<pre><pre>President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd Patron: Mark Gilbert Carentan National 1 st &amp; 2 nd OPEN 1 st &amp; 2 nd SECTION B Richard, Billy &amp; Josh Goodier from Exeter With “Quarter Mile Wissy” &amp; “Quarter Mile Dolly” I don’t think anybody could have wished for a better start to the racing season. The weather seemed to be in everyone’s favour for a change and what with great returns let’s hope there is more to follow. Our first race saw 250 members enter 2,227 birds. All marking went well and we would like to say a big thank you to all the helpers and to those of you that volunteered to help. The first marking of the season is always the worst but everyone coped tremendously and worked extremely hard. Martin would like to thank Roger Hurst for staying behind at Salisbury to help him load the transporter. The birds were liberated at 8.30am in to a light North North Easterly. The birds made very good time on to the coast with the first one being timed in Weymouth at 10.44am. Well done to our furthest flyer on the day Mr W Bresnahan from Liverpool flying almost 300 miles, timing his 2 year blue cock at 3.27pm provisionally 67 th OPEN. If you would like to view the weather at the liberation site on the morning of liberation, go to youtube.com and type in Barcelona Club Carentan 2014. Before we go on to our winners I would like to mention a couple of things. The Committee would like to thank Kevin Bakes from Havant who has kindly given £100 to the BBC Young Bird Sale as he was unable to donate a youngster and Mrs Marilyn Weaver has very kindly donated a trophy in memory of her husband Don Weaver who sadly is no longer with us. This trophy will be called the Don Weaver Memorial trophy and is to be raced for from the Bordeaux National and awarded to the member with the highest velocity in to Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Most of you who attend the dinner will remember Mr &amp; Mrs Weaver looking after the BHW Stud Books, diaries and calendars. Winners of the British Barcelona Club’s 1 st RACE IN THIS GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY YEAR GOES TO RICHARD Goodier &amp; Sons Billy &amp; Josh from Exeter also taking the Runners Up Place. We are obviously over the moon with our 1 st &amp; 2 nd SECTION AND 1 st &amp; 2 nd OPEN WIN. WE CLOCKED TWO YEARLING HENS raced on the roundabout system having there first channel race of there careers. First to clock over the ETS pad was a black hen bred by friend and Devon Fed convoyer Chris Stevens, this hen’s breeding is a Peter Van de Merwe on the Dams side with a R Goodier Jan Aarden x Sue White Kipp on the Sire’s side. The Kipp coming from Frank Sheader, Rainmaker lines. These same Kipp lines winning £3,000 in the Somerset One Loft Race for Sue White. 2 nd over the ETS pad was a chequer Vandenabeele bought at the Kingsteignton Three Counties Gold ring race and was bred by John Halstead of Gillingham. John needs no introduction when it comes to winning the big races. This hen’s Sire is &quot;Luxor&quot; who won 1 st SECTION GOLD RING NFC PLUS MANY more creditable results and is of M &amp; D Evens &quot;Eisenhower and Golden Gaby lines. The Dam of this hen goes back to &quot;Bennaton&quot;, &quot;Carrie&quot;, &quot;Jester&quot; and &quot;Saffron&quot; lines. John has supplied me with some good lines over the last couple of years, thanks John. I sent 14 yearlings and one 4 year old hen to this race dropping 4 yearlings, in all a good race, they are all raced on the roundabout system and on Wednesday night before basketing, were allowed their cock and bowl with a little straw for extra motivation until basketing Thursday morning. They are fed on Verse Laga corns mixed to suit the forth coming race and receive garlic, naturaline and cider vinegar in the water Mondays and Tuesdays with various other natural additives when needed. All my birds are raced and trained with the Devon South Road Fed who have had great racing and returns this season, well done Mr Stevens. Thanks to all the hard workers at marking station and convoyer on good condition of birds on arrival home. Richard, Billy &amp; Josh Goodier. 