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Aycliffe YB - September 2014

 

LONDON NORTH ROAD COMBINE

Reports by Grasshopper

Aycliffe YB - September 2014

 

Newton Aycliffe is a town in County Durham, and is the oldest new town in the north of England, as it was founded in 1947 under the New Towns Act. Within a 10 mile radius are several towns and villages including Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Shildon and Heighington. Interestingly there are no 'Streets' in Newton Aycliffe. There are many Roads, Closes, Crescents, Avenues and even Parades. Aycliffe also played an important role in World War II, where it was key in ammunition manufacturing. Aycliffe has also played an important role for the London North Road Combine for the past two seasons, since the loss of the Witton Castle liberation site.

 

Saturday 13th September saw the convoy of around 2,000 young birds liberated at 11.15am in a variable wind, with many fanciers competing around the 223 mile mark. Many predicted that the first 100 miles or so would be the most difficult along the route, as it appeared the birds would have to face a southerly east wind, with the wind changing to their favour from then on. There appeared on marking many unfamiliar faces to the London North Road Combine scene for this race, which is an excellent sign that combine racing maybe taking a turn for the better and with the improved birdage it shows that the decisions being made are the right ones. Unfortunately I have to apologize at this point to the readers, that so far I have not received my usual convoyer’s report, or any provisional result or station results that are usually included in my articles for the London North Road Combine.

Much like the Old Bird Berwick result what was refreshing to see was that the 3 leading pigeons represented 4 different federations. The well deserved winner takings 1st Open London North Road Combine Aycliffe, 1st East London Federation, 1st North London Federation, also winning the London North Road Combine Futurity, The London Social Cirlce and all pools and side bets in the Stratford Marking station, recording a velocity of 1362 was A. Stockwell & Son of Ilford. Albie first started in the sport by catching street pigeons off the local churches, and his first loft was made out of old and thrown away door panels which he recovered from the building sites. One day his uncle and past London North Road Combine Convoyer Ernie Williams said that if he wanted to keep pigeons properly he must have the right tools for the job. Ernie then gifted Albie a number of birds from his loft to which Albie could use for his future stock in 1976. Albie then joined the Ilford & District club in 1977 for young bird racing and actually won his first ever race he competed in.

Albie Stockwell

The Aycliffe combine winner is a fantastic well muscled, streamlined dark chequer pied cock. The cock contains the bloodlines of Busschaert, De Weerdt and Marcellis, however the Busschaert line in the pigeons is very dominant from Albie’s good friends Robson Brothers & Thompson from Newcastle, and the De Weerdt and Marcellis blood comes through a mixture of Albie’s, Johnny Stockwell and Uncle Ernie's bloodlines. The winning pigeon is full brother to at least 11 Federation winners. The winning pigeon showed some form two weeks prior to its big and important win from Aycliffe as it won 3rd Ilford & District Futurity race bagging roughly around £60. The combine winner was raced on the basic Darkness System, and was sent driving a number of hens to his perch. His first training toss of his life was from around the 40 mile mark and had around 8 tosses before the first race. Then Albie likes to give all his youngsters at least two training tosses per week, however for this year’s young bird combine Albie prepared his birds slightly differently. The last three weeks before the combine, Albie had a stroke of luck as a work colleague who lives at Halstead had been taking and releasing his youngsters on his way home from work most days. The combine winner has been to every single race that Albie has competed in, and is fed Swainston's high protein economy, but things such as maize or barley may be added to the mixture depending on what Albie feels the birds need. Albie is a big believer that the young bird immune system is much lower than an adult birds and to be successful with young birds you must keep on top of any illness that can become present in your loft, by the mixing of birds in the baskets on a regular basis, and because of this Albie will treat fortnightly for Cocci and Canker. The Combine winner will be raced again next season as a yearling. Albie offered some insight and I have included it as I feel what he said can help all readers. Albie feels the quickest route to success is to race against the best competition you can compete against, as doing so is the only way you can improve as a fancier. Also Albie believes as a fancier you must not rest on your laurels, and msut be looking to improve your family of pigeons all the time, even if it means just bringing in one special pigeon a year. Some of Albie’s past performances that we should highlight are that Albie has raced and won in three federations, has won in every club he has raced in including the Midweek Club and Federation, and has won the NRCC section from Fraserburgh, as well as being 2nd Open London North Road Young Birds Morpeth Combine, 3rd Open London North Road Combine Lerwick, and 4th Open London North Road Combine Berwick.

