North West Classic Club

 Carentan

 Report by Les J Parkinson

It was a long time coming but the first channel race of the season for the club finally got under way. Officials were unsure about how the channel racing would turn out this year, it was not as good as last year but a drop was expected. The race was closer than we would have expected from across the water into the North West. The first 4 pigeons on the same yard and considering two were over in the east section at Denton and Stockport while the other two were in Darwen which is well up country and the winner being one of the shorter flying members in Shavington just south of Crewe. The way they were spread out indicates that the members had a good race with all in with a chance of topping the list.

Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw

1^st & 3^rd Section B 1^st & 7^th Open went to Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw of Shavington who are having a real good season racing mostly yearlings. What makes these that much better is that the partnership have not been at their current address for 12 months yet, but Nigel being pigeons all the way we can expect him to be one of the lofts to beat. What has also happened is Nigel is spreading his wings as they say and going into more of the National type races in a bigger way. For many years he was a small back garden set up but now with 9 acres behind him he has a far bigger loft but spreading the pigeons between more clubs and really having a go. He is one of the fanatical fanciers we have in the UK and will have a go at any race no matter what conditions have been predicted for the weekend. Their winner in this race is a blue hen bred by Paul Macaloney she was one of a racing kit always being very consistent winning as a young bird and as a yearling always a front runner. She was also their first bird in the NFC before the she won the classic. Then she went to Mangotsfield where she was 12th fed then back to NWCC Fougeres being their pool pigeon and being first pigeon to the loft again. She is bred out of Mill Reef Super Mac lines x WW481. With moving the team is mostly yearlings plus there are 5 two-year-old cocks that they broke out from when they moved. These cocks won from the start winning 10 firsts last year and won the NFC Gold ring race, this year they have carried on their winning ways, winning federations, MNFC section, NWCC section and open. They keep a team of sprint cocks which are a mixture of David Sara Ceusters and GWP Macaloney birds for the federation races, the yearling hens are the ones that go to the Classic races and they have a team of distance cocks that didn’t race as young birds so were not on the dark. They will have one Chanel race as yearlings then they are hopefully going to push them further as two year olds, they all exercise together. The second hen from the classic 3 min later was 7th open being bred by their good friend’s Ben and John Oakley she is direct out of their no 1 breeding hen called Beeston when paired to a son of Black Caviar of Macaloney fame. They have only just joined the classic but did race in an open race once sending 4 pigeons to win 1st 2nd 4th open. They have a bigger range of lofts than I have ever known them to have because they are increasing their team to compete more at the highest level. 

Wignall & Jones from Denton are 1^st Section A 2^nd Open, with a change of partnership but the results are still the same coming out in the prizes.

Patricia Smith the Stockport a super worker for the sport is 2^nd Section A 3^rd Open with a 2yo Pencil Blue Cock. This one was bred By Dean Roberts of Prestwich which was in the Fed Breeder Buyer sale in 2018, Pat liked it that much she bought it. The cocks are raced on the widowhood with Pat preferring not to race the hens, the young birds are all raced on her natural system. These pigeons have tit-bits including peanuts and Red Band with just Multi Vit’s in the water once a week and Electrolytes on return from a race. Pat has decided to cut down now as her intentions are to stop racing. She only has 11 Widowhood Cocks with hens plus a small team of 13 young birds to race this year. I have known Pat for a good many year’s and compiled a loft report on her a few years ago. She is a winner of many 1^st Clubs, 1st Feds and Open’s but the one that stands out is when she was 7^th Millennium race in 2000 when 12,222 birds were liberated from Vire. The current team is made up of Herman Ceusters, Louis Cooremans and a cross of Van Reet and Janssens.

Patricia Smith's 2nd Section 3rd Open winner with his hen

Keith Nuttall from Darwen comes in with 2^nd Section B 4^th Open Bred by Geoff Farmer of Tamworth and is a yearling Chequer Cock. This cock scored as a young bird and has been steady up to this classic race. This is his one and only channel race this year, but he has had the land races keeping up with the rest. Keith races all the birds on widowhood, this is mainly cock’s but does have 12 hens that are in with the young birds. Started the season with 30 widowhood cocks and has lost 4 to date. They have been raced in the Wednesday club and have done very well. They are all fed on Versela Laga with the addition of grit and minerals, nothing else. At the moment Keith is racing in 3 clubs at the moment and does like to compete as far as he can go. He does not have pigeons for the 600ml plus races but is working on them for the future.

The Fowler Family over in Staffs are 3^rd Section A 5^th Open these are one of a few fanciers competing this year for the first time who didn’t know they were in the radius until over the last winter.

G Holker & Sons from Swinton, past winners of many top prizes through to 1^st National are 4^th Section A 5^th Open with a 2yo chequer hen. This hen won the North West Classic Club last year from Messac. Both cocks and hens Roundabout with the young birds being reared on the darkness. They have tit-bits of Sunflower Hearts, peanuts with the addition of Tollyamin Forte in water. They have their work cut out with a total there are 250 birds housed. We all have a dream when racing the pigeons, that’s what we all aim for and in this case, it was Dream achieved when they won the National FC. The current team is made up of Herman Custers Van den Bulck and the Freialdenhofen & Son birds.

Bob Smith another Stockport fancier is 5^th Section A 8^th Open after seeing home a yearling chequer cock raced on widowhood. He is from a very good pair with the cock being winner of 4 x 1^st Club and 1 x 1^st Fed, 3^rd Sec L 132 Open from Fougeres in the NFC 8,756 Birds while the dam is a winner of 2 x 1^st Club, 1^st and 7^th Fed.

R J Davies & Son from Chorlton usually get to the top in this club and finish 6^th Section 9^th open. The hen is a yearling black pied from a Jos Cools cock paired to a granddaughter from Clean Slate and Mystique. She had two races as a young bird and has had 6 old bird races being flown on the roundabout system. She was 16th fed, 46th Central Lancs Combine, 2666 birds from Yeovil the week before. They feed a mixture of different corn, Vanrobaeys and Versa Laga. They also use plenty of Tollisans vitamins and oregano garlic oils. The pigeons are exercised twice a day for an hour each time and they fly very well on their routine. They have a mixture of different family of breeds such as Crehan & O’Connor which are our main base of pigeons from Flash Harry and Mystique prodigy and the Olympiad pair. They also have Leo Heremans and recently introduced some Pitbull pigeons and Les Greens Blauwe Gert line from Stefaan Lambrecht’s No 1 pair. These are to be tried in the future crossed into their own established stock pigeons.

Mark Byron

Mark Byron from Bolton is 4^th Section B 10^th open with a chequer yearling cock whose father is Janssen based while the mother is a Vandenabeele. Mark races the birds on the natural system and feed’s premium gold and depurative 50/50. He also uses Aviform 11 in 1 multivitamins and fresh matrix grit daily. There are 10 pairs of old birds and 30 young.

J McGenity is 1^st & 2^nd Section C. First in the clock is a yearling dark chequer cock bred from Stuart Knowles Widnes and was on his first ever channel race. 2nd section C winner is a 2-year-old chequer cock bred from Nic Morris stock from Pant Oswestry. The birds are raced on a natural system to either egg’s or young. Nice to see the Mcgenity girls in the photos showing off their dad’s winners.

The McGenity girls with 1st & 2nd Section