EAST DOWN COMBINE

Reports by Clifford Browne

Double Derby Day

Saturday August 31st saw the East Down Combine hold 2 Derby events, one inland from Skibbereen and one from across the channel from Talbenny. Both races saw birds being liberated on Saturday morning, the Skibbereen birds were away at 8.30am into a Westerly wind and the Talbenny convoy was away at 10.15am into a North Westerly.

Gordon Bros & sons continue to lead the way and record another 1st open timing the winner from Skibbereen making it 1st open EDC 3 weeks in a row whilst from Talbenny it was K & B McConaghie & son of Ballylesson who have the 1st open.

 

I’ll start with a look at the top three in the Skibbereen race and although the leading velocities were on their time, the race itself for many proved to be a bit erratic. At the time of going to press the top three are:

1st Gordon Bros & sons Cloughey 1491

2nd Caskey &Adair Crossgar 1486

3rd F Gilmore Comber Social 1479

What a great result for the Gordons. The breeding of their Skibbereen winner (Super 80), bred by Sheldon Leonard. The Sire is Tyson (Lou Wouters), g.sire De 7, g.dam 114 of Lou Wouters. Dam Lady Marseille, g.sire Real Jam (Vandeheede), g.dam Beauty Marseille (Aelbrecht).

Let’s stay with the Gordon team for the present for they topped the Combine in the two previous races from Fermoy and Mount Charles but what may not be so well known is that they did this with the same blue hen - that’s some achievement. This hen’s breeding is sire Lou Wouter x Sablon. Dam Gaby Vandenabeele (Pale Rider) lines. Congratulations to Gary, John and Niall on their outstanding success.

In 2nd place from Skibbereen was the partnership of Caskey & Adair of Crossgar and this is a comparatively new partnership formed by two very experienced fanciers Drew Caskey and Gerard Adair. They timed a blue Soontjen cock and this cock’s dam was 2nd open from this race in 2007 for Gerard when he won 1st and 2nd open. This is a darkened youngster and I have no doubt we will hear more of this partnership in the future.

In 3rd place was Comber Social member Francis Gilmore with a blue cock with an impressive racing record already having won the club from the 1st race from Navan and the following week was 11th club also from Navan then 6th club Mullingar followed by 4th club Mt Charles, a very consistent racer. Breeding is on the sire’s side a gift bird from Francis’s good friend Joe McGreevy of Crossgar and this pigeon won from Navan to Penzance racing widowhood and has bred winners for Francis. Francis says thanks Joe. The dam is from a pair of FVW birds from Mick Levitt of Doncaster and this hen was only raced as a young bird and had many prizes. Her sire, a dark pied has bred some very good birds this year including a son which was 2nd club Navan 2 and a daughter 5th club Fermoy. Francis first met Mick in 1989 and over the years has had some top class Wildermeersch from him and wishes to thank both Mick and Margaret for their kindness to him.

Moving on to Talbenny and the top three were:

1st K & B McConaghie & son Ballylesson 1163

2nd M & A Johnston Ballylesson 1148

3rd D Croskery & son Annsborough 1106

Great to see the late Ken McConaghie’s son Geoff along with his mum Betty win this one and they had a great result all round with all 5 of their entries home. The winner is a dark Cheq hen racing to the perch, a darkened youngster. She was in all YB races this season except Fermoy and is bred from a Soontjen cock from birds obtained from Herbie Phillps in 2010 and a Soontjen x Busschaert hen from Sam Duke.

The runner up was to clubmates in Ballylesson M & A Johnston who timed a blue Leo Van Rijn cock.

In 3rd place it’s the Annsborough partnership of D Croskery & son and I hope to have further details on both these races plus the result of the Combine Breeder Buyer and the Benzing sponsored 2 bird event shortly.

The Best From the Clubs

With these being Derby races most clubs do not have a club race from these events but those that did were:

Ballylesson - Talbenny Y/B Derby

1st K&B McConaghie & Son 1163, 2nd M&A Johnston 1148, 3rd J&H Thompson 1112, 4th Mackey & Lockhart 1098, 5th John Patterson 1072, 6th M&A Johnston 1058.

And from Skibbereen Y/B Derby

1st Albert Cousins & Sons 1435, 2nd M&A Johnston 1419, 3rd John Patterson 1412,  

4th Albert Cousins & Sons 1412, 5th Stephen Casement & Son 1405, 6th C&D Smyth & Sons 1389.

