STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

Hullavington - April 2012

Well another week has brought us to another race and this week the fed has moved to Hullavington for the second race of the season. You wait all winter for racing to begin and as soon as you get started you can see the plans all being worked out for future races in the season and before you know it the season will be over. Last week was a fairly good start for us with no birds being lost. It always helps if you can get over the first two or three races with minimal losses and it continued with this second race with all our birds back home safely again. I think most folks I have spoken to have had near perfect returns with these two races, which is good going because the weather has not been very kind to us, in fact it has been a dismal start weather wise and up where we live it feels like winter instead of spring. I think in most local areas it would have to be about 80 degrees for us just to have a fairly nice day but when you live high up in the Peak District it is only to be expected and as I am writing this just now the wind and rain outside are absolutely horrendous. It is not a day for birds to be out [which I will elaborate a bit more on on the next article].

Back to the Hullavington race and the convoy of 2,564 birds which were sent by 140 members were released at 09-15 in a west north west wind. A new name has reached the top of the fed namely W. Burgess from Packmoor with a velocity of 1513 and he was closely followed by P Beck of Longdendale on 1512. The next four fed places went to K Pettitt from Blyth Bridge club and he was on 1506 with his first three and his fourth was on 1505 and Ken never seems to be far away. Next two places went to Holdway & Tansley from Milton on 1502 and 1500 and final top ten places went to T Woolrich and Son from Packmoor on 1498 and 1493. So there we have the top ten which does look completely different to last week's. It is nice to see other names at the top but you have to give credit to the flyers who are always there or there abouts week in week out. Everybody is trying to oust the king pins and I suppose that is dangerous as it will make them try even harder as they will not want to lose their crown.

We have just started recently getting our young birds out at night and the other night I had just let them out when a sparrowhawk pounced on one of them. I was on hand to chase it off but the birds did not half scatter and it took till next day for most of them to come back. We have ended up being two short and as we do not breed a lot to begin with two does make a difference so they have been confined to quarters to let them settle again and they will be out tonight if the weather eases up a bit.

A quick review of the club reports that I have starting with Macclesfield and 11 members sent 170 birds. Going one better than last week and taking the red card is Stuart Goldstraw on 1480 with a home bred Flor Engels x Van Loon widowhood yearling cock and taking the next three cards are Rick and Simon Geary on 1476, 1475 and 1473, their first bird being a Rietvink x Soontjen which has had 5 first to its credit, their second bird which is a Staf van Reet x Hybrecht has also had 5 wins and both these birds are 4 year old widowhood cocks and their third bird was last week's fed topper, a two year old Hybrecht Van Reet cross. The members would like to thank M Fox Plumbing for sponsoring the race. Next up is Blythebridge where 6 members sent 91 pigeons and taking the first four cards was K Pettitt [well he took the first six actually] but his first four were three of them on 1506 and the other on 1505, three were blue hens and the other was a blue white flight hen so obviously not on widowhood. Ipstones now where A Mace took the red card on 1481.4 with a three year old cock, next two places went to Burton and Jones on identical times of 1481 with both birds being yearling hens and fourth place went to D Glover on 1734 with a yearling cock. Again we finish with Hayfield and 7 members here sent 129 birds and yet again taking the red card is J L Gibb on 1472 with a five year old cock, next was Chris Mourne with a three year old cock on 1427, third and fourth were David and Jean Ashby on 1424 and 1421 with yearling cock first and a five year old cock second bird for them. Again this a rather brief article so I will finish with a joke to try and cheer you up.

New Lawyer

Joe grew up in a small town, then moved away to attend college and law school. He decided to come back to the small town because he could be a big man in this small town. He really wanted to impress everyone. He opened his new law office, but business was very slow at first. One day, he saw a man coming up the sidewalk. He decided to make a big impression on this new client when he arrived.

As the man came to the door, Joe picked up the phone. He motioned the man in, all the while talking..

"No. Absolutely not. You tell those clowns in New York that I won't settle this case for less than one million.."

"Yes. The Appeals Court has agreed to hear that case next week. I'll be handling the primary argument and the other members of my team will provide support.."

"Okay. Tell the DA that I'll meet with him next week to discuss the details.."

This sort of thing went on for almost 5 minutes. All the while the man sat patiently as Joe rattled instructions. Finally, Joe put down the phone and turned to the man. "I'm sorry for the delay, but as you can see, I'm very busy.

What can I do for you?"

The man replied "I'm from the phone company here to hook up your phone."

Well that sums it up for another week so if you have anything you want to send me my e mail and phone number are on the fed website so for another week it is goodbye from TG.