Tom Harris

Welsh National Maidstone

The first of three young bird nationals finally got underway from Maidstone in Kent , after having to make the reluctant decision of delaying the basketing by a week due to bad weather forecasted on the advertised date, and with no improvement  leading up to the rearranged date the race controlling committee had to once again postpone basketing by a further 24 hours due to weather resulting in a Saturday basketing for Sunday liberation
 with nearly all federations around the country experiencing drastic young bird losses for some unexplained reason over the past weeks we were pleased to see  844 pigeons were entered for competition and competing for the honour of 1st welsh national Maidstone.
sun morning .
and with the convoying team informing us that the conditions in the kent area   weren't suitable to release early ,so as of previous weeks we once again had to sit  patiently for an improvement as hourly updates were relayed to our  membership through the lib line services and social media sites throughout the morning
as midday approached there was a glimmer of hope as the break we had  waited for finally materialised  ,and whilst we  were still experiencing cloud cover over the 155 mile line of flight and a healthy westerly wind  ,the visabity was there so  the decision was made to cut the strings at 1pm 

Ant Buttigieg

Taking the honours of 1st and 2nd open welsh national were the newport partnership of Anthony buttigieg and sons timing in two arrivals at 17.00 08 covering the 146 miles with a vel 1132.8 , both arrivals originate  down from the premier stud set up in hull and acquired as part of their 2017 racing team ,and  are based around  the geerinckx family of pigeons  ,first in the clock and taking the  winning honours claiming the a kidd sponsored winners trophy was a blue white flighted hen  ,whilst its hard to report on young birds as the history is basic this game hen , has previously scored at club level from newbury approx 75 miles and 4th wnrf ,just a few weeks earlier ,the second arrival just decimals behind the winner on 1132.06 was also  a premier geerinckx pigeon another blue hen both were flying to the perch unpaired   ,after many years of reported  success on the north route into wales from all distances ,the partnership switched in 2015 to the east to west route for young birds  and its pleasing to see that their success has continued  at club federation and national level .
for 3rd and fourth open we head north to Bleanavon with  the loft of Steve Dancey and son also timing in two arrivals both being a nest pair bred down from pigeons purchased from the well known winning partnership of Mr and Mrs Ian Bromley from Pontypool ,the first a blue  hen timed in on a velocity of 1125.39,had previously scored from newbury 2 claiming 16th wnrf and was sent to this race sitting pot eggs ,the 2nd arrival on the same yardage was a cheq sent flying to an empty nest box
rounding up the leading in five pigeons we have  the partnership of jeff ireland and chris hyman from tredegar with a cheq hen bred down through pigeons  originating from the eric  ceulemans  family of pigeons from Tony Woolsey from Spalding who they met via a charity sale for a 7yr old lad to raise money for an operation  flying 166 miles with a vel of 1118

Tom Harris