is channel racing finished

just had a browse at the west of england south road combine results and inland birdage is that of a fed and channel birdage is awful ,carentan had about 350 birds around 170 miles and then another channel race about 260 miles only had 120 birds and thats the only 2 channel races so far ,is this the same for other combines ,i cant see channel racing being viable with this sort of birdage

think its finished at club level and many small specialist club level darren.
Only viable in numbers, maybe have 1 or 2 bigger specialist clubs worthy of the name "National", spread over uk and maybe 1 for wales, 1 for scotland.

thing is many people aren't missing it, keep less pigeons, or enjoy the odd weekend away from pigeons when they'd usually be waiting of birds

i think pigeon racing altogether is finished in the not too distant future ......

what a shame eh,by the time i get back into it there will be no pigeon racing left i was planning to start racing again in a couple of years time when alf was doing his own thing ...

would be nice if you did darren, it might inspire me to give it a go too ......

tbh i dont like south rd racing because i am close to the coast only about 60 miles to portland bill 80 miles to isle of wight ,the birds just end up followers as they all come up the severn most races ...but i would be happy to race north again and maybe a few more clubs will go that way ,i do miss racing but rarely mention it as the yearning will start again sometimes i sit in the garden early morning with a coffee and watch the batches going over and thats when it hits home just how much i miss it

i told a local pigeon man i was thinking of packing in the other week, all birds and loft to go ............ he said " you wont pack in, its in your blood", i thought about what he said and realised he was right, and that my interest has faded mainly because they dont fly out or race, its not the same feeling just being a pigeon keeper .

have you still got some birds darren i thought you kept a few as pets ...?

yes i still have 5 david they will see there time out here ,one went wrong so i had to do the decent thing ,i have a spare hen but she has attracted a dk cheq who trapped in the loft and seems to want to stay despite me tossing it out ,its doing no harm and seems healthy so if it stays so be it ....i kept pigeons for years before racing just as pets and would take them to the local training wagon every week

do they fly out darren ...?

yes they do david all ex-racers

are they still on the routine they were on for racing (feeding, trapping etc) or do they just please them selves ...?

easy street david ,no routine other than feeding time ...if its fair they go out ,october to febuary they stay in the loft anyway

ah right darren, none of my birds are settled to this loft now ....... so cant go out .

our leeds amal birds are at riems but the weather is bad so they have moved them to arras for a liberation tomorrow morning .

also birds are at melton mowbray and were liberated at 9 am in a west wind, results later.