watchfield writings 19.06.10

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 (19th June) will see the Wiltshire federation at Yelverton (131mile), the BBO racing from Exeter (105mile) and the National Flying Club at Poitiers (348mile).

I would like to thank everyone for all the phone calls, emails, cards of congratulations following our win with the NFC it was very much appreciated and i spoke to some people who i have not spoke to since moving down here, unfortunately we have also heard a few pathetic rumours from certain parts which certainly took the shine off our National win, but as we all know that whenever someone is blessed with a little success is this great sport of ours there will always be the pathetic jealous person who obviously thinks he is better than all others.

We have sent our entry form off for the national and will be sending 4, with a selection of the others going to the Wilts fed race from Yelverton, we probably wont bother with the BBO race, On Sunday the birds were confined to the loft to rest and we went to a friends bbq, we had youngsters out and just let them spend the early evening pottering about as we will have to look at starting training with these next weekend, we had the old bird team out Monday morning & afternoon for excercise around the loft to keep them in trim.

Just had a look at the long range forecast for the weekend and its showing North to North Easterly winds so should be a good race for the national but will favour the Swindon lads in the Wiltshire fed, the team are looking well and are all sitting now approximately 14 days

Its now Tuesday evening and i had the team out again this morning and again this afternoon and its decision time now, i have to select my four candidates for this weekends NFC Poitiers race which are to be basketed on Thursday morning. Just keeping that watchful eye looking for the bird which is doing something different or out of character. One of my candidates was going to be the 5000 hen who has scored 6th Falaise, 2nd Carentan and 4th Carentan so far this season but the cock she was paired to was reported dead in the vicinity of the Yelverton following last weeks club race, so that scubbered those plans as she has now left her eggs, she will be targeted at the Combine Bergerac race on the 10th July.

Of course we are keeping an eye on 5006, who is still looking well after his success on the 5th June, I was watching them this evening and notice a little yearling chequer cock who was spare during the early part of the season, then we let him claim a box and paired him to a hen, which has yesterday laid her first egg, he has never done anything so far this season but he did score 6th club on Saturday and will likely finish in the top twenty of the fed and only 7minutes behind the fed winners on an 1101ypm day. I noticed him this afternoon acting like the proud father to be, but he doesn’t appear to have the body for it and a lot lighter than i would class as ideal just had a look through the records and he is a grandson of 5006 the national winner so i know he is bred right.

Other potentials are cocks “08” and “05” who finished 1st & 2nd club, 2nd & 3rd fed last week from Carentan, both are yearlings and looking/handling very well, looking back i would say that these 2 are form birds with the result last when arriving together and the week before that they arrived together again to finish 5th & 6th club. Oh decisions decisions, what to do.....the thing is with sending a small team to the nationals/classics is if you get it wrong and select the wrong few then you will end up well behind.

But nothing is finalised as yet as i have Wednesday AM & PM and finally Thursday morning, i will keep an eye on all the eggs to see if any start to chip out before i ultimately confirm my selections, well Thursday morning and a quick look over the eggs once again highlighted 2 x eggs just starting to chip, so these were put under “5006” and “05” early morning so that when the cocks got on the nest normally around 9am they had at least 4hrs sitting on the eggs before basketing. We did send 5006, 05, 08 and 18 cocks.

Had the team out in the afternoon for a bath which was enjoyed by all especially the youngsters, these will not know whats hit them on Sunday when we get the baskets out and start the training programme.

Open Race for your Diaries:-
The “HELP for HEROES”, Open Nationa Race from Fougeres (5064) on Saturday 10th July 2010 (open race licence SW/22/10)






OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE RPRA, MARKING STATIONS AT: PENKRIDGE, HUCKNALL, STEVENAGE, KINGSTEIGNTON, SALISBURY, Entry fee £3.50 per bird (most of which will go to the H4H charity).Sections as per RPRA regions. Pools: Open and Section @ £0.50, £1, £2, £5, £10. £5 Single Nom WTA and a £2 Charity Nom unlimited entries 50% to winner 50% to Charity, PRIZE MONEY - £500 from THE ALLIANCE OF SPECIALIST CLUBS - £200 from THE MIDLANDS NATIONAL, this race will be advertised in the fancy press nearer the time. If anyone wants entry form, send me an email and i will attach and return.

Thurdsday night we had a phone call from Roy asking was we send ing to the BBO race this week, we wasn’t going to but as he plus others wanted to send we decided to split our team across the two land races. At basketing for the land races the other BBO lads were sending only cocks to the BBO race from Exeter so a quick think and as Exeter was 30miles shorter than Yelverton and a wanted most of the cocks for Niort next week we decided to send the cocks (12) to this one and the hens (10) to the Wilts fed race from Yelverton.

