Watchfield 24.04.10

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 (24th April) will see the Wiltshire federation and also the BBO both at Seaton, with our own birds on widowhood now for their second week we should hopefully see an improvement in the cocks after their poor performance last week being well beaten by our team of 12 hens. I have said in the past that it normally takes the cocks 3 weeks to start to accept our system and we have proved this many times over the years and as testament to the system we undertake my mum & dad finished 1st club, 3rd federation in the first race and last week 1st club, 3rd federation again and 3rd, 4th & 5th in the other last weekend all with their team of hens with their cocks being slow to accep the system to date.

Firstly a correction to my notes from last week regarding the Wessex Combine, the member federations of this Combine are the Berks, Bucks & Oxon fed, Wiltshire Fed, Solent Fed and the South Coast Fed not Dorset SR as noted, apologies for this error.

We could change this by training and ensuring that the cocks come back to the hens a few times before racing and inbetween races for the first couple of weeks, but we don’t normally have the time so accept that the hens will pull us through in the early widowhood races and the cocks kick in normally from the beginning of May when they have self learnt the system and if we are lucky enough to hit form we could haves the hens on form for the first four races and then the cocks for the next six to eight, basically covering the whole season and they will be ready for the bigger races, we see no point in having the cocks on widowhood for 2/3 weeks before the first race, dominating the first few races then peak condition has passed by the time you get to May. I appreciate that there are fanciers out there who want/need to win every week but we select our races and will assess a good season on how we perform at our goals and not by dominating at club level, but everyone to their own.

When i raced in the North West with my Dad we had in our club one of the best club/federation flyers in the area if not the best (in my opinion), but even with all this success he would not venture outside of his club/federation races, why!! Because his birds were so finely tuned into the corridor that he raced/trained in that they would devastate the opposition most weeks, take these same birds out of what they know, being pulled here/there and having to think for themselves they seemed to struggle.......and this lad to his credit was certainly responsible for increasing the competitiveness in these federations because people had to try harder and harder, new systems, faster birds or they were made to look like amateurs by his ability to have the majority of his birds home & fed before you had seen a feather, luckily this was before ETS so he normally only clocked his first four arrivals were we had a club ruling of only your first four birds counting for club honours others could count for federation only.

In 1998 we had that touch of luck that we all strive for and our old birds hit that elusive natural form, so much so that we gained 8 x 1st prizes in the club and 4 x 1st prizes in the federation with old birds, this lad openly admitted that he had put 1000’s of miles on his car trying to get the edge and beat us......however he got his own back with the youngsters and i think from memory he won every young bird race to achieve highest prizewinner in the club although we were highest prizewinner in the fed, but it was all in good spirits and every week of the young bird season he had it worked out what positions he needed each week to hold on to his crown and on the last race he did it, such was his dedication to his goals.

Anyhow enough rambling, lets get back to this weeks build up and on Tuesday the long range forecast on xc weather, looks like a South East wind although not ideal for us but we will give it our best as i’m sure the birds will also. This week our birds have been out twice per day starting with the cocks at 05.30, hens at 06.30 and out again in the afternoons, its now Thursday afternoon and i decided to let them enjoy themselves this afternoon in the sun with the bath down, let the cocks out and watched them for 5 minutes when they were attacked by a peregrine this time (its bad enough having the sparrowhawk about), having 2 strikes and luckily missing, before clearing off, the cocks were a little spooky when they landed but otherwise seemed ok and all enjoyed a bath as did the hens.

This week will see us sending our 12 racing hens along with 8 cocks whose hens are not racers to the Wiltshire Fed race (basically because these normally liberate earliest) and the 12 cocks whose hens are racing to the BBO so that at least some if not all their hens will be back awaiting their arrival. All the birds were fed Friday morning, with a light top up at 3pm, just before setting off to the club at 6pm all the hens were shown to the cocks for 15minutes and then basketed for the race and they are all looking well. Upon basketing the team handled really well and i am more that pleased with their condition, marking went really well tonight which was a real blessing after the nightmare from last week.

Race day and what a beautiful morning it was to awake to, clear and sunny as predicted but with a South East wind, not ideal but hey ho, as detailed we had sent 12 hens & 8 cocks with the Wiltshire fed and 12 cocks to the BBO. All the lofts were cleaned ready for the arrivals, and yes youve guessed it with both feds at Seaton approx 85mile, the BBO liberated first at 10.45am in a SSE wind which was blowing at times and the Wiltshire fed birds at 11.00am, so i pencilled in eta’s of 12.20 for the BBO and 12.35 for the Wilts fed.

