North Midlands Continental Club
Something special 2022
A special 2022 young bird to report on now being a young blue cock he was bred by A Wolstenholme & Son of Sheffield being a father and son partnership of Andrew the father and the son being Luke. This partnership at their current location in the Sheffield allotments on the 3years they have been on the plot, have achieved some impressive open wins in the North Midlands Continental club and local club wins but the cork explosion on the champagne bottle was with their young blue cock that on a very hard erratic Guernsey young bird race achieved 1st open north midlands continental club winning £865 in the open with only 25 birds clocked in race time and then being 1st open as both breeder and buyer/racer in the North Midlands Continental Futurity race scooping £6100 so he won £6965 in total with only 10 birds clocked in race time in the Futurity race they flew 271 miles with a winning velocity of 930.052.
The Wolstenholme Family collecting their RPRA award
This blue cock was bred by the partnership in January 2022 and was started training in May 2022 at the 14 mile mark where as possible weather permitting going morning and evening if possible and planned on weather permitting this cock also was sent to 7 young bird races with their local club Park HS in Sheffield flying with the Derby & Burton & District SR federation and then being sent to Guernsey to make it 8 races he flew as a youngster being the full young bird programme flown and not being stopped and to top it all off he won the RPRA Derbyshire & South Yorkshire Best all young bird performance award 2022.
Andy holding the blue cock 1st open Guernsey
Congratulations must go to Andrew, Luke and Luke’s mother and Andrews wife Susan who play a massive part in the keeping and maintaining of the birds as with Luke’s work style sometimes long hours or the odd working away may be encountered but Mum and Dad always step in to aide with the birds maintenance. This cock was flown on the darkness system with the cocks and hens separated from each other and kept away from each other until the night of the race marking where the middle partition is opened and the both sexes left to mix together as they please for 30 minutes before being crated up for the race event and on race day return being left to run together again for a short period of time depending on the race return performances so of a hard slower race the birds are left a period of time longer, may increase to a hour but not several hours left together. A fast easy race a shorter time period left few days prior to being sent to a race and on the race return day.
The awards
The young bird team are fed on the partnerships own mix of small seeds and conditioner seeds blended with a high fat energy mix from local corn shop supplier BJF feeds of Sheffield and for after the race day return feed and prior to the high fat small seed mix being fed they receive a Versele-Laga Super widowhood mix.
The origins and breeding of this cock are as follows, his mother being a 2021 north midlands continental club open winner herself in 2021 winning first open Sennon Cove flying 291 miles on again a hard enduring race with a winning velocity of 1230 and flown as a widowhood hen. Unfortunately the partnership do not know the origin or history of this special hen as when they took over the lofts and allotment from a John Broughton of Sheffield 3 years ago no records or papers were found of her or of a few other birds so the partnership, rather than bringing new stock in straight away to their new adventure and ideas, decided to try out and see what was in the loft on the road as the decider and this Dark hen proved her stay and keep and also being the mother of this special blue cock.
Andy with the mother dark hen 1st open Sennon Cove
His father is a youngster bred by Steve Shimwell of Wakefield the partnership purchased to try out on the road and his breeding is of Leo Hermans crossed Van Den Bulk and was raced as a young bird on the road and as a yearling achieved 2 x 1st clubs and a 2nd club in his breeding side he is related to the famous Van Den Bulk mealy cock of the famous Red Neck being bred by Steve Foster responsible for breeding many winning performing birds around the UK and also being himself a 5 x 1st prize winner and red neck being a grandson of the famous Immortal the famous Bulk bird himself so with this in mind the partnership paired this cock to their 2021 Sennon Cove open winner and the rest is history. Congratulations to the Wolstenholme family.
Rat Man