Les J Parkinson

I suppose it had to happen, nephew Wayne has now moved this first loft was built before and built himself a small loft for young birds and will be adding to that later in the season. He was saying it is awful when he doesn't have the pigeons, especially when the racing season comes around. He was that keen to get some pigeons moved in he built the young bird loft before the house was sorted, that's what I call a determined pigeon fancier. I have to say when we moved here the loft was moved into the garden before we moved in and then erected before the jobs were done in the house.

Wayne has moved to Newmarket and hopes to race this small team of young birds that John Black obtained for him from his mate Steve Russell who has not been in the best of health. Wayne went on to say he likes red's and mealies but as I said the BOP more often than take the fancy coloured ones first, he did add that someone else had told him the same thing. Looking at the photo of those young birds Wayne is going to have to be careful with them because they do look a bit strong.

There is a pen on the front so they can see out and a bit of time getting them used to you in the confines of the loft does help them to settle to a new loft. I am just hoping that he settles down this time and enjoys racing the pigeons, that is if they don't affect him too much.

Wayne's Loft

Wayne was saying that he still has jobs to do with the young bird loft, but they will not affect the pigeons that are already housed. I found that doing jobs around the loft did not affect them too much if they can see what was going on. I remember going around to the late Frank Hoolbrooks lofts when I first started, and he had all the tools out in front of the loft doing jobs. There was wood everywhere a saw going, knocking nails in and the pigeons were not bothered at all. The problem is we try to cover things up thinking that is best for the pigeons.

Wayne's Box Perches

Some fanciers won’t let anyone into their garden when the pigeons are out. Elizabeth has been known to hang the washing out here and the pigeons didn’t bother even when there was a mild wind blowing and the washing was flapping about. Pigeons will get used to anything, they soon settle and get used to whatever you are doing.

BOP

I was talking to a very good fancier from South Wales who was telling me that he has had 26 pigeons taken this year and nearly all of them being yearlings. Loosing yearlings is a problem within itself because they are the foundation of any race team, without them you soon come to a standstill in the loft. Anyway, he was saying that there are so many BOP down there that they are struggling to let their pigeons out in peace. This is going back to the old problem that pigeon racing needs to be recognised as a sport and then we could start to do something about it. Even if we can get pigeons recognised as livestock, we would be in a better position to do something about the number of pigeons that are being taken. The BOP nest boxes that are being put up are no help and I think I have read it somewhere that these BOP are not in a natural environment so we could have a better chance of doing something about them.

Racing

The first racing of the season locally appeared to have gone well enough on what was a really cold day with the wind being in the east. I notice there was only one yearling in the first ten on the South West Cheshire result when you normally see a few in those early races. Yearlings don't do the cold east winds very well and from what I hear some have not been training them in the cold winds. From what I hear the returns were pretty good but as always there are a few missing. The two Middlewich clubs saw no birds entered in either fed, word is they have not had the training. I was surprised that the two local feds started so early this year with the channel races being put back a couple of weeks. I am not going into covering lots of space with results, but I will cover the two local feds, time is not always with us.

The first club news comes from Acton Bridge where 5 members entered 155 birds that were liberated at 11.15am in an east south east wind. Geoff Bebbington, who is a member, was telling me that they have new members for this year but have temporarily lost their premier winners Curtis-Wall-Lunt. That is not a long-term loss because the partnership was dissolved, and Ray Lunt is starting himself with young birds and his new family. Ray's plans are to go for the longer races as opposed to mostly sprinting that the partnership competed in. I remember when I first met the lads Ray was racing from his home and had just won the 500ml plus race, so he has done it before. Anyway, getting back to the first race for the club when Jones Bros. & Karen Jones took the red card with a 2yo chequer Andre Clemens cock on 1729ypm, this one has won some good prizes and on this occasion was sent sitting 10-day eggs. When you look at the fed result on the day this was a good winner. The partnership has had these pigeons for about 15yrs and are confident that they will continue to win.  2nd & 3rd go to Adamson & O'Hanlon whose first is a yearling Louis Coormans chequer hen followed by a 3yo blue cock from the same family to record vels of 1679/1677ypm. 4th goes to Alan Morris who saw home a yearling clocking up 1668ypm. 

The Mid Cheshire Fed were at Worcester for their first race when 47 members sent 926 birds that were liberated at 11.15am in a light south east wind. When the wind is in the east and the winds are cold pigeons usually put in a lower velocity but in this race, there were 14 topping 1700ypm. In these winds the yearlings appear to suffer more than most but, on this result, there were 7 following each other on the result. Jamie Langrish had a good race taking the top 4 positions racing with the Hindley Club with his winning vel being 1746ypm, they must have come together because his next three were all on 1743ypm. The race must have been a good one because others were clocking in a similar way with more than one on the same yard. Other club winners in the fed are Mr & Mrs J Jones in the Kingsway club while Jones Bros. & Karen Jones topped the list at Acton Bridge. W & P Brown won over at Earlstown with The Halmerend FC winner being N Moss. In the Leigh & Atherton HS A Draper collected the red car while Malc Hewitt did likewise in the Rudheath WMHS. WJ Bradbury won the Tyldesley IC leaving Martin Williams to take top spot at Wrinehill. The new fed secretary is Anthony Evans and he has done a good job producing the result on a new Mysoft system. Mysoft is run by Sandy Brown and his son who have come up with a very good system for the sport and they are so helpful. I was first introduced to Sandy by Janett Hull when they were running the Bamfords Gold Ring race. I have recommended the system to many and the feedback is very good, we use the system for the NWCC and when we want anything they are on the ball.  

The South West Cheshire Fed saw 43 members send 586 birds to Cheltenham to be liberated at 10am in a light south east wind. Although this was a tough race, as always in east winds, the birds did good velocities. The top three positions went to P & M Child from the Moulton FC where 10 members sent 128 birds. They clocked a 2yo black, then a 2yo chequer followed by a 3yo blue pied all being cocks recoding vels of 1636/1626/1616ypm. 1st & 2nd Winsford club 4th & 6th Fed go to G & A Jones with a 2yo & 4yo clocking up 1613/1607ypm. 1st Greenbank 5th Fed goes to Mr & Mrs K Jennings with a yearling on 1608ypm with fellow club member P Dargan 2nd club 7th fed on 1604ypm after seeing a 2yo go through the trap. 8th Fed is Richard Ormandy who clocked a good 3yo on 1602ypm with Moulton’s J Thornley 9th fed with a 3yo slatey cock also on 1602ypm followed by Crewe West End winners Mick & Wendy Mellor 1st club 10th Fed. 

Les J Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ. 01606836036 Mobile 07871701585. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. web site www.elimarpigeons.com