<pre><pre>Fougeres OB National 1 st OPEN 1 st SECTION C Dave &amp; John Staddon of Ditcheat with “National Ace” Our campaign for 2025 started with the first old bird race from Fougeres, where the convoy had on board the transporters 2,635 BBC birds and 66 birds from the Premier 100 Club. Saturday 17 th : The BBC convoy was liberated at 06:45 under broken cloud and sunshine into a light ENE wind. The conveyors reported the birds cleared the site immediately. There is broken cloud over the east side of the channel but visibility is 11 miles and more. Winds over the channel are from the ENE at about 12 mph. Thank you to everyone at all our marking stations for a job well done. With so many time constraints now we honestly appreciate what you are all up against to get the birds marked and the paperwork ready in time. CPH Paperwork Members Must Bring To the Marking Station For Every Channel Race 1. A copy of your CPH Certificate with your CPH registration number on it. 2. Your completed Racing Pigeon Establishment Operator’s Declaration Form, signed and dated for 2025. 3. Your Vet’s Attestation to prove that you have had your annual Vet Visit for 2025 racing. 4. Your vaccination form with every pigeon recorded on it which is housed on your premises. All positions are provisional until the paperwork is returned and checked. Congratulations to our first race winners of the season Dave &amp; John Staddon of Ditcheat 1 st OPEN 1 st SECTION C. DAVE REPORTS, &quot;HI CLARE, WE ARE DELIGHTED TO WIN 1 st OPEN IN THE BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB Fougeres Old Bird National. Let&#039;s start by thanking all the marking teams all over the country, especially our marking team at Paulton Rovers Football Club. This was a very tough race, but our birds returned in good condition, so thank you to the conveying team for looking after them. Thank you for all the calls and messages over the past 24 hours. It has been overwhelming, and we are grateful to all of you who took the trouble to congratulate us. We timed a 4 year old cock named National Ace. He is a very consistent pigeon. He has to be good to still be with us as a 4 year old as we don&#039;t have many of that age. He is raced on our Chaos Widowhood system. He bred a pair of youngsters this year before racing. He is the NFC Ace Pigeon 2023/2024 seasons combined. 2 nd Titan Games Ace Pigeon Middle Distance 2024, 1 st RPRA SW Region 2024. 5 th OPEN BICC ST PHILBERT NATIONAL 5037B, 8 th OPEN BICC ALENCON NATIONAL 6196B, 19 th OPEN NFC SIGOGNE 2493B, 81 st OPEN NFC SIGOGNE 1646B, 50 th OPEN BICC ALENCON 2025 4264B AND now 1 st OPEN BBC FOUGERES NATIONAL APPROX 2600B. HE IS OUR ROCKSTAR. HIS SIRE IS SENNA, A GIFT pigeon from John Gladwin and John Cowlin of Zwols Pigeons. He is a full brother of Maltese Falcon 1 st OPEN NFC COUTANCES YB NATIONAL. HIS DAM IS OUR BREEDING STAR, MISS COMET. SHE IS FROM THE Real Miracle x Comet. Comet is the mother of Glory, our 1 st OPEN NFC COUTANCES WINNER. MISS Comet is a full sister of the Miracle Bros, who won us 6 x 1st Sections in National racing and 1 st OPEN CSCFC ST PHILBERT AND 2 nd OPEN NFC GUERNSEY. THEY ARE PIGEONS THAT WIN GENERATION AFTER generation. We fly all our birds on Bamfords pigeon corn, and for racing, we use our own Staddon Chaos Mix. I believe the 2nd Open Winner, Richard Goodier, is also feeding the chaos mix. We would like to thank Alan and Elin at Bamfords for their support. Good luck to you all for the rest of the season. Picture: John, Archie &amp; Dave Staddon in front of Clare Norman&#039;s favourite Pineapple Broom Tree holding the parents of National Ace 1 st OPEN BBC FOUGERES. John, Archie and Dave Staddon 1 st SECTION B 2 nd &amp; 7 th OPEN RICHARD GOODIER OF EXETER. I