STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION
by Thomas Garvie
Well, we have safely returned from Blackpool after our stay for the British Homing World show of the year and I have to say we had a great time over the weekend and particularly our stay in the Big Blue hotel where the rooms are first class and the food is excellent. Not the cheapest place to stay but it is worth the money and it is not full of raving drunks coming in at all hours. The only slight drawback staying there is the distance away from the Winter Gardens but that is not usually a problem because we enjoy the walk usually but this year the winds were ferocious so we ended up with a taxi there and back. But we did need a ride back anyway because of the things we bought. You can save a few quid when they have things on offer plus there is no postage to pay.
On Friday when we arrived to pen up our birds things went very smoothly and quite quickly, the only minor hold up was when the lady who was assigned to us was going round the corner into the next aisle she tripped over a basket and fell on her face giving her a bad nose bleed. Luckily she did not break her glasses or something worse. It is very inconsiderate of some fanciers when they think they can just dump baskets anywhere; they should definitely keep them out of the way because there is plenty room around the hall to get your birds out without blocking any pathways or aisles. It is a lot of hard work when you are getting all your birds ready for a major show and is a bit of a relief when all your birds are safely penned up, then you can relax. Well, sort of because then you are either nervous or excited or both, wondering if all your hard work will be rewarded. I should say Liz's hard work because she does nearly all the work on the birds when we are going to any shows and I am mainly just the box carrier but I get more excited then her and it is usually me who cannot wait to get breakfast over and get up to the show. When we did finally get up to the Winter Gardens [women don't half faff about getting ready before they will go out] we started off checking our pens and when you reach the first one to have a card then you know it has been worth all the hard work. The first pen we got to that had a card was the same mealy cock that carded last year and we have to thank a gentleman called Rodger Sexton from Wales who gave Liz a super pair of birds a couple of years ago which are now producing top quality show racers for us and that only came about by chance when at a previous BHW show Rodger saw one of our chequer cocks in the pen and when we got home he sent a letter to us after he had tracked down the owner of the chequer cock and he politely asked if we would sell him. Of course Liz offered to lend him the bird and he in return asked Liz if there was any particular kind of show racer that she was interested in. Liz told him she was looking for a nice mealy cock and of course Rodger said he had a nice mealy she could borrow. He also gave us a lovely hen to go with it and we have paired them to different birds of our own and again they produced some cracking birds. When Rodger said we could have our bird back he also told Liz that she could keep the pair he had loaned us in the first place. A real gentleman and a top class showman as well as he had a fantastic time at this show where he won a class and had others well placed in other classes, in fact he had seven cards out of his ten birds entered. Going back to our own birds, when we got further along we got to another bird of ours which had carded and after we had checked all our birds we had three cards in total so we were extremely happy with that.
It is really nice to meet up with some friends that you only see once a year and it is at the show where you can catch up on all the gossip [well the women like to catch up on the gossip]. It is surprising how many friends you can see considering the size of the show and especially on Saturday when the halls are absolutely jam packed to capacity and in some places it is actually hard to move along. On the Sunday we found it had quietened down a fair bit but by lunchtime on the Sunday after you have done all you want then you really just want to get your birds out and get home. On the Sunday we did actually get a chance to speak to one of my old neighbours from where I lived as he had entered a bird in the supreme class of show racers after he had won a show in Scotland. He came down to pick his bird up and also take a cock bird home to his dad that we had offered to give him. His dad actually raced in the same club as I did before I moved down to England and I visited him just before Christmas when we were up to see my family and I said we would give his son a bird for him if he came to Blackpool. Luckily his son Alan Rundell was coming to the show so he got the bird for his dad but when we spoke to Alan he told us of the extremely hard time he had over entering the bird in the supreme winner's class. There seemed to have been a lot of controversy over his bird being entered and there was even more controversy when his bird actually won the show in Scotland and someone complained about the bird's ring and wanted him disqualified, which he was but he knew there was nowt wrong with the bird or the ring. Maybe just a bad loser up there but he took his case to the RPRA where he was duly proved right and he was awarded the winner's prize and that duly let him enter the BHW show. It just proves if you know you are in the right with something then you should actually fight the cause.
Now that showing has ended it is now time to look at getting the birds paired up to see if we can breed anything to improve on the previous year but we have stuck with some pairs are as they seem to produce good birds for us that we know can get home from the longest race on the day. Well they did last year but this is a different year so things might not end up the same. We do not want them to be the same though because we want them to be better but only time will tell on that one.
I have just taken a break and finished off pairing up the last of the racers with Liz so that is all the racers paired up for this year so again it is the anticipation of waiting to see what they produce. A couple of the birds are getting quite old now and one hen in particular who is ten has always had a problem with her eggs but we have always managed to get something off her eventually and hopefully we might get one or two from her again as it was only last year when we were racing from France that we actually found out she was producing birds that were good enough to fly from Saintes. We have actually only been starting from scratch over the last couple of years and she was one of Liz's pets [of which there are many] but she is a sweetie, the old pigeon I am meaning.
Over the last few months there have been many stories flying round that the fed was going to fold as there have been no names bandied about to take over the roles of president and secretary to replace Brian and Jill who were retiring at the end of last season but fortunately at the AGM a new president/secretary was found and he is Dave Lomas. He is also his club secretary [Berryhill] and his details are: phone number is 07725329729 and his address is 7 Queensway Court, Broadway, Stoke on Trent, Staffs, ST3 5PE. The life vice president is Roy Jones-BlytheBridge, treasurer is Lisa Edge, vice presidents are Richard Rowlinson-Alton, Malcolm Preece-Berryhill, Jeff Roberts-Packmoor, race advisors are Brian Smith-Macclesfield and Roy Jones-BlytheBridge, transport manager is Jim Dufficey and the convoyer is Craig Taylor.
The fed will be holding its three breeder buyer sales and race during 2012 and the venues for these will be Meir, Macclesfield and Packmoor and with Packmoor moving to new headquarters at the Grape Inn they have the facilities to hold the sale. At present Jill will still be running the fed website [www.moorlandsfedpigeons.co.uk] but she is hoping for someone to take it over in due course.
When I was writing at the start of the article and was talking about Blackpool show I forgot to add that my wife and I visited the scribes' room, the first year I have actually done so even though I have been writing for a good few years here in England and in Scotland. I have to say you are made very welcome by the ladies who will give you a nice refreshing drink of almost anything and it is nice to have a seat and talk with some other scribes, although I have to admit I was a bit nervous at first because I do find it a bit awkward when meeting people for the first time. But the ladies make you very welcome and once you get chatting it is nice. I will definitely be going back next year so thank you ladies for the drinks.
As promised in the last article, I have again included a few more photos from the Macclesfield show we attended and I am still waiting on a date to pick up the young birds that Rick Geary is giving us. I will pester him till we get them. Just phone me Rick when they are ready and we will come down and pick them up.
Brenda Bowers
Margaret Bowers
Kev Bowers
Rodger Bowers
Young Harry
Young Holly
That is about all I can think of just now so good luck to all the fed members for this coming year and as usual all the articles can be seen on the fed website and also on Elimar Pigeon Services Portal. Hopefully more clubs will send some snippets this year as it does not take a great deal of time to send me anything and you can reach me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call me on 01663 733317, preferably not too late.