<pre><pre>Coutances (Vire) Young Birds &amp; Old Hens National Young Bird Winner Old Hens Winner Shaun McDonough of Walsall Chambers F amily of Cannock With the season now drawing to a close we would like to thank all our members for supporting the Club this year even though the season was a short one we still managed to fill it with a lot of racing. Thank you also to all the marking stations and their helpers and I/C’s who all kept us racing through these unprecedented times and not forgetting Pat and Steve who did a wonderful job of looking after the birds. As the winds were very erratic over the weekend making a liberation very hard to find at Vire. It was decided on Saturday evening to move the birds to Coutances where it was showing better conditions on that side for a liberation on the Sunday. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play ball with us and Sunday saw another holdover. We awoke on Monday with liberation weather and it was only a case of waiting for the weather to warm up slightly then the birds were up and away at 8am. The wind direction from Coutances right the way up through France and over to the UK was variable which shows in the early times as both the young bird and old hens provisional shows 5 out of the 7 sections sent in the top 8 of the yb’s provisional and 5 out of the 8 sections sent in the top 8 of the oh’s provisional. Many congratulations to our Young Bird and Old Hens Winners Shaun and the Chambers Family who between them only joined the BBC very recently. With an outstanding performance in the young bird race, 1 st , 2 nd , 10 th , 11 th , 12 th , 13 th , 14 th &amp; 15 th OPEN 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , 5 th , 6 th , 7 th &amp; 8 th SECTION E SHAUN MCDONOUGH FROM WALSALL. THE PIGEONS THAT TOOK 1 st &amp; 2 nd OPEN BBC National Coutances were both hens. The winner was sent sitting a five day old youngster when she was basketed and the hen that was 2 nd which arrived with the winner was basketed sitting 7 day old eggs, After these two, there was a wait of nearly 20 minutes then unbelievably a further six arrived in two minutes, these taking the first 8 positions in section E and all being in the top 15 of the open result, making this a dream result on my first attempt racing with this organization. This season is the start of a new chapter for me so to speak, as I made the very hard decision the previous year to sell all of my stock &amp; race birds with the main reason being my dads ongoing ill health and with the stock being housed there it had become to much for him to cope with. All of the birds timed in this race were bred by Pieter Oberholster, I actually messaged Pieter the day they arrived to tell him that 010 or 011 would win a young bird National this year, it was tongue in cheek at the time but it proved to be correct, The youngsters this year have been trained early and trained hard, they have been left together all season to do as the please, they have been raced every Wednesday and every Saturday all year only missing the odd midweek race, they were entered in the MNFC Chale RACE THE WEEK BEFORE AND FINISHED 3 rd SECTION. THEY WERE SENT THERE WITH THIS RACE IN MIND, THE DAY WAS MADE EVEN better when my club mate and friend phoned me to tell me he had won the old hens race and the sire of his winner being a pigeon he had previously had from me. I’d like to congratulate Craig and his family on there achievement, over the years I’ve been lucky enough to win my fair share of races including 100s of 1 st Federations, 1 st OPEN MNFC 2 nd OPEN MNFC 3 rd OPEN MNFC, ALSO 1 st SECTION 2 nd OPEN NFC IN MY FIRST YEAR FLYING WITH THEM, AND NOW 1 st &amp; 2 nd OPEN BBC NATIONAL. THESE ARE ALL RESULTS I’M VERY PROUD OF. I’d like to thank Pieter Oberholster and Thomas Gyselbrecht for breeding me the youngsters to race, also I must mention the Convoyer who looked after the birds for 4 days, they were in immaculate condition when they arrived, and lastly my dad who has always helped my as much as he could over years, hopefully this can act as a pick me up for him. 1 st OPEN WITH HER PARTNER 2 nd OPEN WINNER Another great performance from the odd couple 1 st SECTION A 3 rd OPEN BILL EDWARDS &amp; PAT HARRIS FROM GOSPORT. Our prize winner is a darkness blue