Sat 9th of December and the Welsh National Flying Club once again held its 2017 presentation at the seaman's mission club in Newport.  With numbers falling slightly below the anticipated full house, due mainly to three of our nine winners being unable to attend due to work and family commitments the evening got underway at 6.45 with the traditional three course Christmas meal served to all present. 

With the tables cleared the WNFC welcomed once again the Welsh North Road Federation to the night and duly invited them to award their winners for 2017, a report on such recipients and winners will of course follow in a future article. 

With their final trophy being presented we then went onto the main event of the evening the presentation of trophies and awards to the Welsh National winners for 2017, as a tradition Mr Edward Watts chairman to the seaman's mission was asked if he would come forward and present the awards on behalf of the WNFC 

G & M Clayton & Lovell Bros - 1st open Maidstone old birds

First to the table for 2at open Maidstone were the Crumlin partnership of G & M Clayton & Lovell bros who received the Malcolm Gibbons sponsored trophy along with the replica and like all the winners here tonight a coloured photo of the winning pigeon which is supplied by our resident sponsor Mr Chris Sutton from Leicester,

from there we go to the Ramsgate old bird race this was won by the partnership of P.J Warr-Townly & Evans who receive the west country products trophy but they were with regret unable to attend tonight's proceeding so we moved onto the first of five French races the first being from Fougeres where Mr & Mrs Kevin and Sandra Upham from Newport came out on top and duly were awarded the R.G.Davies animal feeds supplies sponsored trophy

Mr & Mrs K Upham - 1st open Fougeres 

from Messac.. there were two awards on offer for this race the first being the open trophy sponsored by proff sport from Belgium and a second award for a yearling national race incorporated into the main race with the new annual trophy gifted to the national by our chairman's wife Mrs Holpin, coming forward to collect both of these awards were  the husband and wife partnership of Mr and Mrs Shane Lewis from Abergavenny we then moved onto Saintes sponsored by Verselle Laga of Belgium where a number of awards were flown for on the day the winners of the open was Mr W Holpin from Abergavenny who received the trophy, followed by the partnership of G & M Clayton and Lovell Bros who scooped the two trophies for the best two bird average and the best opposite sex to the winner ,

Mr & Mrs S Lewis - 1st open Messac

it was then time for the presentation of the longest race trophy from Bergerac sponsored by the Welsh North Road Federation. This was won once again by the successful Pontypool partnership of Scammell and Peploe and regrettably due to other commitments they were unable to be present to collect their rewards 

Mr W Holpin - 1st open Saintes

with the old bird presentation we moved onto the young bird winners from Maidstone we seen the partnership of Davies and Coombes came to the table to receive the Andy Kidd gardening services trophy for 1st Open and later returned to the table to collect the Mr & Mrs T Tremeer trophy for 1st Open Folkestone, in between such presentations there was of course the battle young birds race which was won by A Buttigieg & Sons but due to work commitments abroad he regrettably passed on his regrets that he was unable to attend the evening 

Mr & Mrs S Lewis receiving the new Messac yearling open trophy for 2017

so that was the racing winners duly rewarded for their achievements there was one trophy to go the young bird average winner’s trophy and after such performances of 1st open Maidstone 2nd open battle and 1st open Folkestone this was duly presented to the partnership of Davies and Coombes

Davies and Coombes 1st Open Maidstone and 1st Open Folkestone and young bird average winners 2017

as the trophy tabled cleared there were two more presentations to hold and these were to the women behind the scenes these were in the form of a bouquet of flowers to Mrs Rosemary Humphrys for her weekly contribution to the national as race sheet auditor and the final one was to Mrs Gaynor Harris, assists in the smooth running of the organisation during the year with that Mr Watts was thanked for his contribution to the evening and on leaving his post he once again thanked both organisations for their presence within the Seamans mission on such a grand occasion, he went on to then congratulate the winners on their achievements followed by the acknowledgement of the hard work and time that individuals put into running of such a successful organisation  

Mrs Rosemary Humphrys

with that the lights went down, and the music went up until the early hours only to be interrupted by the traditional raffle.

On reflection looking back through 2017 the WNFC has had another good season racing wise and are now getting stronger membership numbers as a result of such good racing, this is no doubt in light of the hard work and dedication put in by individuals such as the race advisory committee and convoyers David, Karl and the team looking after the birds on site and the Welsh North Road Federation officials who work closely with the WNFC,

Mrs Gaynor Harris 

As we move into 2018 this celebrates our ten year anniversary and over the years we have we have lost some major contributors to the Welsh National Flying Club in our forming chairman Mr T Tremeer who sat alongside myself for many years and Glyn Picton both will never be forgotten within the WNFC for years to come.

Looking back who would of thought that in the winter of 2008 when the idea first came to light to form the WNFC in the forthcoming year, some ten years on we would be as strong as we are today with membership numbers rising annually so, to commemorate the occasion and to reward and thank those who have stuck by us over the years, we as a committee are offering half price membership to existing members for 2018 as a thank you for 2018.  The race programme has already been set out by the transporting organisations we are affiliated to and once again whilst it looks good it also looks challenging with four inland races and five overseas races from a southerly route out too 500 miles from Bergerac, so on behalf of the 2017 Welsh National FC committee all that remains is to wish you all a successful 2018.

footnote ... a reminder that the 2017/18 annual general meeting will be held on sun 28th Jan at the Seamans mission club Newport at 10.30 

Tom Harris