Certificate of Merit

By

John Clements

The best thing these days where the sport seems to have lost it’s way is searching results for  good pigeons. Good long distance pigeons despite massive selling propaganda for sprinters are always going to be in fashion for good long distance fanciers.  Pigeons that repeat their good performances year after year into the UK are at the top of my list. . For this reason I am inspired by the few National Flying Club's 'Certiicate of Merit' award winners. These are the outstanding pigeons of our day or every day. I think I  may have had some influence in this diection ;  I may be kidding myself,  nevertheless there are more 'Certificate of Merit' winners this year than ever before and because  it is necessary for eligible owners have to apply (they are not awarded automatically) it may be that my writings have prompted more to apply when previously, out of ignorance,  they did not.

The five 2017 Award winners.

There are five award winners  this year three of then in Section 'I' which as everyone knows is a section in the centre of England not blessed with being in a good position  for in most years there are pigeons either side - East and West - who are better placed geographically.  Five applications and five awards in any year is a record for as we know these are very special and very rare pigeons in any year. The previous best was three, that was in the years  1997 and 2015.

In 1997 the winners were F Atrill of the Isle of Wight - M/M Cannon of Wormley and J Wills and son of Portsmouth. In 2015 the three award winners were M/M Lewis of Worcester - Joe Raeburn of Melksham and Fletcher and Gobin of Runcorn.

This years five award winners are :-  Nic Adshead of Selby - M/M Redfern of Derby -  Keith Bush  of Cossall - Stuart Potter of Coalville - and from Section ‘A’  - Mr R Parker of Chichester.

You don’t have to be a pigeon fanatic or an NFC  historian  to see these pigeons are all of the highest class but in this day and age ‘high class’ is not enough - there has also to be the requisite amount of publicity to go along with proven  ‘high class’. When people buy pigeons most  expect the pigeons or the loft to be already famous and for the fame to somehow ‘rub off’ on them.

Fame can often be more easily secured by media promotion and constant re-sale  than by actual results. It is for this reason I am trying to even the score so to speak  and give a mention to really good pigeons that normally do not get noticed at all and still less talked about.

I am still fascinated by really good proven repeat performance pigeons no matter where they are to be found so I intend to highlight them in my future writings.  If you are able to find better ones from other countries so be it,  but finding better, especially ones that have crossed the sea to get home, will be a difficult task. There are a few  good ones in the UK that could well found a future family. These good ones happen to be  right under our noses here in the UK waiting to be recognised.

The Freelands Gem Award Certificate - Freelands Gem is the only pigeon ever  to win two ‘Certificate of Merit Awards’ . This means six times in the first 200 places in the NFC’s Longest race. This pigeon was raced by Bill Lewis of Kempsey Worcestershire.