Martin Williams. Mike & Keith Hitching take the first 6 in the Winsford HS their top 4 vels being 1621/1616 with were 9^th & 10^th Fed then 1606/1605ypm. Mr. & Mrs. Nigel Shaw have got them moving after a slow start to take 1^st position in the Hankelow club followed by j Smith on 1605ypm. The next two places go to Joe Glover recording vels of 1597ypm with two. In the Duddon PFC the top two positions plus 4^th go to Adamson & O’Hanlon clocking up 1601/1597/1540ypm with K & K Rowland 3^rd on 1545ypm. P & E Mainwaring are 1^st & 3^rd in the Halmer End FC with vels of 1580/1567ypm. 2^nd goes to N & S Harvey on 1574ypm while C Gill comes in 4^th clocking up 1544ypm. Race 4 for the Mid Cheshire Fed was from Mangotsfield when 109 members entered 2217 birds that were liberated at 10.30am in a light west wind. Acton Bridge members Curtis-Wall-Lunt had a good race with 4 on 1666ypm to finish the race 1^st 3^rd 4^th 5^th in club, section and open. 1^st 2^nd 3^rd 4^th in the Lymm club securing 2^nd 6^th 7^th 8^th section and open with vels of 1666/1665 (2) 1637ypm. Kingsway winners Mr. & Mrs. J Jones are 9^th open on 1630ypm just ahead of fellow club members Mr. & Mrs. Carl Hickman 10th open on 1629ypm. In the Ashton-in-Makerfield HS John Hankey takes the top 3 on 1622/1601 (2) ypm. J Stewart also takes the top 3 in the Cheshire FC recording vels of 1604/1602/1586ypm. The Earlestown FC is won by W&P Brown on 1626ypm while the Frodsham HS sees Geoffrey Warburton top the list on 1437ypm. John Peever wins the Greenbank club on 1594ypm with J Chadwick winning the Leigh & Atherton HS. M & H Smith lead the way in the Middlewich FC on 1564ypm while B & D Hooper win the Newton FC after clocking up 1617ypm. P & M Child take the top 3 in the Rudheath WMHS on 1595ypm. Runcorn DHS was won by A Oates on 1586ypm with P Baker winning the Tyldesley IC on 1603ypm. The Wrinehill winners are Mr. & Mrs. Nigel Shaw who also top the south section and are the only members of this section to finish in the top 40 of the open where they are 16^th open. The Sankey Bridge club was unfortunately omitted from this week's result due to not having strike reports for both marking and evaluation, this is in violation of RPRA Rule 238. Unfortunately, this means their result cannot be included in the Federation result. Please can all clubs make sure they are aware of RPRA Rule 238 and adhere to it.

Photo

I have included a full photo of the new loft with the extension for Ebony to race her own pigeons and she will fly as an individual member in the Middlewich FC which she has now joined. Again, thanks to Matt at Ecco Lofts who are making a change with the doors and making the trays for under the pen along the front, the droppings are making a mess on the Indian stone. Let’s hope this photo shows up better, the last one did not reproduce very well for some reason.

Les Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: +44 (0)1606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com