Llay Homing Society 2015 Presentation
Clubs up and down the UK can only thrive when they have a good secretary, president and chairperson and or an organising committee that gets the full backing and support of its membership. The Llay Homing Society or to give it its true Welsh name Llai (meaning meadow in Welsh) nestles in the mining village which now forms part of the borough of Wrexham.
This former mining village which at one time boasted the home of the largest colliery in Wales borders several villages including Gwersyllt and Gresford is now home to some 5000 souls. Not only could this small village boast of the largest mine in Wales but after 1962 would boast to have the deepest pit within the whole UK and was the major employer within the community before its coal resources were exhausted in the early 1960’s.
The racing pigeon club today resides within the confines of the Llay Royal British Legion Club which itself is an exceptional facility. The club thrives on serving and supporting the locality and community it caters for everyone local from the pigeon fancier to hosting the car boot sale. Regular events that are catered for are Friday and Saturday nights entertainment for the family, along with special in house catering, bouncy castle hire and its own disco. The club is located within a mile of the main arterial route of the A483 is easily accessible from Chester and Shropshire alike.
This unusual and accommodating club premises also offers a large size concert room, lounge, bar games room and a large car park and outside grassed area. An ideal place to have as head-quarters, the pigeon club and its membership enjoy the use of all of the facilities available.
The large concert room The club lounge
Bar and Games Room The huge car park and grassed outside areas
The Llay HS has numerous initiatives annually that make it one the “stand out” clubs within the North wales and indeed the North West area. Not least the clubs well known annual breeder buyer sale which this year takes place on Saturday 26th March at the Llay British Legion. This particular breeder buyer is unique locally that it is judged on performance of a pigeon and the 2015 judge was Mark Cliff of Congleton who was invited to judge what he considered the best performances.
Not big in size with regard to its members or membership but huge in statue especially when you mention some of the fanciers names that make this club one of the most competitive within its locality and its federation. The club boasts some sixteen members and in recent years not only boast some federation champions but also a national Flying Club Section winner.
Formed in 1948 the Llay Homing Society has a long standing tradition and still has members who can still relate stories from the mining days and early racing days of the club. Today’s club president Fred Tilson who himself is normally found dining at the top table on presentation evening can tell of his joining the Llay HS in 1948 and today is the longest serving member of the club.
The club also boast some of the best patronised shows locally with fanciers traveling from the Wirral, Cheshire and Shropshire to attend and compete and can expect along day out if you find yourself in the company of John Lloyd in the bar post show talking pigeons and reminiscing of days gone by. If its excellent pigeon company you are after and share a couple of pints this is the club of choice within the North Wales area and I guarantee you will have a great afternoon out. The winners of the four shows this year were: Old Cocks A Murray & Son winning £86. Old Hens G & G Williams winning £87. Young Cocks J E Speed winning £84. Young Hens C W Marsh winning £76.
The 2015 Llay Homing Society presentation took place on Friday January 8th at the club Head-Quarters, Gary Williams (Club Chairman and flies as G & G (Gordon and Gary) Williams took to the microphone to welcome everyone to the presentation and to introduce yours truly as the guest of honour for the evening. After a very few words from myself it was time for the club secretary Andrew Lloyd to take over and commence the awarding of the prizes for the 2015 season but prior to the reading of the prize winners Andrew took a minute to thank everyone for their attendance and then congratulate his club members on yet another memorable year, wht he then sauid was quite astonishing for such a small club flying within what is considered an exceptionally strong federation so much so that I feel I must recoup what was said? So I quote:
“Tonight will be a very special night for all Lay HS members; I would like to thank Alan Shinton for attending and presenting the trophies this evening and also our Chairman Gary Williams for auctioning our pigeons at this year’s breeder buyer sale. Llay HS has once again had a great season with some fantastic results. The top prize winners this season are M & C Lewis (Merv & Chris). What a really great partnership they are. In the federation this season Llay HS took over 170 cards (yes one hundred and seventy cards) in the top forty of the federation, what a brilliant achievement by our club members this is, I would also like to mention a couple of extra performances from this season: Merv & Chris Lewis (M & C Lewis) twice first federation, twice second in the Wrexham Two Bird Club (Same Pigeon), also one second federation. This partnership also managed two firsts and two seconds in four channel races with the North Wales Championship Club”.“Another set of fanciers who has consistently been at the forefront of our clubs efforts within our federation is the partnership of our president Fred Tilson & Sons (Steve & Peter). This partnership managed to win our federation no less than four times, also gaining two second federation positions the partnership then went on to win third in the Wrexham Two bird club, an eighth in the Chester Two Bird Club along with also winning the Llay Breeder Buyer Performance Sale winning £750”.