WAS VERY HAPPY TO WIN 1 st SECTION B, 2 nd OPEN FOUGERES, ON WHAT TURNED OUT TO BE A TOUGH DAY. I CLOCKED A BCH ROUNDABOUT HEN, HER DAM IS A Hereman Ceusters, the Sire &quot;Ironside&quot; is winner and breeder of Feds and the Dam is a Van Den Bulck, carrying &quot;Broer Goede Roede &quot; &quot;Kittel Ettix&quot; lines. This hen is provisionally 12 th OPEN BICC ALENCON LAST WEEK. All birds are fed Staddon Chaos mix, beefed up with Champion plus &amp; Energy mix at the end of the week. My 7 th OPEN BIRD IS BRED FROM A SON OF &quot;WINTERS GEM&quot; &amp; &quot;BLUE GEM&quot; AND A DAUGHTER OF &quot;THE REAL Miracle&quot; &amp; &quot;Classy Miss&quot; both being from D &amp; J Staddon , Ditcheat. Congratulations to D &amp; J Staddon on their win. 2 nd SECTION B 3 rd OPEN TONY STEPHENS OF POOLE. THE FIRST PIGEON I CLOCKED IN FROM FOUGERES IS A blue cock a 2 year old bred down from my Bordeaux winner of 2020 and a cock from D &amp; G Wright from Blythe from Syndicate birds. I thought with the wind the birds would take 4 hours, I was quite surprised when he arrived. Well done to the winners and a big thank you to Clare and the marking team and my good friend Kenny Land for taking me and my birds to the marking station, I had 10/17 by Saturday night. Richard Goodier Tony Stephens 4 th OPEN DANNY LANAHAN AND JOHN GERARD OF POOLE. THE PIGEON WE GOT FIRST WAS A BLUE HEN BRED from a half sister to our CSCFC Countances winner Dark Flow crossed with our Louders pigeons. Her mother was also our second pigeon of the race. Pictured with Danny is Lou the Fisherman who sadly passed away at the weekend. Even though Lou didn’t race himself, he was very keen on the birds and love to get involved. Danny Lanahan and Lou the Fisherman 5 th OPEN JIM FISHER OF WIMBORNE. I WAS REALLY PLEASED TO GET THIS BLUE COCK AS MY FIRST BIRD WITH such a good open position, unfortunately as a young bird he broke both of his legs and I had to stitch him up as he was badly hurt. He is a consistent bird having flown right through to Bordeaux last year, his full brother was 8 th OPEN in the BICC from Bordeaux last year. I obtained the Herman Ceusters through Derek Spoors and they have been very good birds for me, they seem to excel at 40mph to 45mph. I have won the section also in the National with these birds I entered 12 birds and very pleased that all returned home with one injury. Well done to D &amp; J Staddon on winning and to the members who won their sections. Thank you to all those involved in running the club, also a thank you to the convoyers for taking great care of our birds while away. 2 nd SECTION C 6 th OPEN STUART WILCOX OF BRISTOL. WE TIMED A BLUE YEARLING HEN ON HER FIRST EVER RACE across the channel. She is flown of classic widowhood and is madly in love with a cock we call 335 from 2017 who has been a top class racer! Her breeding is a follows, her sire is an own bred cock that was retained for stock from Amigo, bred by Rik Hermans, a son of Friendship 1 st National Chateauroux 44,145 birds and Miss Turbo, bred by Koen Minderhoud from his famous Turbo Koppel. Miss Turbo and Amigo have bred in excess of 50 x 1 st including 7 x 1 st Combine and Federation winners, 1 st National Section winners plus 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , 5 th 6 th 9 th OPEN ETC AND MULTIPLE RPRA Award winners, they are my basic Koppel in the breeding loft. The dam of the hen is BASRA, bred by Gerrard &amp; Bas Verkerk, a daughter of “Lola Lily” 1st NPO Bourges 9742b and Gdam of “Sam” 1 st National ACE MF 2023 and J Lo 1 st NPO Tours 7782b and 2nd National Ace 2023. From Atlantis and Feline. We introduced the Verkerk&#039;s a couple of years ago and they seem to excel on tough national flights. The hens are fed