Watchfield - 03.07.10

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 (3rd July) will see the Wiltshire federation at Exeter (105mile) and the BBO racing from Yelverton (131mile).

On Sunday we had the birds out for exercise am & pm and all had a bath, same on Monday. When i got up on Tuesday i decided it was time to start the remaining youngsters training again as racing is almost upon us, so i basketed them whilst the old birds were out exercising and took them to 5mile again but this time westerly and let them go at 0545hrs. When i got home there was nothing back so i got the old birds in and was feeding them when i heard the youngsters arrive home, at least the majority had come through. I still have 6 young cocks which i wont be able to train for a while until they are build up enough since the last trainer when the hawk scattered and they flew their whole bodies off.

Got the yb training again on Thursday and Friday evenings, out to approx 13miles now, the plan is to keep them here for at least another 2 trainers then take them to 20 miles 2 or 3 times then that will be it, with just weekly racing thereafter.

I have spent this week planning my teams for the next big weekend which for us will be the 10th July, we do have a club land race from Exeter this week (3rd July), but as we have expressed before we have concentrated all our efforts & goals this year on the middle distance cross channel events from 150 to 400mile. These goals have certainly been realised this season as the birds have performed exceptionally with us winning the 5 x club channel races to date, with 1st Wiltshire federation from Falaise, Messac & Niort, 2nd & 3rd federation from Carentan and 11th 12th federation from Carentan, add to this and we finished 1st Wessex Combine from Messac and to date we have had 4th section NFC St/Malo, 1st section 1st open NFC Messac and 4th section 36th open NFC Poitiers, so if the season was over now we have achieved all our dreams.

Well the 10th July will see us pushing the boundaries of some of our birds with the NFC Tarbes race (566mile), club & combine from Bergerac (466mile), Help the Heroes from Fougeres (216mile) and an any age race from Wincanton (47mile) which i will hopefully get the youngsters in to if we can get some good training into them next week.

At the club on Friday it was another good turnout with most members sending their teams, we entered our 15 into the Wiltshire federation race from Exeter and deciding to miss the BBO race from Yelverton as its notorious hawk territory and we have had birds hawked every time we have sent to this point, with the last one reported dead a couple of miles from Yelverton. We decided to leave our Tarbes & Bergerac birds at home as they will be basketed next Tuesday & Wednesday respectively.

Race day now and i was up and about early as normal, when the news soom came through that the wilts fed birds were away at 0700hrs in a light south wind, so i pencilled in an eta of not faster than a mile a minute to be ready giving us a guesstimation of 0846 for this 105mile race, not sure if the BBO birds have gone yet but no doubt will find out later. Set up the ETS after cleaning all the lofts out and got ready for the arrivals.

As i sat here watching the sky, i notice that we had 2 x split levels in the sky with a layer of very high clouds moving along south westery and a thicker band of cloud lower levels which was north westerly.....i have never seen this before and just stood mystified.

Anyhow back to the race and it wasn’t long before we heard a wooshh and a group of birds spun round off the back field highlighting that they must have tagged into the low lying cloud, these 5 birds soon dropped to be recorded at 08.55.33. 08.55.35, 08.55.35, 08.55.37 and 08.55.44 with another 2 dropping at 08.56. well that was it, the race was over and it was only 9am, so i made the most of the day and mowed the garden, took down the tent which we camped in last weekend and just made the most of it.

At the club that night, it was a good race by all, anyhow onto the club result with our Wiltshire Fed race from Exeter and it was a fantastic win for ourselves M/M M&C Brown taking the first four positions in the club, actually had the first seven birds home which will count towards federation but only four in the club. In 1st was our yearling blue gaby vandenabeele cock “46” who was 3rd club Niort last week, back on widowhood now and gaining his third 1st prize this season, he was bred by mum & dad and was part of the swap we do each year to ensure that both lofts contain the best of our families, recording 1610.498. In 2nd was our yearling cheq gaby vandenabeele hen sitting 7 day eggs recording 1610.033, 3rd was our yearling blue gaby vandenabeele hen sitting 7 day eggs recording 1610.033 and 4th was our 2yr old latebred blue gaby vandenabeele hen sitting 7 day eggs recording 1609.569

On now to the club result with our BBO Fed race from Yelevrton it was a good win for club sprint kings M/M C Aldridge & Son with a 2yr old blue pd Belg cock recording 1534.6, 2nd & 3rd was M/M R & S Titcombe with a 5yr old blue cock and a 3yr old dk cheq cock recording 1529.6 & 1528.6 respectively and M/M C Aldridge & Son mopped up the remaining positions with a 2yr old cheq on 1497.6. The BBO side of the club may only be a small quota of the membership but the quality of birds and competiveness of these birds are second to none with some fantastic results being achieved by these birds in a poor position within the federation.

Fair play Mark you deserve loads of credit mate and more national wins with the effort shown on this site in producing fantastic writeups and results

Brilliant mate

well done mark, top flying..................cirtainly got your act together,

fantastic result again Mark,
and another good write-up


ma & pa (assassin & vader)

Brilliant Mark first class and a first class write up well done matey
Ken