chequer cock having his second trip from Coutances and bred from our old Paul Eizinger Busschaerts crossed for the first time with our new introduction of Scottish Busschaerts through Steve Visor from Horsham. The Paul Eizinger Buschaerts have bred Fed and Section winners in the past for Pat. We would like to thank all those that called to congratulate us and congratulations to the race winner S McDonough on a fantastic team performance and to all the section winners. Pat Harris &amp; Bill Edwards Mark &amp; Julie Gower Never far behind, another great season for this couple 1 st SECTION B 4 th OPEN MARK &amp; JULIE GOWER FROM Fordingbridge. Well done to the winner Shaun McDonough and his fantastic team performance and all the section winners. I entered 11 in the race and I expected a real hard race with the predicted wind and then after the 2 extra days in the basket I was concerned that many might not get to the drinker. I need not have worried as the 7 birds I clocked on the day arrived in excellent condition and were not overly hungry or thirsty a testament to the good treatment they received by the convoying team. My first &amp; 3 rd birds are from a son of Nick Adshead’s super racer “Patience” when paired to a Andy Parson’s hen down from his excellent Tarbes performance pigeons. My 2 nd pigeon is from a Les Green Van Den Bulck when crossed with a GWP Macaloney hen both from multi winning families. Their preparation was not ideal with only 2 x 61 mile races from the West country but I knew they were fit enough as twice something has frightened them around the loft resulting in many hours on the wing and a lot of frustration from me! All my young birds are on the darkness system and are left to mess about together all the time. It has only been in the last 10 days that they have started to hit a bit of form, health and enthusiasm and long may it last! Thanks again to Andy &amp; Nick for taking the birds to the marking. A real family affair in the Kenny household and another great performance 1 st , 2 nd &amp; 3 rd SECTION D 5 th ,7 th &amp; 9 th Open Mr &amp; Mrs Paul Kenny &amp; Family. Our section winner is a blue bar cock having his second race of the year, he went to Coutances last week with C.S.C.F.C. He was bred by Richard Elliott who bred us 10 young birds to try this season. He is Herman Ceuster and is a grandson of EuroVision, Better &amp; Better, Mighty Wind and Pepsi Cola. Our 2 nd Section winner is a Blue pied cock, he&#039;s off our best breeding cock 22, who is Sire of 59 &amp; 60 our 2 best cocks who have won 4 th OPEN ANCENIS NFC, 12 th OPEN ANCENIS NFC, 7 th OPEN BERGERAC C.S.C.F.C, 14 th OPEN Messac NFC, 15 th OPEN FOUGERES NFC PLUS MANY MORE POSITIONS IN OPEN RACES, WHEN PAIRED TO A HEN OFF OUR GOOD friend Steve Hughes which is a daughter of his Goldmine hen &quot;26&quot;. Our 3 rd Section winner is a blue bar hen. She&#039;s from our Mark Evan&#039;s Vandenabeele stock. She&#039;s off a son of New Shadow when paired to Ace of Spades and her Dam is off a son of Pre Olympic and Davina when paired to a daughter of Jester 320 when paired to Lady Alone. All our birds are trained regularly from the coast which is done by Esther and the children. The Kenny Family Up there in the top 10 again this week with the young birds and old hens are brothers Martin &amp; Kenny Attrill from Southampton 2 nd SECTION A 6 th OPEN WITH THE YOUNGSTER THEY TIMED LAST WEEK IN THE CSCFC COUTANCES RACE winning 2 nd OPEN 2 nd SE Section. The young cock is bred from a hen we bought from Dave Hawthorne from Tadley paired to a Verhegan cock that we have had in the family for many years. He is a nice handling youngster and we have him paired to an old hen. Martin and Kenny Attrill Graham Clift Graham has always been a consistent good flyer and never far away in the results. 1 st SECTION C 8 th OPEN GRAHAM Clift of Tirley. After the two day hold over the day of the liberation appeared perfect for a excellent race with little wind, clear conditions and prospect of good returns. I had three of my ten entries in the first 45 minutes and expected good returns however I have not seen another pigeon since. My first bird is bred from the race team, the sire is a grandson of Southfield Supreme 1 st International Dax, the dam from a brother to Southfield Jane 1 st NFC Saintes who bred my 15 th NFC Fougeres in 2019 x grand daughter of J &amp; D Staddon&#039;s Gina G &amp; G Force Ace pigeon NFC 2016. Congratulations to all the Section and Open winners, of the birds I did have they returned in excellent condition many thanks to the convoyer. 