Watchfiled - 22.05.10

Subject: Watchfiled - 22.05.10 Sun May 23, 2010 2:58 pm

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 (22nd May) will see the Wiltshire federation at Falaise (186mile), the BBO at Yelverton (131mile) and the first race of the season for the National Flying Club being from St.Malo.

Its now Sunday evening and all the birds were separated yesterday evening after the race, i had them out this afternoon to have a bath and lounge about. I had a look earlier on the xc weather site & metcheck sites and the long range forecast looks like being a South East wind for next Saturday and a very warm day which should give the lads i sections C, G, J and L the advantage in the NFC race, if it turns out north east then the section D lads will have their chance should they have their birds on form this is were the winners will be.

The Wiltshire federation have altered their race programme recently so will now go to Carenton this weekend instead of Falaise, which is approx 150mile to us so this will enable me to get some yearlings into this one. We have entered 6 birds into the NFC race and will probably send 10 to the Wilts fed race and the remaining ones i will probably give a break to this week and skip the BBO race from Yelverton if the club decides to enter. So we will be marking both channel races this week on Thursday and with the land race marking on Friday, i will still have to go up and sort the clocks. I will be taking the NFC birds with me to work on Thursday morning and nip out to Frome which is about half hour from were i work and will have to leave site early to get home and take the club channel birds to the club Thursday evening as Clare has a meeting at the school so wont be able.

To make things a little easier with the NFC marking i have decided to pick out 6 cocks for this one, with my main choice being our good Dk Cheq Gaby Vandenabeele cock basically this means i will only have to have the one basket to save having 2 baskets in the car all day etc, i will also pick out a selection of remaining cocks and hens mainly yearlings to the club channel race from Carenton to try and get some experience into them with our main candidate being the “67” hen, but will confirm this nearer the time.

Again managed to spend a bit of time on Monday/Tuesday evenings with the youngsters which was nice as the weather was good, especially the later team which are just starting to go now, lazy bunch but out the 20 in this section the majority are getting the idea now what flying is all about, just a few more now which have got a few bad habits to get out of their system, the older team are really looking the part now and even had one drop an egg on Tuesday evening.

Well its Thursday evening now and a very busy day, we can do no more, i took the 6 cocks to Frome marking station this morning, a good venue with friendly banter amongst friends had a chat with the couple in front and bloke behind and everyone was in high spirits, the cocks looked well with our main choice being “5006”, then “38” also sent “14”, “97”, “41” and the yearling “02” which havnt got much experience with the channel. Got home from work up to the lofts to basket for the club channel race, decided to send “67 hen” as our main hope followed by “5000 hen” and “02 hen”, along with 3 yearling hens and 6 yearling cocks all on their first crossing to gain some experience. It was a good turnout at the club with 15 members having a go at this one.

Some of the lads were asking was anyone sending to the BBO race, of which most said they would so i will pick a few of the remaining ones and enter these in the Yelverton race. The lofts are rather depleted upon closing tonight with only a couple of birds in each section, so our team for the land race will be all yearlings 21 cock, 08 cock & 05 cock and 04 hen, 14 hen and 59 hen, the others will have a break/rest this week.

Race day now and the long range forecast was spot on, it 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 tester with North East wind and very hot. News soon started to come through, the Wilts fed had liberated at 0715hrs, the NFC being liberated at 0830hrs and the BBO at Yelverton going at 0930hrs so it was out with the calculator and i pencilled in ETA’s of 10.30 for the Wilts, 12.45 for the BBO and 13.15 for the NFC.

We were at the loft in plenty of time, as i took the opportunity to clean out all the youngsters and other sections prior to the eta, we started to scan the skies from around 10.15hrs and it wasn’t long before we got our first arrivals spinning out the front 2 together to be timed at 10.46.14, 10.46.19 with another quickly following at 10.47.21 the Wilts fed birds were steady in their arrivals and after an early lunch (sandwiches at the loft), we started to get ready for the other races. The Yelverton birds seemed to be taking an eternity and i knew that this was going to be a sticky one, well our little 04 finally appeared to be clocked at 12.55, another at 13.01 then nothing till 13.26 when we got 2 together very split up. Then it was sit and wait for the big one.

One thing i have learned over these last 2 years with the NFC that the race is normally determined by the wind, ie today the lads in section D would have their chance to fill their boots and then they would head up country towards Bristol and beyond, with the Eastern side birds eventually turning into the wind and heading inland, these early races normally give the East in the wind which favours the Western boys and certainly levels things up a bit from the West winds in later season. Anyhow back to the race and our good cock finally came diving out of the West to be timed at 13.28, a very hard working velocity of 1180ypm for us today but he was home to fight another day.

At the club that night, returns on the whole were very good, although all very working races with birds well split up, the Yelverton race some members had one and a half hours between their first and second birds, anyhow onto the club result with our Wiltshire Fed race from Carenton it was a great win for ourselves recording 1st, 2nd, 4th & 6th firstly timing a yearling Blue Gaby Vandenabeele cock on widowhood with a velocity of 1239.8, this bird is a son of our “Ghost” who bred two nestmate winners for our friends in Warrington last year and both topped the Two Counties combine, Ghost herself won 7th section NFC Saintes as a yearling and she is nestsister to our good 5006 cock who topped the fed 2 weeks ago. 2nd was our good “5000” hen, a 3yr old Cheq Bertus Timmer Janssen who has won twice before and finished 1st section BICC old hens race last season, she is on widowhood with a velocity of 1239.3, in 3rd we have Ernie Smith & Darren Baker with a 9yr old Cheq cock out of their fantastic winning family and to reach this age he is no doubt a former big winner for the loft. In 4th was our yearling blue Gaby Vandenabeele cock bred by my mum/dad last year and sent down for us to try out with a velocity of 1233.3

Onto the club result with our BBO Fed race from Yelverton it was a great and very well deserved win for Roy & Sheila Titcombe timing in a 4yr old widowhood cock which was a gift bird from Steve Embling prior to him retirning from the sport with a velocity of 1175.7, in 2nd was M/M C Aldridge & Son (Michael) with a 3 yr old Belg widowhood cock, a big winner and i think bird of year in the club last season with velocity of 1159.4, in 3rd & 4th was Ken Thorpe with firstly his very good 2yr old Dark Staf Van Reet widowhood cock on 1131.3, this cock won the club last week and has been 2nd & 3rd federation last year, 4th was a yearling widowhood cock on 1130.0.

NFC Race from St.Malo, just found out that on the provisional results only it looks like we are lying in 4th Section at the moment, which is a great start to the NFC programme and were really pleased with this start. Well done Crowley & Green who look like 1st, 2nd section and to all the other winners on a tough racing day.