by Tom Harris

BERGERAC - JULY 2013

Picton Bros & Son - 1st south section 1st open, only bird on the winning day from 500 miles.

After the recent success of our 600 mile race from Tarbes just two weeks ago, we underwent another long distance event to finish off the old bird national programme from Bergerac a distance of approx 500 miles to most lofts positioned within the Welsh Borders. Once again basketing took place on the Monday evening, a day earlier than advertised due to transport arrangements, resulting in everything going as planned with the 200 or so pigeons safely handed over by the WNR Federation to the Central Southern Classic at mid day Tuesday prior to departure to the south of France. Also on board we hear were numerous English organisations such as the L&SECC, the SMT Combine, South Coast Federation, Solent Fed, Wiltshire Fed, Dorset Fed, BB&O Federation and the Guernsey RPC and in addition to this there were of course the Central Southern Classic entries.

With high temperature dominating throughout Europe leading up to the day of liberation, the weather here in the UK was surprisingly matching weather patterns only experienced by Spain and southern French areas, and whilst this resulted in near perfect visibility forecast for Friday’s liberation, this also brought with it other problems; the biggest obstacle was no doubt going to be the high temperatures which were forecast to reach a high of 34 degrees on site and en route over the forthcoming race weekend.

Friday morning and with all the early checks made regarding visibility and line of flight, the convoy of approx 2,400 UK pigeons entered by the organisations listed above under the control of the CSCFC race advisory committee and race controllers were away nice and early at 05.40 into a light east north easterly wind. These warm humid conditions were forecast to continue northwards up through to the French coast and across the channel into the UK. Most fanciers were consulting various weather forecasts to monitor current conditions and it was obvious that this was going to be a hard event to overcome, mainly due to sweltering heat which of course would bring on dehydration, however most were optimistic that we would see arrivals by night fall and the usual expectations of fourteen hours were once again doing the rounds in regards to our first Welsh arrival. It appears this has been the bench mark from this race point into Wales on numerous occasions however I doubt if these were achieved in such extreme conditions, so we were keen to see if we were to fulfil our expectations.

Early Friday evening and with the heat and humidity still dominating, it was pleasing to see that the first arrivals on the south coast of England were starting to appear from 5pm and with the advantage of regular updates on various websites we were able to monitor the progress of such arrivals as these verifications were moving slowly north. This indicated that we were well on course to see our entries homing in on Welsh soil before nightfall. As you could only imagine, once the fourteen hours were upon us the phone started to ring off the hook with members seeing if or what was about. It was between these calls that we were drastically trying to recover any possible news to relay to our membership from the BHW lib line service to our internet website. It was during one of these calls that we discovered that we were to have our first confirmed pigeon within the Principality.

Leading the field with an outstanding performance of timing in what was to be the only pigeon on the day at 19.45 with a velocity of 1022 , winning the Versele Laga sponsored winner’s trophy, was the Newport loft of Glyn and Martyn Picton flying as Picton Bros & Son. The winning pigeon is a 2yr old blue hen of Van Lint bloodlines and is bred down through on the sire’s side from a son of Champion Adam whilst paired to his daughter Athena with highlighted achievements of grandparents Adam and Amarilla winning 1st national Chateroux. The dam’s lines are also of Van Lint origin coming down through a daughter of Champion Amos which was 1st national Argenton when paired to Emillia a direct daughter of ace pigeon Bianca.

Glyn & Martin Picton

With the night drawing in and the hours of darkness coming into effect, arrangements were made for myself and fellow club mates to attend the club headquarters and to do a race in progress report to secure the validity of this courageous hen. Following on from this the pigeon was duly verified within the loft on the night of arrival, which kick started the party within this Newport household. This game hen in the build up to basketing for Bergerac had previously flown Tours some 350 miles and when asking the partnership how she was sent regarding nest conditions to add insight into the preparation for this outstanding performance, I was informed she was actually tame and paired to Glyn. This was obvious when trying to do the winning photos. Do you think she would stand still in her box? Not a chance!!!
As most will know, Glyn in past years represented us all as president of the WHPU and was an ambassador to the Welsh pigeon fancy for many years, and is well known in all parts of the UK for his work for the pigeon fancy.

1st open Bergerac, only bird on the day.