3 rd OPEN 3 rd SECTION B IS BILL PITNEY FROM WEYMOUTH MY LOVE OF PIGEONS STEMS FROM MY Grandfather who flew in the Greengate and District Flying Club in London back in the 1930’s. He had won a big race from North Allerton and had an oil painting of his winner commissioned by E A Windred. When he passed away he left this painting to me and it now takes pride of place in my house. I have been racing pigeons with the Weymouth Homing Society since the age of 12 and was the youngest flyer ever in the Weymouth Flying Club. My two year old chequer cock which I timed is bred from my 3 rd SECTION SENNON COVE NATIONAL Busschaert cock and the Dam is a Braspenning hen from a Great Grand daughter of Van Morsel. All stock having been purchased from Louella Stud. All the birds fly to an open loft and this cock was sent to Carentan sitting eggs 8 days. His previous races being Littlehampton 2 weeks before this one with the Dorset Federation. Bill Pitney. Brian Milkins of Bristol 1 st SECTION C 4 th OPEN. I’VE BEEN ASKED (STUART WILCOX) TO AGAIN DO A write up for Club mate and friend Brian Milkins who on this occasion takes 1 st and 2 nd SECTION C AND provisionally 4 th OPEN. BRIAN&#039;S HAD A TERRIFIC START TO THE SEASON WINNING 1 st and 2 nd OPEN WOESRC Exeter two weeks ago from 4,200 birds. At the Towers SRFC we are all very proud of Brian and we talked about the chances of him winning the BBC especially as he has been 1 st OPEN NFC, 1 st OPEN CSCFC and 2 x 1 st WoESRC all within the last 3 years, how close he came. 1 st SECTION 4 th OPEN IS A two year old cock &quot;51&quot; a full brother to 1 st North West Section 1 st OPEN CSCFC MESSAC IN 2013 AND himself won 2 nd CLUB 2 nd OPEN WOESRC EXETER 4,200B TWO WEEKS PREVIOUS. BRIAN HAS BEEN struggling with his health after catching shingles 20 months ago but the success with the pigeons makes him feel a lot better, not that you would notice. The 2 year old winner is flown on conventional widowhood and is fed on Marimans and Wal Zoontjens corn which he obtains from close friend Nigel Templer. “51&quot; is a direct son of his number 1 Pair which he calls the “Van Dyck” pair and both are bred by the late Gerrit Lahuis from Sleen in Holland. The pair actually contain very little Van Dyck blood and are a mix of Van Loon, Smeulders Janssen and Van Dyck and you will find such names as First Lady, Kannibal De 38 from Ad Schearlackens, Kolonel from Van Den Abeele, Zitter and Beatrixdoffer in their pedigree. The Van Dyck pair have already bred 1 st OPEN Classic Messac, 5 th OPEN CLASSIC CARENTAN, 9 th OPEN NFC CHOLET AND NOW 1 st OPEN. 2 nd SECTION IS again a two year old Widowhood cock who is a direct son of Ted’s Lad who famously won 1 st SECTION 1 st OPEN NFC CHOLET 8,400B IN 2012, THIS LINE IS REALLY STARTING TO MAKE THERE MARK. For nearly 30 years Brian has been a member of the famous Towers club in Bristol which flies out of the Hartcliffe Inn, the competition is very stiff which drives Brian to the success he enjoys now. Brian flies to a very modest set up and started this season with only 33 cocks and has 32 still competing, he medicates as required and likes to use Natural products which are recommended by Geoff Kirkland who has been very good to Brian over the years. Brian would finally like to thank the Secretary, race controller and committee for providing an excellent race and was happy to say that all were back in tremendous condition. He would like to thank local fancier and friend Nigel Templer for the lift to the marking station. Brian Milkins &amp; Ed Wilcox Brian Milkins 1 st SECTION Brian Milkins 2 nd SECTION 5 th &amp; 6 th OPEN GOES TO PHIL HUTCHINGS FROM BRADPOLE NEAR BRIDPORT. MY LOFTS ARE POSITIONED IN the orchard at the back of our house, which we built for ourselves 11 years ago, here in the village of Bradpole near Bridport. The Pigeons seem to love it here although they do suffer from the hawks, we appear to be in their flight path. We prefer not to keep a lot of birds, about 60 in total including young birds and they must earn their place in the loft. We do not belong to a weekly Club anymore. Where we live dictates too much travelling. However, we do belong to the Weydor Specialist Club where my wife Pat and I are joint Treasurers and I am President. What a good Club! 35 of the top lofts in the area compete on a weekly basis either with the CSCFC, BBC or NFC programmes. Good competition and banter – love it! 1 st bird timed “Van Gerwen” is a 3 year old dark chequer cock with other wins in 2012 1 st Weydor S.C from Carentan and 2013 2 nd Weydor 6 th SECTION C 60 th OPEN NFC CARENTAN 8,448 BIRDS. 