North West Classic Club - Truro report with Les J Parkinson.

This upside-down season has seen all sorts of issues with racing and a lot of pigeons not racing as well as they are expected too. Fanciers are losing good pigeons that they would not have expected to do during a normal racing season. Yes, we have experienced up and down seasons under normal racing conditions, but this year has seen distance pigeons being sent to the shorter races and it looks as if many are bypassing their home lofts. We do not expect experienced pigeons to do this, but it appears they do. I also hear that there are pigeons racing from the West Country ending up in Ireland, mind you we have seen this under normal races when there has been east in the wind. This was one of those hard race’s where many struggled to make their home loft on the day. The race saw 34 members sending 329 birds with only 70 on the result from a land race which in such competition is unusual and the longer flying members were the ones to take the premier positions.

1^st & 5^th Section B 1^st & 6^th Open is won by R Wildman & Son from Bolton winning £250 in prizes. When Bob and Aaron decided to start racing pigeons in 2019, they put up a 24ft loft at the bottom of the garden. The next step was to make sure they had a club to race their pigeons in and they found the Great Lever Club in Bolton. This was a good decision because fellow club member Joe Lonsdale gifted Aaron 6 young birds. These young birds were raced, and a blue chequer cock went on to win this race from Truro. He is bred from a blue cock from Paige Bros famous “Spitfire” lines with the dam being off Bob Shipperbottom. The pigeons are raced on the roundabout and fed on Versela Laga Gerri Plus. It sounds as if they are a new and keen partnership to the sport, we could do with a few more like them, well done.


Bob and Aaron Wildman

2^nd & 7^th Section B 2^nd & 8^th open are also won at Bolton when Fred Hitchen had a good race collecting £280 prize & pool money. Fred is a fancier who has in the main kept the same pigeons for many years but has in the last few years started to introduce a few that are beginning to show promise for the future. The pigeon that was his second arrival in this race is an introduction from the successful Barnes & Wallmsley partnership. This one was bought as a hen but turned out to be a cock and is from the Cassaert lines. There are also the pigeons from Graham Mackay and Tommy Duffy that are doing will, there is one who has won a few prizes. By the way the first in the clock is off the old stock and has had a few prizes on land and channel. Fred started the season with 23 widowhood cocks and has dropped 4 which is good going when you look at how many others have lost, he did say like most pigeon fanciers he keeps too many. They are fed on Countrywide Irish mix with a depurative and are broken down until Wednesday for the land races and a day earlier when it comes to channel racing. Before this season started, they had 6 training tosses at High Leigh and one at Sandbach and have not been trained since. As I was gathering this information Fred had just arrived at his training point for the young birds so was waiting to give them a flight home.

3^rd Section 3^rd open goes to a regular in the prizes, Graham Mackay from Swinton winning £115. This is a Herman – Ceusters bred down from the originals that they obtained from John Wheatcroft. Her nest mate was 2^nd Combine Mangotsfield this year and last year her mother achieved 2^nd Combine. There farther is a brother to a previous 1^st in the North West Classic that also bred a 1^st a NWCC winner. Over the years these lines have appeared in many of the winners for Graham so a good line to stick with.   


Graham Mackay

1^st Section A 4^th Open goes to Rick & Simon Geary the father and son partnership from Macclesfield winning £124. The pigeon that won the section for us is a Willy Jacobs cross Soontjen raced on the roundabout system, he is no stranger to the prizes because he has had 3rd section MNFC last year, here is a photo of my dad and the clan.


Rick Geary and his young team

4^th Section B 5^th Open sees Middlewich members M & H Smith winning £66, Mark is just getting over a hip replacement and has been with the pigeons as much as he would like to have been. Thanks for the opportunity to give some information on my bird that was 4^th section B 5^th open NWCC Truro race. The pigeon in question is a blue hen which has raced very consistently over the years in land and on the channel. She is medium build and her breeding 50% Soontjen and 50 % Vandenabeele. The Soontjen side comes from fellow Middlewich fanciers Dougie and Irene Niblett, with the Vandenabeele side also coming from fellow Middlewich fanciers Mike O’Hare & Ron Woodward. The feeding process for this race was Vanrobaueys Cassaert heavy mixed towards the end of the week with Bamford’s Red Rossetta. All birds are raced on the roundabout system and have flown the race program apart from a 3-week break (hospital stay). The hens have been trained once per week 20 miles by follow Middlewich fancier Peter Latham who has been a great help during my illness. The hens are also flown around the loft every day for 1 hour.


Mark Smith

6^th Section B 7^th Open sees James Hinchliffe with another in the top ten after clocking a yearling hen. First, I would like to congratulate Bob and Aaron on winning the NWCC. This Dad and Lad partnership are new to the sport and deserve this result with all the hard work they put in, always there to help with anything that needs to be done. The bird I clocked in is a two-year-old blue hen that was sitting her first eggs of the year, as I had paired her up for the NFC Guernsey race that has unfortunately been cancelled. She scored earlier in the season when she was 1st North section, 4th Central Lancs. Combine from Cheltenham as well as 9th Open from Portland with the NWCC as a young bird. Like the rest of my birds, she is fed on super star plus and trained twice a week by my dad, Fred, who is the best pigeon trainer in Lancashire and is with me in the picture.


James and Fred Hinchliffe

1^st 2^nd 3^rd 4^th 5^th 6^th Section C 9^th 14^th 17^th 18^th 33^rd 34^th Open are won by Mr & Mrs D W Cox from Warrington, they are racing a good pigeon in this club but as with many I have emailed or left messages on the phone but not had a response, we appear to have quite a few shy fanciers in the club, mind you not done so bad for this race.

8^th Section B 10^th open is another win for the Jones Bros & K Jones partnership from Winsford. The partnership clocked a 2yo who was not raced last year due to not being right as a young bird, she was also 2^nd club from Cheltenham. The pigeons are trained 3 times each week plus their exercise around home. Many years ago, the partnership introduced the Andre Clemens pigeons and they have continued to win so why bring in new stock. Many fanciers go for the latest fashion but at this loft if they are winning why bring in new stock.


Karen Jones and guard dog

Les J Parkinson. Tel: 01606836036 Mobile: 07871701585.
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Website: www.elimarpigeons.com