STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

January 2013

Well it has been a bit of a while since I last wrote anything as of late we have been extremely busy and we were also on a well-earned break to somewhere warm namely Hong Kong and Thailand for a couple of weeks. I have to say the hotel resort we were at in Thailand was what you would imagine paradise to be like and this was as close to paradise as you could possibly dream of. The bungalows were spread out and the foliage which surrounded them was something special with monkeys jumping over the roofs to the squirrels that ran everywhere and the toucans flying about. It made it a place you are never likely to forget. It was the most amazing place in the world and the temperature was almost 100 degrees every day, which was about 105 degrees warmer than it was here at the time as apparently we missed all the hard frost. Such a shame that was! We went trekking on an elephant, which has to be one of the most amazing things to do and I absolutely loved it and that event just made the holiday even more amazing. Waking up in the jungle to the sounds of the native animals was an experience itself but we were out in our garden about 6-30am every morning with a cup of tea and then it was down to the most amazing beach you could think of. It was absolutely deserted at that time and the water was very warm so it was an hour’s swimming before we went for breakfast.

Liz & I elephant trekking

 I have some photos of the Boxing Day show at Macclesfield and I have to say we had a fantastic time and there were some very nice birds. While we were there I went along to the lofts of Rick and Simon Geary and I have to be honest and say they have some cracking birds there which came as no surprise as yet again they were the top flyers in the club. They are also in my opinion two of the best flyers in the Moorlands Fed.

Rick with his finger in another pie

When Rick took me into one section of his lofts he showed me a few cocks. I told him what was for me the best cock amongst them and he said that was not really a surprise as it was his fantastic breeding cock Shyboy. I have seen photos of it before but to actually hold the bird was even better and it is no wonder that they do so well with birds of this quality. We went into another section with hens in it and Rick was showing me some and letting me handle some but they never excited me much, but then I saw a smallish blue hen in a box perch. I caught her and she felt something special to me as it was small and that is the type of bird I prefer. Rick told me it was a daughter of Shyboy and was their best stock hen so I can't be all that bad at picking good birds. Without a shadow of a doubt his birds in general are of the highest quality and it is no wonder he is again the top money winner in the club. There are a couple of members who are getting close to this pair but I would assume that Rick and Simon will work harder to make sure they stay at the top of their game. Thank you Rick for taking me to your lofts and my wife and I will arrange another visit where we are not pushed for time so we will have more time to have a better look at the birds. We’ll maybe come down when they are on eggs and see if you will throw a couple our way - preferably off Shyboy. 

The super chequer Skyboy

The show had a very good turnout and the birds were judged by Brian Lee who picked out a chequer and a chequer white flight as the two winners of the old and young cocks. Martin Hough and George Greenwood were the two winners. There were rumours about George being crafty and having a bird in without a transfer but the members were sporting enough to let him keep his winning card. I know they were only joking George when they were protesting over it - but get it transferred. The Macclesfield club members do know how to run a show and presentation and Rick's wife Sue certainly knows how to put on a lovely buffet as the food was first class. She does a splendid job and was presented with a lovely bouquet of flowers for her efforts and she thoroughly deserved them. It was nice to get to a gathering of pigeon folk where the banter is about pigeons and all the members we spoke to there were very friendly. My wife got chatting to Tommy Bradbury who keeps his pigeons in Stockport and the reason I am mentioning Tommy is because for years now when we have been going to Stockport we have always seen this batch of pigeons flying around and have often wondered who they belonged to. Tommy said they were his and he has kindly invited us to stop by the next time we are heading his way. At some point we will take him up on his kind invitation.

George Greenwood's old cocks class winner

Martin Hough's young cocks class winner

Back to some fed news now and there have been a few meetings regarding where our birds will be going this year and it was decided after lobbying the clubs and getting the votes counted, that for the water races the birds will be transported with the Midlands National. Some folk are happy but others are not. Our club voted to go with North Staffordshire but deep down I knew that was never going to happen. I think one of the main reasons for trying to get somebody to take the birds over the water was that the fed did not want to lose any money because last season they lost quite a bit on water races, but another issue that needs sorting out is the actual pick up of the birds in the North section because as yet it has not been totally agreed as to how they are going to be transported to the main pick up transporter. Us and some other flyers I know have actually put any plans of breeding on hold till the pick up situation is organized because again some flyers do not even know if they will actually be racing or not.  In the last e-mail I received from Dave Lomas he told me that as yet no names had been put forward for any of the official posts and with the AGM being held on the 13th of January time is running out. Hopefully as the clubs have had plenty of time to speak about this, some members will be prepared to take on the posts for the forthcoming year. I did however tell Dave that I would happily continue to do the writing for the fed if they wished me to carry on with it. 

Well the show of the year at Blackpool is also fast approaching and no doubt it will be as busy as usual. I have been a few times but I thought a lot of trade stands were disappearing the last time I went. I know everybody keeps saying that the racing game is declining but you would not think that with the amount of sales there where birds change hands for a small fortune in some cases and you meet folk in the street laden down with their yearly supplies, so there does not seem to be a shortage of folk willing to part with their cash, whether wisely or not. I have to say on any of the times I went I was never tempted to buy any birds, mainly because I thought a lot of them were over priced, but there will always be somebody there with pockets deep enough to buy them. Not a lot else I can think of at the moment so

I will finish off with the prize money and race cards that were won in Macclesfield club.

Rick and Simon Geary - 8x1sts 8x2nds 4x3rds 7x4ths 7x5ths £494 in cash, so as you can see they are in a league of their own.

Martin Hough - 3x1sts 2x2nds 4x3rds 4x4ths 3x5ths £215 in cash

Kev Bowers - 3x1sts 1x2nd 3x3rds 2x4ths 1x5th £164 in cash

Bernie Barrett - 1x1st 1x2nd 2x3rds 1x4th 3x5ths £118 in cash

Stuart Goldstraw - 1x1st 4x2nds 1x3rd 1x4th £107 in cash

Alan Senior - 1x1st 1x2nd 1x5th £48 in cash

Joe Flood - 1x3rd 1x4th 1x5th £30 in cash

Ben Walton - 1x3rd 1x4th 1x5th £30 in cash

Kev Moore - 1x2nd 1x3rd £27 in cash

Mick Goldstraw - 1x1st £25 in cash

Jill and Brian Smith - £12 in cash

Roger Bowers - 1x4th £10 in cash

So for now that sums it up and I would like to wish all the members of the fed a Happy New Year and have a good forthcoming season with your birds. If you have anything for print then you know where to send it. Bye for now.