Watchfield In The Vale Flying Club with MB
*Remember there are No Secrets from a Bottle, just Hardwork, Dedication & Determination*
Well folks here we are again, this week (5th June) will see the Wiltshire federation at Messac (351mile) as part of the Wessex combine, the BBO are also part of the combine but also have a land race from Seaton (85mile) also, this weekend sees the second NFC race also from Messac (351mile).
Its now Sunday evening and we had the birds out this afternoon for a relax in the sun and a bath, most of the old bird race team have eggs in their nests pans now so we will be sending this week as naturals sitting 5 to 7 days, their is no excitement with natural (just my opinion, having been brought up with widowhood & roundabout), by no excitement i mean their is no willingness to exercise around the loft, no bouncing around the skies etc but it will do what i planned and give the birds the chance to re-charge their batteries and at least it will give me this week to get the youngsters out everyday.
We have entered four into the NFC Messac race and will pick out 12 for the combine race, i did contemplate entering the whole remaining team into this event to get some experience into them, but with Carenton next week (148mile) we will opt to send the first timers to this one instead to get everything which has not been to a channel race as yet the experience of having to cross the water.
Earlier this week we had to split the young cocks away from the hens from the older (natural) young bird team, as they are a very mature bunch and constantly chasing/driving the hens (have even had a couple of the hens lay out) which i don’t want. During the week we had the birds out most days apart from Wednesday afternoon due to the poor weather, they are looking very well in themselves.
Thursday now, and i basketed the 4 x national candidates and took them to work with me, as im currently working in Cheltenham i had chosen the nearest marking station to me being Alveley nr Bridgenorth. Got the birds entered up their with no problems onto the ETS with the use of the unives attachments, but when it came to print the basketing list it wouldn’t conform for whatever reasons, just printing what looked like morse code. Well after a couple of attempts i gave up (it was annoying as the clock had done its job but for whatever reason the printer did not conform), so luckily enough the lads at the marking station were a cracking bunch and we pulled the birds from the baskets and managed to get them rubbered so at least we are still in the race, many thanks lads. A good thing the lads do at this marking staton is write down the basket number in which each individual bird gets placed, so of course this helped in having to find our four entires and get them rubbered.
Thursday night, we were at the loft and basketed our entries for the Wessex combine race then up to the club, just out of curiousity we had left the marked NFC race on the ETS and i attempted to print of the basketing list from our printer with the unives attachment on the club master which printed with no problems whatsoever so at least it wasn’t an issue with the clock to which made me feel a little better, well there was nothing we could do now at least the birds were in the race and we would have to get a T3 set ( and remember to pick them up to time them when they return instead of sitting listening for the bleep to record their arrival, so we deleted this race from the ETS and marked the birds for the combine. It was a very good turnout at the club for this race with high anticipation of a good race on Saturday.
Friday it was back up the club, for the BBO Seaton race, i wasn’t going to bother with this race as i have written before that i am more interested in the cross channel events, but upon speaking to Cliff who is convoyer for the wilts fed who this time are being transported by the solent federation to messac, so this would have been one of the few weekends for many a year when he would actually be at home to enjoy his own birds returning home from a race as he would normally be at the racepoint liberating the birds. So after much haggling at the club on the Thursday night which eventually will cost Cliff a round of beers (all good spirited), we decided to send some of the birds still at home. As Cliff is the club sprint champion for the last decade it was fully understandable as to why he wanted to send his team to this land race, but of course their is no point racing against yourself and unfortunately our other club sprint ace Ken was not able to send this week (think he was having his hair cut, Samson), so we would keep the birds in trim with this Seaton race (85mile) prior to these birds going on their first cross channel event next week and as a bonus we would get a beer out of Cliff. Anyhow at the club on Friday and it was a really good turnout for the seaton race with the club sending 6 x crates away so a good race was on the cards.
