Watchfield 17.04.10

Subject: Watchfield 17.04.10 Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:21 am

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 (17th April) will see the start of the Wiltshire federation programme who are starting at Seaton and the BBO at Lulworth, with our own birds split up after the last race we have now had our first week separated and on widowhood. I said previously that no more training will be given to the race team after last weeks training/race, its just not worth the risk due to the constant hawk attacks, the team will simply be exercised twice a day as they have been this week. On Monday the cocks and hens were to be honest miserable and very quiet, probably due to us removing the hens/eggs on Saturday night/Sunday morning, they do normally sulk for a few days and also due to the fact that we have broken them down and will build them up as the week progresses, the birds were improving every day and were full of themselves by Thursday (not clapping up and down as normally), but raced well around skies for 20/30minutes which was nice to see and then strutting around the garden.

For the races this week I have pencilled in a team of 10 cocks for the BBO race out of Lulworth, these will be my main short channel candidates as i feel that this should give them some good experience of having to break away from the main batches and big birdage heading to Reading probably breaking around the A34 and break back for home (although not ideal for the actual fed race as we are the most westerly club in the fed, but should come in handy on the NFC races when West is in the wind as the birds could hit these areas) and the other cocks and our 14 racing hens will go to Seaton with the Wiltshire fed.

Had a massive clean out on Thursday afternoon, moved the last youngsters from the stock section and split all stock birds, decided to empty the first (left-hand) section and put these last 18 youngsters in there (these will be my darkness team for the later races), and moved the stock hens into the end section which was going to be my darkness section. Only reason i did this is that i would have had to split this end section and put a false front inside to be capable of darkening and its the wrong time of year for doing that, but the stock section will be fine just split the nest boxes in half and create 16 large perches for the darkness team.

All the birds were fed Friday morning as we were off on a day trip down to Longdown farm in the new forest with the kids on their last day of the Easter break, what a great day out this was and the kids loved it, then it was back home to get ready for the club. Friday night and all the hens were shown to the cocks for 15minutes before basketing for the race, i will do this for the first 3 races as with a team of mainly yearlings they will take time to accept the system.

At the club that night to say it was manic would be an understatement, talk about what could go wrong did go wrong, we had printer issues with the Unikon still not accepting the separate printer, George’s Tipes ETS wouldn’t print out the basketing list and Clive’s Bricon just wouldn’t work at all, with the Unikon we just reverted back to the other printer, after numerous attempts to print George’s list and the stress levels rising through the roof (mine not George’s) trying both printers it was just a simple thing with the clock being new and being marked through the Bricon basketing unit we just had to scroll into set up and select the parallel printer port on the clock, but could i think of that in the heat of the moment and poor Clive had to eventually rubber his birds as we will have to ring Bricon manufacturer to see what the problem is......but all in all, the club was in high spirits and is a good friendly club anyhow we got through with a smile on our faces although severely strained/tested at times and also a very good turn out at the club.

On a good note, we got the BBO Federation result from last weeks race from Wincanton which saw 2562 birds competing, which saw our members represented in the top twenty with ourselves gaining 9th & 13th federation and Roy & Sheila Titcombe achieving 16th federation which was a very pleasing result all round and congratulations to the winners.

Race day and what a beautiful morning it was to awake to, clear and sunny as predicted with a North East wind, well we had sent 12 cocks and 12 hens to Wiltshire fed and 12 cocks to the BBO. All the lofts were cleaned ready for the arrivals, the Wiltshire fed birds were liberated at 9.30am in a light north east wind from Seaton approx 85mile, with the BBO liberating at 10.30am from Lulworth approx 64miles. So i pencilled in eta’s of 11.20am for the Wilts fed and 11.55am for the BBO.

We were at the loft in plenty of time and soon spotted our first arrival spinning round, not sure were she came from exactly but after a couple of laps she down and in at 11.16.10, we had a bit of a wait then until our next two arrivals both hens came over the trees to be recorded at 11.20.00 and 11.20.02, with three more at 11.21.06, 11.21.10 and 11.21.14 (cock and two more hens). The team returned well and out of the first ten birds home to the loft, bearing in mind we had sent 12 cocks and 12 hens, we had 8 hens and only 2 cocks.