The partnership have asked me to relay their thanks to the many fanciers, officials and friends from numerous organisations around the country which they have been associated with over the years, who contacted them in the days that followed to congratulate them and to pass on their best wishes on an outstanding performance, some of whom they hadn’t spoken to for quite a while but who took the time to get in touch to congratulate them on their achievement of recording the only bird on the day resulting in the following: 1st pill RPC, 1st south section WNR Federation, 1st open WNRF, 1st south section 1st open Welsh National Flying Club Bergerac 2013.

Day Two
It was an early start then for the remainder of our competitors as the race reopened at 04.30 and to see how far the next pigeon to be timed in was from home at night fall, and we were soon to discover that shortly before 7am. The honour of 1st centre section 2nd open was claimed at 06.49 with a vel of 768 at the Bargoed loft of Mel Mayo flying 502 miles. Mel’s arrival was a 4yr old smokey blue hen bred down through "Bobby’s Boy", Mel’s 2005 Bonn national winner which has now gone on to be the foundation of Mel’s present family of pigeons. Although this is the first major award for this hen, she hasn’t been that far off the pace and has appeared lower down in past national results on many occasions. Before basketing for this event she was re-paired and allowed to hatch out her first youngster of the year for that bit of added encouragement.

Mel Mayo

For 2nd centre section 3rd open we drop down the valley to Blackwod area to the lofts of B. Hackland and Son who timed in their 2yr old Staf van Reet cross Leon Boers blue cock at 07.52 with a velocity of 724. The parents of this pigeon comes down from local fancier Dennis Bates of Blackwood crossed with another successful local partnership that of Davies and Coombes. Added to this courageous performance and being a cock this pigeon also goes on to to win the Versele Laga sponsored opposite sex to the winner trophy. On speaking to Nigel he added that although this pigeon hasn’t scored this season he has flown consistently and was the partnership’s Lillers club winner from 260 miles as a young bird in 2011.

B. Hackland & Son

For 3rd and 4th centre section 4th and 5th open where else would we go other than to one of the most highlighted partnerships within the WNFC during the 2013 old bird season, the father and son set up of Mathew and Joseph Hughes from Treharris. Before we delve into this week’s pigeons, what a remarkable old bird programme they have had winning high level positions such as 2nd centre section 3rd open Maidstone, 15th open 7th section Ramsgate, 4th open 3rd section Fougeres, Tours 1st centre section 1st open, and 6th section 8th open Tarbes 604 miles. The first of this week’s pigeons is a 2yr old cheq hen of Jan Aarden bloodlines originating from the partnership’s good friend Lance Boswell of the Rhondda crossed with the Roy Harding of Tarporley and Patrick brothers’ pigeons. The loft is set up for the roundabout system which has seen them achieve outstanding rewards so far during the year at club, federation and national level and is a method that they maintained for this even. They also went on to time in their second arrival another 2yr shortly after to record a vel of 637 for 5th open 4th section.

M & J Hughes

The remaining trophy to be won was donated by our race sponsors. With the position of 6th open 2nd south section, winning the Versele Laga sponsored 2 bird average trophy was Picton Bros & Son timing in their second arrival at 10.30 am recording a vel of 632.

So yet another set of outstanding performances to round off a highly successful old bird programme, not just by the winners but by all who were rewarded with timing in from such extreme distances and conditions be it Tarbes 600 miles or Berergac 500 miles. Also congratulations to our winners in the shorter events, against some very unfavourable weather conditions. Remember this was our first year south and with being convoyed by some of the largest organisations in the UK going in this direction, our organisation have performed well amongst the leading pigeons in the country, which can only encourage our progress for 2014.

So that’s it for the time being. When this programme first came to light it looked a daunting task for any fancier and team of pigeons to overcome, but now looking back we are pleased with the outcome and under the organisation of the WNRF committee and race controllers and officials and convoyers of the West of England Combine and CSCFC, we can proudly say that yes, we did go that extra mile in 2013 to provide 500 and 600 mile racing for our members, something that fanciers have been crying out for in the past and we succeeded!!!

Well for us now we can sit back for a while until we gather again when our young bird campaign gets under way from Maidstone, followed by a change of programme resulting in a return to Dover and Lillers in the coming weeks.

A reminder of our 2013 annual presentation evening on Dec 14th at the Seamans Mission in Newport with tickets going on sale in preparation for this gala evening shortly after the final race. Be advised we have been sold out well in advance over the past two years and we are hopeful of achieving this once again in 2013, so get your reservations in early.