WELSH NATIONAL FLYING CLUB

Tom Harris

    The welsh national flying club kicked off the classic races in 2016 into wales with the first of 10 events the first being from maidstone in kent ,and with a large number of new members jioning over the past weeks this resulted in most marking stations reported a vast increase in birdage numbers on previous years
on completing the final pickup in newport shortly after 10.30 pm the 1,356 national entries along with the welsh north road federation pigeons were on route for the overnight journey to the liberation site
saturday morning and with the transporter safely on site and with a few hours before day break the birds were left to settle in preparation for the liberation ,however as night turned to day, and with a forecast of temperatures estimated to rise as the day went on into the mid 20`s , it could be clearly seen that the current weather conditions would hamper any chance of liberating early as early morning mist lingered aound in certain areas ,so the decition was made by the race advisory committee and convoyers to hold off until mid morning and announce a 10 am update
it wasnt until 11am, that we heard the news that the boys on site reported a vast improvement in the conditions at maidstone and with the same reported throughout the line of flight and federations on the line of flight already liberated , john watkins (race controller) gave the instructions to make preparations for an anticipated 11.15 liberation ,and although there was the possibility of a few showers moving in from the south by mid afternoon around the witshire and avon regions the helping south by south easterly wind indicated that these shouldnt have any effect on the convoy as they made their way home
it was just prior to the three mark that the pigeons were ,reported on the welsh side of the river severn, the winning pigeon taking the honour of 1st open welsh national f.c maidstone winning the malcolm gibbbons sponsored winners trophy goes to the newport loft of Andy Kidd timing in at 14.03.32 to record a velicity of 1590.77 ,the winning pigeon is a 2yr old cheq cock flown on roundabout originated from the wilks farm stud of peter and lisa clarke of norfolk and is based around the lambrect lines past performance for this pigeon include a furthure 2x1st club positions and added to this current win now brings andys 1st welsh national wins from this source to three over the past few years

Andy Kidd (l) with Jack Hawkins holding 1st wnfc Maidstone winner

for 2nd open we head to the top of the rhondda to the father and son partnership and past wnfc winners mathew and joseph hughes flying as m& j hughes of treharris ,their arrival is a dark cheq yearling cock timing in at 14.21.27 with a vel of 1584.49 which ironicly is bred down through the considtant lines of belg 47 and national velvet from the winner andy kidd crossed with the giessen lines of morris and lucus now retired from racing
for 3rd open we travel further down the m4 corridor to the west to one of our newest and possibly furthest flying member, mike parker from measteg ,mikes arrival a .3yr old cheq pied hen comes down from mikes good belguim friend and fancier van elsacker lines .timing in at 14.38 to record a vel of 1584.94 previous performances for this hen includes 1st club 1st section lyndhurst 2nd section salisbury plus other minor club and federation positions
it back to newport for 4th and 5th open with the family partnership of mr and mrs kieth beresford and son sam taking the fourth spot timing in , one of their fancied entries ,a 2yr old blue cock of vandenebelle lines originating

from r wassell at 14.07 17 on 1578..78
mr and mrs kevin upham take the with one of their hayden minett of treharris family ,a 2yr old blue cock which is bred down through the ewan lines at 14.03 .53 with a vel of 1572.3
so were off to a flying start to 2016 and its pleasing to see the leading positions where spread out over all areas ... and although the leading birds made light work of the 160 mile journey there were still a few entries reported adrift at clock checking later that evening , however with the good weather conditions the following day most we are pleased to say completed their journey and were home to fight another day
next week we move across the channel ,to the new liberation site of coutance and whilst the mileage doesnt seem to rise drasticly ,as we adopt a more southerly route from now on into the old bird programme as we progress down through france fortnightly ,and following on from the success of this weeks race from maidstone we are once again anticipating another good turnout for the first channel race of the year

Tom Harris