G & M Clayton & Lovell Bros  

 1st, 2nd & 3rd Maidstone   

Clayton & Lovell Bros.

The welsh national flying club ,kicked off its 2017 campaign with the first race of the year from maidstone in kent a distance of approx 160+ miles  ,with basketing delayed by 24 hours due to a poor weather forecast on the planned saturday with winds estimated to be gusting up to 30mph at times  , the advice of the appointed weather man was that he could see no window of opportunity for a liberation and the sunday seemed a better day all round  , saturday night and with a steady flow  of entries at each of the marking stations ,the convoy made its journey eastwards along the m4 corridor arriving safely on site within the early hours  sunday morning and as we all wished for an early release we were met at dawn  by low lying cloud and fog patches throughout the line of flight  and with  the forecast  predicting  to clear as the morning and day  went on ,we reluctantly  had the daunting task of sitting tight and wait for that all important  break to get the birds away it wasn't till around noon that  on checking on current conditions with various contacts on the line of flight and again consulting with the weather advisor ,all indications were  that  conditions would  improve by late morning and get slowly better around mid  afternoon   noon came and went and although the line had vastly improved however on site the conveyors had informed us that light rain was present  and we were contemplating the prospect of having to hold ,once again before that call was made we once again consulted the weatherman who again advised us to hold tight  as the weather was to improve in the next hour or so from the north  and there was to be an opportunity around 2pm to get the birds airborne ,at such time as indicated this came to reality as the conveyors reported brighter skies to the north east and above and with continued improvement the birds were away at 2.05pm into a light north  wind  on checking the m4 corridor the line of flight was as we were experiencing back home with  temperatures rising and broken blue skies  and an estimated three hours thirty was circulating for the first arrivals on welsh soil at 5.39 the winning pigeon touched down at the lofts of the multiple partnership of g& m clayton & lovelll bros from crumlin who timed in one of three pigeons that landed together all of which are yearling widowhood hens which is the system adopted  by the partnership ,first across the line to take the top honours was a blue hen was a dark cheq pied hen which was bred down from the race loft and comes down from the original euro diamond lines recording a vel of 1311,the partnership second arrival and taking 2nd open was a blue which was bred down from pigeons from retired local fancier mel mayo from  bargoed and contains the van loon bloodlines on a vel of 1308, for third open on a vel of 1302,we stay at the winning loft as the partnership took a clear 1,2,3, with another blue hen which is bred from the clayton bros orignal lines when crossed with pigeons from the late dia evans from cascade and as a yb recorded 4th battle and 1st club maidstone the sire of this hen is responsible for no fewer than 40x1st positions and is half sister to the 1st bergerac winner  for 4th and 5th we go slightly further up the valley to the ebbw vale loft of carl powell who over the past years has returned to the sport after successfully obtaining many club federation national and combine winning performances before leaving the sport ,now on his return on this day carl timed in two arrivals within a few seconds and both originating from the same lines being the lambrechts from alan maul from rhigos from the kris cleirbaut pigeons  the first being a 3yr old cheq pied cock which has flown well for carl and has already scored 1st club swindon earlier in this years campaign recording a vel of 1301.8 ,just ahead of his second arrival a 4 yr old mealy hen which hasn't really scored but is one that can be relied upon once the conditions and a difficult race is on the cards this hen recorded a vel of 1301.5 taking the 6th position we go further north into the rhymney valley to the partnership of irland and hyman who timed in a yearling blue cock .with a vel  of 1294 which is bred from pigeons obtained via pigeons  from local fancier derek morgan from tredegar whilst crossed with the sire obtained from the blackpool show  as the day went on and the pigeons were returning it seems to be one of those awkward races when the leading pigeons were timed in  on the estimate times, however the later birds seemed to struggle to get through ,however many lofts reported a considerable number of losses  when the  clocks were checked later in the evening , thankfully thou early the  following morning a large number of pigeons came through  ,some what dehydrated but thankfully home to fight another day  next week we head to the east coast and the town of ramsgate an average distance of 200 miles before we take a weeks break and head out across the channel to falaise for the start of the french liberations,so fingers crossed everything goes to plan over the next few weeks ,there's an added bonus up for grabs for the winners of the ramsgate ,falaise and lemans races as the derby arona one loft race in tenerife  has sponsored each winner with the offer of entering one free pigeon into this years event leaving the uk in june or sept  as for the national theres been no vast alterations since our last report ,with the agm passing as it should and  only losing  a small number of members as we continue to maintain our membership into 2017 ,the one big thing to report is that in 2018 
we as an organisation celebrate the welsh nationals flying club 10th anniversary and to celebrate such a milestone the committee has proposed with being being financially stable to reward the current membership as of 2017 with half price membership fees of £10 for 2018  as thank you for their continued loyal support to the orgasnisation.

Result:

1 G&mClayton&lovellBr 1311.392  

2 G&mClayton&lovellBr 1308.075   

3 G&mClayton&lovellBr 1302.782  

4 CPowell 1301.843  

5 CPowell 1301.552  

6 Ireland&Hyman 1294.153  

7 Mr&MrsUpham 1291.187  

8 Mr&MrsUpham 1285.248  

9 WilliamsBrosSon&Burgham 1277.589  

10 CPowell 1277.456

Tom Harris