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Wetherby & Newark June 2014

 

THAMES VALLEY FEDERATION

Jo Cuthbert

WETHERBY & NEWARK JUNE 2014

I have to start off this week by apologising for the delay in reporting these two races and for the lack of information but my Mr Ellwood has been very poorly in hospital so pigeons and chasing up people has been the furthest thing from my mind. I am happy to say that he is now back home and will probably be thrashing me racing again most weeks. I will try and go easy on him until he makes a full recovery. Thank you to Carol from Borehamwood and Dr Kumara from Stonebridge who emailed me their club results and to Teresa from Feltham and Ray from Watford who rang with details of their winners. Apologies to those who might feel they have not been done justice this week!

Carl Ellwood's loft manager and my little mate Jade

I will begin with the weekend of the 8th of June when 653 birds went off to Wetherby and were liberated at 8.30am. Leading the federation again this week is Borehamwood’s’ Phil Gomes on 1223 with a two year old cock bird. Phil sent twenty five birds and eight of these featured in the top thirty of the fed result. Second club and fed goes to our very own combine winner Peter Glenister with a two year old hen doing 1209 with the partnership of Mosquera and Last taking third club, fourth fed with a velocity of 1200.74. Johnny Randall is close behind on 1200.35 to take fifth fed.

I think everyone will now know the name of George Gallagher by now and he takes first and second in the Stonebridge club doing 1204 and 1192. George takes third and seventh fed with his two cock birds. Mr and Mrs Richard Llewellyn take third club with their yearling blue white flight hen.

Watford press officer Ray Neale wins his club with a late bred yearling hen. Ray said he actually had two birds come together but she trapped first to take all the glory, this chec hen is doing 1126 and just beats former fed winner Ken Clark into second on 1124. Ken got one of his Cattryse birds this week and stops Ray taking first and second, you will have to get them trapping quicker Ray! Steve Redding takes fourth club on 1115 with his three year old blue hen.

I am happy to say that my ‘nearly winner’ from two weeks earlier is now a ‘really winner’ as I won Houghton Regis doing 1128. I have mentioned this late bred blue pied cock before as he was only beaten by a yard from Newark and was also my first bird the following week from Berwick. Technically Carl kind of gets a win as he gave this bird to me in August of last year, so he had no racing at all as a young bird, I gave him a few training tosses at the end of last year and after training with the others in 2014 he has gone to every race. He absolutely loves the little blue hen he is paired with and likes nothing more than flying off to find twigs and leaves for their nest. Taking the next three positions is Bill Smullen on 1125, 1114 and 1103. His first two birds are cock birds, the one in third also being bred by Carl Ellwood. Bill’s chec hen in fourth is the Micky Nunn bird that won for him previously and she really is a lovely looking hen. I am glad I can finally say I have beaten the big boys, long may it continue!

Over at Feltham the partnership of Pat and Jim Harrison take top honours on 1104 with a two year old blue pied cock who has been in the frame many times before. The sire of this bird is an Alan Jenkins Imbrecht crossed with a Tom Kyles Jan Arden. The dam of this bird was bred by Dean Garratt and is the nest mate to one of Jim’s fed winners. I remember young Dean from my days racing in Shepperton club. I do believe he is a Daddy now. I remember he knew how to fly a good bird, he obviously breeds winners too. The winning partnership also take second on 1090 with a three year old Grizzle cock which was also their first bird from Berwick. I am happy to see Mr and Mrs Leney in third on 1072 with their two year old van reet chec cock. Teresa tells me this bird is their consistent ex south roader and took third from Wetherby last month.

From the fed result I can see that P Parsons wins at Mill End on 1134 and E W Johnson win over at Apsley on 1082.

On then to last weeks race which was meant to be from Ripon (my favourite race point ). Houghton Regis did not send this week. Obviously with Carl in hospital I was not interested in sending and I have to thank club President Bill Smullen who felt that if we were not racing the club should wait until everyone was able to race again. That really meant a lot Bill and took a lot of pressure off of me last week so thank you so much!

The 498 birds went to Ripon but because of the poor weather were liberated from Newark at 3.15pm and winning the fed is Andy Camis of Feltham on 1502.811 with his two year old mealy Van Reet cock that took third club from Berwick. Pat and Jim Harrison are in the frame again on 1481 with a two year old chec cock again bred down from one of Dean Garratt’s birds, the mother of this bird is from Jim’s brother in law Tom Kyle crossed with one of R Telfer and son of Motherwell black jets. Mark Stevens and Peter Fairbairn take third club in Feltham with a seven year old chec cock bred from Ron Foster of Sheen, their velocity is 1477.

It was really down to the decimal point in the fed result this week as second fed and winning Stonebridge is George Gallagher on 1502.35 with a three year old cock bird. George is also third fed on 1493.

Taking fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh fed and winning at Borehamwood is Johnny Randall, his best velocity being 1490. I hope when I retire I get to be as good as you John! Fellow club member P Chomicz takes eighth fed on 1485.91

Winning Apsley and taking tenth fed is E W Johnson and son on 1485.00 with a two year old cock, squeezing in between them to take ninth fed on 1485.56 are Stonebrdidge members S Dickens and son with another two year old cock bird. P Parsons wins again at Mill End on 1454.

Ray Neale triumphs again at Watford on 1476 with his mealy cock. Ray said it is bred down from his race birds so he doesn’t really know what it is! Fed chairman and birthday boy Roy Barnes takes second, third and fourth club. His bird in second on 1471 is a yearling Jan Theelan bronze cock which has had several cards. His six year old Busschaert cock takes third just a decimal point behind and his yearling in fourth on 1470 was second club from Aycliffe last year. Ray tells me that all the Watford members had a very merry night indeed partying away at Roy’s 60th birthday bash. I am disappointed Roy that I was not invited to attend such a prestigious event but I hope you had a fantastic birthday. According to Ray the food was top notch too. Whilst on the subject on Watford members I asked Terry Haley if he had any pics I could use for my articles and he duly sent me a couple.  I have to say Terry that you are truly the ‘Peter Pan’ of pigeon racing and look like you haven’t aged a day in about 40 years!!!!! When I next see you I will be asking you what your secret is!

The Peter Pan of pigeon racing, Watford's Terry Haley.

I will end by saying that I had pleasing news from our friend Janina. Her Alan felt well enough to take a short walk and take in the view at their hotel home in the Isle of Barra. I really hope he continues to make slow but steady progress Janina.

Well done to all those who won or were in the frame again these last two weeks and apologies for not getting round to contacting all of you. Best of luck for Berwick this week!

Call or email me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 01582 477860.

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