WELSH NATIONAL FLYING CLUB

& OTHER NEWS FROM WALES

Tom Harris

the welsh national old bird campaign recently continued as they crossed over to the english channel to the new liberation site at  coutance  in  northern france  , and it was pleasing to see that following on from the maidstone race a week previous when members reported good returns ,the turnout  was well up on  the previous years first race from  across the channel with 880 pigeons entered

with a thursday evening basketing the convoy of national and federation pigeons made an uneventful journey south and across to the liberation site ,arriving mid afterrnoon afterwhich the birds were fed and the water replenished they were  left to settle for an anticipated early liberation the following morning

saturday morning and all wasnt well , the current weather on site and across the channel was reported as poor and any hopes of an early liberation was put on hold as regular checks during the morning gave no indication of the current conditions  improving ,this unfortunatley resulted in the race controllers and convoyers, like the other three of four other organisations also on site    decided that the only option was to holdover until the  following day

sunday morning and with a vast improvement in conditions and after consulting various pionts along the expected line of flight ,the strings were cut in preparation as the convoyers decided an order   for liberating so with liberations taking place every fifteen minutes  at 08.30 it was our turn to go,into   various winds and blue skies along the 200 (average)  mile journey to home

Ray (tiny ) evans of the evans and delap partnership  with the 1st open winner

leading the field with 1st open welsh national winning the west country products sponsored trophy were the evans and delap partnership from caldicot timing one of their three entries at 12.21.41 recording a winning vel of 14.16.03,the winning pigeon is a 2yr old dark cheq whte flight cock flown natural with  the bloodlines originating  from the louella family in leicester of vandenebelle bloodlines crossed with pigeons gifted between a good friend and  fellow fancier john gardener also from caldicot ,this isnt the first sucess for this pigeon as in 2015 he also took 1st club from falaise ,

for 2nd open we head to pontypool to the highly succesful  loft of derek flowers assisted  by his brother clive timing in a t 12.37 vel 1399 the bothers arrival is a 2yr old cheq roundabout hen which comes down through thier giessen winning family of pigeons, and is  a half sister to two recent national winners from folkestone and maidstone ,the bloodlines originate from the wall ,lunt and green pigeons crossed with the burgman de klaks

we remain in pontypool for 3rd open which goes to mr and mrs ian and tracey bromley timing in at 12.39.02 vel1397 with a 2yr old also flown on roundabut which is bred from pigeons from the highly succesful local partnership scammel and peploe ,and comes down through the nearly cock lines crossed with the staf van reets from the same loft previous performances also include 1st federstion from lyndhurst

for 4th and 5th we head even further north to the abergavenny area to the lofts of ray lambert taking 4th open at 12 49 03 vel 1394 with a 3yr  old one of his well know grizzle family when crossed with the rauw sablon lines of  dave stone and mick bowler pigeons from ireland   this cock has had numerous positions over the years including  1st club 10th fed  3rd nat carenton 3rd nat fougeres

just behind is  fellow club mate shane lewis timing in a yearling cheq hen for 5th open  at 12.50.16 and a vel of 1385 ,this arrival is bred by the partnership of williams and owens of pengam from stock obtained via the metz national winner of mr mrs bromley of pontypool, crossed with the partnerships staf van reets  .

so yet another succesful race over ,we now move further afield when we head out to fourgeres an average distance of 250 miles to most lofts ,hopefuly the weather will be more favourable and we maintain the support of the membership

as always here are the top ten pigeons in the recent race for the full result and other information regarding membership all this is available on our website at www.welshnational.co.uk

1 116Evans&delap,. 1416.032 3:51:41 186,711 GB14C17724 £150.00 £150.00

2 31DFlowers,. 1399.388 4:7:41 196,1645 W14N04765 £100.00 £100.00

3 10Mr&MrsBromley,. 1397.612 4:9:2 197,1332 W14T03406 £75.00 £75.00

4 55RLambert,. 1393.102 4:19:3 205,83 GB13P11249 £50.00 ABC £26.25 £76.25

5 57SLewis,. 1385.471 4:20:16 204,1554 NW15B4426 £50.00 £50.00

6 55RLambert,. 1378.293 4:21:50 205,83 W12T04038 £40.00 ABC £26.25 £66.25

7 129Mr&mrsJennings,. 1374.139 4:12:19 197,19 GB14A37851 £40.00 £40.00

8 55RLambert,. 1371.657 4:23:6 205,83 GB13P11199 £30.00 £30.00

9 55RLambert,. 1371.223 4:23:11 205,83 GB15P24788 £30.00 £30.00

10 10Mr&MrsBromley,. 1369.834 4:14:5 197,1332 W14T03447 £25.00 £25.00

Tom Harris