EAST DOWN COMBINE
Reports by Clifford Browne
Breeder/Buyer 1st prize in excess of £800
Friday April 6th saw the East Down Combine hold this years Breeder/Buyer sale in a new venue for them, Magees Lounge in Crossgar and it was an excellent sale with the 41 young birds raising £1775. This amount is to be raced for in total as all expenses incurred came from the ballot which was organised by Dorothy Smyth but more on that in a moment. This means that the total first prize split 50:50 between the breeder and buyer will be £887. There will be a further three prizes also split 50:50 2nd will be 25%, 3rd 15% and 4th 10%.
The sale was organised by a small sub committee of the EDC, the members of which were Rodney McCormick, Dorothy Smyth, Paddy McComb and Doley Croskery with Doley doing auctioneer and what an excellent job he did with no youngster going for less than £30. The above committee would like to express their sincere thanks to members of the N.I.P.A., Ulster Fed & Scottish fanciers of the Ayrshire Fed for their support. Good to see Jim Savage and Colin Nicol over with the Scottish birds and more on Jim and Benzing in a moment when we get to the exciting events taking place in the EDC 2 Bird club. As I said the Breeder/Buyer was a great success for as well as the sale the surroundings were conducive to a great evening's craic and thanks to Magees for the use of their premises.
Thanks also to Dorothy for organising the ballot which raised enough to defray all the sale expenses thus allowing Combine members to compete for the full sale amount and this will be competed for by the 41 young birds in the 1st Skibbereen Young Bird Derby scheduled for August 31st 2013.
The 2013 season is scheduled to begin on April 13th with Mullingar being the race point but I understand that Navan (a shorter distance) is a possibility if the weather continues in its unseasonable vain but having just seen the forecast for this weekend its not looking good even for that on the Saturday.
East Down 2 Bird News -
BENZING SPONSORSHIP FOR CLUB FOR 2013
The membership of the 2 bird club for the 2013 season has risen to 93 which is a 20% increase on last year and is very encouraging. More good news for the 2 bird club in that Benzing have offered major sponsorship for the 1st Skibbereen Young Bird Derby scheduled for 31st August 2013 and this is open to all EDC 2 bird club members. Entry for this is a 2 bird nomination (cost £4 entry) and forms for this are going to all 2 bird members. The winner will receive the sponsor's prize of a Benzing Electronic timing clock and a 4 field pad valued at £500.
Jim Savage from Benzing presented clock and pad to Dorothy Smyth on his recent visit to Ireland and the club extends sincere thanks to Jim and Benzing for this very generous sponsorship .
Also for 2 bird members in this years young bird racing is the Gold Ring scheme race which will be flown from the 2nd Mount Charles race on September 7th. Members to nominate 5 rings for £10, ring numbers to be declared by July 26th to Stephen Logan.
In addition to the above events the 2 bird club will again be running the keenly contested leagues and with the added membership this year an additional league has been added bringing the total for 2013 to 6.
Now although the membership for the full season has closed and the leagues drawn up, it is not too late should anyone wish to join for young birds only, if so please contact Secretary Stephen Logan on 97564983.
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