Also tonight a special mention to our chairman Gary and his dad Gordon Williams (G & G Williams), this hard working partnership gained an impressive three federation first prizes, hitting the post once and gaining one second federation this partnership also won fourth Wrexham Two Bird Club, Best Average Wrexham two Bird Club all three races and then managed to split Fred Tilson and Sons in the Breeder Buyer performances taking second place and winning a cool £700 for their efforts”.
“Other special performances were C Prevete & Son (Tony) winning First in the Brymbo HS Breeder Buyer winning &1400. W Hollins & Son winning third in the Wrexham Two Bird Club. B Hurst & Son, winning a third federation prize, and finally G E Jones winning seventh Wrexham Two Bird Club”.
Andrew finished with “Llay homing society has run very well this year, I would just like to say thanks for the help that I have been given as secretary and mention a couple of people especially Peter Hollins for cleaning and generally looking after all the baskets on behalf of the club. Gary Williams for helping me out when I was not available, Wilf (Wilf Marsh) Gary (Gary Williams) and Fred (Fred Tilson) for dealing with the clocks. Gary’s help with auctioning the pigeons at our performance sale. Also special thanks to my wife Linda and Ann Williams (mum to Gary and wife to Gordon, G & G Williams) for helping with the raffles and taking the monies at the performance sale and my daughter Kimberly for helping with tonight’s raffle. And a special thank you to all for helping run this special club. I would just like to finish by wishing you all a very good season this year”
The presentation began with the prize cards; first up to receive theirs were Eddie Speed
Llay HS highest prize winner runner up Fred and Steve Tilson (F Tilson & Sons) receiving
their prizes from special guest Alan Shinton.
Llay HS Highest Prize winners 2015 Chris & Merv Lewis (M & C Lewis)
A Special mention for John Lloyd who has finished racing pigeons last season but has still kept his ties to the club and keeps a breast of the results and still attends marking and especially at the NFC with Andrew Lloyd. Great to see a friendly face still active around the pigeon club.
The Llay fanciers line up post presentation for their group photograph.
Another part of this special club is the “Club Specials”, this is something that I have not personally encountered previously but does show how this competitive club actively engages with its members to participate and encourages them to get involved with giving and or sponsoring prizes and to this end this specials is indeed a special area where uniqueness prevails and makes racing results that to be honest can become somewhat boring to those other than who have made the result more interesting and to this end I believe warrant inclusion in this report.
Description
Sponsor
Prize
Winner
First hen from Messac
North West Tyres
£100
M & C Lewis
Winner first young bird race
Barry Hurst
£20
G & G Williams
Winner first channel race
Barry Hurst
£20
M & C Lewis
Combined average winner
G & G Williams
£20
M & C Lewis
Best average all channel races
A Williamson
£10
M & C Lewis
First Yearling from Niort
A Williamson
£10
M & C Lewis
First and Last channel race
J Woodward
£20
M & C Lewis
Each winner of all four channel races
Andrew Lloyd
£5
£5
£5
£5
M & C Lewis
M & C Lewis
M & C Lewis
M & C Lewis
Winner first young bird race
Ken Davies
£10
G & G Williams
Winner last young bird race
Ken Davies
£10
F Tilson & Sons
Winner last in land race
F Tilson & Sons
Bag of corn
F Tilson & Sons
Winner last channel race
F Tilson & Sons
Bag of corn
M & C Lewis
Winner last young bird race
F Tilson & Sons
Bag of corn
F Tilson & Sons
Winner last channel race
John Lloyd
Bag of corn
M & C Lewis
Winner last inland old bird race
John Lloyd
Bag of corn
F Tilson & Sons
Winner last young bird race
John Lloyd
Bag of corn
F Tilson & Sons
The evening was also broken down into sections to allow the raffle which was quite extensive with numerous raffle prizes and sale of the premier prize winners 2016 youngsters for club funds with some tidy prices achieved and deservedly so. With the entertainment, the constant supply of banter the quick service of the club staff and the special offer on a free pint after every five purchased made foe a very enjoyable night.
My personal thanks go to the members of Llay HS for helping to make my own season complete by inviting me to present the prizes to some of the most competitive but yet nice fanciers I have had the pleasure of meeting and competing against. I would also like to thank my companions for the evening Clifford Davenport our designated driver for the evening (“but don’t put your left foot on the brake Clifford”) and his racing partner Barry Roberts (who incidentally went missing alone into the dark of the night in Llay), Alan Malone and Dave Woodworth whom didn’t manage to heckle me during my five seconds of fame.
The last word is left to John Lloyd as he left the club “Great night, Great Club, Great people”