ROMANTIC GLORY

by John Clements

I wish those writers who go banging on about flying Barcelona would find time to examine International rules and procedures. I don’t think they have a clue about International pools or how hard it is to get onto an International result in a hard race. Barcelona is almost always difficult, especially when you are flying beyond 800 miles; your chances of getting a bird in two days is seen to be impossible if we are to take the history of British involvement as our guide.

For instance when the velocity falls below 800 meters most of the fanciers in the UK are doubly penalised. A new set of International rules apply when this happens. These rules are far different from the rules that apply in the UK. These rules play against those fanciers who fly a distance greater than the co-ordinating distance, which happens to be 1060km (658 miles) from Barcelona. If you fly greater than this distance and your velocity falls below 800mpm you only get the allowance rate of 800mpm from 1060km to the distance to which you fly.

In the UK you get a time/distance allowance regardless of the distance your bird has to fly. I have never met any fancier who understands this procedure but a few, despite a lack of understanding, still encourage support of Barcelona in a sort of romantic idealistic way that ignores uncomfortable facts that get in the way of their ideals.

I would say if Irish fanciers sent 100 pigeons to Barcelona only two or three would get home within two weeks and the vast proportion would be lost. I consider a low proportion of this kind is too high a price to pay for a bit of romantic glory that will almost always be forgotten two weeks after the event.

February 2013

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