M & J HUGHES (TREHARRIS)

1ST OPEN WELSH NATIONAL FLYING CLUB MAIDSTONE 2014

Report by Tom Harris

Here we go, the start of the Welsh National Flying Club’s 2014 racing season with the first event from Maidstone on Sunday 11th May. As always when it comes down to the classic races, things seem to take a turn for the worse as bad weather leading up to basketing day quickly altered any plans that had previously been laid. With high winds expected to reach gusts of up to 37mph over South Wales and most parts of the UK on the weekend, our race controller and advisors had no option other than to postpone basketing and a liberation for 24 hours in the hope that it would all calm down to allow this event to go ahead. Anyway with basketing taking place on Saturday evening, everything seemed to fall back into place as our entries made their way across the Severn Bridge eastwards towards the racepoint at Maidstone in Kent, an average distance of 160 miles to most lofts situated in south east Wales.

Saturday morning and as dawn broke it was clear to see that with heavy rain at the home end and further east, any chance of an early liberation was out of the question. Added to this, there was were several reports of full cloud cover and heavy prolonged showers at various locations on the line of flight and over the Kent and bordering counties, which hampered any attempts to release the convoy, so all we could do was patiently wait on site as the forecast indicated that this was to clear north gradually as the day went on. Mid day and after various checks and updates on the weather in front of us throughout the morning, a window of opportunity was seen shortly after mid day and at 1pm with clear skies and a brisk west south westerly wind for the entire flight, all concerned gave the go ahead to cut the strings and get the campaign well and truly underway.

Mathew & Joseph Hughes

Leading the field winning the M Gibbons sponsored winner’s trophy is the father and son partnership of Mathew and Joseph Hughes located in Treharris high up in the Rhondda Valley. The partnership timed in their 3yr old chequer hen at 17.08 after 4 hours 8 mins on the wing to record a vel of 1194.3. The winning pigeon has raced consistently over the past years and is bred down on the sire’s side from the Tame Cock from Marc and Lilly Verhyde a previous winner of 3 x 1st, 4th, 8th and 5th national and is half brother to the partnership’s two previous national winners from Tours and Folkestone in 2012 and 2013. The dam is a Rietvink bred and gifted by Paul Townly from his family of Yateman Brothers pigeons. The winner was sent on the roundabout and achieves another outstanding performance and day to remember for this loft and partnership.

1st open WNFC Maidstone 2014

For 2nd open by the narrowest of margins we come across into the Rhymney Valley to the Bargoed loft of Mel Mayo timing in at 17.04 with a vel of 1194.3. Mel’s pigeon is a yearling light cheq roundabout cock which is a double g.son to his 2004 Bonn national winner and base pigeon "Bobby’s Boy". This yearling cock has scored on numerous occaSions at club, federation and national level including 46th open Maidstone and 20th open national in 2013 and to date in 2014 14th fed Newbury, 30th fed Guildford.

3rd open is the partnership of Davies and Coombes from Cefn Hengoed. Their arrival is a 2 yr old smokey blue hen bred from their newly introduced Frans Zwols pigeons which were bought in from Holland in 2011 and crossed with their original Leon Boers. On previous occasions this game hen has recorded 8th national 4th fed Fourgeres, 16th open national Tours and numerous club and federation positions. Even though these pigeons are a new cross for the partnership they are well pleased to date with the rewards that they are producing and are looking forward to the future with these lines.

Taking 4th open is the Risca loft of John Newbury timing in his yearling cheq pied cock of Frank Sheader Sootjen lines crossed with Shields Bros Kees Bosua of the Kannibal origin at 16.55 recording a velocity of 1185. This arrival is no stranger to top positions as he’s previously taken 1st club from Newbury as a young bird in 2013.

There we have it, the first of our nine major events in Wales, and speaking to some fanciers on Monday morning, returns were close to 100% for most, however some still had the odd one or two away. Once again congratulations to our winning lofts from this race and to our race controllers and convoyers for successfully getting our 2014 campaign underway with great success and a positive feedback.

This now prepares us for our forthcoming challenging overseas programme which gets underway next week from Carentan, followed by Fougeres and Messac, before rounding off the old birds with two long races from Pau and Bergerac when we hand over our entries to the Central Southern Classic who will be convoying on these occasions. Added to these two races there is the opportunity of duplication back into Wales, so for all fanciers interested in extreme distance racing the door is open for you to compete not only alongside much larger English organisations such as the CSCFC but as part of their organisation and duplicate back into the WNFC.

Early times: ARTHUR & SON 16 51.37, PICTON BRO & SON 16.55, MR MRS BERESFORD & SON 16.58.17, K WILLIAMS 16.51.39, SCAMMELL & PEPLOE 16.59.45, NEWBURY 16.55.14, DAVIES & COOMBES 17.04 12, PROCTOR 17.12.28, KIDD 16.52.06, HAWKINS FAM 17.12.08, W HOLPIN 17.03.08, LEWIS 17.00.40, GARDENER 16.47.32, LAMBERT 17.07.46, DAVIES 17.11.37, THOMAS 17.16.28,  BURRIDGE & SON 17.20.55, MR MRS S HOWELLS 17.31.03, V JONES 17.36 49, HALL MACULLAM 17.21.08, M& J HUGHES 17.08.48.

On finishing this week’s report, it is also pleasing to report that in the weeks leading up to our first race and including basketing night, sixteen new members have come on board from various organisations and as I write this report a further three have since enquired about the procedure of membership for the forthcoming races. This may be down to more local clubs becoming marking stations this year such as Abergavenny, Phillipstown and Cascade, all whom can accept WNFC entries, so after a year or two of decline in membership for one reason or another we are now once again moving forward again and rebuilding.

For those with internet access, application forms can be downloaded for fanciers wishing to join us, plus all race day and general running information about our organisation can be found on our web site at www.welshnational.co.uk

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