This is not the first for win for Ron, who's last win was five years ago from Messac. His previous best performance he feels was 4th Open NFC from Sennen Cove. For those of you (and I know there are many), who are fans of Wall, Lunt and Green Janssens the pedigree of this pigeon is one for you to relish. The sire is the dreaded '6000'. Now I say 'dreaded 'cos that is the way the members of Wootton and Bashley viewed his inclusion in the race basket. He was a very quick pigeon, especially from his favourite race point, Picauville. Before retiring to stock, '6000', had won 5 x 1st prizes and 3 x 2nd prizes. He really took some beating on a short one. '6000' is from a direct Wall, Lunt & Green stock cock, one of a batch that Ron bought having picked them out himself. His father is a winner of 4 x 1st prizes and nearly topped the fed for them, only to be beaten by loft mates. The grandsire was a winner of 1st Open Combine and brother to 6 other 1st Open Combine winners and 1st Sect NFC. One brother won 1st 3 Countries Combine (8,000 birds), and another 5 x 1st Feds. The Grand dam of '6000' is 'Blue Swallow', a granddaughter of 'Grey Marvel' who was directly responsible for over 30 fed winners. The dam of '6000' is another of the direct stock team. Her pedigree is like the who's who of Wall, Lunt and Green Janssens. 'Goldwing', 'Blue Wonder', 'Xantia', 'Wonder Girl 560', 'Wondergrey' and 'Kristel' are all there to behold. This is not the first top performance bred from '6000'. Ron was 3rd section CSCFC last year from Forgeres with a direct son of his. This year has been one of change for Ron. He is usually a staunch widowhood cock flyer and this is the first time he has really started a team of both widowhood hens and cocks from the start of the season. It has not been without casualties, as some of the older hens that had not raced since being ybs have found the going too hard. His fed winner was not raced last year although did go through the YB programme two years ago. Ron has managed always to find hens for the cocks to come home to even having lost more hens by raiding the stock loft. He has found that his stock hens are only too willing be the reception party for any racing cocks without a hen and then just pop back to their stock cocks a little later. Needs must! Throughout this season he has been racing cocks one week and hens the next. The Federation programme lends itself well to this, having a programme of two weeks at the same distance policy. The greatness of his fed toppers performance, Ron feels is due to the very special pairing that this hen has with her cock. They are a very devoted couple which Ron feels very much inspired the hen. Ron was also 3rd Fed with a yearling cock bred by fellow club member Les Kidd. The Wootton & Bashley WMFC have every year an informal 'swapsies' competition. Each member breeds a pair of youngsters for another having pulled their names out of a hat. There are two prizes to race for, either a points competition for the highest average placed yb in the club, or the first swapsies pigeon from the longest yb race. Last year Ron decided to play it shadey, and kept one yb until the last race from Truro. So doing he put all his eggs in one basket. But he won the prize! This is the same pigeon that took third fed for him. I have to report that it is definitely not Ron's favourite pigeon, but now he has a loft fishing net to catch him in, they get along famously, and with this type of form, Ron is willing to forgive him his reluctance to being caught! Ron started his racing as a boy, but then had to go to Eygpt with the army only for his Dad to write to him while he was away to tell him that he had been forced to sell all his birds. It wasn't until his son, Robert was about 9 yrs old and showed an interest that Ron restarted racing in about 1964. They raced in partnership together in the Andover area until Robert tragically died, only 28 yrs old. Ron moved to Highcliffe over 31 yrs ago when he built his own loft on his lawn in sections and then a testament to his popularity is that a team of work mates came for the day to put the sections together. He is now the President of Wootton & Bashley WMFC and is the oldest member in the club. Well! When he told me his age I was amazed! Despite his reliance on his stick he is remarkably active and is never still. He loves nothing more than to be pottering in his garden and working in his workshop.His latest innovation is his new traps for his ETS system which he describes as 'a blessing for me and my dodgy legs!' He has formed these out of plastic so that they are both durable, yet easy to keep clean. He very much prefers sprint racing 'In the basket one day, and home the next!'
My late father was a great socialite and had a great many friends from many walks of life. When someone is dying from the dreaded 'C', many people cannot cope with the situation and back away. I know that the friends who showed the most 'stickablity' and kindness in what was a very difficult situation were his pigeon chums, and there was no one who showed more compassion than Ron. He made time to regularly visit Dad, even towards the end when it was not easy and I shall always be eternally grateful to him for his loyalty.
So I come to the end of my loft visit at Ron's. I go home with a cock bird that is the same way bred as his fed winner, broad beans from his garden, and a plant from his greenhouse for my Mum. Same old Uncle Ron!
3rd Club, 4th Fed Wootton & Bashley WMFC is Mr & Mrs M Whiddett with their blue cheq hen on 1380 ypm.
