STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

Blandford - June 2012

Well after the glorious sunshine of last week, normal service has resumed weather wise with the rain lashing down since last night and it has never halted. We can hardly see the bottom of the garden so not exactly a day for pigeons coming from Blandford, which is about 170 miles or so to us. The weather forecast for the whole route up was looking grim so I knew we would probably have a long wait today to see if there would be a race of some sort and I envisaged the birds probably being brought back to a shorter race point or even brought back home. As time was moving on I spoke with one of the race controllers and asked him his opinion of what he thought and he said they were going to sit at Blandford a bit longer to see if there would be any improvement in the weather. After a short time, I looked on the fed website and there was a large banner on the site saying that the birds were being brought to Tewkesbury, which was just over 90 miles to us. I thought this was a really good decision as when looking at some pigeon sites the information was clear that a lot of feds were bringing their birds back up country a bit as the weather was bad further down. It looked as if all the race controllers were of the same way of thinking, that the weather was unsuitable down south for any sort of race. It was well on in the afternoon when I looked again at the fed website and it was still showing a message saying the birds were being brought back, and to my amazement the banner changed and I was dumbfounded when the message read that the birds had been released at Blandford at two o'clock.

The fed had 1,715 birds at this race and at the top was yet again the in form loft of W Burgess from Packmoor on 1513 who is having a fantastic season. Next was J Woolrich and son also from Packmoor on 1507 and another on 1433, and they are also having a very good season. They must have special water at Packmoor and we could do with some of it up this way. Next we have P Standeven from Milton on 1492. Paul Beck from Longdendale was next on 1455. D. Yeomans from Milton was next on 1451, then Adams brs from Meir were on 1447. Mcgraw, Clegg and Preece from Berryhill were next on 1444, Burton and Jones from Ipstones were next on 1440, and taking the tenth fed place was A S Rushton from Berryhill on 1424. So there we have the top ten in the fed from this extremely difficult race.

A bit of news from around a few clubs now starting with Ipstones where nine members sent 123 birds and taking the red card here were Burton and Jones who were also third and fourth with velocities of 1440, 1380 and 1351. Stopping a clean sweep were R and J Goodwin and son on 1395. Next is Macclesfield where 11 members sent 111 birds and claiming the top spot was Martin Hough on 1398 with a two year old cock, a Willy Thas x Rodger Sutton which he bred himself. Kev Moore is second with a three year old cock which is a cross Soontjen with a cock from Bradbury and Barnes of Hazel Grove which has already had a first and two seconds in its flying career. Club secretary Bernie Barret is third on 1376 with a direct Luke Geerink cock which has carded before and fourth place went to Rodger Bowers on 1364 with a two year old Frank Sheader x Dutch hen. The members would like to thank Thorneycroft solicitors of Macclesfield for sponsoring the race. Last club I have any information on for this race is Hayfield where 8 members sent 56 birds and back on winning form was sprint king J L Gibb on 1364 with a five year old cock. Well done again Jim on another win, you will soon have won enough money to pay for nest year's corn. Second and fourth was house husband Steve Warhurst on 1280 and 1230 with two yearling cocks. I have included a photo of Steve.

House husband Steve Warhurst.

Third place went to Liz Clarke and T Garvie on 1278 with a yearling grizzle hen and how she managed to even see the loft is beyond me because you could not see a few feet in front of you for torrential rain and this was supposed to be the weather that was fit for a release. We had sent 6 birds to this race and how on God's earth it happened but we had 5 birds home that night and the last one the next morning.

So that is all I have for this dreadful race and hopefully something good and positive will come out of the President's special meeting to try and regain some credibility for the fed. If you have anything else you wish me to say about your club or about anything else regarding the fed send it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. All articles can be seen on the fed website which is www.moorlandsfedpigeons.co.uk and www.pigeonsglossop.co.uk and the Elimar pigeon portal.

Thank you. Tom.