Watchfield Writings 30.01.11

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 and its now the 30th January and i hope things are going to plan with everyone, Blackpool has come and gone now for another year, hope everyone who got there enjoyed themselves. Most people will be preparing their teams for the season ahead and things are on target as most clubs/federations will be starting out on the 9th April 2011, which is scarily now only nine weeks away and is approaching fast.

I hate this time of year with the meetings and the indecisive actions especially with regards to race programmes, these should be the easiest things in the world to sort out as in my opinion they should remain similar to previous years unless certain sites gave problems or were poor from a convoyers point of view and i feel that federations should form a race point committee to adopt the race programmes with the best interest of its members, they should include the convoyers as these are the lads who have seen the sites first hand and know what they are like, if new points are to be considered i feel these should be visited prior to adoption and if suitable then the programme could be confirmed, instead of the age old problem of discussion, then take back to clubs, then another discussion then back to the clubs again and so on.

I am more than happy with things in our loft to date with the hatch and the youngsters are really maturing well and looking a picture, as said before this first round will not be put on the darkness and will be matured naturally. They have all been rung with NWHU rings and will be entered in three races only this year then will be stopped for the yearling stage. Our 2nd round from the main stock pairs (the 1st round eggs i floated under some of the racers) are just starting to hatch now, these will be rung with Mum/Dads rings and sent up for them to race, they will breed a later round from their stock and send them down here, the reason we do this each year is to ensure that the best of both lofts are maintained to keep the bloodlines strong.

The next round of youngsters from the stock pairs which are just finishing rearing their first round will probably start to be laid shortly and these will be rung with our Watchfield Gold Rings, these will go in a separate section from the first round along with whatever breeder/buyers we may purchase, these will be placed on the darkness and raced obviously with the gold ring race and the last races in September 2011.

I have been reviewing our own racing plans for 2011 and as our Wiltshire federation programme will hopefully be confirmed soon, hopefully at the AGM. As i have stated before for 2011 i will be concentrating again on the National Flying Club whose programme is 21st May Fougeres, 4th June Cholet, 18th June Messac, 2nd July Tarbes, 23rd July Saintes, 3rd September Fougeres YB, the Tarbes race is beyond our abilities at present but we will be sending to the young bird national after missing this is 2010 and only ever attempted this once in the 3years we have been down here which was in 2009 when we did get a couple of arrivals but way behind the winners, but i have got a new challenge/target in my sights for the NFC youngsters this year, so we will wait and see, also we will use some of the selected Wiltshire fed races to get our birds into condition for the Nationals.

We have two old bird race teams for 2011, Team 1 comprises of 6 cocks (1 x 3yr old, 1 x 2yr old & 4 x yearling) and 6 Hens (1 x 3yr old & 5 x 2yr olds) and the second Team 2 which comprises of 7 cocks (1 x 4yr old, 5 x 2yr old & 1 x yearling) and 7 hens (1 x 4yr old, 2 x 3yr old, 3 x 2yr old & 1 x yearling) and these will be brought into condition for the races i have set my targets on this year.

Team 1 along with the 3 spare hens (2 x yearlings & 1 x 3yr old written about in previous articles) will go to the Wiltshire fed Carentan 1 race then be prepared for the 1st National race from Fougeres and team 2 will go to the Wiltshire fed Carentan 2 race and then be prepared for the 2nd & 3rd Nationals from Cholet & Messac and these will be our main targeted races for 2011 old birds. Both teams will have a couple of coastal races to blow the cobwebs off prior to their cross channel targets just to ensure that they are well in themselves.

Had a phone call earlier in the week from Ron Crook (current NFC Press Officer), who had heard on the grapevine that i had applied for the role of press officer with the National Flying Club as Ron is unfortunately standing down for 2011 due to family comittments. This was a nice phone call as Ron was offering advice and his assistance should i be lucky enough to be voted in on the 7th April, he was saying that it is hard work and quite stressful on race weekends getting the information and reports finalised in time for publication but it was rewarding if you enjoyed it.

We will be going along to the prize presentation evening of Ferndale HS in a couple of weeks, hopefully i will be trying to get a couple of loft reports done on a couple of the top winners in this strong club. The Ferndale only turned from the North route in 2010 and had a fantastic season within the federation which included 3 x 1st and numerous other top positions, such is the testament to the quality of members within the club, we will take some photos and include a report on the prizewinners for the next article.

Couple of photo’s this week of the first 2011 youngsters that i have just finished moving over to their own sections now, the others will be moved over during the course of this week as and when they are ready. As you can see in the photo’s these youngsters are the ones noted earlier with the blue nwhu rings on.

Watchfield Triple Chance Classic – Gold Ring, the demand for rings is starting to gather pace now and we are approaching 200no ring sales so if you don’t want to miss out on this race, please get in touch soon!!

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

Brilliant yet again mate