Albie's set-up

2nd Open London North Road Combine Aycliffe fell to the in form partnership of Mr & Mrs S Fenech & Sons of Epping recording a velocity of 1359. Steven is a fantastic pigeon man and to list actually what this partnership has won would be a very hard task, but they have won Clubs, Federations, Amalgamations and Combines. What makes this partnership even more fantastic is that their birds much like his brother Bob’s birds, are responsible for countless winners all over the world in a lot of the biggest pigeon organisations. He’s definitely a pigeon fancier at the highest level of the game. Steven has been involved in pigeons for the entire 43 years of his life, through his brothers Bob’s interest. Steven started racing on his own in 1984 at the age of 13 in the Leytonstone & Stratford club, funnily enough only 3 doors away from where Albie Stockwell first kept and raced pigeons.

Part of Steven's set up

The 2nd Open Combine winner is a Dark Chequer Hen and is now named 'Black Pearl'. The dam to 'Black Pearl' is named 'Sky' and she in turn was 3rd Open Essex and Kent Young Bird Combine 2012, as well as 'Sky' being an inbred granddaughter of Steven's famous cock bird 'Bolt' winner of 1st Combine, 13 times 1st Club, 4 times 1st County of Essex Federation, which definitely goes to prove that the apple does not fall far from the tree. 'Black Pearl' is of 100% Dennis Sapin blood who is one of the top sprint men in Belgium, to whom Steven is friend and UK Agent for and regularly they exchange birds each year. 'Black Pearl' and her loft mates are raced on the basic darkness system, and she was sent sitting to the race. The team are trained a minimum of 15 miles, depending on where Steven is working as well as the weather conditions. However in preparation for the race Steven changed his routine and would like to thank his brother Bob, who makes the daily commute from Norfolk to Essex, for taking and releasing his pigeons from his home. Steven’s team is fed a range of feeds from Versele Laga and he is a big believer in Cider Vinegar and Natural’s product Naturaline, which he uses on a regular basis. Steven has one more race left in his programme and that is with the Essex and Kent Combine, where he will be sending his best again, and with the form he is in, I am sure he will be amongst the leaders.

Steven

Black Pearl

The 3rd Open London North Road Combine winner recording a velocity of 1352 was S. Zielinski of Dagenham. Slav is a young Polish family man and very hard worker and is totally dedicated to pigeons. For someone that had only been in the sport and keeping pigeons since 2011, I was impressed by his dedication and fantastic loft set up and garden. Before his start in 2011 he had never kept pigeons, although a few of his family keep pigeons, namely his brother who keeps the very popular Polish past time of fancy pigeons, as well as having an uncle who races in Belgium. Since his start he has been fortunate enough to have been helped by his good friend Lenny Jenkins, and had been a novice up until this year’s young bird season, but with this win he now has 4 wins to his credit.

S Zielinski

The 3rd Open Combine winner’s sire was gifted to him from his uncle in Belgium, and the dam Slav purchased from the best pigeon fancier in his home town in Poland. The winning pigeon was raced on the darkness and sliding door system for most of the year, until Slav let the birds run together to get them on eggs for the important combine race. She was sent sitting 8 day old eggs. Slav tries to train a minimum of 3 times per week, to at least the 25 mile point. If it was possible he would train every day possible but working long 12 hour shifts it can sometimes be extremely difficult to school and work the pigeons as much as he would like. The brands of feed Slav uses are Versele Laga Gerry Plus and Versele Laga Superstar Plus, and he uses a lot of Polish pigeon products manufactured by a company called 'Prima'. Slav states they are similar to the products manufactured here but they contain a lot of Garlic and Oregano. Slav this year followed the feeding and watering advice of the Polish fancier he purchased the winning pigeon’s dam from. The future for the winning pigeon is that it will be sent to the following Essex and Kent Combine race. I feel Slav will make a huge impact in the London and Essex pigeon scene in the future. I was extremely impressed by his loft set up and design and I wish him more success in the future.

S. Zielinski's set-up

Unfortunately that sees an end to the racing pigeon season for 2014, and unfortunately the end of my reign as London North Road Combine press officer as I will be stepping down from the position. I would like to thank firstly my travel companion Tony Calverly, for taking time out from his loft tasks and visiting the winners with me.  I would also like to thank all the winners for having the time and patience to sit down and answer my questions and for showing myself and Tony around your lofts. I would also like to thank those that continually support the London North Road Combine and help to do whatever it takes to help make this organisation consistently great. Consequently it will not be the last you hear from me. I will be continuing producing articles and hopefully you shall be hearing from me very soon.

 

Grasshopper

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