NEWS FROM BALERNO

by Norman Dixon MBE

Henry Borthwick top Scottish Central Federation flyer with Alec Cockburn the President of the Scottish Central Federation and the Scottish Central Combine

Every year there is talk within Racing Pigeon circles that the sport is getting smaller and we will have to get together to survive for the future.  However although it seems everyone knows that this is the right way forward from what I have seen in and around my area of Central Scotland, the opposite has been happening with organisations splitting up and new ones being formed, who then compete for the same dwindling membership. There is something about reorganising the deckchairs on the Titanic that springs to mind every time I see this happening.

For the reasons mentioned above I have to congratulate the committee members of the four organisations who make up the Scottish Central Combine, namely, the Fauldhouse Club, The Midland Federation, The North West Federation and the Scottish Central Federation, who have worked hard over the last few months to create a race programme that has been agreed across the four organisations to deliver joint liberations and convoying for the benefit of all the Fanciers they represent.

This all started by recognising the simple fact, that although the Combine members and others in Central Scotland had their own separate race programmes, in reality each week they were always liberating pigeons within a radius of 20 30 miles of each other and spending lots of money sending smaller and smaller amounts of birds down the road.  In fact at one time there were conversations taking place with other neighbouring organisations that could have created what would have been an Amalgamation of seven organisations and that even had a ‘Project’ name ‘The Scottish Lowland Amalgamation’. That never came off this year, and I say this year, for if what the Combine are doing works well then I would hope further discussions could take place to bring the Combine closer to other organisations across Central Scotland.

In the early discussions it was very apparent that organizations can easily deal with their first three to four races up to about 120 miles themselves, then joint liberations/convoying should take place. This has led to the Scottish Central Combine members setting a race programme for 2015 that along with their initial Federation only races, will deliver Seven Old Bird Combine races and Two Young Bird Combine races that still includes the Yearling, Channel and Young Bird race that are in within the traditional Scottish Central Combine race calendar. The first of these Old Bird Combine races will have approximately 4,000 Pigeons competing for top honours, numbers we have not seen in this area for some considerable years.

At the last meeting of the Scottish Central Combine it was also decided to hold a Gold Ring competition for the Combine Young Bird Race from Wakefield on 29th August 2015. The rings for this race can be purchased from the Secretaries of the Combine member organisations for £5:00 each and every penny received in payment for rings will be paid back out in prize money. The Combine is hoping to sell at least 100 rings to have a pot of £500:00 available for the Combine members to compete for. 

So that’s a good news story to start the year, I hope I will be able to report on many more in the 2015 Racing Pigeon season.

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