EAST DOWN COMBINE
Reports by Clifford Browne
“Dan The Man” wins the Ken McConaghie Skibbereen Derby
The final race in the East Down Combine’s 2012 programme was the 2nd Derby race from Skibbereen which, as a tribute to the man who had done so much for the Combine and the sport of pigeon racing, has been named the “Ken McConaghie Skibbereen Derby”. It included the East Down Breeder/Buyer and I should have details on this next time but I believe about 5 birds were recorded with the winners being D & R Topping of Ballynahinch.
The race, scheduled for September 15th, saw a south west wind blowing which heralded another fast event. With the birds away at 10.15am it was expected that the leaders would be on a mile a minute and indeed this was not far from what happened with the leading 15 birds making over 1700 ypm. Only decimals separated the leaders, the first three being on the same yard.
The winning pigeon was to the Bangor partnership of Jim Burgess & Danny Brennan and this light blue cheq cock wins the race by about .05 of a ypm. Now called “Dan the Man”, this is one of the tamest young birds I have seen in a long time coming to Jim’s hand in the garden. A darkened Yb, he went to Skibbereen feeding a 7 day youngster on his own and the reason that he was feeding this youngster on his own is that the hen he was paired to had been found dead just a few days earlier having hit wires in the nearby Industrial estate; an employee of the local paper very kindly took the trouble to report her and through various channels Jim was able to go and collect her. So you can see why “Dan the Man” as a single parent was anxious to get home from Skibbereen. This cock had already raced well for the partnership having been 3rd club 1st Mount Charles and 11th club Fermoy. Bloodlines are mainly Janssen. The sire, a Janssen from Wall, Lunt and Green from “Astrid” and “Wonder Woman” lines, has a number of 1sts including 1st centre Skibbereen in a NE wind. The grandsire of “Dan the Man” is now the partnership’s No1 breeding cock and has many prizes to his name. The grandam of “Dan the Man” is a Huybregt from fellow club mate Cliff Stewart. The dam of “Dan the Man” is a blue hen and again a direct Wall, Lunt and Green pigeon out of “Stargazer” and “Gem 84”and she has already bred 5 club winners for the Burgess & Brennan partnership. They now have 5 generations of these birds in their loft and they are going really well. Looking on down the Skibbereen result, I see they were also 21st and 22nd open, 10th and 11th East section and also 20th East section.
A very close 2nd and 3rd were the Crossgar partnership of McCartan & Woodsides who are no strangers to success from this race point having as recently as May this year won the Old Bird Classic from this race point on a very different day with a cold NE wind with one of their Gaby Vandenabeele birds. This time these two birds were both darkened cocks on roundabout. The first, known as “The Ballybrack Destroyer”, is a blue cheq Grondelaar which was reared for the partnership by their good friend Paul Byrne, who races in the Ballybrack club . This cock has raced well all season and was 13th open in the 1st Skibbereen Derby on the 1st of September. The second pigeon of theirs, a blue cock, is on the same yard as the winner and is a Busschaert x Soontjen x Peter van der Merwe. Below I have listed the top twelve and there are some great results in them.
East Down Combine
15/09/2012 Ken McConaghie Skibbereen YB Derby
90 Members 1124 Birds Wind South West
1 E1 Burgess & Brennan Bangor RPC 1745.407 £0.00 £188.48
2 W1 McCartan & WoodsidesCrossgar HPS 1745.358 abcden ABCDEFN £328.00 £464.83
3 W2 McCartan & WoodsidesCrossgar HPS 1745.240 abcde ABCDE £131.34 £240.80
4 W3 J.Young & Ptnrs Dundonald HPS 1744.887 £0.00 £82.10
5 W4 M & A Johnston Newtownbreda HPS 1743.688 abcde ABCDE N £153.64 £218.37
6 W5 S.Brown & Sons Dundonald HPS 1742.700 £0.00 £54.28
7 W6 S.Brown & Sons Dundonald HPS 1742.485 £0.00 £54.28
8 W7 S.Brown & Sons Dundonald HPS 1741.470 £0.00 £54.28
9 W8 S.Brown & Sons Dundonald HPS 1741.358 £0.00 £51.82
10 W9 M & A Johnston Newtownbreda HPS 1740.912 £0.00 £51.82
11 E2 G & P. Brown Annsborough HPS 1722.059 £0.00 £72.98
12 E3 J & R Young Cloughey HPS 1720.894 £0.00 £63.49
The Best From The Clubs
Again with this being a Derby race many clubs do not have a club race. The Combine breeder/buyer was held as I mentioned in conjunction with this Skibbereen race and some details of the winner from Ballynahinch. I will give more details of the prize winners shortly.
Ballynahinch where David & Robert Topping have sent some details of the winner of the East Down Combine Breeder Buyer 2012. She was Lot One in the sale and finishes in number one spot in the E.D.C. Breeder Buyer. Winner bred and raced by David & Robert Topping Ballynahinch H.P.S. is a Blue Hen, a darkness young bird flying to the perch. The breeding of this pigeon is from D&R Topping’s Hartog family that was purchased at Blackpool. A full brother of the winner was 14th open in Skibbereen and full sister was 39th North Section Irish National Flying Club Skibbereen young bird national 2011.
Ballywalter 1st Junior Orr 1697 with a Blue Cheq Hen, a previous winner from Mullingar earlier in the season. Runner up Palmer & McKay 1674 with Adam clocking a Lambrecht/Janssen a Blue Cheq Hen also a previous winner, from Mount Charles. 3rd is Sam Regan 1601 with a Black Hen.
East Down2bird News
The 2 bird result from the 2nd Mount Charles was:
1st A Cousins &sons 1678.9
2nd W White &son 1669.9
3rd F Gilmore 1660.2
4th S Brown &sons 1652.9
5th C&D Smyth & sons 1639.4
6th R Moore &son 1635
And from the 2nd Skibbereen YB derby
1st McCartan & Woodsides 1745
2nd J Young & ptnrs 1658
3rd Mackey& Lockhart 1645
4th T Marshall & son 1639
5th S McLoughlin 1637
6th McComb bros 1597
Well that is the Combine 2012 season over but over the next few weeks I hope to cover in more detail some of the early birds in these last Derby races so any info, photos etc will be very welcome.