STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

Well the fed is now at the penultimate water race and for this one we are jointly convoying with North Staffordshire for the first time this season, although it was originally planned to have all our water races with them but it never happened. We were told at club marking why we were on our own for the first two but for the love of me I cannot remember the reason. Must be old age creeping up on me or something like that but it is the first race from France where we had 100% returns so it must have helped our birds in the joint convoy. There is only one short comeback race before the old bird season culminates with the big race from Saintes and then that is the old birds done and dusted for another year and then on to the young birds which is another scenario altogether as they are about as predictable as the weather forecasters and probably just as reliable. I always find it a nerve racking time with young birds, especially when you start training them and the only good thing about that is the fact I can't pull my hair out as I have not got any. Sometimes I wish I had then I could at least tear it out while waiting for the young birds to return from a training toss because even more so now do they have lots to cope with and that is before the raptors take their share. I suppose we have to put up with all that goes with the young birds otherwise we would not have any old birds for the following year. Wouldn't it be great if they were born as two year old birds with the same experience that they have. That would solve a lot of hair tugging because there is nothing worse than having a lovely set of young birds then you have to watch some of them just dwindle away even before you get to the first race with them.

In between wrting this we decided that we had to go to Bakewell to return the trophy we won last year for best racer and as it was a gorgeous day we thought we would take our young birds with us for a toss. It is only 20 miles by car so would be a good few miles shorter for them and they had already been that distance anyway albeit in the other direction but I believe it does not really matter where they go because they do not know where they are, they just simply have to get home. Anyway we let the birds go at Bakewell at 10-30 and watched them do one circle and then all head off as one so we thought we would visit the market while we were there and do a bit of shopping and then decided to head home not giving the birds another thought, expecting them to be all in the loft when we got home, which was about 3 hours after we released them. When we got home I had a quick look at the loft and could see some youngsters in the aviary and just assuming they were all back went inside for some lunch. Afterwards I thought I'd just better go and check the birds and when I went in to the loft I was horrified to see that the young birds in the aviary, 8 in total, were all that were home after about 4 hours. When I told Liz she thought I was joking but I was in no mood for joking because in the next two hours we only got another 2 home, taking us up to ten from thirty two, which was 6 hours after liberating them. All afternoon we only had the odd one drifting back and at 7pm we had 19 back and after that I just gave up in despair and headed for the wine cellar. I just kept thinking that was going to be our lot but when I was going out to close the loft up at about 9-30 I was astonished to see a lot of the missing birds in the aviAry so hurried inside to see a lot more. When I counted them we were only two short and to say I was relieved is an understatement and I was even happier when another one turned up in the morning leaving us only one short. I have to say that in all the years I have kept birds that must be the worse young bird toss I have ever had but I can assure you we will not have young birds back at Bakewell again!

We will be back there in a few weeks at the Bakewell country show hoping to retain the trophy won last year but we will not be taking young birds with us. I have no idea what happened but it will not happen again from there. While on about the show, it is only our second this year as Liz has decided to greatly cut back on all the summer shows as there are now simply too many and it does the birds no great favours by taking them out to them all. There are dwindling numbers simply because there are too many shows and not enough birds to go round them all but apart from Blackpool in January I really love Bakewell and Cheshire as they are a great day out.

In the last article I mentioned about being given young birds by one of our friends and I ommitted to give his name but this time I will, he is John Smith and the birds he gave us to try were some top bred Soontjens which he attained from his brother and they were certainly top class birds with some great breeding. They won everything for his brother but the reason I am speaking about John is because he took best in show at Derby with a meally and I have enclosed a photo of John with his winning bird with Nick Wright. John is the good looking one on the right and there is also a photo of his winning bird. John knew as a young bird it would make the grade as it was bred by him from 3rd generation pigeons going back to Jimmy Fitzpatrick and Darren Gibbons. Well it certainly did well there John and see you later hopefully as Liz is intending inviting you up for a barbecue to return the hospitality you showed to us.

Returning to the Messac race which was kindly sponsored by Motion Industrial Products Ltd so thank you for that, and the 98 members had send 738 birds and they were liberated at 6am in a light north east wind which was expected to slightly slow the birds down but in the end. It did not as the birds arrived a bit quicker than expected, and at the top of the tree was old Mr Moneybags himself Rick Geary [along with son Simon] from Macclesfield and their yearling cock covered the 375 odd miles in just under eight hours with a velocity of 1382. Well done mate on winning a few bob here. Next was M Webb from Poynton on 1377.6 with a two year old cock and also another on 1363.5, then J Barnett from Berryhill on 1377.1 with a yearling cock, T Woolrich & son from Packmoor on1375 with a three year old hen, Paul Beck from Longdendale on 1374 with a yearling cock and another on 1363.4 which was a yearling hen, Mantle brs from Buxton on 1372 with a yearling cock, K Pettitt from BlytheBridge on 1369.9 with a two year old hen, K Bowers from Macclesfield on 1369.3 with a two year old cock. So there we have the fed's top ten and well done to Rick.