2 nd Section C Ken Booker from Walsall. Firstly well done to Shaun and many thanks to all involved in the race. My timer a pencil cock was sent sitting ten days she contains Harry and Kleine dirk blood from my mate Mick Stone. Ken Booker’s Pencil Blue Cock Runners Up in Section E Dave &amp; Kyle Harris from Newport. Well done to all those who timed in and to Shaun McDonough on a fantastic performance, below Kyle is holding “88” the first bird timed on the day, Dave is holding “82” her mother, 88 is a grand-daughter of “The Gauty Cock” an Evans and Walker Soontjen who is the father of the loft, he is responsible for countless winners down to eight generation in our loft, he sadly passed away last November aged twenty and was still filling his eggs up to seventeen. “82” is also a grand daughter of The Gauty Cock, she has bred three birds that have each topped the section in the BBC with one doing it twice, her mother being through Tommy Edwards of Telford Soontjens, Kyle tends to the young birds from weaning and uses our morning mix to sit and tame them prior to going off the school, he is up at half five in a morning to basket and load onto Chris Whittingham our local trainer, who at the age of eighty three puts a good many of the younger fanciers to shame being forty mile down the road at Worcester to liberate before 8am each morning, thanks to all the club officials who have made racing possible in a challenging year all round. Dave and Kyle Harris With so much competition within the Salisbury fanciers James has been holding his own this season. 2 nd SECTION B James Fulford of Salisbury. I want to congratulate S McDonough on great performance to take 1 st OPEN. ALSO TO ALL the section winners. I would also like to thank the transporters for looking after the birds , mine came back in excellent condition and good returns. My 2 nd SECTION B PIGEON WAS BRED FROM THE GOOD RED BARKER HEN AND CRAZY JOHN FROM JOHN HALSTEAD GABY LINES, this pair of pigeon have bred me some great birds. This cock comes from John&#039;s Ruby lines. I’ve also got to thank Rob Poole and Andy Parsons for taking my bird to the marking station for me and Dave Day for all his help training, without these guys I probably would not be able to race so a big thank to them. James Fulford Also new members to the BBC this season, next in to Section D H Hine &amp; Son from Dunstable. We fly in the name of Hine &amp; Son, however the newest member of our team is my son’s fiancée Demi who manages the young bird team and is responsible for the youngster’s success so far. We operate with two lofts, 1x24’ divided into three sections for cocks and hens flying the roundabout system and one section for the stock birds. The second loft is 16’ with a 6’ section for young birds and a 10’ section for storage. We keep 9 pairs of stock birds, 4 pairs are from my late brothers loft K &amp; L Hine, 4 pairs of Herman Ceuster and one pair of J Jellema. We only breed from these stock birds and not the racing team. This is only our second race with the British Barcelona Club as we only started racing last year and gaining runners up in our section is a great achievement. We race the youngsters on the darkness system and all youngsters fly to a perch. We sent two old hens and two young cocks and despite the long hold over we had good returns with both old hens and one young cock. The youngster in question was bred from my late brother’s birds and the mother is a descendant of the Forest Gump lines crossed with a Ceuster cock. The youngster has been racing consistently so far through the young bird season and shows good improvement. As this is our second year of racing, we only flew young birds last year with some good results, gaining 9 x federation cards and a second combine from Honiton. We fly with the Leagrave Flying Club which has some very experienced members who have provided good advice that has helped with our success so far. We look forward to flying a full race programme next year. Herbie