Race day now and the long range forecast was spot on, with a strong North North West blowing, with sunshine and cloud at times, so another tough race was on the cards. News soon started to come through, the NFC had held over at Poitiers due to adverse weather in Northern France and a quick look at the forecast and a better day was on the agenda for tomorrow, the Wilts Fed had libverated at 0800hrs and the BBO were going at 0900hrs, so it was a bit of a disappointment that the NFC had held but it was out with the calculator and i pencilled in ETA’s of 1100 for the Wilts Fed Yelverton birds and approx 1125hrs for the BBO fed..

We were at the loft in plenty of time, as it was a nice morning but cool in the wind, with tea in hand i sat in readiness for the birds, unfortunately Clare had to take the little fella to a birthday party at 11am so would miss the birds this week, but at least she would be here for the National tomorrow weather permitting.I started to scan the skies from around 1050hrs just in case they were faster than anticipated

John the postman (a non-fancier friend) came just after 11 and came upto the loft to say well done on the National result and to tell us about a desktop computer he may have coming available, when our first arrival came from the west ove the house, she was soon down but sat on the loft for a while maybe spooked by the bright orange hi-vis jacket John had on, but she was soon in to be recorded at 11.06.57, John was intriqued as to where she had come from and how we could prove that she was home, so i explained the ETS system and how it worked when the next couple arrived. It was soon time to be looking out for the Exeter birds and our first arrivals came spinning from the front bang on line and after a quick lap they were both down and in to be recorded at 11.24, these had both come well and were 2 of the 3 i fancied as they were both chipping upon basketing, next arrival soon came spinning in from the west over the house obviously drifted a little through with the others, but the first would take some beating with them coming on line and on time.

At the club that night, most of the members had birds missing but all ours were home in good time, so we were quite lucky in that respect, anyhow onto the club result with our Wiltshire Fed race from Yelverton and it was a good win for our club sprint champions M/M C Aldridge & Son (Michael) who took 1st with a 2 yr old Black Belg widowhood cock a previous winner recording 1244.1, in 2nd was J &V Draper, which was really pleasing as John has had a very lean season so far with him struggling with the birds this season, but heres hoping he has got things sorted and they hit some good form for these last races, John timed a 3yr old blue hen on widowhood to record 1237.8, in 3rd was ourselves M/M M&C Brown timing a little yerarling cheq Gaby Vandenabeele hen sitting 10days to record 1234.2, 4th was Ken Thorpe with his very good dark Staf Van Reet cock, previous big winner for the loft on 1232.5, 5th was George Seagroatt on 1232 and M/M R &S Titcombe took the next two places on 1231.

On now to the club result with our BBO Fed race from Exeter it was a good result for ourselves taking 1st, 2nd & 4th with three blue yearling Gaby Vandenabeele cocks all coming to chipping eggs, recording 1288.2, 1284.4 and 1263.3 in 1st place was our “46” a previous winner this season from Wincanton and a 4th from Carentan, in 2nd was “21” who has again done well this season with a 2nd club 5th fed Exeter, 3rd club Exeter and now another 2nd club Exeter in 4th was “19” who has just started to show his credentials with 4th Seaton the other week. In 3rd club was our champions M/M C Aldridge & Son with a 3yr old Belg cheq cock on widowhood a previous big winner for the loft on 1268.2, with Roy & Sheila Titcombe in 5th on 1222.

So it was now to await on Sunday morning to hear if the National Flying Club had liberated at Poitiers, a distance of approx 348miles to us, we didn’t wait long as they have got them away at 0630hrs in a light North West wind, not the best of mornings here so far but no doubt it will brighten later. Well we went over to friend John Drapers to help vaccinate his youngsters and after a couple of cups of tea with John & Mary the job was done, so it was back home to work out an ETA and i thought about 8hr 30mins for this trip. Well after some lunch it was soon time to get the loft ready for hopefully some arrivals from the NFC Poitiers race, John arrived to watch the race with us, we had already had a look on the computer and saw some early arrivals down the coast with one being to M/M M Gower fellow Wilts fed members doing vel of 1223 which i thought a real good bird today.

Well our ETA came and went and we had a scare when a youngster lost the day before arrived, it wasn’t until 13.19.07 when our little yearling cock “05” arrived to be timed, it was looking a very tough race was on the cards, our good cock finally appeared some 3hrs later drifting in from way out west obviously crossed down the west country for some reason then had to work hard to get back, but he looked none the worse for his mistake.

We did eventually finish 4th section approx 35th open from this race, which was very pleasing result for us.

very well done mate your certainly on the ball mate well done

well done Mark & all,
another good write-up

pat & bill ...