BICC NEWS REPORT - April 2013
Report by Gareth Watkins
As members will no doubt be aware, due to the inclement weather with persistent bitterly cold easterly winds and almost complete cloud cover for most of the past month, the BICC Committee took the decision to postpone the first race of the season from Carentan and hopefully this can be rescheduled for later in the season. {I have only just been informed that following on from the decision to cancel the first race from Carentan, it has now been agreed for a substitute National Race to be flown from Alencon on July 6th. This is in addition to the Barcelona International, which is flown the same weekend. Basketting for Alencon will be on Thursday 4th, July as per the normal advertised times.} Merely exercising pigeons in these bitterly cold conditions is a chore and training the birds in order to bring them up to something like race fitness is totally out of the question. With a long season ahead of us it was thought best that the members keep “their powder dry” so to speak so that the pigeons will have a better chance to shine when the weather warms up and race form can blossom.
Russell Bradford has been working hard preparing the Members’ Handbook as well as overseeing the accounts and he informs me that the handbooks are back from the printer and will hopefully be going out by the end of the first week in April. However, Russell goes on to say that some 400 members still haven’t paid their subscriptions for the year. They can simply send a cheque for £25 to Carol our secretary and put their BICC number on the back, if they don’t want to download a renewal/application form from the web site. As the meerkat says “Seemple”.
Albi Deacon and John Tyerman have been down a number of times to the engineering works to check on progress in the conversion of our new transporter and to inspect the racking and other work being carried out in preparation for the new season. In order to keep the weight down the engineers are constructing the racking frames in aluminium, and are doing a very professional job. The capacity of the water tanks has yet to be decided but the watering system will be powered by an independent 24 volt pumping system, so it will be a case of travelling in first class luxury for the birds in convoyer Trevor Cracknell’s charge.
Members will also no doubt be aware of the bad publicity that the sport has been receiving at the hands of the organisation known as PETA who have been peddling misinformation faster than Bradley Wiggins can cycle. Fanciers should be aware that these people are not interested in highlighting the true facts, but take the stance of “why let the facts get in the way of a good story” sort of journalism. They are hell bent on one objective - blackening the image of the sport in the eyes of the general public. With this in mind, fanciers should be very wary if approached by strangers asking for details of the sport. It is interesting that this “black ops” disinformation campaign has come about just before the start of the season and soon after the excellent portrayal of the sport by Alistair Ewart on the Alan Titchmarsh show. If you missed this excellent programme I can tell you that Alistair Ewart portrayed the sport in a terrifically positive way and vet Steve Leonard and the show’s presenter Alan Titchmarsh were also very sympathetic and supportive of the fancy and its long history of service in times of conflict.
I have included with this report some photos of members taken at this year’s presentation evening in Bournemouth and with more than 1,200 members (and new members joining daily) I suspect that tickets for next year’s bash will be keenly sought after.
Well here we are on the verge of yet another season of racing. I hope your wildest dreams come true and hopefully another one (or two?) of our members can win an International race. Best of luck to you all and may you enjoy your racing.
Don & Elaine Harvey with Bill Knox
Alan Turner and Bill Knox
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