WELSH NATIONAL FLYING CLUB

Tom Harris

The latest adventure for the welsh nfc was from the french town of Fougeres an approx distance of around 240 miles to most lofts within the pricipality
after such a succesful start to the season, this week didnt get off to a good start for our convoying organisation the welsh nrf and many other federations who were also releasing from the oppersite side of the channel this weekeend. as a dispute in france which resulted in a diesel shortage seemed to have had a knock on effect with ferrycrossings and cancelations etc ,however to avoid any holdups following a bit of forward planning we were able to plan an alternative crossing from poole rather than more traditional Portsmouth departure and were pleased to hear that the 723 national entries plus federation pigeons arrived safley on site by midday Friday.
With the convoy fed and watered and left to settle over night the weather indicated that it may well be possible to get the birds away early the following morning ,however with day breaking it was clear to see that lingering mist and fog on site and on the line of flight extending out across the channel was expected to clear as the day went on so a further update was planned for after 9am
it was just before such time that we heard that with vast improvements and the sun rising which was seen to be burning off the mist ,other orgsnisations on site were confident and preparing to liberate from 9am ,so with our race advisory team and convoyers satified that the conditions had and were improving by the minute the boys on site were preparing for a 9.15 liberation was later announced and confirmed
at the home end everyone settled down for an approx five hour plus race and awaited the first arrivals onto welsh soil ,as the afternoon went by for some unexpained reason this didnt materialise as the estimated times soon came and went and still no pigeons were recorded ,on continuously checking the variation times on lib line , it became apparent that the birds were well overdue and yet still no times were available ,it was a further hour or so that the first arrrival was recorded in newport after flying 6hr 24 min.
 
     

Mr & Mrs Shane Lewis

After allowing time for fanciers further north to time in and verify their arrival the eventual winner by the norrowest of margines ,when even a second variation at clock checking would alter the result ,the honour of 1st welsh national fourgeres 2016 goes to the abergavenny husband and wife partnership of mr and mrs shane lewis , the winning pigeon is a dark cheq cock which is bred by alan maul and contains the following past performances within the pedigree ,Sire Willem De Bruin x Ad Scharakens Sissi line G Sire of 1st Open ISRF Skibberene Dam G Dtr of Mickey 1st National pigeon WHZB & Kannibaal 1st Belgian National Ace Pigeon The sister of this hen bred 1st Sec G NFC Fougeres 2016.
Shane has asked me to mention his good lady Kelly in the report as its with her interests and daily duties around the loft due to his ever increasing workload that has contributed to today performance and without such help possibly wouldnt of happend and therfore has dualy named the pigeon as "Kellys delight "
for 2nd open we stay in the abergavenny area, where ray lambert once again appears as one of the fore runners ,by recording the same pigeon that was 2nd WNFC from Coutances two weeks earlier timing in on a vel of 1147.25 this galiant pigeon is bred down through his own original family of grizzles crossed with the dave stone pigeons which are responsable for many club federation and national winners not only for himself but for others around this area.
we head back to the lewis houshold in 3rd open for their second arrival this time a dark cheq cock of staf van reet bloodlines which was purchased from the louella stud in leicester and although this cock hasnt recorded any past success it has however been a reliable and conssistant part of the team.

"Kellys delight " 1st open WNFC Fourgeres

Taking 4th open were the pontypool duo of Bainton and Evans with a yearling red cock Raced on roundabout the origine of which comes down from pigeons purchased from local fanciers Mr and Mrs Keith Taylor when he sold his entire young bird team and retired from the sport a few years back, previous performances todate include 13th welsh national 24th wsrnfc to its credit
rounding off the top five its the ever present partnership of scammel and peploe also of pontypool unfortunatley at the time of going to press and after unsuccesful attempts to contact them on the details to hand we have no details on their arrival ,however these lads are a well known succesful partnership and dont need any introduction to success at local and further afield as reports over the years have indicated.
At clock checking unfortunatley most were unable to come to terms with the unexplained low returns and ,the atmosphere was a little quiet at the marking stations to say the least as most lofts had suffered considerable losses on the day , a few indications and thoughts were shared as always as to what may have happened but of course we will never know , a few fanciers have since indicated that a number have made there way home during the following days which is pleasing to hear  but a large number are still unaccounted for at this present time
with the races getting longer over the coming weeks this will obviously have a knock on effect on entries over the next few races  starting off with messac an average distance of 260 miles   ,but were confident that the membership have the upmost confidence in the people in charge ,and will no doubt be there to compete.