MIDLANDS NATIONAL FLYING CLUB

by MIKE LAKIN

ANCENSIS - JULY 2013

It’s a Hatrick of Wins for Mick Betts

Mick Betts with his winning hen Paula

After all the talk about the new liberation site at Ancensis it was down to business and the plain truth is that the weather dictates the outcome of the race. Never can this have been more accurately shown than in the three races the MNFC has flown to date this season. From Carentan we had a South Easterly wind and good returns with the western side profiting. From Fougeres the wind was of a Westerly nature and the eastern fanciers won the lion's share and from both races returns were excellent. On these days channel racing looks easy. When though the sun comes out to play making it baking hot and the weather cock shows the wind direction to be from the North East pigeon flying becomes a far different ‘ball game’ and fanciers sit squinting into the sun looking, often forlornly,  for an arrival. The mobiles start going ‘’Where are they?’’. The plain truth is that the vast majority of pigeons don’t like and don’t handle East and North Easterly winds very well. Once again this fact was proved to be correct in the MNFC’s latest race from Ancensis when 5,498 birds were liberated on the 6th July at 5.50am. The Head Convoyer Ian French reported an excellent liberation with the birds clearing the site immediately, all heading North Easterly, the correct direction for home.

The heat and face wind though causes dehydration and with it comes an effect on the birds' homing ability. This is why the birds that reach home successfully are so highly regarded because pigeons that can still function on such testing days are in the minority. One of these birds is the one that homed to the Scawsby home of M B Betts, who is better known as Mick. His hen which leads the convoy with a probable velocity of 1370, an excellent velocity on the day, is a proven bird with other MNFC diplomas to her credit. As the headline says, this, when it is confirmed, will be Mick’s third Midland National victory and believe me there aren’t many three times champions of the MNFC. Once is a dream come true. Twice must be amazing and the third time well…… you best ask Mick.

What all of this does say very loudly is that Mick Betts has got some ‘top notch’ pigeons because he won a similar type of race a few years ago from Le Ferte Bernard if my brain is still operating correctly in this heat. Birds like these win against the odds. As the saying goes, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going!’ Many congratulations Mick.

When you look at the provisional and I stress the word provisional result you will see that there is no real pattern to where the leading pigeons are situated. This is because paradoxically these hard races though often painful are in many ways the fairest because it is down to the conditioning skills of the fancier and quality of the pigeons. I will talk more about these birds when the result is confirmed.

To all those who got birds home be proud of them because these are the foundation pigeons of the future. They are birds with strong constitutions, the type that will produce your future champions.

July 2013

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