It soon became time to start looking for the BBO birds, and we were still two out from the Wilts fed. The first arrived and after numerous laps clapping around the loft to announce his arrival he landed on the loft and dropped to be recorded at 11.52.58 which i thought a fair time but going by the way the cocks performed earlier i knew deep down they would be well beaten in the fed, our next arrived and took an eternity to come in (very flighty), these were very split up compared to the Wilts fed race.

At the club that night, with the Wiltshire Fed race from Seaton it was a fantastic result for our club President Mr George Seagroatt racing with his new ETS system for the first time, the result was 1st , 2nd & 3rd was George Seagroatt seeing home a yearling Cheq Soontjen x Newelaert hen racing on the roundabout, followed by a 2yr old Mealy Newelaert x Van Reet cock on roundabout and another yearling hen this time a Blue vandenabeele on roundabout returning velocities of 1449.7, 1446.5 & 1446.0 for a fantastic result. Taking 4th, 5th & 6th was M/M C Aldridge & Son with a yearling Black van soest x belg special on roundabout, a 3yr Blue belg widowhood cock (Belg secret and club bird of the year last season) and a yearling Cheq Van Soest Hen with veloicities of 1443.5, 1441.4 & 1439.9. We ended up in 8th position on 1416.6 which to be honest i was quite pleased with considering the wind direction.
BBO Fed race from Lulworth, the result was 1st & 2nd M/M M & C Brown seeing home a 2yr old latebred Cheq gaby vandenabeele cock on widowhood and a yearling Red Cheq van reet cock on widowhood with velocities of 1369.9 & 1270.8, taking 3rd, 4th & 5th was M/M R Titcombe with Roy & Sheila having two birds crossing the ETS pad at the same second to both record 1267.0, firstly a 6yr old Dk Cheq Busschaert cock on widowhood and then a 8yr old Blue Busschaert cock on widowhood followed by another 6yr old cock on 1239.4. It appears that our club birds with the BBO really struggled today with this race from Lulworth which is the most southerly land racepoint the fed goes to as the others drift out to the west country and with our club being the most Westerly club of the federation this direct south racepoint obviously need some more consideration and a different training approach by the members including ourselves, as to trying to get a small number of birds to pull out of the 3000+ birds heading towards the Reading area some 30miles East of us really takes some doing in these early races, the other southerly racepoints are across the channel so this in itself will act as a breaking barrier, but its a long season..

Other Clubs:-
Oxford Central (Wilts Fed) from Keith Shipperley, racing from Seaton, the result was, 1st & 3rd M/M R Ward clocking two (Keith Arnold) Staf Van Reets on 1386 & 1376, 2nd was L Hall clocking a Ceulemans on 1381, taking 4th & 5th was Keith Shipperley clocking a Van Der Rhee and a Lambrechts on 1363 & 1362.

Haydock FC (Merseyside Fed, North West), from PO Pat Brown (Mum) who reports on their Kempsey race approx 93miles. The result was, 1st & 4th W&P Brown with velocities of 1551.380 & 1520.1, taking 2nd & 4th was Arnold & Johnson with velocities of 1551.341 & 1520.5, taking 5th was T Hazeldene with a velocity of 1515.5 and 6th was Naylor Bros with a velocity of 1505.9. They don’t come much closer than that for a race result, down to the second decimal, both lofts using ETS and simply a case of which leg they put forward first, phew!! Well Done both lofts.

Earlestown FC (Mid-Cheshire Fed, North West), from PO Ken Owen who reports from their Kempsey race 17/04/10. The result was 1st & 2nd R&B Smith with a velocities of 1558.7 and 1551.0, taking 3rd 4th & 5th was W&P Brown with a velocities of 1540.1, 1540.1 & 1538.5 and 6th was R&B Smith with a velocity of 1525.7.

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.uk
Tel - 07593 279 375