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L J Parkinson - 09-10-23

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L J Parkinson

During the young bird season, we put a lot of effort into the pigeons to get them right for the races and as we all know that takes up a lot of time. Now that the season has finished, I am looking round for things to do around the lofts and as I have found out there is only so much scraping and looking at the pigeons we can do. What I have decided to do is add another 12ft to the loft for the stock birds, I was going to have a separate loft but having spoken to Matt at Ecco Lofts the decision has been made to add the extra space needed at the end of the current loft. This will be done in the same way that we did for Ebony’s old and young bird sections. Matt and his team will take the right hand end out and put the 12ft in and put the end back. I never thought I would have a 46ft loft in the back garden, but I have and am pleased with it. The loft is now made up of 3 sections for the cocks with 12 boxes in each, then we come to what was the young bird section which is now going to be for the old hens to use on the roundabout. There will be a 6ft section for the stock bords with an aviary on the end with the remaining space being split into two sections for the young birds. I have never been a lover of the darkness, but I will try it in one of the two sections. What remains now is to get the doors closed between each section and get the cocks settled ready for pairing up, when will that be I have not decided yet, but I will have to move to keep up with the rest. Everything has gone full circle with me when it comes to pairing the pigeons up. I say that because when I first started racing in the late 60’s early 70’s I was the only one who paired up around here, at least I don’t know of anyone else in Middlewich who was paired up so early at the time. In those days we didn’t get the rings until about the 15th January so that the young birds were bred in the year they were raced. I still think that should be the case but with the changing times we must move otherwise we get left behind. You must think so far ahead, because with social media most are talking about what they are doing so fanciers look, read, and pick what they are the best things out and try them. The other thing about pairing early is we don’t have the cold winters that we used to have when I first started. The other thing that comes to mind is we didn’t have all the health issues with pigeons in those days, young birds were bred and reared on their own strength. Not necessarily the case anymore and it’s not doing pigeons any good, but we are now finding out many fanciers treat their birds as a preventative. Talking about the winter months, Elizabeth was saying that she misses the shows, we used to go around the various clubs which, going out nearly every day/night of the week. For those who weren’t around in the later years of last century the local clubs could have anything up to 200 birds in a single class, those were the days. Yes, those were the days when you went down to the club on a Saturday night and the winner would buy drinks.

Visitor.

We had a second visit of the year from Guillaume Vanneste while he was on a working visit to the UK from Belgium. Part of the trip was to drop 4 pigeons off to be sent to Scotland and he should have brought another two but unfortunately misplaced the fancier’s contact details. I remember when we first met Guillaume when he started dating Frans & Regina Rigole’s daughter Leen. At that time, he did not have much idea about racing pigeons, but he soon learned and now handles them like a professional. After the death of Gust Taveirne he started to take a bigger interest in the pigeons at Koolskamp and is now partnering Frans with what is an ever-improving interest with the pigeons. The only thing we need to get him to do now is put a racing loft in his rather large garden and show them how to race, he is enthusiastic about the pigeons. While he was here, we took the opportunity to visit Nigel Shaw over at Shavington where he is still working on buildings and renovations at the property, keeps moving forward on each visit we make. Nigel & Wendy had a good team of pigeons from Koolskamp several years ago That came to a halt when a polecat entered the loft and left a trail of destruction behind, and they never built that team up again. Who knows what the future holds, there is plenty of choice available in the pigeon world, it’s a case of finding what pigeons suit you. I found their pigeons to be at their best when they were getting towards the middle to long distances races and as I know that is where Nigel wants to aim for with the Nationals. I had one of those special moments in pigeon racing when I clocked a chequer hen out of a pair from Koolskamp to win 3rd section L 27th Open Tarbes 1418ypm on a good racing day from such a distance. I was looking through my cards from the National and thought to myself, can I do it again, will have a good try. Will have to have a word with our friends in Koolskamp to see what they can find us to race.

History

While I was looking through my records, I found a lot of interesting material for years gone by. There is a list of members in the town from 1913, bit before my time but there are names I have heard about. The one name that comes up is Wilkinson, I ask myself if it’s the same line that we still have racing in the town with Craig. I expect it is because David Wilkinson has trophies that the family won in 1923, the days when the trophies were top quality. Other names that I had heard about when I first joined the club include Hough Bros, Holbrooks, Siddall and Sant, the rest are new to me. I also have some good results from many years ago, with one from the Middlewich 2B when 113 members entered 226 birds that were liberated at Sartilly in a light northeast wind at 6.15am. This race was in 1994 when we finished 9th. There is a result of 49 members which I went through and could only find 10 who are still racing. When you look through the result there were some good fanciers competing. What does always come to mind is that it took the legendary George Stubbs from Sandbach 21yrs to take top spot in the club, but he got there in the end. George was a great fancier always on the go, I remember someone saying, he’s a proper fidget. A result from the SWCF shows that they have lost a few clubs over the years, Audlem (9 members sent), Nantwich (13), Pipegate, where I was born (10), Raven (4), Shavington (14) and Wettenhall (10), the biggest senders at the time were the Middlewich 5B (26) ahead of Crewe West End 21 members. From the 124 members that sent in that race I can only see 10? Who are racing today. Will have another look next week to see what I can come up with.

South West Cheshire Fed

Mel Bratt has sent me the 2023 averages for the SWCF, there are some long-time winning fanciers on the list. I was talking to a local fancier about the local fed competition, and we have concluded that the Mid Cheshire is moving further north and losing out with birdage from the shorter flying members for some races. Most of the southerly flying members in the fed are those who have been there a long time. I am wondering if any of the local clubs will look at the option of moving feds in the coming weeks when the round of meetings start. We have raced in both the local feds and this year and until we had the northeast wind they were mostly coming back out of the north. Let’s get back to who won what in the trophy honors list. OB inland ave with a vel of 1529ypm goes to Joe Glover who had a good season but due to a fall was out of action for a while. He did have a very good stand in loft manager just for that spell where he could not get to the lofts, yes Jimmy did a good job. No doubt Joe will come out fighting for the 2024 season. Mike and Keith Hitchin from the Winsford club were runners up six yards further back on 1523ypm for the inland and taking the r/u position in the combined averages on 1430ypm. Racing with the Middlewich 5B are Jones Bros & Karen Jones who had a good season collecting the channel (1347ypm) and combined (1444ypm) averages with T Morrish being r/u in the channel average on 1310ypm. That leaves the young bird average where Crewe West End members took both positions. Young bird specialist Colin Lindop leads the way on 1474ypm ahead of Bob Humpries with a vel of 1463ypm.

Photos.

Nigel Shaw with Guillaume Vannest holding the number one cock.

vanneste shaw

Probably not a lot of these about, there will of course be some somewhere, it is a velocity indicator that auctioneer Charlie Miller used to hand out.

charlie miller

Then we have one of the Middlewich members in 1913, bit before my time.

middlewich 1913

Les Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.

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