BATTLE YBs - August 2014

by Tom Harris

1st National Battle

Saturday 30th August and we were once again eastbound along the M4 corridor for our second young bird event from Battle, positioned on the south east coast near to the historic town of Hastings, a distance of approx 160 miles.

With basketing delayed by 24 hrs due to the large number of federations positioned along our flight path, each marking station had a steady flow of entries as we entered the unknown as this is the first time that we have liberated from this location. With uneventful overnight travel the transporter soon arrived on site and was positioned in readiness for an early liberation, which enabled the lads the opportunity to catch a few hours’ sleep, and gave the birds time to settle.

Sat morning and with a good forecast throughout the day expected with broken skies and a west north westerly wind ahead of the birds there was a slight delay on the liberation to check on the large number of organisations to see who had cut and who were waiting to liberate. With our race controller at the helm (John Watkins) confident and with reports of good weather on site the birds were released at 0800 into a west north westerly wind, with an estimated 3hrs 45 min flying time ahead of them.

Leading the field for this one we head back to last year’s Bergerac winners and the Newport partnership of Picton Bros & Son from Newport timing in at 11.40.44 to record a winning vel of 1248. The winning pigeon is a young blue cock bred down from a various of sources which include on the sire being a grandson of the well known pigeon "The Nearly Cock" of Scammel & Peploe of Pontypool cross Van Lint bloodlines whilst the dam comes from Mike Chadwick through the best of Jos Thone’s "Avril" and "Super Hero " lines which hold no fewer than 30 x1st prizes in the pedigree. This isn’t the first time that this cock has scored for this partnership as he was also first club Guildford just two weeks earlier when he returned minus a few secondary feathers after suffering some sort of injury on his journey.

1st open Battle

For the next few positions we head north to one of our furthest flying members, that of the Treharris partnership of Mathew and Joseph Hughes who timed in three of their entries to claim the next three positions of 2nd, 3rd and 4th open with velocities of 1235.5, 1235.3 & 1235.2. Their leading pigeon through the trap is a cheq pied hen bred down through the partnership’s Marc and Lilly Verheyde pigeons from their prominent winning pigeon “Unlucky” which has gone on to breed many winners over the past years crossed with the partnership’s 2011 Maidstone national winner. Recently this pigeon has won 7th national Maidstone and more recently as I type this out is reported that she has gone on to claim a further 1st club from Swindon this week after a one day holdover. The partnership’s second arrival a blue cock comes down on both sides from local retired fanciers Morris and Lucus from the lines of their Gieesen cock down through the Curtis Wall Lunt & Green pigeons when paired to a dam of two national winners from Cool Hand Luke x Dollie. Their third arrival a cheq cock for 4th open is yet another of their Marc and Lilly Verheyde pigeons crossed this time with the Soontjens of Frank Sheader.

So there we have it, yet another good race with excellent returns. We can’t ask for much more in these times when organisations are reporting drastic losses countrywide and the birds are rapidly breaking into the moult, so once again all credit to the race advisory committee and convoyers for again pulling it off. It’s a big decision to postpone basketing and liberation days just a few days before the event but once again their findings and decisions, like it has been all year, were spot on, with members reporting just the odd one or two adrift at clock checking. Well done once again to all concerned as this puts us in good stead for our final event in just under two weeks’ time from Ramsgate when the curtain comes down on yet another season.

Presentation night and as a result of last week’s announcement regarding the presentation night in December, ticket requests are already starting to arrive at a steady pace. It is pleasing to see the continued support for both our organisations and as in previous years we are supplying one of the best caterers within the area to serve the traditional three course meals, two presentations and music that takes us into the early hours, all for the price of £18.00 per head, so our advice is to reserve early to avoid disappointment as we have a limit that we can cater for.

With the season drawing to a close it’s also worth considering the 2015 agm which be held on Sunday 25th January. This is the opportunity to submit any notice of motions for the 2015 season.

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