LES J. PARKINSON'S

NEWS-REPORTS-ARTICLES

It's rather odd how things happenin the pigeon world, when the phone rings you are thinking I wonder who is on the other end. We do have the odd calls from abroad and I was rather surprised when the phone rang and it was Brian Pilling on the other end. I had not spoken to him for a good while andI had quite a good conversation with Brian about racing in France. He was saying that he is enjoying his racing and time in France and is not quite sure whether he can compete in the International races because of the distance he races. From what I could gather there is little or no chance of Brian coming back to the UK at the moment they are enjoying being where they are. The following day I had a call from Dave Hazel who is also living in France and also enjoying it. The reason he rang was because of my comments on International racing here in the UK. He was saying that he couldn’t understand why fanciers in the UK do not have a more competitive attitude towards the International races. He wenton to say that fanciers in the UK have every chance of winning them as was proved with the NFC Tarbes races when Brian Sheppard and Mark Gilbert won them. I always work on the basis that if you send to the national races often enough the conditions will suit you one day and you can win the National and International races. It's no good thinking that you are at a loss before you start, there are many exceptional fanciers in the UK who can compete against and beat the best in Europe.

No thimble

Had several calls since I mentioned the changing of the clocking and not using a thimble for the rubbers. I had one chap on who was far from pleased that I was saying that anyone could cheat by not using the thimbles. Yes I did and yes it is right, it is the easiest way to cheat since the old toulet clock that is providing that there are two who are prepared to work together. I can imagine it now two pigeon fanciers getting their heads together and coming up trumps. I for one am glad that I don’t do the clocks anymore because no matter how you look at it there is an easy way to cheat. I know we don’t want those people in the sport but as we all know where there is money there are always going to be those who cheat, it’s a fact of life. Anyway back to this particular fancier and his views, after I had explained everything he has gone away and is going to bring this subject up at his club. They are certainly going to have a careful check done each marking night otherwise the sport is going to be in even more trouble. There are many times when I have heard conversations about people in the sport cheating but most is hearsay and not actual fact. However as we all know there is always a certain amount of doubt in people’s minds when some results are published. On the other hand there are those labelled who should not be and that again is always going to be the case. Yes without thimbles the sport is being left open to even more abuse and is something that was not thought about before being put forward as a proposition. One thing is for sure and that is I am always happy going down to the marking and clocks at Middlewich because I trust each and everyone who is taking part in the marking and the clocks.

Hawks

Had a photo sent to me by Geoff Bebbington who is far from happy at the way the hawks are taking his birds in the early part of the year? They are taking them while the hens are getting ready to go to nest and I must admit that we have had a couple go missing that should not have done and they are put down to hawk attacks. This is probably the biggest problem within the sport because they are increasing in numbers all the time are closely protected by people who have nothing else in mind other than protecting a bird that is a killer. What these people should remember is that we as a human race are killers a point that I will leave you to think about.

Training

I was talking to a fancier who was telling me that he started training in early February and I am thinking to myself “Fanciers are training and I haven’t even paired the race team yet” I mentioned this to another fancier who went on to tell me that he knew several fanciers who were training early doors. Then I sat back and thought was their any benefit in early training and were they going to burn the birds out before the big races started. Then I thought about an article that I wrote about darkness many years ago and how it works for some and not others later in life. When I researched the darkness system with fanciers I found out that many of the bigger lofts only have a small team on darkness and a team of natural young birds. That is now the same with some of the bigger lofts they start a team early for the sprint races and then bring on other teams depending on what distance and races they were looking at. I don’t think I can do either with the amount of space that I have here they have to race from when I start to when I finish and that is that. I am still a back garden loft fancier with a 24ft loft for old and young bird racers.

ETS

The installation of the system here at Middlewich is now gaining momentum and we at Elimar Lofts are now more or less ready to go, it has not been an easy time through no fault of our own but we are now getting there. Kimberly has been helping me and we have now done a few trial races and all is going well. All the old birds have their ETS rings on and are assigned with the system. I was debating about doing the young bird as well but after thinking about it I will leave until them until get nearer to the starting gate in July. The first trial we had was when we assigned them all and let them out for a fly, they came down and went in but only 9 of the 24 cocks registered. We stood there scratching our heads, everything looked fine and they were all assigned correctly so what was the matter. So I let a few out again and watched them go through the trap and yes we found the problem. Some were cutting the corner and missing the sensor in the pad so with a little modification they were all clocked. 

Rubbers

There appears to be a lot of unnecessary picking going on in certain quarters of the sport and it is of no benefit to the sport whatsoever and what’s more there is no substance in the moaning that is going on, it sounds as if someone has got an inferiority complex somewhere along the line. There are enough problems in the sport without the unnecessary additions through people who want their own way and certainly not in the best interest of the sport. There have been a few words said about putting rubbers on the International pigeons and no matter which club they are sent with the following is an extract from the rules and this is from the man at the top. “Excerpt from Regulations of the National Sports RFCB who run international races. All pigeons participating in an international or national level will bring two rubber rings. For those who participate in competitions inter provincial or provincial guidelines of the organization shall be followed” It is now getting to a stage where fanciers should be getting on with their own pigeons and staying out of pigeon politics because they don’t know what they are talking about and are not needed. There are no doubt some of our predecessors turning in their graves at what is going on in some clubs, all their hard work being thrown away because of jealousy and there is no other reason for it.

Internet

I shall be changing to Orange because of the continuous problems that we are having with out service providers who cannot sort out the problems that keep reoccurring with our system. I always said we would not leave BT but the system is becoming unworkable and they have done nothing to help. In fact they put me though to their IT people who booked onto my system through loin and I ended up getting Mike to sort out the mess that they had made. If only they would listen to their customers.

South Africa

Kim received a few photos from a fancier in South Africa who went on “Thanks for forwarding me this interesting and well-designed user friendly website. Istay 35km east of Johannesburg in a town called Springs. We are +/- 20 flying members in the club, 60 to 80 in the division and 250 to 300 in the union. I grew up with pigeons and will be 50years oldon my next birthday. My loft isknown as the " RACING SILVER BACKS" The auctions after the Sun City Million Dollar race gives us the opportunity to obtain new blood from all over the world. I recently bought a bird from the UKand one from the USA and last year I bought 3 from Germany and one from Aus so I will test their babies this year. Pigeon greetings Thys Matthysen. RACING SILVER BACKS” It is always nice to hear from fanciers a bit further from our shores and on this occasion Kim was pleased to receive the information and know that her work in the sport is appreciated. I have had several e-mails from Thys myself after sending him the PLO but no pictures so thanks to Thys for letting us see his lofts.