Hine, Jamie Hine and Demi Johnston 1 st Section J Rob &amp; Andrew Wilton (D Wilton &amp; Son) of Chadwell St Mary. Our timer in the young bird race is a blue hen flown on the sliding door system she was showing great form leading up to the race being early back to the loft multiple times. Her breeding is; she is half from our very good Vandenabeele family we bought in from the Jutla brothers from 2016 to 2019 her sire being a son of our top racer and breeder The Terminator and is full brother to our top racer and now breeder Altior. Her dam is a hen we bought from Peter Fox from Syndicate Lofts containing some brilliant lines being a grand daughter of off Foxy Lady and many other top syndicate breeders close in the pedigree. We are very happy to have won section J in the BBC for a second time this season and would like to congratulate the WINNER AND ALL THAT TIMED PIGEONS IN THE TOP OF THE RESULT ON A DIFFICULT DAY. Andrew, Rob and Louie Wilton Topping the section in both the young birds and old hens 1 st SECTION G MICK &amp; LYN CHAPLIN OF WEST END. THE young bird section winner is a blue cock having his 5 th RACE OF THE SEASON AND THIS WAS HIS FIRST TIME ACROSS THE channel. He was raced to the perch and is of Herman Ceuster bloodlines bred off pigeons from Premier Stud. Mick and Lin Chaplin 2 nd Section J Bernie McDermott &amp; Martin Jones of Stanford Le Hope. I would like to congratulate all section winners. My young bird 2 nd SECTION WINNER IS OUT OF A HEN BRED FOR US BY GOOD FRIENDS ANDREW &amp; ROBBIE WILTON OUT of their 2 nd open BICC Barcelona winner, when paired to a grandson of The Drum, it is a darkness youngster, that has had plenty of private training up to 75 miles and one inland race. Martin Jones Kelsie loft manage to M Sallis &amp; Son 2 nd Section G Daniel Sallis (M Sallis &amp; Son) from Brighton. First well done to all who got birds and the winners. My bird is a busschaert x Janssen bred by Chris Neve and daughter of Shoreham The busschaert coming from tried and tested Darkens Lines and the Janssen side coming from Arthur Abbot of Hove, the parents of which have both won 2 x 1 st on the road. My youngsters are raced on darkness and this cock is also on widowhood he came back in good condition considering he was in crates 4 days it shows that the BBC look after the birds. The photo is of my daughter Kelsie (loft manager) holding the 2 nd second winner, I have 4 young daughters who are all very keen and help out a lot with feeding, training etc (but not cleaning out). OLD HENS REPORT Another great achievement under their belts 1 st OPEN 1 st SECTION E CHAMBERS FAMILY FROM CANNOCK OUR WINNING pigeon was a yearling hen who is carrying a 2018 ring as last year I took the decision to put old rings onto most of my yb’s so that I could train them early and enter them into the old bird races. These pigeons were sent racing twice per week in the Wolverhampton Midweek and Saturday Federations where as a young bird they received approximately 28 races between 90 and 150 miles. This year I had a horrendous start to the season and I was unable to send to the first three inland races once lockdown restrictions were lifted as my young birds had been extremely ill with a suspected virus that also spread to my old birds. At one time I feared that I would lose all of my youngsters to the illness and that I would be unable to race any pigeons in 2020. However, as racing began, my birds started to recover and within three weeks I was able to start training. Once I started racing, this hen along with all my other old birds were sent every week, often twice a week with the Wolverhampton Federation then the MNFC and NFC for the middle distance channel races. After the last old bird race from Bordeaux with the BICC I decided to select a few hens to be placed into the young bird loft to continue training and racing with the youngsters with the view to entered into the old hens National. Our hen was again raced twice every week Wednesday and Saturday up to and including the Chale National with the MNFC a week before the BBC National. The MNFC race proved very successful for us as in a difficult race with strong west winds we were able to win 1 st and 2 nd SECTION IN THE YOUNG BIRD RACE WHILST ALSO taking the first seven places in the