Race day now and the long range forecast was spot on, with the wind all differing, east in the channel south over here turning south west later, westit was a lovely morning to awake to and a nice start to the day around here, it was warming up and was certainly going to be another testing race and very hot. News soon started to come through, the BBO had the Seaton birds away at 0730hrs, the NFC at Messac had gone at 0700hrs and the Wilts Fed (part of the Wessex combine) at Messac had gone at 0730hrs, so it was out with the calculator and i pencilled in ETA’s of 0915hrs for the Seaton birds, 1145hrs for the NFC and 12.15 for the Wilts fed..
We were at the loft in plenty of time, as it was such a lovely morning, with tea in hand we sat ready and waiting, we started to scan the skies from around 0910hrs and the ETA soon came around and drifted by, we were discussing the possibilities of the heat haze slowing the birds up, just then we had 3 arrivals come racing over the tree’s and after a couple of laps they landed to be recorded at 09.21.24, 09.21.28 & 09.21.28, these three being yearling cocks all coming to eggs of 5 to 6 days and looked well, the other arrivals soon drifted in and it wasn’t long before we were awaiting the last returnee.
Well we had time to kill now, so we all took the dog for a walk around the local fields and played numerous games with Mia & Ben, soon passed a couple of hours, so it was back home and out to the loft with another cuppa to get ready for the other races. We started to watch the skies around 1145hrs in hope for an arrival from the NFC Messac, at 1155hrs we saw 3 birds going through and i said to Clare that they could be some, anyhow shortly after we had our first arrival come diving in, he hit the board and was rocking, we was made up to see it was our good 5006 cock, so we walked him in picked him up and clocked him at 12.00.36, put him back down and he just walked to the drinker looking dazed. So we were back out to await the others, after 10 mins we had no others from the NFC race so we decided to get the verification out the way so we could get ready for the combine birds which based on our national timing we should be looking for around 1230hrs.
At about 1220hrs i heard the mobile buzzing and showed a text on the phone “Many Congratulations on your excellent bird in the NFC race, Steve”, well I didn’t know a Steve but texted back to say thanks, and told Clare. After a brief discussion we decided that we must be up there in the section at the minute but as we fly against some fantastic flyers who fly 10/15 miles further and then they had an hour to verify their birds this would probably change. Anyhow back to the combine race and where were they, 1230 had passed it was now 1235, then 1240 and we knew the birds were well but to be honest we were watching the clock tick by minute by minute as we knew we had to be in now as the NFC bird had done 5hrs 0min so the combine would no doubt do faster, we eventually got a yearling cock drop at 12.44.44 for 5hr 14mins so at least we had one, we waited about 10mins and had no others.
Clare then went inside to have a look at the website, shortening the search and typing in section F, she was soon at the window shouting we were in 1st section and the fantastic Crowley & Green were 2nd section. Well we were over the moon with this and a quick work out saw that the other section lads still had half an hour to verify and knock us down into 2nd, then 3rd etc. Who is winning the open (as I predicted section G), a few minutes of silence and then a shell shocked face reappeared at the window and shouted………………us.
What…………..a quick trip to the house to have a look at the screen, unbelievably there it was, currently showing 1st section 1st open, well a quick scroll down and some good big names were in and behind us. Well that was it, on the phone to mum & dad, quick have a look before it changes, quick text to our mate Pete in Crewe who was competing in the race, oh it went manic. This was now about 1pm, calm down, a quick work out and with the lads further up country flying further and a south west wind it was on. Well the next hours passed like the longest of your life, checking the computer every 5 minutes, were we still there, had they started verifying yet. We were buzzing, tingling, everytime you checked the computer, you didn’t want to look but you had to.
We spent the afternoon continually checking the website for any changes, but everytime we nervously looked he was still at the top, Well at about 4.30pm Paul Kendall pulled up, and said that he had come down to verify the probably winner of the NFC, unbelievable, what a feeling, what a day, after the verification and Paul rang the NFC secretary the phone then started with many many calls of congratulations I still cannot describe the feeling, everything just seemed a blur.
What a fantastic afternoon, we had won the National!!