on Countrywide Depurative, mixed with TOVO, Koopmans All in One and Verkerk Sport from Beyers. Zell Oxygen, Condition Powder and Probac 1000is added to the corn. Stuart Wilcox Only just joining the BBC in 8 th OPEN JOSH GOODIER OF EXETER. MY 1 st bird home taking Provisional 8 th OPEN IS A VAN DEN BULCK, BRED IN MY STOCK LOFT FROM BIRDS GIVEN TO ME BY MY DAD. The Sire is a full brother to &quot;Roede Richie&quot; winner of 4 x 1 st Feds and breeder of many 1 st Feds/opens &amp; National section winners , the Dam was bred by P&amp;D Stud and is a G Daughter of &quot;Kittel Ettix&quot; , &quot;Broer Goede Roede&quot; &amp; &quot;Mr Specialised&quot;, she is also Dam to dads 14 th OPEN BICC Alencon last week and 2 nd OPEN BBC FOUGERES THIS WEEK, DIRECT CHILDREN HAVE ALSO WON 3 rd , 4 th , 10 th and 18 th OPEN NATIONALS. My birds are raced on the Chaos system and I feed the Staddon Chaos mix by Bamfords. Well done to D &amp; J Staddon on their win. Nick Stevens of North Perrott 9 th OPEN. THIS IS A 22 PIGEON AND HIS MOTHER IS A DIRECT BILL STRIBLING of Weston Super Mare. His father is out of two direct Bill Stribling’s; “Bills Boy” and “Sylivia” Bill’s Barcelona pigeons. In 2024 this cock bird went to Tarbes NFC and arrived home in August completely demoralized. He went into an empty section on his own and wouldn&#039;t fly. Four to five months later he went back into his own section but on the floor. Gradually he made the effort and got higher and higher up the nest boxes and is now in a top box. He never took a hen but seems to have his mojo back, still hasn&#039;t got a hen, just keeps coming back to his box. I am now aiming him for one of the International races but not sure which one yet. My second bird home just behind the first is a hen, also a 22 pigeon, sire a direct Padfield and the dam one of my own Padfield’s Wim Muller blood. In 2024 she flew NFC Tarbes and was 3 rd SECTION TOP 100 BEATEN MY MEL KING AND CLIVE HARRISON IN the section. Again, she is aimed for one of the Internationals this year but not sure which one. I feed a variety of corn, but like to race on Verse Laga. I sent 49 birds to this channel race and I am 4 short (3 of those yearlings). Josh Goodier Nick Stevens First bird 10 th &amp; 11 th OPEN 3 rd &amp; 4 th SECTION C CLIVE &amp; JILL ROGERS &amp; NEIL SALES OF RADSTOCK. WHEN WE SAT down on Saturday 17 th May to wait for Fougeres birds we thought that if we were fortunate enough to have a bird close to 11 am then it could be a winner, which was absolutely right because Dave &amp; John Staddon timed at 1 minute past 11 to win the race. Our congratulations to them. It was certainly a testing race as arrivals were not in batches which we had hoped for, having sent 61 pigeons, but in ones and twos with lots of gaps in between. Having said that it was in the end the weather I think that made it more difficult than we anticipated as there were clear blue skies and it did get pretty hot with a strengthening east north easterly wind as well for them to contend with en route. Two of our birds arrived together at Treetops but they came with a third pigeon that was not ours and which hung around for a few hours without going into the loft, before finally disappearing, hopefully returning to its own loft. Our first bird to clock was GB24A35817 a chequer yearling hen. Her sire was bred from a son of Golden Barcelona when paired to a double grandaughter of Sumerian Fighter and her mother was bred from a double grandson of Zwart Goud when paired to a double grandaughter of New Laureaat. So all extreme distance bloodlines. This was her first channel race of the season as she was a bit late back from a training toss from Fontwell just before the CSCFC race from Vire so we trained