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Parky214

 

 

LES J. PARKINSON'S

NEWS-REPORTS-ARTICLES

After a couple of weeks’ work Geoff Bebbington has completed the office and we are now moved in. We’ve still a few boxes to unpack and find a place for but otherwise it’s much better. Kim and I took a while to figure out the wiring but we got there in the end. When putting these systems together we looked and looked until all of a sudden it clicked and hey presto, job done. The technical side I leave mainly to our IT man Mike who is very good and when he gets on the "Log Me In" system. He amazes me what he can do with my system from over 200 mls away.

 

He's Back

From time to time mate Chris Knowles puts pen to paper with his thoughts on the sport and here is another piece that will no doubt be of interest to many: "Hi Les. As you know, I do my best to keep myself aware and up to date with the happenings within the pigeon world and a major source of info is the world wide web, better known as the Internet. One of, if not the most popular U.K. sites being Elimar. I have always been a regular visitor and on occasions a contributor to the site. My attention of late has been drawn to the increasing number of articles (or maybe just opinions) which focus on extreme distance racing. Most of them are rather brief yet never the less frequently revisiting this minority part of pigeon racing and strongly promoting it as the ultimate challenge. A recent one interestingly comparing the task with that of migration for birds such as geese. My intrigue is not about these views and opinions which relate more closely to homing than they do to racing, it is in the lack of similar frequent publications relating to other parts of the sport, one of which presents a fairer and truer opportunity to evaluate racing ability. Criterion which allow this would include races where all birds competing can complete the race on day of liberation and flying distances that a pigeon can complete without taking a rest before reaching its loft. The obvious distance to me which provides the opportunities that I refer to is Middle Distance. An interesting term within itself! For fanciers in the U.K. the majority of whom fly the south route, cannot achieve such a race, of say 8 to 10 flying hours for the winner, without crossing the English Channel. So a race from the North of France to say the Midlands is a distance of around 210 miles, flown in a head wind would take around 5 hours and to the North West around 7 hours. From this I would classify distances of around 300 to 400 miles as the "Middle Distance" category. When I look at other sports where racing is the objective, the likes of Horse Racing or Athletics, they promote their Middle Distance events as the most prestigious. Horse racing is perhaps the best comparison as it involves humans and animals to produce the result. In Europe the main events are the English Derby and France's Arc De Triomphe. In turn these events have produced the most valued animals in the history of that sport and in stud terms, it is the animals that produced the winners of these events that become icons. My hope for the future is that some of our great exponents of Middle Distance pigeon racing will have the motivation to produce articles/opinions on their chosen category and in so doing give readers like myself an opportunity to consider Middle Distance Racing from various angles and in doing so perhaps improve my own results. Reflecting on personal experience, from winning 1st Section L N.F.C Saintes 3rd Open clocked on day of liberation at 535 miles, 2nd Section L, N.F.C. Bordeaux flying 598 miles clocking next morning and 2nd Section L, N.F.C. Pau flying 701 miles clocking early afternoon next day from a late lib, there is no doubt in my mind which race provided the fairest and truest test of a racing pigeon. Interestingly the pigeon that won 2nd Section Bordeaux was a full brother to 2 pigeons purchased by Louella Stud for their outstanding performances in the category of “Sprint". I hope you can include these thoughts in your article and perhaps they will generate a little enthusiasm and response which I would certainly welcome and enjoy hearing from others. If we all contribute now and again and listen to and think about the thoughts of others, it can only be a benefit overall. Best Regards. Chris Knowles". Thanks Chris, you are always good to read.

One Loft Races

With moving to the new office I have been going through files and anything that I don't need over 10yrs old I am shredding to make space on the shelves. Amongst the folders I found one containing a bad memory of entering birds into a one loft race and that was the one held in Germany in a lovely place called Dinkesbuhl. This is a picturesque village and one that we enjoyed seeing and one that I would like to see again one day, in fact the area was very nice. The race, like many more, started well and then went downhill. I was always a lover of one loft races because you could test your pigeons on a one to one basis but there are too many that have gone by the wayside and that is the reason I stopped entering them.