Alan Sutton of Romsey SRFC secured 1st Club, 2nd Fed with his 3yr old cheq hen sent on chipping eggs on 1418 ypm. She was previously a widowhood hen and not raced, only trained. She is bred from last week's Romsey winner who was also 5th Fed. Unusually I have not been able to visit Alan for a loft report. He is a very busy guy with his own pet, feed and corn stores as well as a small holding. Last weekend he was supervising an army of helpers to Ragwort pull! I can't believe it, I've been turned down in favour of pulling ragwort, I must be losing my touch! I am sure that with the way Alan's birds are performing I shall be catching up with him later..... The other members of Romsey were left way behind by Alan's bird's performance.2nd club was Cyril and Jean Lever with a 2 yr old widowhood cock on 1203 ypm. This pigeon is a blue cheq Janssen which has shown good recent form being 2nd Sect BBC Messac 3 weeks ago. 3rd club was Colin Edwards, who timed in a yearling blue Van Loon x Vandenbeele cock on 1200 ypm, sent sitting 3 days. He was bred by Joe Farmer and is a full brother to the pigeon that was 2nd club two weeks ago.
May I give a very warm welcome to the latest recruit to the press pack of the Solent Federation, Mr and Mrs Les Cross who have bravely taken up the mantle of Press Reporter for Bitterne Park FC. I know personally many of the reprobates of this, let's say booty of colourful characters, so I'm expecting lots of gossip. 1st Club, 24th Fed, was Ken & Sue Francis with a two year old Jannsen cock doing a velocity of 1312. This bird is from his own family and already has 3 x 1st prizes to his credit. Ken & Sue also took 2nd club, 29th Fed with a half brother to the winner, another two year old widowhood cock doing a velocity of 1306 ypm. This bird has previously won a few minor cards. Terry Holloway must have been very pleased with the performance of his yearling Staf Van Reet cock on 1281 ypm to take 3rd club and taking a card for 49th fed having only the second race of its life. Flown on widowhood. Mr & Mrs Les Cross & Son took 4th position in this, their first race with their new club. Their yearling Janssen blue w/f cock has already 3 x 1st prizes, and was sent to the race having just been paired. They would like to thank everyone at Bitterne Park for making them feel welcome.
Camrose saw 10 members send 59 birds. Peter Campbell took 1st club,, 39th fed with a blue cheq pied yearling cock. This 'Silvere Toye', on 1289 ypm was sent driving two hens to the nest, having recently been re-paired and kept now naturally. Its dam is a very useful performer, being 1st club, 26th Fed Cholet last year, and then continuing on racing to win 2nd Sect, 50th Open NFC Guernsey Old Hens Race, and 2nd Sect,10th Open CSCFC Old Hens Race, Guernsey, beaten by a loft mate. 2nd club, 41st Fed was Mick & Carl Gilbert on 1289 ypm. Their 6yr old Rapido Buscheart cheq pied cock was bred by Alan Yates of Overton. He has been 2nd club, Yelverton before and has bred a 1st club prize winner for Grandson, Billy Gilbert. Now a few weeks ago you may recall how I recalled meeting a young fancier called Billy Gilbert.....YES! YOU! BILLY GILBERT!!! You may remember that I was kind and encouraging when I met you at the transporter. Did you really cause raucous laughter on clock night at Camrose by telling them that 'SOME OLD WOMAN' came up and spoke to you!! I may not wear my glad rags when i/cing the loading at Southampton, and I may not wear war paint, but to be referred to in that manner? Billy Gilbert, when all your friends leave secondary school and go to college I think your Dad had better send you to a charm school instead! The very cheeky Billy Gilbert took 3rd club with a 3yr old blue cock flown naturally on 1252 ypm. This bird is of Roy Westlake originally from Johnny Wills of Camberely. He has taken minor cards before and Billy calls him 'The Head' because of his very flat topped shaped head.
Milton HS, where 16 members sent 150 birds, saw a win for Albie Webb & Son. Their blue bar yearling Janssen x Vandenbeele was on 1308 ypm and is flown on widowhood.He also takes the card for 27th Fed. 2nd club, 37th Fed was Barry Robertson & Steve Vaizey.It was a blue bar yearling Vandenbeele hen on 1295 ypm, flown on a widowhood system that scored, winning the £52 club noms as well. Albie Webb & Son also took 3rd club, 38th fed with a yearling cheq pied hen flown on widowhood. This Van Loon x Old Pied Family was doing 1293 ypm. I had the pleasure to speak to club secretary Mick Johnson's wife this week. She tells me that poor Mick is really under some pressure at the moment because she has broken her shoulder after a fall. As well as his club duties, he has had to take her everywhere as she is unable to drive, and also is doing house chores. I forgot to ask her whether he looks fetching in his pinny....
Eastleigh & District Irish Society RPC, where 7 members sent 48 birds saw a win for S Waldock with a two yr old blue cheq Buschaart cock on 1311, flown naturally. 2nd was D Hayles & Son and their 2 yr old blue cheq Buschaart cock on 1278 ypm, flown on roundabout. S Sollitt took 3rd place with his yearling blue cheq Buschaart cock on 1248 ypm, flown naturally.