her twice again from Holmsley during the two weeks after Vire before we sent her to Fougeres with the BBC. The second one clocked that arrived at the same time was GB23B00698 a chequer pied two year old hen that raced from Vire but we didn&#039;t send her back to Alencon the following week as she was a bit slow and instead trained her from Holmsley in between before sending her to Fougeres. Her sire was a cock bird bred from a son of Southfield Darran and a grandaughter of New Laureaat and her dam was bred from a son of Golden Barcelona when paired to a daughter of Southfield Hugo and Willeke. Again all fantastic distance bloodlines from Mark Gilbert. The pigeons both arrived in excellent condition and for this we would like to thank the team including our race controller Mark Gilbert and our convoyers Pat Harris and Steve Travers. Thank you too Clare Norman for all your fantastic work for the BBC. It is much appreciated.&quot; Jill &amp; Clive Rogers &amp; Neil Sales Team Aurel 1 st &amp; 3 rd SECTION E TEAM AUREL OF IRONBRIDGE. MEET “MISS GORDON”. There she is our Section E winner from BBC Fougeres 303miles. She is now called “Miss Gordon” in loving memory of Chris Gordon who passed away recently. My thoughts are with his family, I feel very privileged to have met Chris, one of the legends of sport and one of the kindest people who will help everyone. Rest in peace Chris, your legacy will live forever and I hope “Miss Gordon” and the youngsters you gifted me will guide my humble steps in the sport, as you brilliantly did so from afar. The pigeon is an original K Sheffield pigeon that we bought at Hurst Hill, one of the best run breeder buyer in our region. It was raced very hard as a youngster, this goes to show that early education is everything. We have to give credit where credit is due: the rightful section E winner and the best pigeon over 300miles belongs to DK Harris. Due to a technical error his pigeons were disqualified, as verification was not done in time. I am gutted for him as Dave is a master with his pigeons, his form at club and federation level is incredible. Our 2 nd pigeon, currently sitting as 3 rd SECTION E IS NO OTHER THAN “LAUREAAT NELA”, LAST YEAR WAS 3 rd SECTION E FROM BORDEAUX KING CORONATION RACE WHO IS FROM OUR OLD BLOODLINES OF CHAMPION VASILE (1 st Nat Ace pigeon) with Laureeat Lines on both sides of pedigree, that needs no further introduction. Congratulation to Dave and John Staddon for winning the Benzing Live race and for the 1 st BBC OPEN. A DAY BEFORE I TOLD DAVE THAT MY MONEY IS ON HIS LOFT, THESE ARE FANCIERS IN THE WEST OF THE country (alongside Coopers and few others) that we look up to and we learn so much from them. From Section E, well done to Ben &amp; John Oakley for 2 nd SECTION E AND 100% RETURNS IN A DIFFICULT DAY. Well done to my friend Sebastian Szul for 4 th SECTION AND THANK YOU FOR BEING A BRILLIANT SECRETARY OF our newly formed club British to the Core. Also well done to Richard Chambers for carrying on the form from last week, his pigeons are on fire and he is the guy to watch out. All the best everyone! 1 st SECTION A CLIVE RET OF SOUTHAMPTON. THE PIGEON TIMED IS A TWO YEAR OLD BLUE HEN OFF “IZZY” AND the Sire is a Jellema. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Reg who has been helping me with the birds. Clive Ret J &amp; B Oakley hen 2 nd SECTION E BEN OAKLEY (J &amp; B OAKLEY) OF WHITCHURCH. OUR HEN IN 2 nd SECTION IS BRED FROM OUR 24 cock when paired to a very good daughter of Macaloneys supermac 73 and one and only. The parents of this hen have bred loads of top national performers for us including guernsey girl, super 90, all alone etc. we would like to thank the conveyers for doing a great job with the birds we had 4/4 and all of them were in great condition. 