The fed sections were made up of west section with 52 members sending 443 birds and this was won by race winner Rick Geary and again there were a few clubs in this section not sending. North section had 22 members sending 134 birds and this section was won by M Webb from Poynton [and I have to give a mention to my own clubmate Chris Mourne for having two birds in the top ten of this section] and the east section had 24 members sending 161 birds and this was won my Mantle brs of Buxton. The fed pools for this race were £230.40p and most of it went to Rick Geary winning £97.65, Paul Beck won £79.65, C&G Knowles won £35.10 and M/M B Smith won £18. Rick also won £80 in prize money and Paul Webb won £60 prize money with J Barnett taking £40 and T Woolrich and son taking £20, so a few quid can be won and that should keep Rick smiling for another week at least.

A few club results and briefly we had Ipstones where 5 members sent 35 birds and taking the first three places with 3 yearling hens were R&J Goodwin and son on 1304,1303 and 1296 and in fourth spot was K Champ on 1289 also with a yearling hen. BlythBridge now which is sent to me faithfully by our race controller Roy Jones who did a splendid job as usual at this race and 4 members sent 41 birds and taking the red card was K Pettitt with a two year old hen on 1370, taking the next three places were M/M A Hargreaves firstly with a yearling cock on 1333 then a three year old hen on 1327 and a yearling hen on 1296 and I had better give R&M Jones a mention as they were fifth on 1086 with a three year old cock and Roy informs me that Ken Pettitt onkly timed one bird because he was making hay [and you can interpret that any way you want]. Macclesfield now and seven members sent 86 birds and taking the red card as well as topping the fed were father and son team Rick and Simon Geary on 1382 with their widowhood cock. It is bred from their own stock Soontjens x with a Vandenabeele off Frank Howard and this bird has carded a few times and last year won the Fed Moot race. Kev Bowers is second on 1369 with a two year old widowhood cock. Kev bought this bird in last October at the late Derek Hill sale and had it broken by February. Martin Hough was third on 1338 with a yearling roundabout cock which he bred himself, it is a Staf Van Reet from birds off the late Fred Russ x with Soontjen bought at Paul Stabler's Altrincham sale. It was 2nd at Poole and scored from Carentan as a young bird. Kevin Moore was fourth on 1310 with a four year old roundabout cock which he bred. It has won before and is a Soontjen x on to a bird given to him by club member Bernie Barratt of his good pigeon Supreme Leader. The race was sponsored by a young lad named Joe Flood who is just entering the sport and looking forward to having some fun with young birds [hope Rick Geary gave the lad a bunch to start with]. Last but not least my own club Hayfield IOC and taking the first two places was Chris Mourne on 1329 with a three year old cock and second with a two year old cock on 1323. These are the same two birds Chris timed to take the first two places at Fougeres only this time they came the other way round. His first pigeon a dark chequer cock which was second as a young bird at Blandford, was 3rd at Poole as a yearling, as a two year old it won first at Vire, as a three year old it was fifth at Frome, 2nd at Carentan, narrowly beaten by Liz and myself, [just thought I would throw that bit in], was second at Fougeres and of course won here at Messac. It is a Soontjen x Busschaert/Van Den Bosche. The Soontjens were bought from B& Stone in 2005 and it was crossed in to Chris's own old family which he has had for many years. His other bird is a blue pied cock and he only had three races as a young bird and then raced through to Messac as a yearling, as a two year old he nighted out at Carentan, missed Hullavington then went on to win Fougeres then went back to this Messac where he was second club. The sire is a Nigel Laycock Soontjen again crossed with his own family. Two very good birds to have in your loft. Third and fourth were Liz and myself on 1234, firstly with a blue two year old cock which was again bred by birds that originally came from Scotland with me so they are standing us in good stead here over the water. This was also his third race from France this year so he has a promising future hopefully. Our other bird was a cheq yearling hen and this was one that was gifted to us by our friend Eric Millner and it along with its nest mate were our two best young birds last year but unfortunately the other had a bad accident earlier in the year when it turned up late from a toss with two broken legs, which we managed to mend and it is now flying and training with the young birds as if nothing happened but the one we had from Messac has been doing extremely well over the chanel. That is him finished for the year and if it can survive it should prove to be a very useful two year old.

Well that is all for now as I am still waiting for the result from Meir for this race plus the result of the special Meir race which was incorporated in to Messac. Hopefully I will have it for the next article so if you have anything to send to me the e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or give me a call on 01663 733317 and you can see all the information you need about special races on the fed website which www.moorlandsfedpigeons.co.uk where you will see the liberation time first and remember to get all the club results sent to either Brian or Jill Smith who will upload them to the site. Cheers for now.