Watchfield Writings - 12.06.10

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 (12th June) will see the Wiltshire federation at Carentan (148mile) and the BBO racing from Yelverton (131mile).

Its now Sunday evening and what can we say about yesterday apart from unbelievable, with us finishing 1st Section 1st Open National Flying Club Messac approx 8500birds with our good 3yr old cock and also 1st Club, 1st Federation and 1st Wessex Combine Messac approx 4000birds in our other race with a yearling, so yes we have a new favourite racepoint.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contacted us with their congratulations and well wishes, it was a fantastic feeling as well as humbling to speak to people from the past, present and the future with people we have never met, thank you. Also a big congratulation to Pat Nally from Wantage on breeding the winner of 1st section J 3rd Open NFC with his RPRA oneloft entry which finished 1st Oneloft, well done.

We had the birds out this afternoon for a relax in the sun and a bath, we had the old birds and youngsters out together and just let them spend the afternoon pottering about, still on cloud 9. Well the weather took a turn for the worse during the early part of the week and the teams were confined to the loft Monday morning, afternoon and Tuesday morning with the heavy showers. We got the team out Tuesday afternoon and twice on Wednesday and that was the only exercise the Carentan entries had this week due to feeding them up before going to work on Thursday morning so they hsd digested prior to basketing on Thursday, i did get the Yelverton birds out first thing Friday morning for a fly prior to feeding them up for the race ahead, we also sent off our entry form for the next NFC race which will be Poitiers on the 19th June entering 4 birds.

Race day now and the long range forecast was spot on, with a strong North North West blowing, full cloud and not the best start to the day, we had entered 13 to Carentan and 13 to Yelverton, good job i’m not superstitious aint it, we also entered 6 yearling hens into this race as trainers, these hens had raced as youngsters but have not seen a basket this year. It was always my intention to bring these half dozen out towards the back end of the season but would have liked to get some local training into them before hand, but as stated previously the training baskets were put away long ago due to the hawk strikes, so these poor birds will have a very long day ahead of them and will no doubt struggle but they have all day.

At the club that night, we had Robbie Habgood and his mate Keith Hambridge turn up with some trainers, Rob has been to Watchfield a few times during the season and we have had some good chats, i must take this opportunity to apologise to Rob as i keep spelling his name wrong to which he kindly told me, not the most subtle is our Rob (only joking mate) but two very genuine fanciers and always a pleasure to catch up. Rob rang us last week with congratulations and was first to jump up and put our birds through, he has had a great season with the Ferndale club and always a man to beat with his small team, although he does have 60+ youngsters so you had all better watch out (fingers crossed you have a bit more luck with this batch than the last few seasons mate).

News soon started to come through, that the the BBO had liberated at Yelverton at 0830hrs and the Wilts Fed at Carentan had gone at 0830hrs, so it was out with the calculator and i pencilled in ETA’s of 1130 for the Yelverton birds and 12.00 for the Wilts fed..

We were at the loft in plenty of time, as it was a cool morning, with tea in hand we sat ready and waiting, we started to scan the skies from around 1120hrs and the ETA soon came around, when our little cheq hen came diving to the loft to be timed at 11.31.01, the other arrivals were steady but with the line that our little hen came from could possibly mean she has drifted through with the winners. We started to get ready for the channel birds at around 11.50 but time soon dragged on and the eta quickly passed and we waited and waited with nothing coming as yet, we were discussing the possible reasons why these birds had not arrived as yet when we got our first arrivals, 2 x yearling cocks spinning round to be timed at 12.27.47 & 12.27.48 both looking fresh but the time was slow, we had other arrivals a few minutes later but then a large gap before the others started to drift in. Later this afternoon we had our first trainer return, done well saying that they have never had regular excerise this year and never saw the inside of a training basket so i was well pleased until she came in with a gaping hole in her side and feathers missing.

Upon leaving for the club we were still 1 missing from Carentan and 1 racer missing from Yelverton along with 4 of the 6 trainers, we had a phone call from a lady in devon to inform us of the unfortunate end to our red cock who was missing from Yelverton, he had met his end when attacked by a sparrowhawk, so i had to let daughter Mia know that her little red would not be returning again.