1 st 2 nd 3 rd SECTION D MARK GILBERT OF WINDSOR. YESTERDAY WE HAD THE FIRST BRITISH BARCELONA CLUB RACE OF THE SEASON FROM FOUGERES AND THE RACE TURNED OUT TO BE A LITTLE MORE TRICKY THAN WE FIRST thought it would be. The 2635 birds were libbed at 6.45am into an east north east wind and east winds were recorded all the way along the journey. We sent the rest of the middle distance birds for their first look at the channel (20 went last week) and the other half of the team was filled with distance pigeons going to get some time on the wing. We decided that a reasonable pigeon to us would be in the low 1300’s on this side of the country so settled at the loft around 11.30am and hoped the middle distance birds would put up a good team performance. After a longer wait than expected we had 3 middle distance birds come together at 11.55am recording a velocity of 1223 ypm for the 216 mile journey. These 3 provisionally take 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd SECTION AND 35 th , 36 th and 37 th OPEN. With everyone in front of us being further west we have had worse days racing but we were very disappointed with the returns at the end of the day. We had 141/213 by nightfall but have had a flurry of birds hit the shed this morning since 6am so they are still working. The first bird on the clock ‘205’ is from a grandson of ‘Armando’ who was sold for 1.25 million Euros and was the best one day long distance pigeon ever in Belgium &amp; ‘Contador’ and ‘Suzanne’ all raced by Joel Verschoot. The mother is a daughter of ‘Rolex’ 1 st National NFC Saintes 2015 when paired to ‘139’ 1 st National BBC Messac, 4 th National NFC Cholet, 10 th National NFC Messac etc. Second on the clock was ‘193’ and he is from a son of ‘Brenda’s New Harry’ who is the sire of 2 nd UK, 28 th OPEN (1 st drop) Pattaya International PR Final 5,854b 2024 when paired to a daughter of ‘Den Boswachter’ 1 st National, 2 nd International Pau 13,176b 2020 both Jan Hooymans pigeons. The mother of ‘194’ is a granddaughter of ‘Armando’, Joel Verschoots 1.25 million euro pigeon. Third on the clock is ‘191’ a grandson of Gino Clicque’s ‘Bro Golden Devil’ who won: 3 rd National Tulle 6,206b, 31 st National Angouleme 4,525b, 60 th National Limoges 7,174b , 76 th National Chateauroux 5,335b and 364 th National Limoges 13,569b. He is also brother to ‘Golden Devil’ 1 st National Chateauroux 13,098b. ‘Bro Golden Devil’ is grandfather to 1 st National British International Championship Club Alencon 4763b 2023, 1 st BB&amp;O Federation 1574b, 2 nd SECTION E, 4 th National NFC Coutances 2022, 3 rd UK RPRA National Old bird allround performance 2023, 2 nd SECTION, 3 rd OPEN BBC GUERNSEY 2024, 6 th SECTION, 7 th OPEN BBC GUERNSEY 2024 PLUS MANY OTHER PRIZES. ‘Bro Golden Devil’ was paired to a daughter of ‘Golden Prince’ 1 st National Ace KBDB Long Distance and sold for 360,000 euros. The mother of ‘191’ is a daughter of ‘Rolex’ 1 st National NFC Saintes 2015 when paired to ‘New Boswachter Gold’ 1 st National, 2 nd International Pau 13,176b, 2 nd National yearlings, 6 th International Agen 11,572b. Team Gilbert 4 th SECTION D ROGER LOWE OF READING. MY FIRST BIRD IS A ROUNDABOUT HEN, WHO HAS BEEN VERY consistent having over eleven performances all over sea. Her best being 1 st SECTION 8 th OPEN NFC Carentan. Her sire Beauty Boy bred by Jan Hooymans from Beauty Harry sire of many good birds. Dam Main Tiger from my old family, daughter of Main Man winner of 2 nd and 3 rd OPEN NFC SAINTES NATIONAL. I would like to say well done to all winners and thank you to Alan and Jill Webber for the hard work they do at Steventon marking station and all the helpers. Roger Lowe and his friend who’s been waiting for a long time. Phil Priddle 2 nd SECTION A PHIL PRIDDLE OF SOUTHAMPTON. MY FIRST BIRD HOME IS BASED AROUND MY LEFEVRE- Dhaenens strain which goes back to my NFC Winner 2019. 