Watchfield Writings 08.02.11

Watchfield & The Vale Flying Club
*Remember there are No Secrets from a Bottle, just Hardwork, Dedication & Determination*

Well folks here we are again and its now the 9th February and racing is getting closer and closer, most clubs/federations will be getting things in place now for the coming season. Our Watchfield AGM will now be held on 11th March 2010, unfortunately a little later than we had hoped for but that’s life, it’s an expensive time of year for the club with having to pay their annual membership fees to the social club headquarters, rpra fee’s, federation fee’s etc prior to getting the money back in from our members. Also can any members wanting clocks 3way testing for 2011, could you please bring them with you to the AGM and i will sort out before racing.

All members should now be in receipt of the AGM agenda, minutes etc and Clare will be circulating the balance sheet and propositions in due course. Luckily we are in receipt of 2 applications for membership which is good for the club which will be even more competitive in 2011, the club has grown considerably since we joined in the summer of 2009 we had three new members in 2010 and now currently up to two more for 2011 so the club must be doing things right.

We recently attended the Wiltshire federation AGM which was held on Sunday 30th January in Devizes, which saw good turnout from member clubs to support the federation which was nice to see. The race programme was discussed, discussed and discussed a little more (you may remember my last article, this is one of my pet hates), but hey after much discussion it was agreed to leave this in the hands of the committee (progression!!) to produce and distribute to all clubs, it will be very much in line with the programme of 2010 which was the majority choice of the membership, we did have a couple of channel events pre-booked by secretary Hazel to make use of the Poole service again and it was agreed that as a federation we would only participate in the longest three Wessex combine old bird races and the young bird event. So the programme will be similar to this (the ones in bold text are confirmed, the others will be confirmed by the committee, but likely to be similar):-

16/04/2011 Seaton, 23/04/11 Exeter, 30/04/11 Carentan, 07/05/11 Seaton, 14/05/11 Exeter, 21/05/11 Messac (combine), 28/05/11 Seaton, 04/06/11 Carentan, 11/06/11 Exeter, 18/06/11 Niort (combine), 25/06/11 Carentan, 02/07/11 Exeter, 09/07/11 Bergerac (combine), 16/07/11 “Weeks Break”, 23/07/11 Seaton, 30/07/11 Seaton, 06/08/11 Exeter, 13/08/11 Yelverton, 20/08/11 Seaton, 27/08/11 Exeter, 03/09/11 Carentan (combine), 10/09/11 Honiton, 17/09/11 Seaton.

We also agreed/passed the proposals to enable any age birds cocks or hens to be sent as trainers (in separate crates) during the whole yb programme (if this is a success then we may include federation results for 2012 if the membership wants it), this is to try to utilise the whole capacity of the wagon/trailer to help reduce the costs of racing, we ourselves will certainly use it for our old hens which we plan to send to NFC Fougeres 03/09/11 to keep them race fit. To purchase the sleeping module for the transporter enabling Charlie/Cliff a little more comfort whilst carrying out their convoying duties on behalf of the membership, the federation officials/committee to remain the same for 2011, unfortunately we did lose Warminster club which was a shame but we have gained Adderbury for 2011 to boost the federation. Also passed was the proposal to hold land races on the same day as the Wessex combine races, this was passed with the principal of “try it” so we will have a Seaton race on the same day as the combine Messac races 21/05/11 and if this is a success then the federation will role this out for the other 3 combine races to which we are supporting, so don’t waste this opportunity and keep them going.

The federation voted against the proposal to have a number of Easterly racepoints within the race programme ie Littlehampton, Eastbourne etc, which as stated previously we were in favour of as i thought this would help the National birds when being pulled over that side in the Westerly winds (we will certainly be hoping to get a few training races down this side of the country for our NFC youngbird team prior to the NFC youngbird race in September), but having only been racing down here for three years we didn’t have any real previous experience and the majority of the membership had raced this route before with devastating losses. We ourselves did have a Littlehampton race in 2009 from which we had a great race when racing with another club who had a scheduled programme of Poole’s, Portland’s & Littlehampton’s for that season, but unfortunately after the initial Littlehampton race the programme was changed for whatever reason and we never went back to Littlehampton.

At the Wiltshire fed AGM it was also agreed to try to resurrect the “federation prize evenings” starting with the 2011 season, a committee was elected to try and take this forward, the first draft committee will comprise of Clare Brown (Watchfield), Dick Parker (Oxford), Rob Habgood (Ferndale) and Lisa Aldridge (Treasurer). I fully understand that due to the geographical size of the federation this will take some doing, but like Clare stated it would be good to bring the federation together for one night per year in a positive approach, i’m sure the committee will come up with fundraising idea’s to try and keep the costs of tickets down to a minimum as this is an opportunity to bring the fed together and have an enjoyable evening out for fanciers and families alike, so come on lads when the time comes round, please provide your support to the committee and let’s make this a success.

Out in the loft now, and this is now the quiet time of year for our old bird racers who are just finishing off their breeding side and will be resting/recovering for the whole of February and we will start to exercise them (first time since September 2010) from the last weekend of February, then they will be put on our cleansing/vaccination programme during March prior to race commencement, Our stock team are now on their 2nd round off eggs which will eventually comprise of our darkness team.

Pictures this week are of our 2011 youngsters on their first visit in the outside world (09/02/11), also sign that the season is approaching as the snowdrops are coming into bloom.

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

Excellent write up as usual Mark, really like reading it