Ballywalter  - Skibbereen 1st Winston and Hugh McMaster clocking a clear winner on 1346 making it three wins in a row in the club for the family, 2nd Adam Palmer with a Blue hen on 1221 this is the second week it has been runner up, third goes to Sam Regan with a Blue W/F Cock on 1216 gaining its fifth club position of the year.

East Down2bird News

The Result from Fermoy was:

1st J McGreevy 1410.251 19th open

2nd J Patterson 1385.963

3rd A&A Cheevers 1385.270

4th M Croskery & son 1380.246

5th S Brown & sons 1369.290

6th D & R Topping 1364.479

Sam Regan reports From Around The Ards Peninsula

Harper & Young Treble Top

The Peninsula Clubs moved further south on to Mount Charles for the fifth race of the young bird season and yet again a very helping wind for the homeward journey and the birds went up at 8.30am in a south wind. Again the young birds made light work in covering the 170 miles back home to their lofts.

Winning team this week sees the partnership of Drew Harper and Martin Young clock the top three birds into the Cloughey club and take the first three places in both club and Amalgamation and the lads second bird lifts the red card in the three bird club to give them an excellent days racing. The partnership have blended a very good family of pigeons which are capable of competing at all levels and this team of pigeons are mainly based on birds from Bob Donaldson from the North East of England crossed with birds from other top lofts from the same area and are doing the business.

Next are the Gordon Family with nine birds close together continuing their great year with their strong team of youngsters which are mainly based on the best of M & D. Evans bird and these are placed 4th to 12th in the Amalgamation another fine performance.

Portavogie club winner is Leslie Young clocking his winner into this lovely fishing village and this follows up his East Section win from the very difficult Portland old bird Derby when the convoy was brought back from France, a very fine pigeon in testing conditions in the last old race and many congratulations on both these races. The final position goes to yet another Cloughey member with Johnnie Hall in 14th and again well done.

Full Result 44 members sent 1239 pigeons.

1st, 2nd, 3rd Harper & Young 1849, 1843, 1841.

4th to 12th  Gordon Bros & sons. 1840 x 2, 1839 x 4, 1835 x 3.

13th L. Young 1830.

14th J. Hall & son 1830.

Three Bird Club.

1st. Harper & Young ABC. 1843.

2nd. Gordon Bros & sons. ABC. 1835

3rd. McCormick & Muckle ABC. 1783.

Nom won by D&K. McCutcheon 1770.

Next race is from Fermoy till then any info is always helpful and good luck to all.

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HARMONY LOFTS ROUND UP

Harmony Lofts Hot Spot Result weekend 31/08/13

A fantastic result for Trevor Greenaway of Gilford when he clocked his Harmony Lofts Gaby Vandenabeele Ring No.23220 vel 1209 to win 1st Club, 1st Section E & 2nd Open from a very steady Talbenny with a total of 3,500 birds competing. Trevor collects £50 winnings.
2nd Spot goes to the top loft of Kincaid & McCann of Dunedin Club with Ring No. 23202, another Gaby Vandenabeele, vel 1191 winning £30. Well picked wee Sam!
Eddie McKnight top distance racer takes 3rd Spot winning 1st Club, 51st Section E & 113th Open with bird Ring No.23358 vel 1142 winning £20.
Well done to all who clocked our birds on a very tough weekend.

Harmony Lofts Midweek Race Result 28/08/13

With excellent conditions for racing pigeons and both our transporters full of racers and trainers, the birds made good time. The Grosvenor boys do it again with the top loft of A & A Ferran in for his second win to collect £50 prize. Jim McAlorum clocked his Harmony Lofts young bird for second spot, with his next bird tight behind for 3rd place to collect a total of £50.

Many thanks to all fanciers who support us with racers and trainers. Our final midweek race for this year will be on Tuesday 10th September. Birds will be race marked on Monday 9th between 7 & 9pm. Our usual £100 prize money is up for grabs plus some extra prizes, such as Harmony Lofts young birds, hampers and corn. Remember if you're not in, you can't win. Open to all.
Full Race Result 28th August:
1. A & A Ferran 1617.610
2. Jim McAlorum & Son 1610.368
3. Jim McAlorum & Son 1609.662
4. Jim Braniff 1609.567
5. Jim Braniff 1603.905
6. Johnston Bros. 1603.067
7. A & A Ferran 1602.820
8. S O'Halloran & Son 1602.674
9. J & D Braniff 1600.387
10. Johnny Porter & Son 1599.688

This week as the season draws to a close the final club race for most will be held from Mt. Charles and this will include in the 2 bird club the golden ring event but at this moment the weather is not looking too promising for a Saturday race.

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