section with our old cocks and 5 th SECTION WITH THE OLD HENS. THE BBC HENS National winner was our second old hen in the MNFC race winning 6 th SECTION AFTER A FLY OF 3HRS 14 MINUTES, AS SHE arrived in such good condition the decision was made to enter her straight back in the BBC the following week where she went on to win the National. As you can see this hen is now well experienced having flown in excess of 40 inland races and 4 channel races up to 350 miles despite only being a yearling. She is bred from our very best middle distance breeding hen who is of Lambrecht origins and was a good race bird in her own right. She has now has bred several club winners from the channel plus 2 x 2 nd &amp; 1 x 3 rd SW Section in the MNFC including 7 th , 14 th , 27 th OPEN as well as 3 rd OPEN MCC. THE SIRE OF THE NATIONAL WINNER WAS PURCHASED FROM OUR GOOD FRIEND SHAUN MCDONOUGH who also won the YB National on the same day! I would like to thank Gavin Purchase, Shaun McDonough and Mark Darby for their help, support and encouragement throughout the season and for their advice in helping me return my birds to health and fitness when things were looking very bleak. It was conversations with these three people that enabled me to keep the faith when my birds were very ill and allowed me to keep motivated and go on to have a very successful year toping my section 4 times and now winning the BBC National. I hope our story will provide hope to anyone else who has suffered or is currently dealing with the spell of severe illness that seems to be affecting many fancies across the UK. Finally I would like to thank and congratulate the BBC race conveyors on the excellent condition that our birds arrived home in, they were a credit to the Organisation. Dale, Craig and Bernard Chambers This hen was out on her own heading in to Oxfordshire 2 nd OPEN 1 st SECTION D LEON HALL FROM HEADINGTON. I would like to congratulate the Chambers Family on their Open win. My 2 nd OPEN WINNER WAS A BLUE BAR HEN AND IS bred out of my premier stud Leo Heremans. The sire to my hen is a son of Auction House and she is a full sister to the famous Euro Cock of Eijerkamp of Holland. When I brought Euro Boy from an entire clearance sale he was already sire, g/sire and gg/sire of winners and in his first year he bred a winner. The dam of my hen is a g/daughter of De Jan bred by John Wheatcroft and she is a full sister to the bird of the year section 4 in the UNC in 2017, so she is inbred to Euro x De Jan lines witch have already bred 1 st UNC Eastbourne 28,000 birds in 2017. Leon Hall Robbie Hooper, Pete Hollard and Max Well done to my good friend 1 st , 2 nd &amp; 3 rd SECTION 3 rd , 5 th &amp; 6 th OPEN ROBBIE HOOPER FROM POOLE. MY SECTION winner is a yearling bred by my good friend Pete Hollard of Lytchett Matravers, her breeding is from the Dutch partnership of Lillivett &amp; Locke of which Pete had tremendous success. This hen was untrained and unraced as a young bird, she carried one nest flight at the start of racing and dropped the flight and re grew it in June. Her first channel race was Messac with the NFC where she obtained 13 th SECTION BEING my second arrival. She was left then to go down to nest until her next race, the CSCFC old hens where she was sent sitting 6 day old young birds and once again was my second bird. Next was the BBC race with her being sent with even bigger babies in the nest and showing up to her cock. I would like to thank the convoyers Pat and Steve for the excellent condition the birds arrived home in. A great team effort for David from his old hens 1 st SECTION E 4 th OPEN DAVID &amp; PAUL WHITFIELD OF NEWCASTLE Under Lyme. GB 19 N 64125 She is a pure bred Verheye hen known as Scot Hay Lizzie. She gained a couple of minor cards as a young bird. This was her 3 rd CHANNEL RACE. SHE WAS SENT SITTING 16 DAYS. HER YOUNG HATCHED OUT ON HER DAY OF HER RETURN. I HAD 10 of my 12 birds on the day and my other 2 have returned today. On return my birds were in immaculate condition for which I would like to say many thanks to our 1st class convoyer for an excellent job of looking after the birds. Also many thanks to Clare for all her hard work during these trying times of the 2020 season. Scot Hat Lizzie This, his second Section win of 2020 under his belt 