We were at the loft in plenty of time and watching the numerous Buzzards & Red Kites flying above the loft, numbering 12 at one point. Well the ETA soon came and went and it was not until 12.31.46 that our first BBO bird arrived from the back of the loft (not a good sign), then the next at 12.35 right over the tree’s from out of the back (dead North), we were a little frustrated by this as obviously they were probably with the early birds but not broke so hence being off the pace.
As the time moved on we came aware that the Wilts fed birds would be due soon, we didn’t wait long when our little white flighted hen came over the house to be timed at 12.41.47, our next wilts birds dropped at 12.45, it was at this point that i said to Clare that something was not right and the birds were too gappy just had that awful feeling deep down, was it something i had done wrong? Was it simply the wind?
They felt fantastic on Friday, they acted well, the brain was working overtime at this point...... well at 1pm we only had 4 back from the BBO and 5 from the Wilts fed, seriously split up.........at 3.30pm we still had 15 birds missing from a total entry of 32 in both feds....what had gone wrong with ours this week?
Between 3.30 and 4pm we had 9 birds return out the the far North, they have obviously just gone through on the line of flight over Swindon some 15 miles away from us where the majority of our members live, they are obviously not familiar with this line and this could be noted by the result the way the birds drifted in and then across from loft to loft, upon going to the club with were still 3 adrift with 2 of these being in the loft when we returned and the final one returning on Sunday afternoon, so after what can only be described as poor race (for us return wise) as some members had 8 birds in 2 minutes were ours went we will never know, but at least we did get 100% returns eventually which can only do them good in the long term.

At the club that night, its was a great double for our 2009 club champions M/M C Aldridge & Son who made the most of the wind advantage and obviously had their birds on form and rattled the birds in quick fashion with a 1, 2 & 3 in one race and 1 & 2 in the other, fantastic performance well done lads, top flying. So onto the Wiltshire Fed race from Seaton as said a great result of 1st, 2nd & 3rd club M/M C Aldridge & Son timing three widowhood cocks in 16 seconds with velocities of 1504.5, 1503.0 & 1500.4, firstly a 3yr old Cheq Pd Van Soest a previous winner of 5 x 1st prizes, followed by a yearling Black and a yearling Cheq, the Black being Van Soest x Belg secret and the Cheq being Robert Van Soest same way bred as the winner. Taking 4th & 5th was Ray Page timing 2 widowhood cocks in 15 seconds on his T3 recording 1492.8 & 1489.0, firstly a 2yr Cheq cock followed by a 6yr old Cheq both birds have scored well previously with the 6yr old being sire of one of the best youngsters in the club last season, taking 6th was Keith Palmer with a 2yr old Red cock on 1486.4. Our Blue Wf hen finished 12th club recording 1477 which to be honest i was quite pleased with considering the wind direction and being less than 2 mins behind the winner.

BBO Fed race from Seaton, the result was 1st,, 2nd & 5th M/M C Aldridge & Son timing 3 widowhood cocks recording 1465.9, 1436.8 & 1412.3 with three Robert Van Soest, first one a 3yr old Mealy a previous winner of 2 x 1st prizes, followed by a 3yr old Cheq and then 7yr old Slatey, taking 3rd & 4th were M/M R Titcombe with 2 widowhood cocks in 3 seconds to record 1419.3 & 1418.7 firstly a 3yr old Red followed quickly by a 6yr old Red of Busschaert lines and we ended up 6th with our Blue Pd section winner from Saintes with the NFC last year recording 1408.7

Other Wiltshire Federatiion news for our members to think about:-
Wiltshire Championship Club, lets try and get as many members as we can to join this 4 bird duplication club, annual subscriptions are £8 per loft, with prizemoney paid 40%, 30%, 20% & 10% and optional pooling of 10p, 25p, 50p & £1 with a race programme of 4 old birds races and 2 youngbird races consisting of Falaise 22nd May, Messac 5th June, Niort 26th June, Bergerac 9th July, Yelverton 14th August and Lessay/Guernsey on 11th September (see members 2010 yearbook for more details), if we get 50 federation members to join we could have a prizefund of £400 plus optional pools to fly for, so come on lets all pull together and get this club going

Wiltshire Times Trophy Race, note for your diaries is that this race will be flown in conjunction with the federation race on the 22nd May 2010 from Falaise, entries unlimited and optional pools of 25p, 50p & £1 (again see members 2010 yearbook for more details).

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

thanks mark, excellent reading as usual........could you just tell me if the widowhood cocks you refer to early in the article who are being beaten by the hens and learning the system, are they yearlings or older birds.........?


thanks mark...

excellent write up there mate, usually read it in the bhw too. keep them coming please

excellent reading mate keep em coming

thanks mark, very interesting reading

Spot on yet again Mark

great reading Mark

ma & pa (smilinassassin & vader)





W & P Brown
PGW Lofts