At the club that night, all the members had turned up with their wifes, partners and the congratulations were all around. Well after we had settled down and had a drink, we got on with the clock reading and results, returns on the whole were ok but very very split up with hours between arrivals, anyhow onto the club result with our Wiltshire Fed race from Messac it was a great win for ourselves recording 1st, 4th & 6th with our winner being a yearling cheq cock scoring for the first time on 1408.7 and in 4th with another yearling, this time a blue cock out of birthday boy recording 1131.4. In 2nd club was M/M Brian Dixon timing a yearling blue hen on 1163.8, this was a fantastic result as this was Brian’s first race of the season after some training races. In 3rd was M/M Clive Merrills who recorded home a 2yr old blue cock on 1133.9.
Onto the club result with our BBO Fed race from Seaton it was a great and another very well deserved win for Roy & Sheila Titcombe timing in the same 4yr old blue Janssen widowhood cock which won last weeks race, this was a gift bird from Steve Embling prior to him retirning from the sport with a velocity of 1360.6, in 2nd & 3rd was M/M C Aldridge & Son (Michael) with a 3 yr old Mealy widowhood cock and a 3yr old cheq Belg widowhood cock both previous big winners recording 1359.0 & 1358.6, in 4th, 5th & 6th with a yearling blue Gaby Vandenabeele cock now sitting 5 day old eggs on 1350.1.
Wiltshire & District SR Federation – 22.05.10 from Carentan, the result was a fantastic, 1st, 2nd & 10th P Waters, Salisbury with a 2 yr old Belg Blue hen on 1311.1, a yearling blue hen on 1297.3 and a yearling cheq wf hen on 1241.0 (well done sir, excellent flying), in 3rd, 4th & 7th was M/M M Gower, Salisbury who obviously had his team on form this weekend also winning his section with the NFC, who timed three yearling blue cocks on 1284.3, 1284.0 & 1268.9. in 5th was A Jones, Test Valley with a 2yr old cheq hen on 1282.6, 6th was T Wareham, Holbury with a yearling blue cock on 1274.6. 8th was R Agg, Carterton with the longest flying bird in the first fifteen federation places a 2yr old cheq hen on 1263.7 this bird actually flying 20miles further than us (we ended up 11th, 12th & 16th) and we are on average 25mile further than those in front of us on the federation result today just demonstrates the quality of this bird to fly the last 45mile on its own, a very good bird indeed. In 9th was R Beaconsfied, Ram Alley with a yearling cheq cock on 1241.0
The Federation Nom was won by ourselves on 1239.3
The Wiltshire Championship Club result was 1st M Bird, Grateley on 1182, 2nd was K Davidson, Holbury on 1155, 3rd was K Fredericks on 1141 and 4th was J May, Gorse Hill on 1115
Late result from Ferndale (Wilts Fed) for Exeter 29th May, saw a superb 123 for M/M Stan & Rita Webb clocking three of their fantastic family which are mainly Kirkpatrick/Delbars, firstly a 4yr old cheq wf hen racing natural with velocity of 1921.4, this hen is a previous winner on the north road, 2nd was a 2yr old cheq cock racing natural on 1910 and 3rd was a 5yr old cheq cock racing natural on 1910, what a fantastic performance this was and they will all be in the shake up at the top of the federation.
Carterton (Wilts Fed) from Stephen Holmes, racing from Messac on 5th June, in 1st was Holmes & Sealey timing in a 5yr old dark cock of Mike Young bloodlines sent on 10 day eggs as a prep race for Barcelona with a velocity of 1204, the winner has been timed from Tarbes twice and Perpignan, in 2nd was Holmes & Sealey with a 2yr old blue cock of Dick Baldwin bloodlines sent on 14 day eggs with a velocity of 1169, in 3rd was B.G.Lea with a 3 yr old cock sent chasing of Wilf Reed/Brians own blood recording a velocity of 1160.
Well that’s it for this week, try hard, work harder, be happy and good returns.
Any news/views to Mark Brown
Email -
mb1973@hotmail.co.ukTel - 07593 279 375
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The N.E.H.U race from Melton Mowbray 21/4/2012 was won by Peel bros of South Shields, they took 1st club 1st fed, also taking 2nd and 4th club and 15 of the 25 birds clocked in the club......well done Peel brothers.
WOW what a day that was,