George Greenshield

"In your interesting article on Spedding, mention was made of George Greenshield. I had the great pleasure of owning and flying these great beautiful birds. Yes, I said flying, racing these birds successfully. I did not realize the treasures I had. I bought a pair in 1950 at the California Racing Pigeon Association Convention in San Francisco. I raced them and occasionally showed them. They were unbeatable in the Flown Class. I had thought that I could acquire them again when I resumed racing but they are long gone. Jack in Santa Cruz, CA." That's one thing about websites they show articles all around the world and it is always interesting to see where and how far they reach and get a response. Perhaps someone somewhere has some good information we could forward on the Jack. I have included a photo of the Grizzle that was sent by Jack.

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Club/Fed news

I hear that a club has decided to use the North West Classic Club programme for their club races so a good benefit for the future of the club and it also gives a marking station over at Cheadle side which will also accommodate the Manchester area. This was something clubs have done before with the club and if a few more make the same move the club could start to get back to where it used to be when there was plenty of prizes to go round. I was talking to secretary Mark Cliffe about the annual night out and he has confirmed that there are now over 60 who have expressed their interest in tickets for the prize presentation on the 15th March. Now on to some news from the Rudheath club who paid £20 per race for the inland races. The old bird inland races were dominated by Derek Woodward with 10x1sts & 5x2nds with £118 in prizes and £14 noms, Derek is one of the fanciers to beat. However the club do have some good fanciers who appear near or at the top of the local clubs and one of those is Keith Herbert who on this occasion picks up £114 in prizes and £28 noms and was also 2nd in the breeder buyer collecting a share of £330 with Gordon Ledwards. Next on the list is another of the local fanciers who is a regular amongst the prize winners and he is Ian Cooper picking up £100 prizes and a further £6 nom. Malcolm Hewitt picked up £43 prizes and £35 noms and was also 2nd in the show race seeing another £110 go his way. Jason Lambert wins £47 prize money plus £19 noms. B&G Mainwaring are next on the list with £36 and noms of £13. Lockwood & Curbishley won £30 prizes and £20 noms with Tom Howarth picked up £22 prize money. Other money paid out by the club in eith the show race or the breeder/buyer went to 1st B/B with a share of £550 are Eric Taylor & John Allbutt who also collected £60 in the show race while Tommy Hulme picked up £222 as both breeder & buyer and to make it a better club to compete in for Tommy he won the show race with £170.

Photo

Had my leg pulled a few times about the photo in the Christmas edition so here's a couple more, one being of me outside the young bird loft and that one was taken in the early 80s and 30yrs on the days of having a moustache have long gone. The other is of a Mid Cheshire presentation when there were 200 plus attending at the Civic Hall in Middlewich. In those days we had someone off the telly to present the prizes but for the ordinary organizations going down that road is far too expensive. There are three fanciers on the photo who were always winning and fanciers who you would set your sights on to beat, Joe Glover from Wrinehill who has been winning ever since I have known him and for many years before that, It must be over 60yrs since Joe won his first race. Another is the late George Stubbs from Sandbach who was a premier flyer when I first started in the late 60's and was a fancier to set your sights on in a club that in those days had over 40 members. The other fancier who I was looking at was the late Denis Gleave who was in our own club at Middlewich and year after year was the premier prize winner on nearly every occasion. I have always said that we need these fanciers in the clubs to set our sights on and they are the fanciers that make the rest better fanciers. It is always a case of the stronger the competition the more we work to achieve our goal.

Yours Truly

Mid Cheshire Presentation

Call

We had a call from Derek Lawton who phoned to tell us that his wife Pat had passed away after a long illness. Pat was such a nice woman and was a good help to Elizabeth's granddaughter Kerry when she was in hospital a number of years ago. Derek and Pat had not long since moved to a bungalow where they planned to live in retirement and with no pigeons they could have spent more time together. Unfortunately that will no longer happen and our condolences go out to Derek and his family on this very sad occasion.

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