1 st SECTION A JIM DERBYSHIRE OF WHITCHURCH. MY YEARLING HEN was bred by James &amp; Peter Parker from Beenham and is a Lambrecht pigeon. Following closely behind my Section winner is another yearling hen of the Lambrecht lines cross Gaston van de Woucer lines also bred by James &amp; Peter. I would like to say that the birds looked pretty good on their return and you could tell that they were well looked after by the convoyer. Also thank you to Clare for all she’s done this year through these difficult times. Jim Derbyshire’s yearling hen Two good performances from Section C. 1 st Section C Eric Davis of Marlborough. The bird that I won the Section with came in to me as a stray which was then transferred to me. It was bred by P M Kelly and K Hyde of Colchester and is a Soonjten breed. I would also like to thank Alan Dobson for all of his help with the birds. Congratulations to the winner and all section winners. Eric Davis 2 nd SECTION C PETE BARLOW FROM COOMBE HILL. MY PIGEON WAS LAST WEEK&#039;S SECTION WINNER IN THE CSCFC, unfortunately for me I couldn&#039;t be present for the race as I was visiting family in Surrey so a big thank you to Dad for CLOCKING IN AND GRAHAM FOR SETTING THE CLOCK UP. Pete Barlow Next in to Section A Martin &amp; Kenny Attrill (J Attrill &amp; Sons) from Southampton. This pigeon is a 2 year old hen with Red Barcelona bloodlines on the sire’s side and black Verotte lines from Robbie Jones on the dam’s side. Steve Travers Timing two within two seconds Runner Up in Section C Steve Travers from Poole. Congratulations to all winners. All 9 of my OH’s went to the CSCFC Coutances the week before so I sent the same birds back to the BBC. All 9 were sitting between 15 and 18 days and all 9 were home within 3 hours of the 1st one. I&#039;d like to thank my wife Lin for looking after the birds for me and clocking them in. As some of you may know, I am one of the driver/convoyers, with my good friend Pat Harris, for the BBC/CSCFC. As we all know this has been a very difficult year and let&#039;s hope we never have another like it. With that said, I would particularly like to thank all marking stations, especially the ones that were Pop-Ups to get us racing. Thanks to Robbie Jones (Battery Man) for getting the transporter going at a moments notice when our batteries failed, Roger and Clive (Race Controllers), and last, but not least, Clare and Martin, two people whose outlook is always positive. I hope to see a lot of you around the marking stations next year. 1 st Section G Mick &amp; Lyn Chaplin of West End. The section winner is a 2 year old chequer pied hen having her second race of the season having previously flown the BICC Coutances race 2 weeks previously. She was sent celibate to this race which might explain her lack of interest in trapping. All the hens act as widowhood hens for the cocks during the season and are then aimed at the old hen races at the end of the year. She is bred from our No1 stock pair of Burgher Wildermeersch who are responsible for most of our winners. Two brother who are very young at heart 1 st SECTION D BRIAN AND DICK CHITTY (CHITTY BROTHERS) OF KINGS LANGLEY. This hen was gifted to us by A S Hughes of Rochdale we don’t know the father but we think it was a Kruger (not good at keeping records). She has won good positions in previous years including 5 th OPEN FROM FALAISE WITH OVER 2,500 birds competing in the BICC. This year in the first race she won £110 then she won Honiton’s winnings pools as well she was also second in the last Channel race of the season winning all pools. Her granddaughter won Le Mans. Well done to the winner and section winners. Chitty Bros Old Hen 2 nd &amp; 3 rd SECTION G MR &amp; MRS DARREN MAY &amp; SON OF WEST ASHLING. 