2 nd bird is a 2 year old red cock. Both birds are Corbett Busschaert widowhood cocks bred from stock bought from Louella Lofts. The photo is of my Granddaughter, Nicole with her son, my 3 year old Great Grandson Ryleedean. Both are great fans of the pigeons and love racedays. Rylee loves to help with the feeding and watering and is especially fond of the hosepipe!! Phil Hutchings Granddaughter Nicole and Great Grandson Ryleedean. One of Weston Super Mare’s Characters Phil Newton has had a great weekend. Not only provisionally 7 th OPEN IN THIS RACE BUT ALSO PROVISIONALLY 7 th OPEN FROM THE BICC FALAISE RACE AS well. This hen was sent to the race flying only to her perch as she has never laid an egg. She is a good consistent bird and has scored for Phil several times in the past. Last year she was 16 th OPEN Messac CSCFC and 139 th OPEN BERGERAC CSCFC. SHE IS BRED FROM PHIL’S OWN FAMILY OF BIRDS. Phil would like to say many thanks to Tess for her help with the birds. Phil Newton. Another great character from Weston Super Mare is Bill Stribling taking 8 th OPEN. BILL TIMED A 2 year old chequer cock bred from Phil Newton’s pigeon “Phil’s Girl” (whose also bred Bill’s 2 nd OPEN PIGEON) WHEN PAIRED TO “REJECT” WHICH IS OFF PHIL’S LAST CLASSIC WINNER WHEN PAIRED TO GARY Summers Black Giant bloodlines. “Reject” was kindly given to Bill for his stock loft as he was never rung. The basis of Bill’s pigeons are Venner of Street and the infamous “Van Newton” pigeons. Phil’s motto about his birds to Bill is “If they sprint up the Pyrenees, then it’s all down hill to Weston Super Mare. Bill Stribling 9 th OPEN IS JOHN HALSTEAD OF GILLINGHAM. JOHN TIMED HIS EXCELLENT 6 YEAR OLD BLUE WIDOWHOOD cock named Nyland Brave. This same cock was 2 nd OPEN BBC VIRE ON THE 8 th May 2010 when 2,722 birds were in the race. He has also been 2 nd SECTION, 8 th OPEN CLASSIC MESSAC IN 2012 AND ANOTHER 5 times in the top 50 of National racing. He is of the Reynaert Figo cross Kees Bosua bloodlines, with the Bosua being a hen from Crammond and Langstaff; a full sister to their NFC Messac winner. Nyland Brave who obviously hits form early in the season was having his first race of the year, following only 4 training flights, one of which resulted in some feathers including his eighth primary flight being pulled out, presumably by raptors. This seemed to set him back and he had not quite reached his peak of fitness, but the race conditions, which were very similar to when he was 2 nd OPEN 4 YEARS AGO, REALLY SUITED him. John Halstead’s Nyland Brave. The furthest Section winner on the day was Terry Greenfield from Telford 1 st SECTION E 10 th OPEN. THIS HAS COME AS A NICE SURPRISE AS IT IS MY FIRST RACE WITH THE B.B.C. I have had pigeons all my life and then I started racing in 1972. It has come as a great early birthday present as on Monday 5 th May I will be 65. My wife’s name is Kath and we have been married for 44 yrs and she helps me to train the birds and she also cleans them out when I can’t but she still cannot handle one. I have 3 daughters that were never interested but have 4 grandchildren of which only the two youngest boys seem interested in the birds. My bird is a 4 year old cock flown on widowhood. It came to my loft as a young bird stray which the owner kindly let me keep and it is a Peter Vandemerwe and has been a consistent racer winning Messac last year. I get so much enjoyment out of the birds and like nothing more than sitting and watching them out flying. Terry Greenfield. Runner up in Section E 11 th OPEN IS CHRIS WHITTINGHAM FROM WHEATON ASHTON IN STAFFORD. Chris timed a 2 year old Johny De-po blue cock bred by Chris’ brother John. Chris has been racing for 65 years and comes from a very large pigeon family with 12 Uncles who all raced pigeons, his dad who was a champion flyer and his two brothers, sadly one of his brothers passed away. He flies with the Bell Club in the Gloucester Fed and the Penkridge Flying Club in the Wolverhampton Fed. Chris was a lorry driver all his life and still every day gets up at 4.30am to train his and everyone else’s birds going to Kidderminster, Worcester and Cheltenham. Chris Whittingham. Johnny “East Wind” Attrill of Salisbury is the BBC’s Section A 1 st &amp; 2 nd WINNER. WELL DONE TO everyone at the BBC for another great race and congratulations to all the winners. My first bird is “State Express” who is a Bosua and full brother to the French Young Bird Derby One Loft Race Winner “La Belle Etoile” winner of £10,000 for Ian Crammond &amp; Nigel Langstaff. Ian and Nigel also bred my runner up in the clock “Nightmare” another Bosua who has to his credit 3 x 1 st Sections, 2 x 2 nd Sections, 4 th SECTION ETC WINNING SEVERAL THOUSAND POUNDS. WHAT A BIRD! 1 st SECTION IS FROM A SISTER TO CRAMMOND &amp; LANGSTAFF’S NFC WINNER AND 2 nd SECTION IS FROM A BROTHER to their NFC winner. Johnny’s fellow Club mates Gordon &amp; Pat Emm from Downton near Salisbury are just behind in SECTION A. GORDON AND PAT ONLY RACE A SMALL TEAM OF PIGEONS BUT THEIR RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. They can mainly be seen working tirelessly for the BBC and the CSCFC on marking days. The pigeon timed is a Gaby Vandenabeele from Masserella stock who previous performances last season were 16 th SECTION A 59 th OPEN BBC CARENTAN, 57 th SE Section 84 th OPEN CSCFC GUERNSEY and many more positions. Gordon would like to thank Nigel for the wonderful condition the birds arrived home in. I am not sure if this next winner has accidently vaccinated himself and it has gone straight to his brain but you never know what he is going to look like next. Roger Lowe from Reading 1 st SECTION D. Roger’s first bird is a widowhood cock yearling. The Sire is a direct Freddy Vandenheede (Rocky). Sire of many good birds including 2 nd OPEN CSCFC. DAM IS “RED ROSE” WINNER OF 2 nd OPEN NFC NATIONAL, BEING BRED FROM “FAST AS LIGHTENING” WINNER OF 1 st BBC by 25 minutes when paired to “Going for Gold” winner of 1 st OPEN CSCFC BY 5 MINUTES. Picture with Roger is Owen Abery who was Southern Region young fancier south winner 2013. Roger Lowe and Owen Abery. Peter Wells from Dunstable had the birds dropping in like flies taking 2 nd 3 rd 6 th 7 th &amp; 8 th SECTION D. 1 st bird is a yearling blue hen of Mereka Vink bloodlines from stock acquired from Simon Schofield (Leeds). 2 nd bird is a yearling, Daughter of my great stock hen &quot;The 11 Hen&quot; Janssen. 3 rd &amp; 4 th pigeons were both yearling cocks bred by Simon Schofield and the 5 th bird an old stager is a five year old Janssen hen which has won many good prizes. Peter Wells. The winners of Section G also taking 2 nd &amp; 3 rd SECTION AS WELL ARE MR &amp; MRS MICK &amp; LYN Chaplin of West End, Woking. The winning bird a 4 year old widowhood cock of Burgher/Wildemeersch lines is bred down from their original stock and is full of winning genes from both sides of the family. He was having his 3 rd RACE OF THE SEASON AND WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION ON his return. Only 18 widowhood cocks and their hens are kept and only the cocks are normally raced during the old bird season. 35 youngsters have been bred this year, mainly from the widowhood cocks and the small stock loft which contains 5 pairs. The pigeons are never broken down and are fed lightly on their return from the races and then onto a widowhood mix for the rest of the week. Mick and Lyn Chaplin. Next up in Section G is Tony and Carol Welch from Chichester. The pigeon is a 3 year old blue cock, pure bred Janssen. He has flown very consistently for me, last year he flew from Bordeaux taking 64 th OPEN. Tony Welch. With only one member sending from Section J the honour has to go to Nigel Lane of Romford. I must say it was extraordinarily kind of the British