1 st SECTION G IMRAN MALIK &amp; ATIF KHAN OF TOLWORTH. FIRSTLY, CONGRATULATIONS TO JOHN &amp; DAVE STADDON on taking the top spot and to all the section winners, our first arrival was a yearling hen sent on our ‘Ace System’ the birds have been on good form inland winning 2x 1 st Feds and not been out of the top 6 of the fed, so very pleased with our form and winning 1 st sec. Her sire ‘National Ace’ was 1 st NFC National in 2019 from Coutances, and her dam ‘Ruby’ was 1 st BICC National Alencon in 2016, returns were a bit on the slim side, but the birds did arrive in good condition. 2 nd SECTION G MICK CHAPLIN OF WEST END. I CONGRATULATE THE WINNER OF THIS HARD RACE. I SENT 12 Widowhood Cocks who were having their first channel race of the season. My first bird was a 4 year old who has always been consistent over the channel. I had a further 3 more in the next 15 minutes and 9 out of the 12 on the day. Imran Malik &amp; Atif Khan Mick &amp; Lyn Chaplin 1 st SECTION J DAVE &amp; GARY HEYWOOD OF BASILDON. OUR PIGEON WE GOT FROM THE BBC WAS A GREAT grandson from Tip Top Junior x Alan Parker from Lancashire. We had great returns with 9 from 10 on the night and one in the morning early. We would like to say a big well done to Dave and John Stadden on a great win. Gary &amp; Dave Heywood 2 nd SECTION J MARK BULLED OF HARLOW. CONGRATULATIONS TO JOHN AND DAVE STADDON ON YET ANOTHER fantastic national win. My timer was a 2 year old widowhood hen bred from my Legacy family, hopefully destined for one of the long distance events. A tough day for us in the east today. 3 rd SECTION TONY MEADER OF BENFLEET. MY 2YR OLD HEN (PICTURED) HAS MATURED INTO A RELIABLE BIRD AND I was not surprised she was my first pigeon raced on widowhood her results prior to this was 4 th SECTION 43 rd OPEN 1646 BIRDS Sigogne. 6 th SECTION 235 th OPEN 4563 BIRDS MESSAC. 51 st ace pigeon above is NFC 2024. Her dam is nest mate to 1 st SECTION NFC SIGOGNE SIRE WAS PURCHASED FROM OWEN SIMPSON OF Darlington Well done to Dave and Gary Heywood section winners on a tough day for section J. Tony Meader’s hen Convoyers Report Thursday 15 May Finished loading at Sarisbury Green 4pm. Had to wait until 5pm for the final paperwork from French Customs to come through. Clare printed off this paperwork and we left for the short journey to Portsmouth Docks. Once in the Docks we fed and watered the birds. Drove onto the ship 11pm. Friday 16 May Drove off ship at 6am. Both transporters went up to the vets&#039; inspection building about a mile outside the Docks. Two crates of birds were taken from each transporter and taken into the vets&#039; building. Ring numbers from 5 birds in each crate were checked against the paperwork (all ok). Two hours after arriving at the vets we were cleared to go. We drove straight to Fougeres. Once on site we gave the birds fresh water and fed them. Back doors opened all day and water topped regularly. Mark (Race Advisor) spoke with Pat in the evening and said that everything looked good for an early lib and they would talk in the morning at 5.45am. Saturday 17 May Mark and Pat spoke. Mark indicated there was some cloud cover around the Caen area but was clearing fast. Mark spoke to Pat at 6.15am and said it was all clear now and to go when we were ready. We released the birds in a light ENE wind and sunshine at 6.45am. The birds were out of sight in under a minute, heading for home. Steve and Pat Clare Norman. Tel: 023 8057 3919. Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. 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