At the club that night, all the members had turned up and returns were a mixed bag really some were good, some ok but some lofts had really struggled, seemed a very strange day from the channel races today no matter were they were racing from, anyhow onto the club result with our Wiltshire Fed race from Carentan it was another great result for ourselves M/M M&C Brown recording 1st, 2nd, 4th & 6th with our winner being a yearling cheq Gaby Vandenabeele cock gs of “33” who won last year and scored 2nd this year coming to 12 day eggs 1101.4, 2nd was a yearling Blue Gaby Vandendabeele cock son of “33” who has shown promise coming to 12 day eggs on 1101.3, 4th 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 coming home to 12 day eggs with a velocity of 1071.3, 3rd was E Smith & D Baker with a 2 yr old Robert Van Soest latebred cock who Ernie was telling me was on only its second race of the season after a late start last year, but a very promising star of the future here on 1074.1.

On now to the club result with our BBO Fed race from Yelverton it was a great and another very well deserved win for club stalwarts Roy & Sheila Titcombe timing in their very good 3yr old Dk Cheq Busschaert widowhood cock making it 3 x BBO races on the trot now, this cock a previous big winner for the loft, recording 1288.1 well done Roy & Sheila, in 2nd was the ever present land champions M/M C Aldridge & Son (Michael) with a 3 yr old Belg Cheq cock, another big winner recording 1284.9, 3rd was ourselves with our yearling Cheq Gaby Vandenabeele hen who scored well as a yb racing home to 12 day eggs on 1274.7 and 4th was Ken Thorpe with his 2yr old Dark Staf Van Reet cock another big winner for the loft on 1272.2

Wiltshire & District SR Federation – 29.05.10 from Exeter, the result was 1st was Mr & Mrs S Webb,Ferndale with a 4yr old Cheq wf hen on 1921.4, 2nd was C Croucher, Gorse Hill with a 5yr old cheq cock on 1915.0, 3rd Mr & Mrs S Webb,Ferndale with a 2yr old cheq cock on 1910.6, 4th was Mr & Mrs S Webb, Ferndale with a 5yr old cheq hen on 1910.3, 5th was Ray Page, Watchfield with a 2yr old cheq cock on 1893.0, 6th was Smith & Baker, Gorse Hill with a yearling blue hen on 1891.3, 7th was Smith & Baker, Gorse Hill with a yearling blue cock on 1878.3, 8th was Mr & Mrs C Aldridge, Watchfield with a 3yr old cheq pd cock on 1869.8, 9th was Mr & Mrs P Goldfinch, Ferndale with a 5yr old blue cock on 1856.9 and 10th was S Hughes, Ferndale with a yearling cheq hen on 1856.6

Wiltshire & District SR Federation – 05.06.10 from Messac, the result was 1st was M/M M&C Brown, Watchfield with a yealrling cheq cock on 1408.7, 2nd was S Bunn, Ram Alley with a 2yr old cheq cock on 1348.6, 3rd was M/M N Smith, Salisbury with a 3yr old red cock on 1341.0, 4th was M/M N Smith, Salisbury 2yr old blue hen on 1334.9, 5th was M/M N Smith, Salisbury with 4yr old blue wf cock on 1332.4, 6th was M/M N Smith with a 2yr old cheq cock on 1329.3, 7th was R Beaconsfield, Ram Alley with a 2yr old red pd cock on 1317.2, 8th was M/M M Gower, Salisbury with a yearling blue hen on 1305.8, 9th was M/M N Smith, Salisbury with a 4yr old dk cheq cock on 1304.7 and 10th was Smith & Baker, Gorse Hill with a yearling grizzle cock on 1283.6

Late result from Ferndale (Wilts Fed) for Messac 5th June, saw a great win for M/M L Howard timing a 2yr old Blue Pd Hartog hen on natural winning the pools & snowball of £48, well done , 2nd & 3rd was R & P Habgood with firstly a Blue Pd Busschaert cock on 1089, followed by a Blue Busscahaert hen on 1076.

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

Great reading Mark
Ken

Good read as always Mark

Well Done Mark & Clare, another 1st
Well Done All ...


pat & bill ...
ma & pa (assassin & vader)

great reading as usual mark, thanks.