Watchfield 31.07.10

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 (31st July) and we are moving on now to Exeter with the Wiltshire federation (105mile) to us.

This week i have had the birds out every day afternoons only, i have repaired the old birds and may decide to take a round of latebreds from the best of them. We have a race team of 6 youngsters and another 11 which took knocks and lost tails and basically flew themselves into the ground over the last few months when we did commence training. Its hard to believe but the last training toss our youngsters had was on Thursday 8th July from Salisbury when again we got smashed (3rd time) by the hawks. I know there are some quarters that probably wont believe that statement but hey, i don’t tell lies.

I will however over the next 2 weeks start to train the youngsters basically as confidence booster for the 11 others, these will go no further than Calne which is approx 15mile to us unless i can tag in with some of our friends who are training hard at the minute. Still disappointed with the NFC Saintes race from which we only got 1 returnee from the 4 entered, but its a long winter.

I never managed to get to the club for marking on Friday due to work, but Clare took our 6 hardy youngsters and marking went well. The comeback programme with the federation has changed slightly now due to Seaton being unavailable on the 21st & 28th August, so we will be going to kingsdown instead.

Race day now and i was up and about early as normal, but news of liberation was quiet but eventually came through that the birds were away at 0930 in a west wind. The wind at the home end was really blowing south west which would indicate a very fast race, which i didn’t want, but that racing for you. So a quick work out based on the wind and we decided we wanted the Wilts birds at around the mile a minute pace which would be 1115hrs.

With the lofts made ready and clock in place we were ready for an arrival, well the eta passed quickly, 20 past, 25past, half past and i was now getting a little concerned, alright i know deep down that we are not being fair to our race team of 6 youngsters but the had had 2 races to date, the wind was still blowing and i expected the winners were doing at least 1700ypm. Just then we spotted our first arrival on line high up and racing, after a good few laps due to the wind she was on loft and eventually dropped in to be clocked at 11.36.48 for a rough velocity of 1460ypm. Maybe they had hit something or just not cleared site.

At the club that night, it was noteable by returns that the birds were not as fast as they should have been, but hey thats racing, Onto the result and it was a fantastic win for our newly crowned NFC Tarbes winner M/M Paul Kendall who clocked in grizzle hen for 1501.7, well done Paul. 2nd club was M/M Roy & Shiela Titcombe clocking a dark hen on 1485.9, just edging out last weeks winner Ray Page who rattled 2 x quicks ones in to record 1485.9 & 1485.4 firstly a cheq wf cock followed by a red cock., we dropped in with a 5th which we were more than happy with, considering, anyhow well done Paul, Roy & Shiela and Ray

Well that’s it for this week, try hard, work harder, be happy and good returns

Good read Mark
Ken