Parade PC had 11 members sending 102 pigeons. Taking 1st prize was Kevin Hookey with his yearling blue cheq 'Heinz 57' hen on 1274 ypm, flown naturally. This bird was lost as a young bird and found in Lyndhurst which is why it is now called 'Lyndhurst'. It was sent to the race unpaired. 2nd & 3rd places were won by G W Lawrence. His blue cheq yearling Jan Lukes cock was bred by Lee Paterson, and sent to the race sitting 20 day old eggs. Gordon would also like to thank Lee for timing in his pigeons from this race. His third placed bird was a blue bar Buschaart yearling cock on 1272 ypm. This bird was also bred by Lee and was sent to the race unpaired. 4th club, also winning the £5 club noms was Horn Bros Loft 1 on 1260 ypm. All members of Parade would like to send their congratulations to fellow member Jason Ross for his great performance winning the BICC Alencon race. Well Done Jason!
East Cowes FC, where 8 members sent 64 birds saw a win for Mr Robert Harbour. His blue cheq yearling Cattryse hen was flown naturally to return doing 1246 ypm. Mr Eric Churches took the second spot with his two yr old Janssen cross hen on 1237 ypm. This hen is flown on roundabout. 3rd place was taken by the blue cheq yearling hen of Mr Len Dunford on 1189 ypm. The strain of the pigeon is Geoff Kirkland and she is flown naturally.
Portchester RPC saw just 4 members send 25 birds. It was a win for F Smith with a 4 yr old blue cheq cock on 1238 ypm, flown naturally. Mr & Mrs I Mitchell were second with another four yr old, this time a blue hen on 1237 ypom, also flown naturally. Mr & Mrs Mitchell also took the 3rd prize with a three yr old blue cock on 1232 ypm, flown naturally.
Joey Clements took the top spot in the Racecourse HS with a blue cheq cock flown naturally on 1238 ypm. This pigeon came in as a stray and was transferred from Stuart Luff of Gloucester. During the past 3 years it has taken several cards. L Pitney, Cronin & Freshney took both second and third positions. 2nd with a yearling blue cheq cock on 1235 ypm, and 3rd with a 4 yr old blue cock on 1228 ypm.
Golly! Bognor & Chichester are a strong club. 11 members sent 163 birds to this race. Lou Severe took 1st prize in what was a good race to win. His three yr old blue cheq hen came in on 1198 ypm. This pigeon was bred by the Fed's Social Secretary, Dave Cave of Emsworth from birds originating from Mark Gilbert of Windsor. O'h dear have I put the mockers on Messrs Crammond & Langstaff? 'Cos they're second again! This time with a two year old blue bar cock on 1186 ypm. This bird is a distance pigeon. The family was bought in by Ian Crammond from Marcel Demeyere when he had six in the first 15 from San Sebastian. When Marcel was in his 90's, Ian bought the whole family. This was the cock's first race to get ready for Tarbes. Lou Severe also won third prize with a blue white flight yearling hen on 1154 ypm. Wow! Look at the pedigree for this bird. Who wouldn't want this in their loft? Out of B Shepherd's 2nd Open Tarbes on the cock's side, and on the hen's, 1st Open Pau for Lloyd & Kelly three years ago. What a corker!
Conveyers Report. Watered and rested the birds outside Caens ferry port for 1½ hrs. Arrived at Messac at 1215hrs. Rewatered birds, then gave the birds a light feed at 1345hrs.Water checked every hour. Tony called with a weather update for Saturday to say it was doubtful for an early liberation. The weather was good at home, but not looking good in France, and so it proved to be. We had full cloud cover, murky conditions on Saturday with visibility about a mile. Tony called several times throughout the morning enquiring about conditions which had improved slightly. The visibility was about five miles and the sky was lighter and brighter. One organization liberated at 1100hrs. I informed Tony of this and he asked how the birds had cleared. I told him, some did, but a lot hung around for a while. Tony thought they would have a hard race because there was a lot of bad weather in the north of France, and we were going nowhere unless it cleared. The grey started to break at 1240hrs and the other organisation on site liberated at 1300hrs into some sunshine, and the birds cleared the site well going north. I called Tony told him this, but he was quite sure that we should not liberate because of the bad weather to the north of us. The weather deteriorated later in the afternoon. Birds fed at 1345hrs and water checked every hour. Tony called in the evening to say the weather for Sunday was not good, but we might get away early if the bad weather from the south had not reached us, but to be ready to move to eith Forgeres or Lessay.
Tony called at 0540hrs and I told him that the bad weather was already with us and it was pouring with rain. We moved back to Lessay as Forgeres was blanked out, and Tony said we would have a window to liberate from 1000hrs for about a hour. We arrived in Lessay at 0920hrs. Watered the birds. The weather started to break at 0950hrs and at 1020hrs we had the sun showing for the first time. We decided to go with the sun out at 1025hrs. At that time we had good visibility of about 8 miles. There was some grey sky and about 20% blue. Birds cleared well to the north into a light north east wind. I have to say that Tony deserves to be congratulated about this race. He was right on the button about every call he made about the weather. Well done mate!
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