2014 Prize Presentation

by Tom Harris

Saturday 13th December and all eyes and attention were on the Seamen’s Mission Club in Newport for the sixth annual presentation of the Welsh National Flying club. Also present, as always, were the Welsh North Road Federation, also rewarding their 2014 open and section winners.

The evening got under way shortly after 6.30 pm with over 80 fanciers, families and friends swiftly seated in preparation for the serving of a traditional three course Christmas dinner, which this year seemed to go without a hitch. With all three courses cleared, it was time to start the main events of the night by awarding the trophies to their respected winners. The presentation commenced with Mr Glyn Picton as compere for the night, welcoming everyone to the venue and thanking the chairman and staff of the Seamen’s Mission for once again hosting the evening. He then went on to thank the race controllers and convoyers of the WNRF who were present, for providing such excellent racing throughout the year, resulting in very minimal losses, which is something to be proud of, given other organisations had suffered drastically country-wide.

After the traditional opening speeches with regard to the past years, the committee of the WNRF were requested to come forward to present their open and section winners for the past year and, as a separate report on their winners will no doubt be published in due course, we will move on to the main attraction of the night: the presentation of the Welsh National Flying Club 1st open and average trophies for 2014.

First to the table to collect the M Gibbons-sponsored Maidstone National winner’s trophy were the Treharris partnership of Mathew and Joseph Hughes. Followed in the following race order, 1st open Carentan, winning the West Country Products-sponsored trophy were the Pontypool duo of Scammel and Peploe, 1st open Fougeres and the Proff Sport of Holland-sponsored trophy. Sadly, due to unavoidable work commitments, Ray was not present, however, all who were send on their congratulations to him. Next up for the second time for 1st open Messac and the RG Davies Corn Supplies trophy was the partnership of Scammell and Peploe. We then came on to the two longest races in the programme: Pau and, with a distance of approx 570 miles, it was the Newport partnership of Hadden and Son who timed in to win the Welsh North Road Federation-sponsored Longest Race trophy. To round off, we had Bergerac (500ml) and winners on this occasion of the trophy sponsored by Versele Laga of Belgium were none other than the hard-working federation secretaries and convoyer, Mr and Mrs J Humphreys and Son of Beaufort nr Ebbw Vale.

So, moving on to the Young Bird programme, Maidstone was our first outing, as Davies and Coombes from Pengam nr Blackwood stepped up to take the top honours and the winner’s trophy for this race sponsored by Andy Kidd Gardening Services. It was then on to a new race point for 2014 at Battle near Hastings and, as always with new liberation sites, there is always the prospect of the unknown. However, the pigeons, upon liberation, made light work of the distance. Up to the table for this race to be awarded the Jack Jenkins Memorial trophy were Picton Bros and Son. Our longest young bird event was from Ramsgate on the east coast, a distance of 200 miles, to the winning loft of Hall and Macullam of Bargoed, who timed in to take the top honours and the Mr & Mrs T Tremeer-sponsored winner’s trophy 

With all the race winners greatly applauded for their achievements, there were a few more presentations to undertake. The first was the Mr & Mrs T Harris-sponsored Young Bird Average winner’s trophy which was duly awarded to the partnership of Davies and Coombes, leaving just two more trophies. These were awarded for the best Two Bird Average and Best Opposite Sex to the winner from Bergerac, sponsored by Versele Laga. Both of these were awarded to Mr and Mrs J Humphreys for their excellent performance when they timed in for 1st and 2nd open. 

With all the race awards presented, it was time to thank the women of the organisation, who undertake a lot of the work and phone calls during the season. First to the table to be presented with a bouquet of flowers was Mrs Rosemary Humphreys, who puts her time into auditing the race sheets for each race, followed by Gaynor Harris, as joint secretary, who undergoes the job of assisting myself during the year. Finally, our chairman’s wife, Mrs Holpin, was sadly unable to attend, due to illness, however the flowers were later given to our chairman to hand over and we wish her a speedy recovery. 

So there it is - the 2014 presentation of for the Welsh National Flying Club over for another year. There was one more presentation that I would like to mention. In light of the current unsettlement within the principality, I came upon the opportunity to reunite pigeon fanciers here in Wales by holding an open race from Maidstone and regardless of whatever pigeon organisations fanciers were affiliated to, everyone was welcomed to get together and have a bit of fun. The response proved that all pigeon people want to do is race pigeons and not be drawn in pigeon politics. The winners of this event were RE Cooke and Son from Newport, who went on to collect a photograph sponsored by Chris Sutton and silver slaver sponsored by Rob Poyner. After this, the lights were lowered for the disco to keep the night going until the early hours.

It is also time to thank our 2014 winners and donors for providing the night’s auction pigeons. This went down well once again with over £700 raised for our respected organisation. Also, thanks go to the Welsh North Road Federation officials, race controllers and convoyers for such excellent racing during 2014 and, of course, to our sponsors, who have provided such a marvelous array of trophies to present. A special ‘thank you’ to Mr Chris Sutton, who takes his own time to travel to our winners to enable them to have a colour photograph of their winning pigeon shortly after the race has been verified. 

What a tremendous season we have to reflect on in regards to racing during 2014! All that remains is to ensure that, with the backing and support of our members, this organisation alongside our affiliated organisations, the WNRF, still remains committed to providing the best we can in regards to racing and publicity for the benefit of our members in winning such events and to the long-term ambition of providing enjoyable pigeon racing into Wales.

M & J Hughes

Scammell and Peploe

Hadden and Son

Mr and Mrs J Humphreys and Son

Davies and Coombes

Picton Bros and Son

Hall and Macullam

Ray Lambert

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