Barcelona Club to set up a section just for me. Clearly someone realised that the only hope I ever had of winning a section from Carentan was if I had a section all to myself. For me Carentan is very much a training race, it is the first race of the year for my pigeons and the first race in their life for many of them. The pigeon that came home first, “Hildred” is a two year old cock whose target race for 2014 is Tarbes. He did fly Carentan last year in his first ever race and was now a little quicker, perhaps as a RESULT OF THAT EXPERIENCE. HE IS A SON OF “FELIX” WHO MADE A PROMISING RACING START AS MY FIRST yearling from Messac in 2011, unfortunately he arrived home with an eye injury that was so severe it put an end to his racing career, and so he is now in the stock loft. “Hildred” is a mixture of Hans Knetsch, Jac Steketee, Familie Huizer and Ad Pegels pigeons, all very successful Dutch long distance lines. From this Eastern side of the country I would like to congratulate the winners, R Goodier &amp; Sons from Exeter way over to the west, with a couple of really great pigeons. Nigel Lane’s Hildred. Convoyers Report May 3 rd saw the second highest entry for the clubs first race, with the weather being favourable for training in March and April. The entry of 2227 birds shows that some confidence in the club has been regained and with “The Little Whirlwind” at the helm things hopefully will go from strength to strength. Marking went very well at all stations and with the birds all loaded, Bill and myself set off for the docks ,the birds were fed and watered before the crossing to Caen arriving at 06:30,with only fifty miles to the lib site we set off for Carentan and watered on arrival. The journey saw mist and drizzle all morning, but started to clear mid afternoon but with full cloud cover over the site. At six o&#039;clock I called our weather advisor Steve Appleby and the forecast looked very promising for a good race the next day. Saturday dawned warmer than predicted and about 25% cloud cover with a very light NNE wind and another call was made to Steve telling me that there was clear blue skies to the east and heading our way, so we provisionally booked a lib time of 8:30 to 9:00. At 08:15 we cut the stings and the birds were away at 08:30 heading due north straight away leaving just a few milling around for about five minutes before clearing. The journey back to the docks saw clear blue sky and light winds which then gave us one of the calmest channel crossings for a very long time, so all was looking good for the race. This race has to have been one of the most pleasurable I have experienced in a long time with the constant banter from “Ant and Dec” from the BB&amp;O, and Bill our driver, The lovely Bridget the agent at Carentan and now the Club is running so well with the new committee all pulling in the same direction and most of all to Mike Sheppard our Chairman and the “Little Whirlwind” herself Clare two of the nicest and hard working people you could wish to work alongside of. Nigel Rigiani. President and Convoyer. Weather Report – Steve Appleby A good racing day was forecast for Saturday’s race which proved to be correct. Spoke to Nigel on Friday evening at Carentan and advised him of the weather conditions for Saturday. Temperatures over night did not fall as low as expected and rose quite quickly in the morning. As arranged Nigel contacted me early Saturday morning and was advised of the overall weather situation. Conditions generally were very good with the east side of the line of flight from the Cherbourg peninsula under clear skies and the west seeing more in the way of cloud especially over the channel and the west country. Winds generally were light over the channel force 2 to 3 (4 – 8 mph) from the east north east. Visibility excellent 27 miles plus as recorded by the weather buoys stationed mid channel. With a liberation sky at Carentan the convoy were away at 08:30 resulting in a good race for the BBC members. Clare Norman. Tel: 023 8057 3919 Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. </pre></pre>
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