2 nd SECTION - SHE IS A LATE BRED 2019 HEN, RACED on roundabout widowhood. This was her 2 nd RACE ACROSS THE CHANNEL, WITH HER FIRST BEING IN BICC COUTANCES OB. SHE IS BRED from a Heremans Cuester Spiderman cock when paired to a Pitbull hen. 3 rd SECTION - SHE IS A LATE BRED 2019 HEN, RACED ON ROUNDABOUT WIDOWHOOD. THIS WAS ALSO HER 2 nd RACE ACROSS THE CHANNEL, AGAIN her first being with BICC Coutances OB. She is bred from Direct Verweij-De Haan stock. John, Darren and Josh May 1 st Section J John &amp; John Brady of Benfleet. Our first section old hens winner GB16N87098 has raced 3 times across the channel, she’s reliable but just off the pace, her sire is a Frank Tasker pigeon with M &amp; G Casaert on one side and &quot;Pokke&quot; on the other. On her dam’s side she has the sire of our 2008 National winner paired to a direct daughter of Jos Thones national 2. John Brady 2 nd Section J Bernie McDermott &amp; Martin Jones of Stanford Le Hope. This old hen was our only entry into the old hens race and was sent sitting 12 day old eggs. This hen is out of a cock purchased from Andy Parsons of Salisbury, when paired to a hen from Mark Bulled old 60 lines. 1 st Section H Paul Davies from Jersey. The hen I timed is a 2 year old “Lynne Mark 2”. I sent her on a 9 day old youngster. She flew Bordeaux 5 weeks ago and when she came home from there she sat on her eggs for another 3 weeks and I slipped her a chipping egg a week ago.This was only my second race of the year. I would like to thank Clare for all her hard work and also thank Bill Edwards for collecting the Jersey birds from Portsmouth docks and taking them to the marking station. Paul Davies Willie Healy 2 nd Section H Willie Healy from Jersey. This is a 5 year old hen who I sent sat 8 day eggs. She is a van Wanroy cross Scottish blood. I would like to thank the convoyer who did a great job with the birds as they were immaculate on their return, also thank you to Bill Edwards for collecting our pigeons from the docks and to Clare. Convoyers Report Thursday 27 th August: Finished loading Southampton 14.00hrs, all drinkers refilled, left for Portsmouth Docks 16.00hrs. Fed birds 17.30hrs and topped up drinkers. Moved onto ship 23.00hrs. Friday 28 th August: Left Caen Docks 06.00hrs and drove the 1 hour to Vire. Topped up drinkers on arrival, fed birds 11.30hrs. Water in front of birds all day and back doors open all day. Phoned Roger (Race Controller) 18.00hrs. He said things were not looking good for a Saturday lib with a very strong North Wind in the Channel and heavy rain forecast for Vire most of the day. Saturday 29 th August: Phoned Roger 06.30hrs. Told him there was very heavy rain at the site which he had forecast. He said Channel had very strong winds most of the day so we agreed to holdover. The rain at Vire did not stop until about 15.00hrs. Emptied and cleaned all drinkers, refilled with fresh water. Kept sprinkling fresh water into drinkers all day. Phoned Roger 17.30hrs, he said strong winds in the Channel were still forecast for Sunday, but to phone him at 07.00hrs. Clare (BBC Secretary) called at 8.15pm to inform us there was no chance of a liberation at Vire on Sunday morning as a band of rain was coming through Vire in the early hours moving eastward and would not ease up until mid-afternoon and asked me if we could relocate to Coutances as we may have a chance of a LIBERATION ON SUNDAY FROM THERE. WE ARRIVED IN COUTANCES AT 21.45HRS. Sunday 30 August: Clare phoned at 06.45hrs to say that Roger was indisposed and could I speak with her regarding the liberation. We spoke to each other every half hour with updates. Clare was liaising with other people around the country about the situation with the weather. At 09.30hrs Clare and I agreed to holdover due to full cloud cover at the site and bad weather in the Channel. Fed birds at 11.30hrs, water on birds all day. At 18.00hrs Clare called to say she had been talking with Roger and both agreed that conditions would be OK for a morning lib on Monday and for me to phone them at 07.00hrs with the weather details at the site. Monday 31 August: Clare phoned at 07.00hrs to say All Clear Ahead of us but with some strange variable winds in the Channel. I informed her that the site had broken blue skies and was OK to lib in about an hour. Birds liberated 08.00hrs in 80% blue skies and next to no wind. The birds left in a Northerly direction but circled once about 300 yds from the transporter and then left as one bunch in a Northerly direction. On a personal note from the Convoyers: We would like to thank our two Race Controllers this year Roger Hurst (BBC) and Clive Merrills (CSCFC) for giving us excellent weather forecasts this year in difficult times. 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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